north-east of Jerusalem, and four miles from the Jordan. It was the first city in Canaan taken by Joshua, who totally destroyed it, and pronounced a curse upon the person who should ever rebuild it; which was afterwards fulfilled on Hiel. Josh. 6:26. 1 K. 16:34. Jericho was also called the city of palm-trees; and became afterwards flourishing and second in importance only to Jerusalem. It has now sunk into a miserable village, which appears to be situated some distance nearer the Jordan than the ancient city. The following account is from Buckingham's Travels.

Maundrell calls Jericho " a poor, nasty village of the Arabs."

The Plain of Jericho, in which the city lay, extends from Scythopolis to the bay of the Dead sea, and is overhung on all sides by ridges of barren and rugged mountains. The road from the city to Jerusalem is through a series of rocky defiles, and the surrounding scenery is of the most gloomy and forbidding aspect. "The whole of this road," says Mr. Buckingham, “is held to be the most dangerous in Palestine; and, indeed, the very aspect of the scenery is sufficient, on the one hand, to tempt to robbery and murder, and, on the other, to occasion a dread of it in those who pass that way. The bold projecting mass of rocks, the dark shadows in which every thing lies buried below, the towering height of the cliffs above, and the forbidding desolation which every where reigns around, present a picture that quite in harmony throughout all its parts. With what propriety did our Saviour choose this spot as the scene of that delightful tale of compassion recorded by St. Luke, 10:30-34."

"This very ancient city is now desolate, and consists of only about fifty poor houses in bad condition, wherein the laborers who cultivate the gardens shelter themselves. The plain around is extremely fertile; the soil is middling fat; but it is watered by several rivulets, which flow into the Jordan. Notwithstanding these advantages, only the gardens adjacent to the town are cultivated. We visited the fountain of the prophet Elisha, which, for many ages, has furnished water for the gar- I. JEROBOAM, the first king dens; it was formerly bitter, but of Israel, "who made Israel to was healed by that prophet. sin." He projected and accomThe head of this water is en-plished the revolt of the ten closed in a basin of a triangular tribes from Rehoboam, B. C. shape, of which each side is 971, and reigned as king twentyabout three fathoms in length. two years. See his history in 1 K. It is lined with wrought stone, c. 12-14:20. 2 Chr. c. 10, c. 13. and is even paved in parts. There are two niches in one of its sides, which is higher than the others, and an orifice by which the water issues, in a stream sufficient to turn a mill. It is said that several sources discharge themselves into the same basin; but their depth prevents them from being explored."

II. JEROBOAM Second, the thirteenth king of Israel, son and successor of Jehoash, B. C. 819, reigned forty-one years. See 2 K. 14:23-29.

JERUSALEM, the celebrated metropolis of Palestine; called by the Turks Koudsembarich, or Koudsherif, and by the Arabs usually El Khods, i. e. the Holy.

stantine, however, it resumed its ancient name, which it has retained to the present day. Helena, the mother of Constantine, built many churches in Judea and in Jerusalem, about A. D. 326; and Julian, who, after his father, succeeded to the em

It is situated near the centre of || the country, among the mountains, about thirty-seven miles from the Mediterranean, and about twenty-three from the Jordan. It was on the border of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, mostly within the limits of the former, but reckoned as belong-pire of his uncle Constantine, ening to the latter, because con- deavored to rebuild the temple; quered by it. The most ancient but his design (and that of the name of the city was Salem, Jews, whom he patronized) was Gen. 14:18. Ps. 76:2; and it frustrated, A. D. 363. afterwards was called Jebus, as The subsequent history of Jebelonging to the Jebusites, Judg. rusalem may be told in a few 19:10,11. Being a very strong words. In A. D. 613, it was position, it resisted many at- taken by Cosrhoes, king of the tempts of the Israelites to subdue Persians, who slew 90,000 of the it, until at length it was reduced inhabitants, and demolished, to by David, 2 Sam. 5:6,9; after the utmost of his power, whatever which it received its present the Christians had venerated: name, and was also called the A. D. 627, Heraclius defeated city of David. Jerusalem, after Cosrhoes, and Jerusalem was reits destruction by the Chaldeans, covered by the Greeks: nine was rebuilt by the Jews on their years afterwards, it was taken return from captivity, about the from the Christians by the caliph year 536 B. C. They exerted Omar, after a siege of four themselves much, in order to months, and continued under the restore it to its former splendor, caliphs of Bagdad till A. D. 868, and Herod the Great afterwards when it was taken by Ahmed, a expended vast sums in its em- Turkish sovereign of Egypt. bellishment. It was at last taken During the space of 220 years, it by Titus, and totally destroyed, was subject to several masters, A. D. 72. Still, as the Jews Turkish and Saracenic, and in continued to return thither, and 1099 it was taken by the crusaders manifested a rebellious spirit, the under Godfrey Bouillon, who was emperor Adrian planted a Roman elected king. He was succeeded colony there in A. D. 134, and by his brother Baldwin, who died banished the Jews, prohibiting 1118. In A. D. 1188, Saladin, their return on pain of death. He sultan of the East, captured the changed the name of the city to city, assisted by the treachery of Elia Capitolina, and conse- Raymond, count of Tripoli, who crated it to heathen deities, in was found dead in his bed, on the order to defile it as much as pos- morning of the day in which he sible; and did what he could to was to have delivered up the city. obliterate all traces both of Juda- It was restored, in 1242, to the ism and Christianity. From this Latin princes, by Saleh Ismael, period the name Elia became emir of Damascus; they lost it so common, that the name Jeru-in 1291 to the sultans of Egypt, salem was preserved only among who held it till 1382. Selim, the the Jews and better informed Turkish sultan, reduced Egypt Christians. In the time of Con- and Syria, including Jerusalem,

ish dominion, "trodden down of the Gentiles."

in 1517, and his son Solyman || commanding a noble prospect of built the present walls in 1534. the city and surrounding country. It still continues under the Turk-Just below the city, opposite to where the valley of Hinnom meets that of the Kidron, lies the miserable village of Siloa; and from this spot the united valley more properly takes the name of Jehoshaphat, and winds among the mountains southward and eastward to the Dead sea. In the ravine between Moriah and Sion is the pool of Siloam. It is an excavation to which one descends by twenty steps; the waters flow from under the hill Sion; and then, after passing again under ground for two or three hundred feet, they reappear on the other (southern) side of the projecting hill, and are drawn off to irrigate gardens and small fields reaching from this point of the acclivity down to the dell beneath, where the Kidron and the valley of Hinnom unite. (See SILOAM.) Over against Moriah, or a little farther north, lies the garden of Gethsemane, with its olive-trees, at the foot of the mount of Olives.

Jerusalem is situated on ground which slopes downward towards the east, the slope being terminated by an abrupt declivity, which in some parts is precipitous, and overhanging the valley of Jehoshaphat or of the Kidron. This sloping ground is terminated on the south by the deep and narrow valley of Hinnom, which constituted the ancient southern boundary of the city. But in the city itself, there were also two ravines or smaller valleys, running down into the valley of the Kidron; thus dividing the sloping site of the city into three principal parts or hills. The hill on the south was called Sion, between the valley of Hinnom and the ravine in which the pool of Siloam is situated; this hill was the highest, and contained the citadel, the king's palace, and anciently the upper city; but it is not contained within the walls of the modern city. The next hill towards the north, or rather north-east, was Moriah, a smaller eminence, on which stood the temple, overlooking the valley below, and anciently joined to Sion by a bridge; here now stands the mosque of Omar. North of Sion Dr. Jowett says, "Like and north-west of Moriah was a many other cities of the East, the lower hill, called, by Josephus, distant view of Jerusalem is inAcra, on which lay the lower city, expressibly beautiful; but the which was the most considerable distant view is all. On entering portion of Jerusalem. Calvary at the Damascus gate, meanness, appears to have lain without the and filth, and misery, not exancient city, towards the north-ceeded, if equalled, by any thing west; but the modern city encloses it within its walls. On the east of Jerusalem, and stretching from north to south, lies the mount of Olives, divided from the city by the valley of the Kidron, and

The modern city of Jerusalem is indeed "trodden down." It bears the name and occupies the site of the ancient city of David; but in all other respects it presents nothing but the most striking contrasts with its former splendor.

which had before seen, soon told the tale of degradation."

Christians of almost every name, as well as Jews and Mohammedans, have their abode, their churches and their convents

Dr. Jowett thinks that this estimate is too high, and that 15,000 would also be too high. He is disposed to fix it at about 12,000, exclusive of the pilgrims. The following description of the modern city, as it appears from the mount of Olives, is given by Mr. Buckingham:

"Reposing beneath the shade of an olive-tree upon the brow of the mount of Olives, we enjoyed hence a fine prospect of Jerusalem on the opposite one.

around on their summits, with loop-holes for arrows or musketry close to the top. The walls appear to be about fifty feet in height, but are not surrounded by a ditch. The northern wall runs over slightly declining ground; the eastern wall runs straight along the brow of mount Moriah, with the deep valley of Jehoshaphat below; the southern wall runs over the summit of the hill assumed as mount Sion, with the vale of Hinnom at its feet; and the western wall runs along on more level ground, near the summit of the high and stony mountains over which we had first approached the town. As the city is thus seated on the brow of one large hill, divided by name into several smaller hills, and the whole of these slope gently down towards the east, this view, from the mount of Olives, a position of greater height than that on which the highest part of the city stands, commands nearly the whole of it at once.

"On the north, it is bounded by a level and apparently fertile space, now covered with olivetrees, particularly near the northeast angle. On the south, the steep side of mount Sion, and the valley of Hinnom, both show patches of cultivation and little garden enclosures. On the west, the sterile summits of the hills there barely lift their outlines above the dwellings. And, on the east, the deep valley of Je

This city occupies an irregular square of about two miles and a half in circumference. Its shortest apparent side is that which faces the east, and in this is the supposed gate of the ancient temple, now closed up, and the small projecting stone on which Mohammed is to sit, when the world is to be assembled to judgment in the vale below. The southern side is exceedingly irregular, taking quite a zigzag direction; the south-west extreme being terminated by the mosque built over the supposed sepulchre of David, on the summit of mount Sion.hoshaphat, now at our feet, has The form and exact direction of the western and southern walls are not distinctly seen from hence; but every part of this appears to be a modern work, and executed at the same time. The walls are flanked at irregular distances by square towers, and have battlements running all

some partial spots relieved by trees, though as forbidding in its general aspect as the vale of death could ever be desired to be, by those who have chosen it for the place of their interment.

"Within the walls of the city are seen crowded dwellings, remarkable in no respect, except

On

is mount Zion. Still there seem to be her towers, her bulwarks and her palaces, challenging our admiration. But I have now had occasion to know that these are not the towers or the temple of ancient times. At every step, coming forth from the city, the heart is reminded of that prophecy, accomplished to the letter, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles. All the streets are wretchedness; and houses of the Jews especially, the people who once held a sceptre on this mountain of holiness, are as dunghills!"

the

being terraced by flat roofs, || ation, the joy of the whole earth and generally built of stone. the south are some gardens and vineyards, with the long red mosque of Al Sakhara, having two tiers of windows, a sloping roof and a dark dome at one end, and the mosque of Sion and the sepulchre of David in the same quarter. On the west is seen the high, square castle and palace of the same monarch, near the Bethlehem gate. In the centre rise two cupolas of unequal form and size, the one blue and the other white, covering the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Around, in different directions, are seen the minarets of eight or ten mosques, amid an assemblage of about two thousand dwellings. And on the east is seated the great mosque of Al Harrem, or, as called by Christians, the mosque of Solomon, from being supposed, with that of Al Sakhara near it, to occupy the site of the ancient temple of that splendid and luxurious king."

The present degraded state of Jerusalem presents such a mournful contrast with her ancient magnificence and grandeur as the seat of the chief worship of the Most High, that, to the heart of a Christian who visits the city, the feelings of pain must be predominant. When Dr. Jowett was leaving Jerusalem, on the top of a hill where he had a last view of the city, he turned his horse's head, and bade it farewell. He writes thus: "The noon-day sun shines bright upon the city, and seems to mock its base condition. What a contrast between its aspect at this distance, and its actual state! Here, the smaller objects not being discernible, the glowing strains of David seem as true and lively as when they were first uttered-Beautiful for situ

The New Jerusalem is put as the emblem of the Christian religion. The ancient city was the seat and representative of the Jewish religion; and as Christianity is built upon the former covenant, so in like manner its spread, and prevalence, and worship are symbolically represented under the figure of a new city, a new Jerusalem.

JESUS CHRIST, the son of God, the Messiah and Saviour of the world, the first and principal object of the prophecies; who was prefigured and promised in the O. T.; was expected and desired by the patriarchs; the hope and salvation of the Gentiles; the glory, happiness and consolation of Christians. The name Jesus, or, as the Hebrews pronounce it, Jehoshuah or Joshua, signifies, he who shall save. No one ever bore this name with so

much justice, nor so perfectly fulfilled the signification of it, as Jesus Christ, who saves from sin and hell, and has merited heaven for us by the price of his blood. See CHRIST.

Jesus, being the Greek name for Joshua, is put for Joshua in Acts 7:45. Heb. 4:8.