bark, they threw themselves on the resources of their Master, who, by the energy of a word, hushed the waves into their wonted calm.*] Gennesareth is not more celebrated for its delicious air and temperature, than for a spring of living waters, clear as crystal, to which the natives give the name of Capernaum; which some have considered as a little gut of the Nile, because it contains a species of fish no where else to be found, but in the neighbourhood of Alexandria. The length of the country along the lake is about four miles, and the breadth four miles and a half. This district was, in the time of Josephus, inhabited by a skilful and industrious people, who, wisely availing themselves of the singular advantages which the soil and climate of their highly favoured country afforded them, carried the improvement of their lands to the highest degree of perfection. From the extraordinary fruitfulness of this tract, some conjecture that the word Gennesareth is compounded of two words, Gan and Sar; of which the first denotes in Hebrew a garden, the last a prince; and consequently the compound, the garden of a prince, or a princely garden. But, although the name in this view sufficiently corresponds with the nature of the country, it is more probable that the word Gennesareth, in the New Testament, owes its existence to the term Chinnereth or Cinnereth in the Old; for, in the days of Joshua, Cinnereth was a fortified city in the tribe of Naphtali; † and it is evident from a passage in the first book of Kings, that it gave its name to the surrounding country. The Jewish legislator in several parts of his writings, and Joshua in the history of his proceedings, place the city of Chinnereth on the shore of the lake Tiberias, calling it by the same name, the sea of Chinnereth.§ Hence it is more than probable, that Gennesareth in the New Testament is only a cor+ Joshua xix. 35. 1 Kings xv. 20. § Numbers xxxiv. 11; Deut. iii. 17; Josh. xii. 3.

* Luke viii. 24.

ruption of Cinnereth, the name by which the city and the lake on which it stood were known to the ancient Israelites. The city had indeed perished in the wars between the kings of Syria and Israel, long before the coming of Christ, which is the true reason that no mention is made of it in the New Testament, while the district where it stood retained its name for many ages after its fall. The date of its destruction may, with great probability, be fixed in the reign of Baasha, king of Israel, about nine hundred and fifty-eight years before Christ, when Benhadad, king of Syria, invaded his dominions, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelbeth-maachah, and all Cinnereth, with all the land of Naphtali.' Upon the ruins of ancient Cinnereth, afterwards arose the city of Capernaum, deriving its name from the excellent fountain already mentioned, near which it was built; but the lake and the adjacent lands were permitted to retain their ancient name, till in the lapse of ages, or by a change of dialect, it was moulded into Gennesareth. It was a common saying among the Jews, in reference to the lake of Gennesareth, that God loved that sea more than all other seas. And, in one sense, the observation is quite correct; for it was honoured above all others, with the presence of our blessed Lord and Saviour, both before and after his resurrection. He made choice of Capernaum, which stood upon the margin of the lake, as his ordinary place of residence; on account of which it is called his own city. On its shores he found several of his apostles pursuing the humble employment of fishermen, and called them to be the witnesses of his mighty works, and the heralds of his kingdom. It was on this sea where he came to them walking upon the water; where he rebuked the winds and the waves, and the furious storm was in a moment changed into a profound calm; and where he filled their nets with a miraculous draught of fishes. On the shore of this lake, he ap

* 1 Kings xv. 20.

+ Matt. ix. 1.

peared to his disciples after his resurrection; and, after rebuking Peter for his unfaithfulness, and exacting a three-fold confession, corresponding to his threefold denial, restored him to his office as an apostle, and to his station as a pillar in the church.*

The only other lake connected with the illustration of Scripture, is the Salt sea or Asphaltites.† This remarkable expanse of water covers the fruitful vale where once flourished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, with the other cities of the plain; a vale so rich and beautiful, that the sacred historian compares it to the garden of paradise. The original name of this delicious region was Siddim:- All of these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the Salt sea.'§ Hence it may be inferred with absolute certainty, that when the cities were destroyed, the very ground where they stood, which had been polluted by the enormous wickedness of the inhabitants, suffered a complete and permanent change. This is confirmed by the sacred historian in the following terms :- Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.'|| Not satisfied with overthrowing the cities and destroying their inhabitants, the righteous

* Wells' Historical Geography, vol, ii. p. 175, et seq. [The usual serenity of this lake was interrupted, during the last invasion by the Romans; several naval engagements took place, in one of which, where Vespasian and Titus were both present, so great a multitude of the Jews fell, that, to use the words of Josephus, nothing was to be seen either on the lake or on the shores but the mangled bodies of the soldiers, in consequence of which the very air became tainted."] -Editor.

By Josephus and the classical writers it was called Asphaltites; since the days of Jerome the Dead Sea. It was known also by the names of the Sea of Sodom, the Sea of the Desert, the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Plain, the East Sea, from its position relatively to the land of Israel. See Deut. iii. 17; iv. 49; Josh. xv. 5; Ezek, xlvii. 18; Joel ii. 20.-Editor.

Gen. xiii. 10.

§ Gen. xiv. 3.

Gen. xix. 24.

Judge also overthrew all the plain, that is, he consumed its productions, he destroyed its beauty, he extinguished the very principles of its fertility, and submerged the ground itself under the waters of the Jordan, that the foot of man might never tread it more. The destruction was complete and irreparable; the country was in a manner blotted out of the map of Palestine, by converting it into a deep lake: so fierce was the indignation, so terrible the overthrow. Thus were the cities of the plain, and the ground on which they stood, set forth for an example to every succeeding age; and to that awful catastrophe the sacred writers often allude, in their denunciations of the divine judgments against apostate Israel:- When the generations to come shall see that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning; that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth thereon (like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath); even all nations shall say, wherefore has the Lord done this unto this land?'* The prophet Hosea, pathetically describing the great mercy of God toward the people of Israel, and his unwillingness to punish them, notwithstanding their signal ingratitude, breaks out into the following animated address, in the name of the Lord:- How shall I give thee up, Ephraim; how shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah, how shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, and my repentings are kindled together.'+

The learned Michaelis ascribes the destruction of those cities to the agency of natural causes. It may be admitted, without offence to religion, that the sovereign Ruler of the universe put in operation such causes on that memorable occasion. Sodom was built upon a mine of bitumen, as we know from the testimony of Moses and Josephus, who speak of wells

* Deut. xxix. 23.

G.

† Hosea xi. 8.

Y

abounding with bitumen in the valley of Siddim. Lightning pointed by the hand of Omnipotence kindled the combustible mass, and the cities sunk in the subterraneous conflagration. Nor is the ingenious suggestion of M. Malte Brun to be omitted, that Sodom and Gomorrah themselves might have been built of bituminous stones, and then set in flames by the fire of heaven.

The particular situation of these five cities cannot now be discovered; but it is certain they all lay within the vale of Siddim. Of these four were overwhelmed with a storm of fire and brimstone from heaven, on account of their hideous crimes: the fifth was spared at the earnest supplication of Lot, who chose it as the place of his retreat. The original name of this place was Bela; but from the argument urged by Lot for its preservation, Is it not a little one;' it received the name of Zoar, or the little city, by which it was ever afterwards distinguished. As Zoar seemed to have been the least of the five cities in the vale of Siddim, so Sodom seems to have been the most considerable, and Gomorrah next to it in wealth and greatness. This may be inferred from the destruction of the five cities being frequently denoted in Scripture, by the overthrow of Sodom alone: and from the arrangement of the sacred writers, who uniformly place Sodom at the head of the list, and next to it the city of Gomorrah.

The great importance of an abundant supply of water in those parts of the world, drew from the sacred historian the remark :— Now the plain of Jordan was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (even like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt), as thou comest unto Zoar.* This clause, as thou comest unto Zoar, has much perplexed commentators, while they refer it to the land of Egypt, in the clause immediately preceding; but if what is said by way of comparison, even like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, be

*Gen. xiii. 10.