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| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 306 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | exotic_201304_015_331.jpg |
| Transcript | 3o6 PICTURESQUE PALESTLNE. the valley to a height of eighty or a hundred feet, the valley must have been closed in at Feiran, and that, as all the northern waters of the mountain system of Jebel Musa flow into Wady Feiran, a considerable body of water must have accumulated here until at length the barriers were burst by the pressure, and the torrent rushed down in a devastating volume into the lower portion of the valley. The battle is fiercely contested ! There is some hidden spring of malevolence and hatred against the people of Jehovah which fires the Amalekite princes. The words of Exodus xvii. 15, 16 are remarkable words. The altar is called "The Lord my banner" (Jehovah nissi), and then there is a description, as it were, of the attitude of Amalek in " Because the hand of Amalek is against or upon the Throne of the Lord." Joshua has carefully selected his fighting men; the Israelites are marshalled in some sort of array of battle, such as they had often seen on the review grounds of Tanis, whilst they toiled as slaves in making brick for the buildings of the royal temple city. Far behind them, spread over a long distance, is the people, who had thirsted and murmured and longed to die from weariness of the way. All day long they fought; all day long Moses lifted up his hands in prayer! He is faint; he can stand no longer, as he boastingly said he would, on the top of the hill with the rod of God in his hand! He sees the people yielding before the maddened fury of the mountaineers. Aaron and Hur, the most trusted of his comrades—the men to whose care afterwards at Sinai he will commit the people- bring a stone and put it under him. Still he is too weak ; his arms, his hands must be stayed up; and then with evening glow upon the mountains, casting a long shadow on the battle-field, Amalek is discomfited with the edge of the sword! Mysterious words breathe now through the air. Miriam leads no chorus of women; but the awful voice of God speaks to Moses, " I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua." It is the memory of this battle which is preserved by the church which was built on the summit of Jebel Tahiineh. The plan of the church is easily traced, and the ruins of the subordinate chapels and stations remain by the side of the path leading up the hill. The original building of the church was of dressed sandstone, but a later edifice was built over this, constructed of rude stones taken from the mountain itself, and the orientation of the church was changed so as to look towards Jebel Serbal, that is to the south. This noticeable change of the plan of the church, the shifting, as it were, its whole position, indicates that the builders of the first church saw nothing to reverence in Serbal, that there was no tradition to make of it a holy place, and that the idea of its being the Mount of God (the Mountain of the Law) had not then been published. How many pilgrims must have climbed this hill! These hermits' cells, these innumerable tombs in the furrows of these desolate mountain-sides, 01 what a strange side of life do they tell the story! Yet, maybe, one should think more of the ancient Israelites pressing forward to overcome their foes beneath the banner of Jehovah than of these men, wdio shunned the dangers of temptation, and avoided the fatigue of life s rough |