If I live I shall necessarily have to go across the continent every now and then in those cars, but one journey from Dan to Beersheba will be sufficient, no doubt. From Baltimore to San Francisco is several thousand miles, but it will be only a seven days’ journey in the cars when I am two or three years older. The State of Missouri could be split into three Palestines, and there would then be enough material left for part of another - possibly a whole one. Palestine is only from forty to sixty miles wide. When the Prodigal traveled to “a far country,” it is not likely that he went more than eighty or ninety miles. With their slow camels and asses, it was about a seven days’ journey from Dan to Beersheba -say a hundred and fifty or sixty miles - it was the entire length of their country, and was not to be undertaken without great preparation and much ceremony. Lake Huleh is the Biblical “Waters of Merom.” Dan was the northern and Beersheba the southern limit of Palestine - hence the expression “from Dan to Beersheba.” It is equivalent to our phrases “from Maine to Texas” - “from Baltimore to San Francisco.” Our expression and that of the Israelites both mean the same - great distance. The little township of Bashan was once the kingdom so famous in Scripture for its bulls and its oaks. They were all in sight but the last, and it was not far away. We were only one little hour’s travel within the borders of Holy Land - we had hardly begun to appreciate yet that we were standing upon any different sort of earth than that we had always been used to, and see how the historic names began already to cluster! Dan - Bashan - Lake Huleh - the Sources of Jordan - the Sea of Galilee. Its banks, and those of the brook are respectably adorned with blooming oleanders, but the unutterable beauty of the spot will not throw a well-balanced man into convulsions, as the Syrian books of travel would lead one to suppose.įrom the spot I am speaking of, a cannon-ball would carry beyond the confines of Holy Land and light upon profane ground three miles away. This puddle is an important source of the Jordan. The Innocents Abroad: Table of Contents| The Name Palestine| Partition PlanĬhapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 61 Chapter 46Ībout an hour’s ride over a rough, rocky road, half flooded with water, and through a forest of oaks of Bashan, brought us to Dan.įrom a little mound here in the plain issues a broad stream of limpid water and forms a large shallow pool, and then rushes furiously onward, augmented in volume.
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