Page:Light and truth.djvu/72

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light and truth.

always covered with snow, from which descend in summer, sweet and refreshing rivulets on every side. The principal range extends, somewhat in the form of a crescent, from Cilicia to Esdraelon, a distance of 50 leagues. A spur of this mountain next the Holy Land is called Hermon. Another spur to the eastward is Mt. Gilead, where Laban overtook Jacob.—(Gen. xxxi. 25.)

Minni. (Jer. li. 27.) A province of Armenia, or, more probably, one of the several clans or tribes who were settled on Mt. Taurus, east and south of the Black Sea. The Ashkenites were another of these tribes.

Makkedah. (Josh. x. 10.) One of the principal cities of the Canaanites, which was allotted to Judah, and lay south-west of Jerusalem. There was a remarkable cave here, in which five petty kings concealed themselves, but were discovered by Joshua, and put to an ignominious death.

Mizrephoth-maim. (Josh. xi. 8.) A place near Sidon, and supposed to be the same with Sarepta.

Perizzites, one of the devoted nations of Canaan. They were never fully extirpated. Solomon exacted tribute of them.—(2 Chron. viii. 7) So late as the days of Ezra we find them intermarried with the Jews.—(Ez. ix. 1.)

Samaria. 1.(1 Kings xiii. 32.) The central province or section of the land of Canaan, having Galilee on the north and Judea on the south was called, in the time of Christ, Samaria. It included the possessions of Ephraim and Manasseh, and comprehends the modern districts of Areta and Nablouse; in the former of which are the sites of Cæsarea and Carmel, and in the latter Shechem and the city of Samaria.

2. The city of Samaria, (1 Kings xvi. 24,) from which the above province had its name, was situated about 40 miles north of Jerusalem, and a short distance north-west of Nablouse, [Shechem.] It was founded by Omri, king of Israel, as the capital of Israel, or the ten tribes. (1 Kings xvi. 29; 2 Kings iii. 1.) The territory was purchased of Shemer, [hence Samaria,] and fortified.—(2 Kings x. 2.) It withstood two unsuccessful sieves by Benhadad, king of Syria, and his powerful allies (1 Kings 20,) and was finally subdued by Shalmanezer, in