| Joshua 19:26
| And Elmelech, and Amaad, and Messal: and it reacheth to Carmel by the sea, and Sihor, and Labanath,
| Carmel, so famous for the miracles of Elias, 3 Kings 18:20. Josephus (Jewish Wars 2:17,) places it 120 stadia south of Ptolemais. This range of mountains extended northward through the tribes of Issachar and of Zabulon. Pliny ([Natural History?] 5:17,) speaks of a promontory and of a town of this name. Here also the god Carmel was adored, having an altar, but no temple or image, as the ancients had decreed. Nec simulacrum Deo aut templum, (sic tradidere majores) ara tantum et reverentia. (Tacitus, Hist. 2:78.) --- Vespasian consulted the priest Basilides. Carmel means "the vineyard of the Lord," or the excellent vineyard, etc. It was so rich and beautiful as to become proverbial. The spouse compares the head of his beloved to Carmel, Josue 7:5. Isaias (xxxii. 15,) foretels that the deserts shall be equal to Carmel. It was covered with wood and fruit. (St. Jerome in Isaias 10:18., and Jeremias 4:26.) The city, which was built upon this mountain, and which Pliny calls by the same name, was formerly styled Ecbatana. The oracle had denounced to Cambyses that he should die at Ecbatana, and he concluded that the city of Media was meant; but it was "that of Syria," says Herodotus, (III. 64,) where he died. --- Labanath. Hebrew leaves out the conjunction. --- Sihor means a "troubled" river, (chap. 13:3,) or brook, which probably ran near the white promontory mentioned by Pliny, (V. 19,) near Tyre. Labanath signifies "white."
|