JEWISH, PH@NICIAN, AND EARLY GREEK ART, ETC. 31 
the royal treasurer, Shebna, in these words: ‘‘ What dost 
thou here, and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed 
thee out here a sepulchre ? hewing him out a sepulchre on 
high, graving an habitation for himself im the rock?” (xxi. 
15, 16). Palestine abounds with rock-tombs ; and the cliffs 
and hillsides around its old cities are often honeycombed with 
sepulchres. Abraham’s first possession in the land was the 
cave of Machpelah, which he bought from the Hittites of 
Hebron as a tomb for Sarah. In it Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob were subsequently laid. At some period during the 
Israelitish monarchy the cave and rock. were encircled by a 
massive wall, still standing, the masonry of which resembles 
that of the foundations of the Temple area, and may be the 
work of Phoenician masons. From the earliest times Machpelah 
has been guarded with religious care. Jews, Christians, and 
Mohammedans have in succession preserved it from violation ; 
and it is not impossible that some remains of the patriarchs, 
especially of the embalmed body of Jacob, may still be there. 
Much older mummies have been exhumed from the tombs of 
Kgypt. 
The rock-tombs around Jerusalem are innumerable, and 
some of them, such as the tombs of the prophets on Olivet, 
the tombs of the judges, and the tombs of.the kings (or of 
Helena) are of vast extent. The princes and nobles of Israel 
appear to have been as anxious to prepare for themselves 
splendid sepulchres, when dead, as palaces while living; and 
their architects and engineers displayed amazing ingenuity 
and skill in their arrangements to prevent access to the bodies 
and to the treasures that were generally entombed with them. 
Josephus gives a glowing account of the vast store of gold 
placed in the sepulchre of David, which was partly plundered by 
Hyrcanus, in order to buy off the besieging army of Antonine. 
Herod the Great afterwards tried to rob it; but it is affirmed 
that the sacrilegious act was prevented by supernatural inter- 
position. The larger tombs had usually sculptured facades, 
hewn in the rock, at the entrance, with an open area, either 
excavated or levelled, in front. Occasionally, also, a pyramid 
or monument of some sort was built over them—the ojma 
of Homer—to mark the place beneath which the honoured 
dead lay. Several examples still stand in the Kidron Valley 
at Jerusalem—the so-called tombs of Absalom, Zacharia, 
Jehoshophat, St. James, &c. Of this kind probably was the 
pillar set up by Jacob on the grave of Rachel (Gen. xxxy. 20). 
In nearly all these respects the customs of the Phoenicians 
resembled those of the Jews. Their tombs were generally 
caves. I have visited hundreds of them around the old cities 
