Terebin- 
thine Vale. 
BETHLEHEM TO JAFFA. 421 
stance which occurred in this route, although chap. 
^ IX. 
a very general characteristic of the Holy Land, s- , i 
was the number of artificial excavations in the Caverns. 
rocks. It must remain for others to determine 
their origin, whether they were solely used as 
sepulchres, or as dwelhngs belonging to the 
antient Philistines. At present, they serve for 
retreats to bands of plunderers dispersed 
among the mountains. After three miles of as 
toilsome a journey, over hills and rocks, as 
any we had experienced, we entered the 
famous Terebinthine Vale, renowned, during 
nineteen centuries, as the field of the victory 
gained by the youngest of the sons of Jesse over 
the uncircumcised champion of the Philistines, 
who had " defied the armies of the Living 
God." The admonitus locorum cannot be 
more forcibly excited than by the words of 
Scripture^: ^' And Saul and the men of 
Israel were gathered together, and pitched 
by the Valley of Elah, and set the battle in 
array against the Philistines. And the Phi^ 
listines stood on a mountain on the one side, 
and Israel stood on a mountain on the other 
side : and there was a valley between them." 
(2) 1 Sam. xvii. 2, 3. 
