divided between Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe Manasseh : the whole of this region goes now by the general name of Arabia. On the south of Jerusalem is the tribe of Judah, wherein is Bethlehem, hallowed by the birth of our Lord, Thecua, the city of the prophets Habacuc and Amos, and Hebron, which is Cariatharbe, the burial-place of the Jewish patriarchs. On the north lies Gibeon, famous for the victory of Joshua the son of Nun, and the tribe of Ephraim, Shilo, Sichar, and the district of Samaria, Bethel, which witnessed the sin of Jeroboam, Sebastea, the tomb of Elisha and Ab dias, and scene of John the Baptist's martyrdom. This district was formerly called Samaria from Mount Somer, as was also the whole province, which was the kingdom of the kings of Israel. There is also the city of Neapolis or Nicopolis, where Simeon and Levi, sons of Jacob, slew Sichem son of Emmor, for violating their sister Dinah, and destroyed his city by fire. Jerusalem is the capital of Judea, and according to ancient history was called Salem at first, from Shem the eldest son of Noah, who built it and reigned therein. He it was who was afterwards called Melchisedech, who offered bread and wine to Abraham when he returned from the slaughter of the four kings. Melchisedech is by interpretation " king of justice," and God saved him from the Deluge, that Christ might be born from his seed. There was at that time another city, according to Jerome, called Salem, also, like the former, governed by Melchisedech; its ruins are seen even to the present day near the streams of Jordan. In process of time the city was called Jebus, from one of its kings, and thus, by a combination of these names Jebus and Salem, it was called Jebussalem, and thence, by substituting r for b, it came to be called Jerusalem ; afterwards when Jebus was taken by David, it was called the city of David ; and when Solomon his son reigned, it was called Hierosolyma, i. e. Hierusalem of Solomon.* This city, in the forty-second year after our Lord's passion, for the sins of the Jews, was besieged and taken by Titus the magnificent prince of the Romans, who destroyed it so that, according to the word of the Lord, not one stone was left upon another. It was afterwards rebuilt by iElius Hadrian, the fourth Roman emperor after Titus, * The whole of this etymology is fanciful and absurd.