tain; and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, lord of the mountain Samaria. But of all these places I shall speak more at large in the conquest of the Holy Land by the children of Israel. Of whomsoever the Samaritans were descended, sure I am, that they were ever a perfidious nation, and base; for as long as the state of the Jews stood up, they always called themselves Jews; when it suffered or sunk, they then utterly denied to be of that nation or family; for at such time as they were returned from their first captivity, they became a mixed nation, partly of the colonies of the Assyrians, and partly of the naturals.

§. 7.
Of Hamathi.

THE last of Canaan's sons was Hamatheus, or, according to the Hebrew, Hamathi of Hamath, saith Beroaldus, of which (the aspiration taken away) the same is pronounced Emath, whereof Hamatheus was parent. Josephus and St. Jerome confound Emath with Antioch; not that Antioch which standeth on the river Orontes on the frontier of Comagena, between the mountain Cassius and the province of Pieria and Seleucis, of which St. Peter was bishop, and in which St. Luke and Ignatius were born, but Antioch surnamed Epiphania, as Beroaldus supposeth, which standeth between Apamea and Emesa, in Cassiotis. Yet indeed Emath cannot be taken for either; for both that Antioch upon Orontes, and that which neighboureth Emesa, are further off seated from Canaan, than ever any of those nations straggled. And whereas St. Jerome setteth Emath, which he confoundeth with Epiphania, in the tribe of Naphtali; it is manifest that Epiphania, which standeth to the north of Emesa, hath all the province of Laodicea between it and any part of the land divided. And if Libanon itself were not shared among the tribes, then could not Epiphania belong unto them; for both the provinces Laodicea and Libanica are between Epiphania and any part of the Holy Land, and therefore Emath so taken could not be a part of Naphtali, as in the 13th of Joshua is directly proved. For Joshua counting the lands that remained unpossessed,

reckoneth all mount Libanon towards the sun-rising, from Baal-gad under mount Hermon, until we come to Hamath. And this reason, among others, is used, that Emath was not in Nephtalim, or any way belonging to the children of Israel; because David accepted the presents of Tohu f king of Emath, and therewithal conditions of peace; which he would not have done, if that territory had ever belonged to the children of Israel, but would have recovered it without composition, and by strong hand, as he did the rest. But this argument, as I take it, hath no great weight: for if the promise which God made be considered, as it is written in * Deuteronomy, then might Emath be comprehended, though seated altogether without the bounds of the land promised, according to the description of Moses and Joshua; for Emath is indeed situate on the other side of the mountain of Hermon, which joineth to Libanus, and is otherwise called Iturea. But whereas Hamath is named in Joshua xix. 35. and written in the Latin conversion Emath; therein, saith Beroaldus, was St. Jerome mistaken. Emath, or Iturea, is that over the mountains, and the city in Nephtalim should be written Hamath; and so the Septuagint, understanding the difference, write it Ammath, and not Emath, the same which indeed belonged to the Nephtalims, seated on the south side of Libanus to the east of Assedim; which St. Jerome writes Emath, Josephus Hamath, others Emathin, or Amatheos, and the people Amathein; of which, as I take it, Rabsakeh vaunteth in the second of Kings, h Where is the God of Hamath?

SECT. XIII.

Of the sons of Chush, excepting Nimrod, of whom hereafter.

That most of the sons of Chush were seated in Arabia the Happy and of the Sabeans that robbed Job; and of the queen that came queen that came to Solomon.

SEBA, or Saba, was the eldest son of Chush, the eldest son of Ham: to make a difference between him and his nephew Sheba, the son of his brother Raama, or Regma, (or Ragma, after Montanus,) his name is written with a single S, samech, and Sheba the son of Regma, with an S aspirate, which is the Hebrew schin. Seba the eldest son of Chush, Regma his brother, and Sheba the son of Regma, possessed both the shores of Arabia Felix. Saba took that part toward the Red sea, as nearest his father Chush, and the land of the Chusites; Regma and Sheba, the east coast of the same Arabia, which looketh into the gulf of Persia; of which Pliny: Sabæi Arabum populi propter thura clarissimi ad utraque maria porrectis gentibus habitant; “The "Sabeans, people of Arabia, famous for their frankincense, "extending their nations, dwell along both the seas, to wit, "the Persian and the Arabian, or Red sea." This country was afterwards called Arabia a populi mixtione, saith Postellus. To this agreeth Ptolemy, who setteth the city of Saba towards the Arabian or Red sea, and the city Rhegama towards the Persian, with whom also we may leave Sabta; for so much Montanus gathereth out of Ptolemy, because he remembereth a nation (called Stabæi) near the Persian sea, and Massabatha which descended of them. But Montanus hath sent Regma, or, as he calls him, Rhama, into Carmania, for which I see no reason. Josephus, who only attended his own fancies, hath banished Saba, or Seba, to the border of Ethiopia. But Beroaldus thinks it strange that the Sabai, which stole away Job's cattle, should run through all Egypt and all Arabia Petræa, and find out Job in Trachonitis, between Palestina and Colesyria, 1200 miles off. Now as this conjecture was more than ridiculous, so do I think that neither the Sabæi on the Red sea, nor those toward the Persian sea, could by any means execute the stealth upon Job, whichsoever Beroaldus shall take for nearest. But these were the Sabæi of Arabia the Desert, where

Guilandinus Melchior affirmeth, out of his own experience, that the city Saba is seated, the same which Ptolemy calls Save, now Semiscasac; and from this Saba in Arabia the Desert came those magi or wisemen which worshipped Christ, saith Melchior, whose words are these: "The magi came "neither out of Mesopotamia, (as Chrysostom, Jerome, and "Ambrose supposed,) nor out of Arabia the Happy, as many "wise men do believe, but out of Saba in Arabia the Desert; "which city, when myself was there, was (as I judged it) call"ed Semiscasac." And to approve this opinion of Guilandinus, it appeareth that the Sabei were neighbours to Job, and lay fit to invade and rob him. For both the other nations (as well those on the Persian sea, as those on the Red sea) are so disjoined with large deserts, as there is no possibility for strangers to pass them, especially with any numbers of cattle, both in respect of the mountains, of the sands, and of the extreme want of water in those parts: Ubi nec homines nec bestiæ videntur, nec aves, imo nec arbores, nec germen aliquod, sed non nisi montes saxosi, altissimi, asperrimi; "Where there are found neither men nor beast, no "not so much as birds or trees, nor any pasture or grass, "but only sharp and high, stony and craggy mountains." Beroaldus and Pererius conceive that the queen of Saba which came to visit Solomon was of the Sabæi, on the east side of Arabia Felix; but the contrary seemeth more probable, that she was queen of Saba towards the Red sea; for Solomon at that time commanding all that part of Arabia Petræa, betwixt Idumæa and the Red sea, as far down as Midian, or Madian, and Ezion Gaber; and this queen of Saba, which inhabited the west part of Arabia Felix, being his neighbour, might without any far travel enter his territories, free from all danger of surprise by any other prince or

nation.

But to avoid tediousness, it is manifest that Seba, or Saba, Sabta, Raama, or Rhegma, with his sons Sheba, and Dedan, and Sabteca, were all the possessors of Arabia the Happy and the Desert; only Havila and Nimrod dwelt together on the east side of Chush, who held Arabia Petræa. Now for Sabta, there is found of his name the city of Sabbatha, or

k

Sabota, in the same Arabia; of which both i Pliny and Ptolemy, who withal nameth Sabotale, within the walls whereof there were sometimes found sixty temples. Ezekiel joineth the father and the son together, The merchants of Sheba and Raamah were thy merchants. And that they were the eastern Arabians their merchandise witnesseth, formerly repeated in the chapter of paradise. For Josephus's fancies, that Saba was the parent of the Ethiopians about Meroe, and Sabta of the Ethiopians Astabari, they be not worthy any further answer than hath already been given; especially seeing these cities, preserving the memory of the names of Saba and of Sabta in Arabia, were yet remaining in Ptolemy's time, though in some letters changed. As also in the coasts adjoining, the names of other of the brethren of the family of Chush, with little alterations, are preserved. In Arabia the Desert is found the city Sabæ, or Save, (now Semiscasac,) with the city of Rhegana for Rhegma, and the nation by Ptolemy himself called Raabeni of Raamah. In Arabia the Happy is found the city of Rhegama, and Rabana, which also keepeth the sound of Rhegma, the city of Saptha, or Saptah, not far from the east coast of Arabia; as also the metropolis and chief city, in the body of the south part of Arabia, called, without difference or alteration, Sabatha; and to the west of Sabatha, towards the Red sea, the great city of Saba; and the nation adjoining, Sabæi ; and to the south thereof, again towards the straight entrance of the Red sea, the region of Sabe. To all these his brothers and nephews, which were seated on the east side of Arabia, Havilah, by the passage of Tigris, was a neighbour, to whom he might pass by boat even unto Rhegma the city of Raama, or Rhegma, set near the river of Lar towards the mouth of the Persian sea, which stood in Ptolemy's time.

§. 2.

Josephus's opinion of Dedan, one of the issue of Chush, to have been seated in west Ethiopia, disproved out of Ezekiel and Jeremy. AND whereas Josephus (whom in this St. Jerome fol

i Plin. l. 12. c. 14. Ptol. Tab. 6. Asiæ.

k Ezek. xxvii. 22.