DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4592#0185
IDUMEA. 185
the Dead Sea. The south part of this valley is about
four miles wide. Farther north it widens to the ex-
tent of eight miles. It is most generally supposed
that, prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomor-
rah, the river Jordan flowed through the entire length
of this valley, and finally emptied itself into the Gulf
of Akabah. From the appearance of the Valley of
Araba, the conclusion would be reasonable, as it bears
strong marks of having once been the bed of a river.
We were now advancing into the doomed and ac-
cursed land of Edom. It was given to Esau as " the
fatness of the earth;" but now it lay stretched out
before us, a barren, sterile waste, the theatre of awful
prophetic fulfilment written upon its parched surface
as with the finger of the Almighty. " For my sword
shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down
upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to
judgment From generation to generation it shall lie
waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it;
the owl, also, and the raven shall dwell in it; and he
shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the
stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof
to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her
princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up
in her palaces, and nettles and brambles in the for-
tresses thereof: and it shall be a habitation for drag-
ons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the
desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the isl-
and, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow: the screech
owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place
of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and
13
the Dead Sea. The south part of this valley is about
four miles wide. Farther north it widens to the ex-
tent of eight miles. It is most generally supposed
that, prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomor-
rah, the river Jordan flowed through the entire length
of this valley, and finally emptied itself into the Gulf
of Akabah. From the appearance of the Valley of
Araba, the conclusion would be reasonable, as it bears
strong marks of having once been the bed of a river.
We were now advancing into the doomed and ac-
cursed land of Edom. It was given to Esau as " the
fatness of the earth;" but now it lay stretched out
before us, a barren, sterile waste, the theatre of awful
prophetic fulfilment written upon its parched surface
as with the finger of the Almighty. " For my sword
shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down
upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to
judgment From generation to generation it shall lie
waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it;
the owl, also, and the raven shall dwell in it; and he
shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the
stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof
to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her
princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up
in her palaces, and nettles and brambles in the for-
tresses thereof: and it shall be a habitation for drag-
ons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the
desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the isl-
and, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow: the screech
owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place
of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and
13