WHEN the Lord Jesus, in answer to the lawyer’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” uttered His parable of “The Good Samaritan,” the names of the places to which He referred could hardly have failed to be very significant to His questioner. The man who fell among thieves went down “from Jerusalem to Jericho.” To suppose a mere reference to the latter place as to a well-known robber-infested district, is surely to lose sight of much that the Lord Jesus meant His hearer to discern. By the two names is told the history of man’s wandering from God. Jerusalem is “Jehovah-shammah”― The Lord is there. On the other hand, Jericho was associated with a curse, and hover prosperous it might be (as it was at the time of the Lord) its contrast to Jerusalem could not fail to strike one so familiar with the Scripture history as the lawyer would undoubtedly be. In several particulars its ancient story aptly figures “this present world”; its walls, high “and fenced up to heaven,” seemed to promise security against every danger, though sudden destruction came upon it; even as today, while men murmur “Peace and safety,” judgment is at hand. Near Jericho flowed the Jordan, “the Descender” (the symbol in all ages of death), rushing onward to the Lake of Judgment. We do not say that the lawyer discerned these resemblances; it would be enough for him that Jerusalem was the city of God, and that Jericho had been “devoted” to destruction.
Although the name Jericho appears with a uniform spelling throughout the Authorized Version of the Old Testament, it has two distinct forms in the original, and learned men have traced these to two different roots, and have conjectured that one was the Canaanitish form, the other its Hebrew modification. The former (Jerêcho) seems to be connected with the name of the moon (jareach), and if so, probably points to the idolatrous worship of that “lesser light” as Bethshemesh points to the worship of the “greater.” The other form became Jericho by a slight but important change, which altogether alters the signification of the word, and is usually interpreted as meaning “a fragrant odor,” and may have been given with reference to the odoriferous plants which were so plentifully produced by the rich soil and tropical climate of the adjacent valley.
There has never been any dispute about the site of Jericho. A little to the north-west of the Dead Sea, the plain of Jericho stretching away on its eastern side, skirted by “the mountain” on the west, and almost within hearing of the sacred sounds which after wards arose from the Temple-mount, stood ancient Jericho. It is several times mentioned in the Book of Numbers in connection with the encamping of the children of Israel, and from Pisgah, which is “over against Jericho,” the Lord showed to Moses the land, “unto...... the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees.” The book of Joshua details the familiar story of the spies, of Rahab, of the seven days’ journey round Jericho, and of its final and complete ruin. The Lord had given to Israel the city, and its vast strength, which had dismayed the unbelieving spies, was as nothing before the God of hosts. The walls fell down flat, the people were destroyed, save only Rahab and those of her house who, “by faith,” took shelter under the scarlet line.
The city was “devoted” to the Lord, as were all things that it contained; nothing might be appropriated by the people for their own use; and a solemn curse was pronounced upon the man who should rebuild it—he should lay the foundation in his firstborn, and that in his youngest son should he set up its gates. In the days of Ahab, impiety had reached such a height that one was fount daring enough to go against this solemn dree, and the curse―which “causeless shalt not come”―was fulfilled.
It should be noticed that the city itself was not cursed after this fashion, or no human hand could have rebuilt it. The curse was upon the builder, and it fell on Hiel. But the city was built, and flourished. Very soon after its second founding we read of the “sons of the prophets,” whose school was there, and ultimately it became the second city of Palestine. It was “the key” of Judaea; it was situated on the caravan road from Damascus and Arabia; it became a commercial and military center, and it formed the last “station” on the road of the pilgrim: from Galilee and Peræa to Jerusalem. It could not fail to grow and become great.
Of especial interest is the story of the healing of the water by Elisha. The situation of the city was pleasant, said the men of Jericho, but its waters were bitter. “The Fountain of Elisha”―a very copious spring―is still pointed out; and the general opinion is that it is rightly associated with the name of the prophet.
The allusion to the pleasantness of Jericho’s, situation leads us to speak of the natural features of the city and plain. In the midst of much desolation, the district retains something of its old beauty, but the palms―its chief glory―have vanished. Scripture early speaks of “the city of palms,” (a designation repeated in one of the later historical books,) and from the way in which the expression is used, it may be inferred that the palm was at least uncommon in Palestine. The climate of the higher portions of the country must have been too cold for this tree, hence, the allusions to the palm tree of Deborah at Bethel, and to the palm tree of Engedi in one of the apocryphal books seem to indicate the scarcity of the tree in question. It had grown indeed on Mount Olivet(there are none there now),―for from thence, in Ezra’s days, the people had brought branches for the “Feast of Booths”; it must have grown on the way from Jerusalem to Bethany, for there the multitude greeted the Lord with branches when they led Him in triumph to the Holy City. But these seem to have been the exceptions, and hence Jericho, with its grove of palms nearly three miles broad and eight miles long, especially merited the name it bore. Not a single palm now survives. One miserable specimen continued till 1835, when that, too, fell.
Jericho possesses, together with the blessing of abundance of water, an almost tropical climate. Even in winter time only the lightest clothing can be borne. “We shivered in our cloaks upon the hills,” writes Dr. Thomson. “and broiled in the shade on the plain.” The vegetation, therefore, is of a tropical character, and under cultivation the plain brought forth bountifully. Josephus (who describes the district as being the richest part of the country― “a little paradise”) enumerates a number of balsams and other precious products for which Jericho was famous.
In the days of the Lord Jesus the city was flourishing. It had been the witness of stormy scenes in bygone days, even after its restoration. In the days of the Maccabees an attempt was made to fortify the place, but the forts were ultimately destroyed. Afterwards Herod the Great first plundered, and then partially rebuilt, fortified and adorned Jericho. There, when he was dying, an old man of seventy, he conceived his infamous scheme of summoning thither the noblest of Israel, then shutting them up in the Hippodrome, and giving command to his sister that immediately upon his death they should be slain. He knew that the people would rejoice at his death, and he determined that they should have occasion for mourning! Fortunately, Salome was too shrewd to carry out her brother’s command; the nobles were released, and the leaders of the people marked the day of Herod’s death as “a feast day,” and one upon which mourning was henceforth forbidden.
The history of Jericho since the days of the Lord need not detain us. It was destroyed by the Romans, but was afterward rebuilt, for it is known to have possessed churches and monasteries, and it had a succession of bishops. From the middle of the thirteenth century, however, Travelers have by common consent spoken poorly of the place. When Dr. Wilson visited it, it was merely a congeries of wretched stone huts, covered with thorn bushes, surrounded by fences of the same material, and occupied by a set of poor and, he was sorry to add, profligate Arabs. And Dr. Thomson, with an extended experience of the wretched villages of Palestine, speaks of the “houses, or rather huts,” as being “some forty or fifty of the most forlorn habitations that I have ever seen.”
Our readers are probably familiar with the mention of Jericho in the gospels. Bides the Lord’s parable, already referred to, two incidents stand out strongly marked; the healing of the blind men, of whom Bartimæus was one, and the call of Zacchæus. How full of the grace of our Lord Jesus is each story! In the one, He stood still at the call of a blind beggar; in the other, He went to be guest with a man that was a sinner. And more than this―to the one, in answer to his pleading, He gave sight; to the other He brought salvation, for He, the Son of man, had come to seek and to save that which was lost. Both needed the Lord, though in different ways and to each the Lord came, as did the Samaritan of His parable, where each was. Even now, His ear is open to the cry of the needy; to the blind of heart He giveth sight; to the lost He giveth salvation. In a sense, He is yet “passing by,” and our prayer for you, dear reader to whom He is yet unknown, is that ere He shall have passed He may enlighten your eyes, and that your heart may be opened to receive Him as your guest. Jr.