The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

SECT. V. Beth-barah, Judg. VII. 24.

NEither was this Beth-barah at any very great distance from this passage. For so we have it Judg. VII. 24. Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Beth-barah and Jor∣dan. And this they did.

It is hard to say whether Kinichi with more reason said, That these waters were not the waters of Jordan: or Jarchi, more absurdly, that they divided Syria from Canaan. There were, no doubt, some waters in the Valley of Jezreel. (For there the battel was, at least if that may be called a battel where there was not one Sword unsheathed by the Conquerour. See Judg. VI. 33.) When the Midianites fled, Gideon summons the Ephraimites by messengers, that they would take those waters before-hand, which the routed enemy in their flight must necessarily pass through, before they could arrive at the Bridge or Ferry over Jordan (spoken of even now) that lay in their way home. When both Armies had pitched the Field, the Midianites lay on the North toward Ga∣lilee, and the Gideonites on the South near Mount Ephraim, Chap. VII. 1. There was a River in the Vale, (at which waters probably Gideon distinguished betwixt his Follow∣ers that lapped like a Dog, and those that did not.) This River at length discharged it self into Jordan above the Bridge or passage that led into Perca. When therefore the Midianites lay on the Northern bank of this River, and so were not capable of attain∣ing the passage over Jordan till they had made through these waters first; it was the Ephraimites care and buisiness to maintain the opposite bank, and that indeed all the whole space from the place where the fight began to Beth-barah and Jordan that the Enemy might be blocked up from all possibility of escape or retiring.

Whether therefore this passage of which we have spoken, was called Beth-barah from that place so neas Jordan, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Beth-abarah, from the Etymology before men∣tioned, it is no absurdity for the further bank of Jordan which lay contiguous to the Bridge or passage over it, to be called Bethrbarah beyond Jordan, either upon the one or the other account. For (however the Learned Beza comes to question it) the Lexicons will tell you that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth beyond Jordan: especially that common threefold division 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Judea, Galilee, and beyond Jordan. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. On the East of the River Jordan: as Ptolomy expresseth it. And Beza himself confesseth that trans Jordanem, beyond Jordan, is the proper signifi∣cation of the Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, beyond, Matth. IV. 15.

Let us therefore place the Bethabarah we are seeking for, where John was baptizing, on the further ••ide of Jordan, in the Scythopolitan Country, where the Jews dwelt amongst the Syro-Grecians, as in all the Decapolitan Regions, where Christ might some∣thing more safely converse, from the vexations of the Scribes and Pharisees, Joh. X. 40. being as it were out of their reach and jurisdiction there. And so we find John Bapti∣zing first at the passage at Jericho, because through the greatness of the Road there was always a considerable concourse of people; and next, at the passage at Scythopolis for the same reason.

Further, had I either leisure or will to play any longer about the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, we might suppose it written 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Bethaania which in the Syriack Idiom (amongst whom it is no unusual thing to change 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 into 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) agrees with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Bethshania.