“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God:  and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more:  the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:2-4).

CHAPTER VI.

SIDE TRIPS FROM JERUSALEM.

Early on Tuesday morning, the eleventh of October, I set out by carriage, with some other tourists, for a trip to Bethlehem, Solomon’s Pools, and Hebron.  Bethlehem is about five miles south of Jerusalem, and Hebron is a little southwest of the Holy City and twenty miles distant.  We started from the Jaffa gate and passed the Sultan’s Pool, otherwise known as Lower Gihon, which may be the “lower pool” of Isaiah 22:9.  “The entire area of this pool,” says one writer, “is about three and a half acres, with an average depth, when clear of deposit, of forty-two and a half feet in the middle from end to end.”  We drove for two miles, or perhaps more, across the Plain of Rephaim, one of David’s battlefields soon after he established himself in Jerusalem.  Here he was twice victorious over the Philistines.  In the first instance he asked Jehovah:  “Shall I go up against the Philistines?  Wilt thou deliver them into my hand?” The answer was:  “Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into thy hand.”  In this battle the invaders were routed and driven from the field.  “And they left their images there; and David and his men took them away.”  But “the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.  And when David inquired of Jehovah, he said, Thou shalt not go up:  make a circuit behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.  And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself, for then is Jehovah gone out before thee to smite the hosts of the Philistines.”  David obeyed the voice of the Lord, and smote his enemies from Geba to Gezer. (2 Samuel 5:17-25.)

On the southern border of the plain stands the Greek convent called Mar Elyas.  This is about half way to Bethlehem, and the city of the nativity soon comes into view.  Before going much farther the traveler sees a well-built village, named Bet Jala, lying on his right.  It is supposed to be the ancient Giloh, mentioned in 2 Samuel 15:12 as the home of Ahithophel, David’s counselor, for whom Absalom sent when he conspired against his father.  Here the road forks, one branch of it passing Bet Jala and going on to Hebron; the other, bearing off to the left, leads directly to Bethlehem, which we passed, intending to stop there as we returned in the evening.