Rambles in Bible lands . unt Ebal, the great Farah Valley, runningdown to the Damieh ford of Jordan, has its commence-ment. Here Colonel Conder found a great number offine springs which form the abundant head-waters ofwhat lower down the valley becomes the principalwestern affluent of Jordan south of the vale of JezreelfThe name Salem occurs three miles south of thesesprings, and Ainoon, a village four miles to the north,preserves the name of Aenon. John the Baptist, who,we have seen, was baptizing at Bethabara, far north ofJudea, and who came into all the country about theJordan, preaching a
Rambles in Bible lands . unt Ebal, the great Farah Valley, runningdown to the Damieh ford of Jordan, has its commence-ment. Here Colonel Conder found a great number offine springs which form the abundant head-waters ofwhat lower down the valley becomes the principalwestern affluent of Jordan south of the vale of JezreelfThe name Salem occurs three miles south of thesesprings, and Ainoon, a village four miles to the north,preserves the name of Aenon. John the Baptist, who,we have seen, was baptizing at Bethabara, far north ofJudea, and who came into all the country about theJordan, preaching a baptism of repentance,3 also wasbaptizing in Aenon near Salem, because there was much 1 2 Kings xvii. 3-23. 2 2 Kings xvii. 33. 3 Luke iii. 3. JERUSALEM TO DOTHAN 233 water Everything seems to point to the head-waters of the Wady Farah as being the spot. ColonelConder says this site is the only one where all therequisites are met—the two names [ and Salem,which occur together nowhere else], the fine water. NAB LOUS, THE ANCIENT SHECHEM supply, the proximity of the desert, and the opencharacter of the ground. Here, then, in the wild desertvalley, beneath the red precipices where the hawk andkite find nests in the stairs of the rocks, or by thebanks of the shingly stream, with its beautiful oleander 1 John iii. 23. 234 RAMBLES IN BIBLE LANDS blossoms shining in the dusky foliage of luxuriant shrubs,we may picture the dark figure of the Baptist in hisrobe of camels hair, with the broad leather Bedaweenbelt round his loins, preaching to the Judean multitudeof pale citizens, portly, grey-bearded rabbis, Romansoldiers in leathern armour and shining helmets, sharp-faced publicans, and, above all, to the great mass ofoppressed peasantry, the beasts of the people, uncaredfor, stricken with palsy, with blindness, with fever, withleprosy, but eagerly looking forward to the appearanceof that Messiah who came to preach the gospel of Dothan appears to have been at t
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