Treasury of Scripture
chief fathers
1 Chronicles 9:13 And their brothers, heads of the house of their fathers, a thousand and seven hundred and three score...
Nehemiah 11:1-15 And the rulers of the people dwelled at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots...
Jerusalem We have already seen the situation and extent of this city, (Note of ch
1 Chronicles 8:28 These were heads of the fathers, by their generations, chief men. These dwelled in Jerusalem.
;) but the Jerusalem of sacred history is no more. After having been successively destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans, and taken by the Saracens, Crusaders, and Turks, in the possession of the latter of whom it still continues, not a vestige remains of the capital of David and Solomon, not a monument of Jewish times is standing. The very course of the walls is changed, and the boundaries of the ancient city are become doubtful. The monks pretend to shew the sites of the sacred places; but they have not the slightest pretensions to even a probable identity with the real places. The Jerusalem that now is, however, called by the Arabs {El Kouds}, or `the holy city,' is still a respectable, good looking town, of an irregular shape: it is surrounded by high embattled walls, enclosing an area not exceeding two miles and a half, and occupying two small hills, having the valley of Jehoshaphat on the east, the valley of Siloam and Gehinnom on the south, and the valley of Rephaim on the west; and containing a population variously estimated at from
20,000 to
30,000 souls.