Jerome calls it Oleaster: be it what it will, a tree bearing gum or pearl, Havilah or Susiana hath plenty of both. Now this country of Susiana or Havilah stretcheth itself towards the north, as far as the altars of Hercules, and from thence embraceth all the tract of land southward, as far as the Persian gulf, on the east side thereof: from which east side had the Shebans (which traded with the city of Tyre, according to Ezekiel) their great plenty of gold, which Strabo also witnesseth, as wás shewed before.

The Greeks had a conceit that Pison was Danubius; the rabbins take it for Nilus. Aben-Ezra, saith y Hopkins, out of rabbi Saadia, translateth Pison into Nilus: but Nilus findeth the same impossibility that Ganges doth; and Danubius hath the sea of Hellespont and all Asia the Less between it and Tigris. Now Pison, which runneth through Havilah or Susiana, doth to this day retain some sign of this name; for where it and Tigris embrace each other under the city of Apamia, there do they agree of a joint and compounded name, and are called Piso-Tigris. And it is strange unto me, that from so great antiquity there should be found remaining any resembling sound of the first name : for Babylon itself, which dwelleth so near these rivers, is by some writers known by the name of Bandas, as, by z Postellus, by Castaldus, of Baldach; by Barius, of Bagdad; and of Boughedor, by a Andrew Theuet; and yet all those that have lately seen it call it Bagdet. To this river of Pison, b Ptolemy indeed, with many others, give the name of Basilius or Regius, and Gehon they term Maharsares and Marsias, and Baarsares. So is Euphrates, near the spring and fountain, by Strabo and Pliny called Pixirates: by Junius, Puckperath, out of the Hebrew, that is, the profusion or coming forth of Euphrates: where it breaketh through the mountain Taurus, it takes the name of Omyra. Plutarch calls it Medus and Zaranda; the Hebrews Parath, saith Ar. Montanus; Pagninus, Perath; Josephus, Pho

* Steuch.
y Hopk. de Par.
Post. Cosmog.

a Theuet. Cosmog.
b Asiæ tab. 4.

e Plin. lib. 5. c. 24.

rah; Eusebius, Zozimus; Ammianus, Chalymicus; Gistilanus and Colinutius term it Cobar, which Ezekiel calleth Chebar; but this is but a branch of Euphrates. The Assyrians know it by the name of Armalchar, or Nahor Malcha; but now commonly it is called Frat.

The same confusion of names hath Tigris; as, Diglito and Diglath, Seilax and Sollax of the Hebrews it was called Hiddekel; now of the inhabitants Tegil.

But Mercer upon Genesis conceiveth rightly of these rivers: for Euphrates and Tigris, saith he, stream into four branches, two of which keep their ancient names, and the other two are called Pison and Gehon. The reason why these two rivers joined in one (below Apamia) lose their names, and are called Pisi-Tigris, and the memory of Euphrates extinguished, is, because the best part of Euphrates running through the channel of Gehon, sinketh into the lakes of Chaldea, not far from Ur, the city of Abraham, and fall not entirely into the Persian sea, as Tigris accompanied with Pison doth.

This error, that Pison was Ganges, was first broached by Josephus, (whose fields, though they be fertile, yet are they exceeding full of weeds,) and other men, (who take his authority to be sufficient in matter of description, whereupon depended no other important consequence,) were not curious in the examination thereof. For Epiphanius, Augustine, and Jerome, take this for current; whereof it followed, that as Pison was transported into the East India, to find out Havilah; so was Gehon drawn into Africa, to compass Ethiopia. But if Havilah, whereof Moses speaketh in the description of paradise, be found to be a region adjoining to Babylon on the one side, and Cush (which is falsely interpreted Ethiopia) fastened to it on the other side, we shall not need then to work wonders, that is, to impose upon men the transportation of rivers from one end of the world to the other, which (among other uses) were made to transport Now it was in the valley of Shinar, where Cush the son of Ham first sat down with his sons, Sheba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Nimrod, &c. and of Havilah, the son of

men.

Cush, did that region take name, which Pison compasseth; and the land (called Cush) which Gehon watereth, took name of Cush himself. For as the sons of Joctan, Ophir, and Havilah, seated themselves as near together as they could in India, so did the sons of Cush in Shinar, or Babylonia, where Nimrod built Babel: for Havilah or`Chavilah was first Chusea of Cush; then Chusa, Susa, and Susiana. From this Havilah unto the deserts of Sur did the Israelites and Amalekites possess all the interjacent countries; for & Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah to Sur: which Sur the Chaldean paraphrast converteth Hagra, and Hagra bordereth the Red sea; but this was not meant from Sur upon the Red sea to Havilah in the East India; for Saul was no such traveller or conqueror, and therefore Havilah must be found nearer home, where the sons of Ismael inhabited, and which country Saul wasted for Amalek and the Amalekites possessed that neck of country between the Persian sea and the Red sea; Havilah being the extreme of the one towards the east, and Sur of the other towards Egypt and the west, leaving that great body of Arabia Fœlix towards the south; and they spread themselves with the Midianites and Edumeans from the east part, or back-side of the holy land, to the banks of Euphrates, comprising the best parts of Arabia Petræa and Deserta.

SECT. XIV.

Of the river Gehon and the land of Cush: and of the ill translating of Ethiopia for Cush, 2 Chron. xxi. 16.

NOW as Havilah in the East India drew Pison so far out of his way thither, so I say did Cush (being by the Seventy translated Ethiopia) force Gehon into Africa. For Cush being taken for Ethiopia by the Greeks, whom the Latins followed, Gehon consequently was esteemed for Nilus. But Ethiopians are, as much, as black or burnt faces, whose proper country is called Thebaides, lying to

e

di Sam. xv. 7.

I

• See more of this point, c. 7. §. 10.

the southward of all Egypt. And although there be many other regions of Ethiopians, and far south in Africa, yet those of Thebaides are those so often remembered in the Egyptian stories, and out of which nation they had many times their kings of Egypt: all which Ethiopians are very near, or else directly under the equinoctial line, which is very far from that land inhabited by the Chusites; who are neither black of colour, nor in any sort neighbouring torrida zona. But this translation of the Septuagint Pererius tloth qualify in this manner. There are, saith he, two Ethiopias, the east and the west: and this division he findeth in Strabo, out of Homer. Now because there is no colour to make Chus Ethiopia in Africa, Pererius will make Cush and the land of the Chusites (which is Arabia Petræa, and a part of Arabia the Happy, with the region of Midian) to be the east Ethiopia.

Now if it be granted that Cush and the land of the Chusites be that tract from Sur to Havilah, according to the scriptures; f Habitavit Ismael ab Havilah usque Sur, quæ respicit Egyptum introeuntibus Assyrios; "Ismael dwelt "from Havilah unto Sur, that is, towards Egypt, as thou

goest towards Assyria:" the same sufficeth to prove that Gehon cannot be Nilus, but a river which watereth Cush, and not Ethiopia. But this place of scripture, Habitavit Ismael, &c. hath this sense: " Ismael dwelt from Havilah, "which is the way of Assyria, or the country bordering As

66

syria; and Sur, which lieth towards Egypt :" which is as much to say as, the 8 issues of Ismael, (whereof there were twelve princes,) whom God had promised to make a great people, inhabited all those regions between the border of Egypt and Assyria. And that they were (according to the word of God) so increased and multiplied, it well appeared, when hZerah the Chusite, which others call Tharantha, brought an army of ten hundred thousand against Asa king of Juda. Which army came not out of Ethiopia beyond Egypt; for that had been a strange progress for such a

f Gen. xxv. 18.

Gen. xxv. 16.

h 2 Chron. xiv. 9.

1

i

multitude as ten hundred thousand, having so mighty a king as the king of Egypt, between Palestina and Ethiopia. But these were the Chusites, Amalekites, Midianites, Ismaelites, and Arabians. For it is written, that after Asa (strengthened by God) had defeated this world of an army, he in following his victory took some of the cities of king Zerah round about, as Gerar. Now that Gerar is a city of the Ethiopians, it cannot be suspected: for these be the words of the scripture disproving it: And Abraham departed thence towards the south country, and dwelt between Cadesh and Sur, and sojourned in Gerar. Now Sur is that part upon which Moses and the Israelites first set their feet after they passed the Red sea, where the Amalekites in Rephidim set on them, supposing that they had been weary, and unable to resist. Again, in the story of Isaac it is written, Wherefore Isaac went to Abimelech, and the Philistines unto Gerar: and I am sure Abimelech and the Philistines were no Ethiopians. And, lastly, Moses himself, where he describeth the bounds of Canaan, hath these words: m Then the border of the Canaanites was from Sydon, as thou comest to Gerar: for Sydon was the frontier of Canaan towards the north, and Gerar by Gazah towards the south. But indeed, howsoever Pererius doth with an honest excuse salve his translation of Chus for Ethiopia, yet it appeareth plainly, that the Septuagint and Josephus did altogether misunderstand this place. And first, for Homer's east and west Ethiopia, they are both found elsewhere. For Pliny, in his fifth book and eighth chapter, citeth Homer for an author of these two Ethiopias. But the east Ethiopia is that which compasseth Nilus to the south of Egypt, and is the south border thereof; now a part of the empire of the Abyssines, under Prester John; and the west Ethiopia is that which joineth itself with the river Niger, which we call Senega and Gambra: for thereabouts are these Ethiopians, called Perorsi, Daratites, with divers other names, which n Pliny numbereth. But all these are in

i Gen. x. 11.

k Exod. xvii. 8.

1 Gen. xxvi. 1.

m Gen. x. 19.

n

Plin. l. 5. c. 8.