2 Kings 5:12

Are not Abana[R.V. Abanah] and Pharpar, rivers[R.V. the rivers] of Damascus There is a marginal reading Amanahin the Hebrew, but it is not well supported. The Abanah has been identified with the larger of the two rivers which now water Damascus. Its present name is -Barada", and the Arabic version of this verse writes -Barda" for Abanah. The second river is now named -Awaj" and does not flow so close to the city, but one branch of it is still called -Wady Barbar" in which we may probably trace the remnant of the ancient name -Pharpar". Compared with the Jordan, these, especially the Abanah, must have appeared far superior, both in waters, for the Jordan is often muddy, and in the beauty of the scenery through which they flowed. Robinson (11. 255) describes the Jordan as a -deep, sluggish, discoloured stream".

Bp Hall observes here: -Nowhere shall we find a truer pattern of the disposition of nature: how she is altogether led by sense and reason: how she fondly judges of all objects by the appearance: how she acquaints herself only with the common road of God's proceedings: how she sticks to her own principles: how she misconstrues the intentions of God: how she over-conceits her own: how she disdains the mean conditions of others: how she upbraids her opposites with the proud comparison of her own privileges. Nature is never but like herself. No marvel if carnal minds despise the foolishness of preaching, the simplicity of sacraments, the homeliness of ceremonies, the seeming inefficacy of censures. These men look upon Jordan with Syrian eyes: one drop of whose water, set apart by divine ordination, hath more virtue than all the streams of Abanah and Pharpar."