Zechariah 14:10

turned as a plain i.e. changed so as to become as, or like, a plain. Some would render, as the Arabah(R. V.) or Jordan valley, a meaning which the word will bear. Dean Stanley writes, "As a general rule, Palestine is not merely a mountainous country, but a mass of mountains, rising from a level sea-coast on the west, and from a level desert on the east, only cut asunder by the valley of the Jordan from north to south, and by the valley of Jezreel from east to west. The result of this peculiarity is, that not merely the hill-tops, but the valleys and plains of the interior of Palestine, both east and west, are themselves so high above the level of the sea as to partake of all the main characteristics of mountainous history and scenery. Jerusalem is of nearly the same elevation as the highest ground in England, and most of the chief cities of Palestine are several hundred feet above the Mediterranean Sea." (Sinai and Palestine, p. 129; see also p. 170.) The "plain," therefore, which the prophet here pictures to himself, may be a table-mountain or elevated platform, all other hills and mountains sinking down to the present level of the "valleys and plains" of Palestine, and leaving Jerusalem standing aloft on this elevated base, the queen-like city and mistress of the world.

"See Salem built, the labour of a God!

Bright as a sun the Sacred City shines;

All kingdoms and all princes of the earth

Flock to that light; the glory of all lands

Flows into her; unbounded is her joy,

And endless her increase."

Geba A town of Benjamin, Joshua 21:17; 1 Chronicles 6:60; Nehemiah 11:31. It is spoken of, as it is here, as the northern boundary of the kingdom of Judah, in 2 Kings 23:8. "Exactly in accordance with this (the mention of the position of Geba in 1 Samuel 13:3) is the position of the modern village of Jeba, which stands picturesquely on the top of its steep-terraced hill, on the very edge of the great Wady Suweinit.… Standing as it does on the south bank of this important wady one of the most striking natural features of this part of the country the mention of Geba as the northern boundary of the lower kingdom is very significant." Bible Dict. Art. "Geba."

Rimmon A town in the south of Palestine, Joshua 15:21; Joshua 15:32, allotted to Simeon, Ib. Joshua 19:1; Joshua 19:7. Its site is now unknown.

it shall be lifted up she shall be lifted up, R.V., i.e. Jerusalem, which has just been mentioned, shall retain its former elevation, when all the country round has sunk into a plain. "Humiliatis omnibus circumquaque montibus collibusque, urbs primaria Judæ totiusque orbis terrarum (Zechariah 14:9, cf. Micah 4:1), immota suo loco, elata et conspicua mansura dicitur." Maurer.

from Benjamin's gate These limits cannot be defined with certainty; but it seems probable that "the gate of Benjamin" is identical with "the gate of Ephraim" (2 Kings 14:13; Nehemiah 8:16; Nehemiah 12:39), a gate, that is, in the N. wall of the city, which led to the territory of Benjamin and then to that of Ephraim beyond, and which was therefore called indifferently by either name. If we suppose that this gate stood in the middle of the N. wall, we have the breadth of the restored city, measured from it, first westward to "the corner gate" (2Ki 14:13; 2 Chronicles 25:23; Jeremiah 31:38), which was at the N. W. corner of the wall, and then eastward to "the first gate" (the same perhaps as that called "the old gate," Nehemiah 12:39), which was at the N. E. corner. The length of the city is given, from the tower of Hananeel (Nehemiah 3:1; Nehemiah 12:39; Jeremiah 31:38) in the N. to "the king's winepresses" in the S. The site of these winepresses has not been discovered, but it is not improbable that they were in or near "the king's garden" (Nehemiah 3:15), at the S. E. extremity of the city.