said, "With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed." (Gen. xxx. 8.) We know but few particulars of the life of Naphtali. His sons were Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. (Gen. xlvi. 24.) The patriarch Jacob, when he gave his blessing, said, "Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words." (Gen. xlix. 21.) Most of the Rabbins and commentators apply this to Barak, who was of the tribe of Naphtali, and who at first showed the fear of a hind, by refusing to march against the Canaanites, unless the prophetess Deborah would go with him; but he afterwards imitated the swiftness of a hind in pursuit of his enemy. (Judg. iv. 6.) He signalized his eloquence also, in that sublime canticle he composed with Deborah, to give thanks to God for their victory.

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The LXX give another rendering to this text; "Naphtali is as a tree that puts forth young branches, the shoots of which are fine." This sense seems to me as good, at least, as the former. Jacob commends the fertility of Naphtali, and the beauty of his race. Naphtali had but four sons, yet at the Exodus his tribe made up 53,400 men, able to bear arms. Moses, in blessing the same tribe, says, (Deut. xxxiii. 23,) “O Naphtali, saitsfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the west and the south." [Vulgate, the sea and the south; which the Hebrew will admit,] i. e. the sea of Gennesaret, which was south of the inheritance of this tribe. His soil was very fruitful in corn and oil. His limits were extended into upper and lower Galilee, leaving Jordan east, Asher and Zebulun west, Libanus north, and Issachar south.

The tribe of Naphtali encamped in the wilderness south of the tabernacle, between Dan and Manasseh. (Numb. ii. 25, 26, 27, &c.) After the division, by Joshua, of the land of promise, the children of Naphtali did not destroy all the Canaanites in their country, but contented themselves with making them tributary. (Judg. i. 33.) The Naphtalites, being on the frontiers to the north, were first invaded, and first made captive by the kings of Assyria. (2 Kings xv. 29. A. M. 3345, ante A. D. 659.) Isaiah (ix. 1) foretold to them, that they should see the light of the Messiah, and should be early illuminated by the glorious gospel. And indeed our Saviour preached oftener and longer in Galilee, and particularly in the tribe of Naphtali, than in any other part of Judea. Matt. iv. 13, 15.

NAZARETH, (lat. 32°. 47'.-long. 35°. 26',) a little town of

Zebulun, in Lower Galilee, west of Tabor, and east of Ptolemais. Eusebius places it fifteen miles from Legio, east. Celebrated for having been the residence of Jesus Christ, for the first thirty years of his life. (Luke ii. 51.) Here our Saviour became incarnate, here he lived in obedience to Joseph and Mary, and hence he received the name of Nazarene. After he had begun his mission, he preached here sometimes in the synagogue. (Luke iv. 16.) But because his countrymen had no faith in him, and were offended at the meanness of his origin, he did not many miracles there, nor would he dwell therein. (Matt. xiii. 54, 58.) He fixed his habitation at Capernaum for the latter part of his life. (Matt. iv. 13.) Nazareth is situated on high ground, having on one side a precipice, from whence the Nazarenes one day attempted to throw down our Saviour, because he upbraided them with their unbelief. Luke iv. 29.

Epiphanius says, that in his time Nazareth was only a village, and that to the reign of Constantine it was inhabited by Jews alone, exclusive of Christians. Adamnanus, a writer of the seventh century, says, that in his time there were two great churches at Nazareth, one in the midst of the city, built on two arches, in the place where our Saviour's house had stood. Under the two arches now mentioned, was a very fine fountain, which furnished water to the whole city. The second church of Nazareth was built in the place where the house stood, wherein the angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary. Villibrode, in the eighth century, speaking of the same church of Nazareth, says, the Christians were often obliged to redeem it with money from the Pagans, who otherwise threatened to demolish it. Phocas, in the twelfth century, says, that as soon as one enters Nazareth, one finds the church of St. Gabriel, under which is a little vault, wherein is the fountain near which the angel saluted Mary. It may be here observed, that the Orientals thought the angel first spoke to Mary near a fountain, and afterwards in her own house. Phocas adds, that in the same city is a very handsome church, heretofore the house of St. Joseph. The church of Nazareth, or of the Incarnation, is still in being.

Now all this will by no means agree with the famous translation of the house of the Virgin Mary; which, 1291, is pretended to have been removed, by the assistance of angels, from Nazareth into Dalmatia; whence it was carried, four years after, beyond the Gulf of Venice, into the diocese of Recanati, in the borders

of Ancona, and set on the land of a lady named Lauretta ; whence the church that was founded, obtained the name of our Lady of Lauretto. But the situation of this holy house being in a wood, to which it was dangerous to resort, because of robbers, it was a third time transported to the distance of half a league up a hill; and once more it was carried from thence to the place where it stands at present. It is very probable, that all these different translations were no other than so many different buildings, constructed on the model of the church of Nazareth; just as in several places churches have been built on the model of that of the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem.

[Nazareth is about eight leagues from Acre. It is situated at the foot of a mountain, and is surrounded on all sides by hills and mountains, having a little valley between them, full of thistles and pebbles. This town is inhabited only by a few religious of the Holy Land, and by some poor Christians in their service, or dependent on them. The place is shown where stood the house of the holy Virgin; but the house itself, say the Catholics, is at Loretto. Both Turks and Christians have a great veneration for the sacred precincts, and pray to the Virgin. The place where the synagogue stood, wherein our Saviour preached, is shown. Such is D'Arvieux's account. The following is from Volney.

“Nazareth, so celebrated in the history of Christianity, is an inconsiderable village, one-third of whose inhabitants are Mahometans, and the remaining two-thirds Greek Catholics. The Fathers of the Holy Land, who are dependent on the great convent of Jerusalem, have an hospitium and a church here. They are usually the farmers of the country. In the time of Daher they were obliged to make a present to every wife he married; and he took great care to marry almost every week."]

[Our latest traveller who describes Nazareth, Dr. E. D. Clarke, approaching it from Acre, mentions the village of Sephouzy, in which is shown the house of St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, five miles from Nazareth. He observes the fountain near Nazareth, called the Virgin Mary's fountain ; the great church, or convent, at that time the refuge of wretches afflicted with the plague, hoping for recovery from the sanctity of the place; Joseph's workshop, converted into a chapel; the synagogue wherein Jesus is said to have preached, now a church; the precipice whence the inhabitants would have thrown our