of Merom to the foot of the watershed in the Arabah. The waters were
then about 1,400 feet above the present level of the Dead Sea, or slightly
above that of the Mediterranean, and at that time were much less salt.
Nothing living can exist in this sea. “The fish carried down by the Jordan
at once die, nor can even mussels or corals live in it; but it is a fable that no
bird can fly over it, or that there are no living creatures on its banks. Dr.
Tristram found on the shores three kinds of kingfishers, gulls, ducks, and
grebes, which he says live on the fish which enter the sea in shoals, and
presently die. He collected one hundred and eighteen species of birds,
some new to science, on the shores, or swimming or flying over the waters.
The cane-brakes which fringe it at some parts are the homes of about forty
species of mammalia, several of them animals unknown in England; and
innumerable tropical or semi-tropical plants perfume the atmosphere
wherever fresh water can reach. The climate is perfect and most delicious,
and indeed there is perhaps no place in the world where a sanatorium could
be established with so much prospect of benefit as at Ain Jidi (Engedi).”,
Geikie’s Hours, etc.
- DEAL, TENTH See OMER.
- DEARTH a scarcity of provisions (1 Kings 17). There were frequent
dearths in Palestine. In the days of Abram there was a “famine in the land”
(Genesis 12:10), so also in the days of Jacob (47:4, 13). We read also of
dearths in the time of the judges (Ruth 1:1), and of the kings (2 Samuel
21:1; 1 Kings 18:2; 2 Kings 4:38; 8:1).
In New Testament times there was an extensive famine in Palestine (Acts
11:28) in the fourth year of the reign of the emperor Claudius (A.D. 44 and
45).
- DEATH may be simply defined as the termination of life. It is represented
under a variety of aspects in Scripture: (1.) “The dust shall return to the
earth as it was” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
(2.) “Thou takest away their breath, they die” (Psalm 104:29).
(3.) It is the dissolution of “our earthly house of this tabernacle” (2
Corinthians 5:1); the “putting off this tabernacle” (2 Peter 1:13, 14).
(4.) Being “unclothed” (2 Corinthians 5:3, 4).