Michmash (2)
Michmash
On this interesting locality, Lieut. Consider remarks as follows (Tent Work, 2:112 sq.):
"The site of the Philistine camp at Michmash, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer attacked, is very minutely described by Josephus. It was, he says, a precipice with three tops, ending in a long, sharp tongue, and protected by surrounding cliffs. Exactly such a natural fortress exists immediately east of the village of Michmash, and it is still called "the fort" by the peasantry. It is a ridge rising in three rounded knolls above a perpendicular crag, ending in a narrow tongue to the east, with cliffs below, and having an open valley behind it, and a saddle towards the west on which Michmash itself is situate. Opposite this fortress, on the south, there is a crag of equal height and seemingly impassable; thus the description of the Old Test. is fully borne out — 'a sharp rock on one side, and a sharp rock on the other' (1Sa 14:4).
⇒Bible concordance for MICHMASH.
"The southern cliff, as we have noticed above, was called Seneh, or 'the acacia,' and the same name still applies to the modern valley, due to the acacia-trees which dot its course. The northern cliff was named Bozez, or 'shining,' and the true explanation of the name only presents itself on the spot. The great valley runs nearly due east, and thus the southern cliff is almost entirely in shade during the day. The contrast is surprising and picturesque, between the dark, cool color of the south side and the ruddy or tawny tints of the northern cliff, crowned with the gleaming white of the upper chalky strata. The picture is unchanged since the days when Jonathan looked over to the white camping-ground of the Philistines, and Bozez must then have shone as brightly as it does now, in the full light of an Eastern sun." (See illustration on following page.)
