** _Gen._ xxxii. 22; Numb, xxi. 24. The name has been
Grecized under the forms lôbacchos, labacchos, Iambykes. It
is the present Nahr Zerqa.

*** _Numb._ xxi. 13-26; Beut. ii. 24; the present Wady
Môjib. [Shephelah = "low country," plain (Josh. xi. 16).
With the article it means the plain along the Mediterranean
from Joppa to Gaza.--Te.]

The whole of this district forms a little world in itself, whose
inhabitants, half shepherds, half bandits, live a life of isolation,
with no ambition to take part in general history. West of the Jordan, a
confused mass of hills rises into sight, their sparsely covered slopes
affording an impoverished soil for the cultivation of corn, vines, and
olives. One ridge--Mount Carmel--detached from the principal chain
near the southern end of the Lake of Genesareth, runs obliquely to
the north-west, and finally projects into the sea. North of this range
extends Galilee, abounding in refreshing streams and fertile fields;
while to the south, the country falls naturally into three parallel
zones--the littoral, composed alternately of dunes and marshes--an
expanse of plain, a "Shephelah," dotted about with woods and watered by
intermittent rivers,--and finally the mountains. The region of dunes
is not necessarily barren, and the towns situated in it--Gaza, Jaffa,
Ashdod, and Ascalon--are surrounded by flourishing orchards and gardens.
The plain yields plentiful harvests every year, the ground needing no
manure and very little labour. The higher ground and the hill-tops are
sometimes covered with verdure, but as they advance southwards, they
become denuded and burnt by the sun. The valleys, too, are watered only
by springs, which are dried up for the most part during the summer, and