'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎335] (444/496)

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Art. XL— Or the Site of Hai, or Ai, a Royal City of the Canaan-
ites ; with a notice of those of Nob, Azmaveth, and other cities
of Benjamin, the “ Mount of the Amalehitesf fyc. By Capt. New-
bold, Madras Army.
Hai, or Ai, one of the most ancient Cities of Palestine, was ranked
bv the Canaanites, anterior to the advent of Abraham from Mesopotamia,
among their royal cities. It is first mentioned about B. C. 1921, in
Genesis (xii, 6 , 8 , and xiii, 3, 10, and 12,) in Abraham’s journey
from Mesopotamia into Palestine after he had “passed through the
land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh.” Here God
appeared to the Patriarch, and said, “ unto thy seed will I give this land,
and there builded he an altar unto the Lord.” Abraham then removed
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from Sichem, the present Nabalus or Neapolis, “ unto a mountain on
the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and
Hai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord.”* Hence,
Abraham continued his journey southerly into Egypt, and on his return
with Lot from the banks of the Nile, he revisited “ the place where his
tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai,” and he here
divided the land with Lot, the latter choosing for himself the then
fertile valley of the Jordan, the Ghor and Head Sea of the present day,
prior to the fearful catastrophe of Sodom and Gomorrah. “ And Lot
lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Sodom, that it was well
watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah,
even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest
unto Zoar.” After the division of the land, Abraham dwelled in the
land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain.
The Ghor and Head Sea 1 could plainly distinguish from the hill of
Hai, but what a solemn contrast was presented by the stern desolation
of their present aspect, and the smiling landscape which presented itself
to the eyes of Abraham and Lot!
Before travelling farther into the scriptural history of Hai, it may be as
well to observe that, up to this point, the name of the city is written with
the aspirate n, which nearly corresponds with the name of the ruins
at the present day, as given me by an Arab Sheikh. The omission of the
Hebrew guttural Ajin, which is nearly the equivalent of the Ara
bic ^5 Ain, may be readily accounted for by the lapse of ages, since
* In the Septuagint—“ Kai e(TTr](T€V €K€L TY]U (TKrjvrjv dv-ov ev BaiOrjX
Kara 6aXa(r(rav, kul Ayyai Kara avaroXas,