'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎343] (452/496)

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opinion, than those from the Mount of Olives, which are too near to have
a similar panoramic effect. This ridge, and not far from the spot where
it is crossed on the road to Anathoth, I take to be the Nob, whence
Sennacherib, in the prophetic words of Isaiah (after marching against
Jerusalem from Anathoth), was to halt in sight of the Holy City. “ As
yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the
mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.” (Isaiah x. 32.)
Travellers have looked for the ruins of Nob, but their search has
hitherto proved unavailing. It was a city of the priests slain by Saul;
and only once mentioned, subsequently to Isaiah, # by Nehemiah (xi, 32),
in connexion with Anathoth and Ananiah, as being, with them, one of the
places re-inhabited by the children of Benjamin who returned from the
Babylonian captivity.
I think it not at all improbable that the present village and buildings
which crown the summit of the Mount of Olives and its vicinity
may stand on part of the site of Nob, the “ city of the Priests,”
for whom its proximity to the eastern part of Jerusalem, in which
the Temple is situated, would render it a convenient residence;
and in fact we are told by the Talmudists, that in after times
here stood the shops of those who sold offerings &e., necessary for
persons who came up to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple doves, &c.,
for the purification.
The first mention of the Mount in the Old Testament is made in
Samuel, f when David is described as going up to the Mount of Olives
to worship God. Hence it would appear that the Mount, even at this
early period, was a place of peculiar sanctity. Solomon subsequently
raised altars on various parts of the ridge, to Chemosh the idol of the
Moabites, and to Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon, and
to Ashtoreh, the abomination of the Zidonians, and for this reason it was
called the “ Mount of Corruption”_a name now confined by the monks to
the southern part of the ridge overlooking the valley of Hmnom.J T ie
only other place where it is alluded to in the Old Testament is in
Zachariah,§ in his prophecy of Christ’s coming and kingdom, where he
* The passage from Isaiah runs thus in the Septuagint: na P^ Te
<r' W tpo v L SbS, rov ^vcu, rrf X upl vapaKaXure to opo S ^ BvyaT.pa
Sicoi/, kul oi (Sovuol oC 'tv lepovcraXr]^*
t II. Sam., xv. 30, 32.
I I. Kings, xi. 7, and II. Kings, xxiii. 13
§ Zachariah, xiv., 3, 4, 5.