in some instances to identify with considerable accuracy certain ancient places and sites of major events.

Some common Arabic geographical terms that are helpful in relating places to Biblical sites are given in the following list.

ARABIC GEOGRAPHICAL TERMS AND THEIR MEANING

ʽAin spring, natural fountain

Bahr sea

Beit house

Biqaʽ valley (in hill country)

Bir well

Burj tower

Darb road

Debbet sandy height

Jebel mountain

Karm vineyard

Kefr village

Khirbet ruins

Majdel castle or tower

Nahr river

Neqb mountain path

Ras cape, top of hill or mountain

Shatt shore or bank; river

Talʽat ascent

Tell mound (often containing ruins)

Wadi torrent valley

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS

Palestine’s climate is as diversified as its topography. In the matter of a hundred miles (161 kilometers), from the Dead Sea to Mount Hermon, the contrasting extremes in altitude produce climatic conditions equivalent to those that are elsewhere spread over thousands of miles in latitude between the Tropic and the Arctic. Mount Hermon is usually covered with snow all year round, while down along the Dead Sea the thermometer sometimes reaches 120° F. (49° C.). Sea breezes up from the Mediterranean moderate the temperature along the central mountain range. As a result it is seldom hotter than 90° or 92° F. (32.2° or 33° C.) in Jerusalem, and rarely does it freeze there. Its average January temperature is around 49° F. (9.4° C.). Snowfall in that part of the country is not a common thing.—Compare 2 Samuel 23:20.

Rainfall in this country of contrasts also varies a great deal. Along the coast the annual precipitation is about fifteen inches (38 centimeters) but in the higher altitudes of Mount Carmel, the central range and the highlands E of the Jordan there is up to twice this amount. On the other hand, desert conditions prevail in the Negeb, the lower Jordan valley and the Dead Sea area, with two to four inches (5 to 10 centimeters) of rain annually. Most of the rain falls in the winter months of December, January and February; only 6 or 7 percent in the summer months from June to October. The light “early” or autumn rain in October and November permits the plowing of soil (baked hard by the summer heat) in preparation for the sowing of winter grains. The “late” or spring rain comes in March and April.—Deut. 11:14; Joel 2:23; Zech. 10:1; Jas. 5:7.

One of Palestine’s great assets is the abundance of dew, especially through the rainless summer months, for without the heavy dews many of the vineyards and grazing lands would suffer greatly. (Hag. 1:10; Zech. 8:12) The moisture-laden breezes blowing up from the Mediterranean and down from Mount Hermon account for much of the dew in Palestine. (Ps. 133:3) In certain areas the dew at night is so heavy that enough moisture is recovered by the vegetation to compensate for the losses during the heat of the day. (Compare Job 29:19.) Of particular importance is the dew in the Negeb and uplands of Gilead where rainfall is minimal.—See DEW.

PLANTS AND ANIMALS

The tremendous variety of trees, shrubs and plants found in this small area of the earth has been a source of amazement among botanists, one of whom has listed more than 3,000 species of ferns and flowering plants growing here. The diversity in altitude, climate and soil helps to account for this variety in flora, some plants being at home in the cold alpine, others in the torrid desert, and still others in the alluvial plain or rocky plateau, each blooming and bearing seed in its season. Within comparatively short distances from one another are found hot-weather palms and cold-weather oaks and pines; willows along the streams and tamarisks in the wilderness. This land is also famous for its cultivated vineyards, olive groves, fig orchards and fields of wheat, barley and millet. Other crops included peas, beans, lentils, eggplants, onions and cucumbers, as well as cotton and flax. Modern visitors to this land are often disappointed unless it is springtime, when the countryside is in full bloom with its flower spectacle. For most of the year the stony hillsides are barren and bleak. At one time, however, parts of the land were more heavily wooded than at present, lush like “the garden of Jehovah,” a veritable botanical garden “flowing with milk and honey,” hospitable and inviting.—Gen. 13:10; Ex. 3:8; Num. 13:23, 24; Deut. 8:7-9.

Animal, bird and fish life was abundant in park-like Palestine in the past more so than today. The lion, bear, wild bull and hippopotamus are no longer present, but other wildlife that may be found include wolves, wild boars and wildcats, jackals, hares and foxes. Zoologists list 113 different kinds of mammals. Domesticated animals are common—sheep, goats, cows, horses, asses and camels. There are many kinds of birds too: 348 species are known to exist, including large ones like the vultures, hawks, owls and eagles. Over 90 reptiles and amphibians and more than 40 freshwater fish have also been listed.

RESOURCES FROM THE GROUND

Besides proving to be a well-watered land capable of producing an abundance of foodstuffs, Palestine’s mountains contained useful iron and copper ores. (Deut. 8:9) Gold, silver, tin and lead had to be imported, but there were large deposits of salt, and in the Jordan valley there were beds of clay for the brick, pottery and foundry industries. (1 Ki. 7:46) Excellent limestones for the building trade were quarried, and there were outcroppings of dark basalt valued for its hardness and fine-grained texture.

PALLU

(Palʹlu) [distinguished].

Second-named son of Jacob’s firstborn Reuben. (Gen. 46:9; 1 Chron. 5:3) Pallu founded the family of Palluites in the tribe of Reuben. (Ex. 6:14; Num. 26:5) He is possibly the same son of Reuben called Peleth at Numbers 16:1.

PALLUITES

(Palʹlu·ites).

A Reubenite family descended from Pallu.—Num. 26:5.

PALM TREE

[Heb., ta·marʹ; Gr., phoiʹnix].

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), though now found only in certain sections, was once abundant in Palestine and apparently as characteristic of that land as it was and is of the Nile valley of Egypt. Following the second destruction of Jerusalem, Roman Emperor Vespasian had a sestertius coin minted bearing the figure of a weeping woman seated beneath a palm tree with the inscription “Judaea Capta.”

Palms are associated with oases and are a welcome sight to desert travelers, as were the seventy palm trees growing beside the twelve springs of water at Elim, the second stop of the marching Israelites after their crossing the Red Sea. (Ex. 15:27; Num. 33:9) The long taproot of the palm enables it to reach down to water sources not available to many plants and thus to thrive amid desert conditions.

In Bible times palms flourished on the coast of the Sea of Galilee (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, chap. X, sec. 8), along the lower reaches of the hot Jordan valley, and were particularly abundant around En-gedi (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IX, chap. I, sec. 2) and Jericho, called “the city of the palm trees.” (Deut. 34:3; Judg. 1:16; 3:13; 2 Chron. 28:15). They also grew in the highlands, as did “Deborah’s palm tree” in the mountainous region of Ephraim. (Judg. 4:5) That they grew around Jerusalem is evident from the use made of their fronds at the Festival of Booths (Lev. 23:40; Neh 8:15) and also at the time of Jesus’ entry into the city. (John 12:12, 13) Tamar, one of Solomon’s cities, was named for the palm tree. (1 Ki. 9:17, 18) The land of Tyre and Sidon also later received the name “Phoenicia” (land of palms) from the Greek phoiʹnix (Acts 11:19; 15:3), as possibly did the city of Phoenix on the island of Crete.—Acts 27:12.

The tall, stately palm, with its straight uniform trunk rising some eighty feet (24.4 meters) or more and cresting with a plume of long feathery fronds (not branches), makes a graceful silhouette of unique beauty. Hebrew girls must have been pleased to receive the name Tamar, as did Judah’s daughter-in-law (Gen. 38:6), Absalom’s sister (2 Sam. 13:1), and also his daughter, described as “a woman most beautiful in appearance.” (2 Sam. 14:27) The Shulammite maiden’s stature was likened to that of a palm tree and her breasts to its clusters. (Song of Sol. 7:7, 8) The spiral arrangement of its wood fibers also makes it a tree of unusual suppleness and strength.

The palm tree produces good fruit after about thirty years and continues to do so for nearly one hundred years, after which it gradually declines and dies at the end of the second century. The annual crop of dates grows in immense drooping clusters, each weighing from thirty to fifty pounds (13.6 to 22.7 kilograms), and is harvested from June to September. The Arabs say that the palm tree has as many uses as the year has days. In addition to its fruit the leaves are used for thatching roofs, the sides of houses, for fences, mats, baskets, and even dishes. Its fibers are used to make ropes and boat rigging. The date seeds or kernels are ground up and fed to the camels. Wax, sugar, oil, tannin and resin are all obtained from the tree, and a potent drink called “arrak” is distilled from the sap.

Engraved carvings of the palm tree, with its erect form, beauty and fruitfulness, made an appropriate decoration for the inner walls and the doors of Solomon’s temple (1 Ki. 6:29, 32, 35; 2 Chron. 3:5), also the sides of the carriages used in the temple service (1 Ki. 7:36, 37); and palm trees were seen by Ezekiel as decorating the side pillars of the gates of the visionary temple, as well as in the inner walls and doors of the temple. (Ezek. 40:16-37; 41:15-26) Being straight and tall as well as fruitful, the palm tree was also a fitting symbol of the ‘righteous man’ ‘planted in the courtyards of Jehovah.’—Ps. 92:12, 13.

The use of palm fronds by the crowd of people who hailed Jesus as the “king of Israel” (John 12:12, 13) evidently served to symbolize their praise as well as their submission to his regal position. The “great crowd” of Revelation 7:9 are likewise pictured as with palm fronds in their hands, ascribing salvation to God and to the Lamb.—Rev. 7:10.

PALTI

(Palʹti) [abbreviated form of Pelatiah, meaning Jehovah has provided escape].

1. A Benjamite chieftain selected as one of the twelve spies to preview the land of Canaan in 1512 B.C.E. He was a son of Raphu.—Num. 13:2, 3, 9, 27-33.

2. See PALTIEL No. 2.

PALTIEL

(Palʹti·el) [deliverance of God].

1. Representative of Issachar at the time the tribes divided the Promised Land into inheritance portions; son of Azzan.—Num. 34:17, 18, 26.

2. Son of Laish from Gallim. Saul, after outlawing David, took his daughter Michal, David’s wife, and gave her in marriage to Palti (Paltiel). (1 Sam. 25:44) After becoming king, David demanded of Abner and Ish-bosheth that Michal be returned to him. This greatly grieved Paltiel, who followed her, weeping, until Abner ordered him to go home.—2 Sam. 3:13-16.

PALTITE

(Palʹtite).

A term used with reference to Helez, one of David’s mighty men and generally believed to refer to a native of Beth-pelet. (2 Sam. 23:8, 26) In the corresponding lists at 1 Chronicles 11:27; 27:10, Helez is called the “Pelonite.”—See PELONITE.

PAMPHYLIA

(Pam·phylʹi·a).

A small Roman province on the S coast of Asia Minor visited by Paul on his first missionary tour. Though the size of the province may have varied over the years, Pamphylia is commonly viewed as having been a strip along the coastline some seventy-five miles (121 kilometers) long and up to thirty miles (48 kilometers) wide. It was bounded by the provinces of Lycia on the W, Galatia on the N and the Kingdom of Antiochus on the E. (See ASIA.) On the coast the climate of Pamphylia was hot and tropical, while it moderated as one moved to the higher elevation of the Taurus Mountains.

The inhabitants are thought to have been a mixture of a native tribe with Greeks, some even suggesting Pamphylia to mean “of every race.” Evidently Jews or proselytes were in the area, for on Pentecost 33 C.E. persons from Pamphylia were in Jerusalem and were amazed to hear the disciples speaking in their “own language.”—Acts 2:6, 10.

A number of principal cities were on or near the coast, such as the seaport town of Attalia, Perga on the Cestrus (Aksu) River, and Side, where coastal pirates sold their booty and a slave market existed. From Paphos on Cyprus, Paul, Barnabas and John Mark sailed NW across the Pamphylian Sea “and arrived at Perga in Pamphylia.” Whether they landed at Attalia and traveled on land the few miles to Perga, or sailed right to Perga is not definitely known; it is reported that in ancient times the Cestrus was navigable at least as far as Perga. At this point John Mark separated from the others and returned to Jerusalem, but Paul and Barnabas went N through the mountains to Antioch in Pisidia (in the province of Galatia). (Acts 13:13, 14; 15:38; 27:5) That route was notorious for bandits. (Compare 2 Corinthians 11:26.) On the return trip the two Christians traveled through Pamphylia to Perga and preached there. Next they went to the port of Attalia and sailed from there to Antioch in Syria.—Acts 14:24-26.

Pamphylia over the years was ruled by Lydia, Persia, Macedonia and Rome. Under the Romans it was at various times united as a province with Cilicia (to the E) and then with Galatia and finally with Lycia.—Acts 13:13; 16:6; 27:5.

PAPER

The English word “paper” is derived from the Latin papyrus, which came from the Greek paʹpy·ros. In Bible times paper was a thin writing material made into sheets from strips obtained from the papyrus plant.—See PAPYRUS.

The Egyptians are credited with being the first manufacturers of papyrus paper for writing purposes, using papyrus plants that then grew along the banks of the Nile River. Some archaeologists would place such paper production as far back as Abraham’s time.

Early Christians used papyrus paper for their letters, scrolls and codices. It also played an important part