Show qi alo S C ain 0 to 9 r A P M I 1 V SZ A 44 RPM aws he I 1 tek yc the lord all ye meli meek of t W earth which have wrought tile hie edg judg i 1 inelia ok righteousness eck meekness it may be ye shall be hid in the ity day va the herds anger I 1 FOr forgala Gaza shall be for forsaken aa it asti agh I 1 evelon a desolation they shall ehu drive eo cut ashdon ashdod at the noonday md and be footed up 11 woe unto the of the tea coast t the h e nation of 0 the the word or of the lori lord ts ta against you 0 canaan the land ot of the 1 I 1111 kill IIII even destroy thele the that bhore here shall bebo 53 22 5 by JOHN an SHERMAN WALON Ash kelon Is a Je the words of ahe he prophet prop liet were fulfilled mg long aw ago but out of the desolation are now coming elles that shall add much to the alie knowledge of the present concerning the day in which the prophet prop liet wrote lr ote at christmas time ever everyone lone has a thought of jerusalem and palestine and ascalon Is close to jerusalem and the birthplace or herod tile great who ordered the Alas massacre sacre of the innocents during the world war the activities of the palestine exploration fund were necessarily suspended now they hane hae been resumed with extraordinary success archaeologists ore are uncovering many splendid buildings of ancient days some gome of them of great informational value the greatest finds have been uncovered in ascalon the palestine exploration fund Is a society founded in london in 1965 for the he accurate and systematic investigation vesti gation of the archaeology toimi geology and physical geography natural history manners and customs of the holy land tor for biblical illustration A preliminary expedition was made by captain wilson in the winter of 6 since then no less than eight expeditions tor for varying purposes have been sent out since jwj the society has issued a quarterly statement and has published several works and maps it maintains a museum at its london office ascalon Is a desolation to in the literal meaning of the word and has been a desolation tor for many a year vegetation Is scanty the once splendid harbor lias been filled up tile the great ft alls and towers that surmounted the ridge that surrounds the city lie in crumbled ruins the confusion Is 19 extraordinary the walls walla and towers appear to have been blo blown blon n asunder by powder yet once the city must have been a vision of beauty here an and there broken columns of marble and granite tell of the glories of the past probably ascalon once looked something like jaffa making looking allowance for the modernizing of that ancient city ascalon lies on the shore of the mediterranean in judea 36 miles southwest of jerusalem it was a fortified city in ancient times how old it Is nobody knows knous it pawed passed from the egyptians to the Cantia i about 1500 B C in those days the i ega egyptians were the overlords of palestine which was then called canaan between 1300 and 1100 B C inloes and hebrews struggled for possession of canaan the hebrews gained control and an td tile the cn ca inan were submerged in IWO B C arthe divided hebrew tribes were united into a kingdom under saul david this successor completed the establishment of israelite supremacy in tine under david and solomon for tle the first ard only time in history Palo palestine otine uns the home of a united people under one cebral government then followed its division into israel and judah then followed by the As syrians and by tiro tile babylonians and by tile the persians pershing and by the egyptians and by the romans in 70 AD the struggle against rome wi ended by the capture and ruin of jerit jerusalem alem la in 13 A D u was as the 51 1 1 I 1 1 1 0 r p great reut rising under bar cocheba the rebellion 1 was stamped out with willi much bloodshed hadrian in i rebuilding jerusalem changed its nanie name to aella aelia and decreed that no jew should dwell in it never since that day has jerusalem been a jewish city or a jewish land Asca lons history was wag naturally nam rally troublous iu in times thaes like these la B U C say pay the tel el ei adarna tablets the native ahlers and D aaion igon worship ers who ruled alk tle city were pacing tribute tri lUte to the pharaoh of egypt tle place was ans captured successively bythe by the great rameses Rames ps IL and hy by king As of assyria it later became one ft f the five towns of abe he philistine confederacy tell it nut in gath publish it ft not in the hie streams of Ash kelon lest tile the daughters daughty irs of the lie philistine S re rejoice jolee Is w ritten in ili 11 II samuel 1 20 it came into the lana ot of the tribe of t judah but u at it ic remained an enemy ol 01 f the hebrews to the ln last L ascalon long belonged ta the romans in the seventh century it ell came me into posses possession gion of tile the saracens saracena Sara cens in 1009 was voils fought the great battle on the plains of ascalon in which the crusaders under godfrey de boullion bouillon were victorious the city was taken and retaken during the uan of the crusaders tile the end of ascalon came in I 1 1270 20 when it was aas destroyed by the sultan eibers it was then that its harbor was aas filled in it was then that it become became it a desolation herod tile the great was the ruler who beautified ascalon herod la Is the family faintly name of a group of rulers of palestine estIne the family had its origin in antipates Antl Anti pater an who in tile the lost last century before christ was made by the romans governor of edom judea samaria and galilee Gal ills his son was hera ithe groot great who was made king of judea nud and reigned fron 39 to 4 B C it was herod antipas Antl pas I 1 ron on of herod the great tetrarch of f galilee Gal who iho be headed john the baptist and to m whom hoot jesus was as sent by pilate Il late the hernds were jews only in ili the sense that the Ed adomites were conquered and compelled to amb emb embrace judaism about B C herod the great ruled the jews with an iron hand ruthlessly murdering all lie considered enemies including even the brother of liis his wife Mar lainne when he be left his court on a dangerous mission to rome koine he left word that in the event of his death marvanine Mar lanine should be killed also this jealous decree started a quarrel tow z 1 aa r 1 with his wife which ended only chec bet he had lier her put to death having started his reign in this fashion lit be continued in his career of crime and lut lurt not hesitating even to tt strangle rangle his own sons enemies he h generally preferred to have burner burned anve alive ile he finished Ms big days in the most frightful physical and mentill mental torments just after ordering the nas sacre ol of the innocents to in the year of christs christ birth emperor augustus August ns hla his friend said ot of him it la Is better to b be hernds pig than his son ile he hat had ten wives in ili all and several ot of these at one time nerod the great bad n R passion tool foi building binding miring during the first decade ol of ills bis reign lie was too ton busy establish ang in himself to indulge his passion then lie he rehabilitated many cities at jerusalem jericho slid and caesarea lie he erected theaters amphitheaters and hippodromes ue he rebuilt the temple in ili jerusalem lie ile even restored and beautified cities in syria asia denot and greece herod having been born at ascalon devoted much time and money to its iti improvement ile he beautified the cita with ith baths and costly fountains as also cloisters around a court that thai were admirable both for their workmanship and largeness according tle t one of the finds at ascalon Is a gigantic statue of herod the great another Is tile the court of herod and Ms its surrounding cloisters mentioned by Josep josephus lius A third la Is a demple with massive marble columns which may date baeb bach to the days when ascalon according to Hero herodotus dottis was famous tor for the wor hip saip of ashtoreth Ast oreth the god dess desa of fertility and fruitfulness mentioned lu in I 1 samuel 31 10 and they put his armor in the house ol of ashtoreth Ast oreth this was the alie armor of saul first king of israel in this connection there lias has been discovered a abas bellef the goddess with two attendants also a statue of venus lias has been no covered ascalon was the seat of worship a more or less identified eitl the assyrian ishtar the Phoeni clat ashtoreth Ast oreth the th greek aphrodite find and the roman venua vie she la Is of often en rep resented as halt half woman and halt half flan a sort of divine mermaid A deep layer of broken pottery has hag been dug up here which probably marks th remains sins of vessels broken as part ol of it the religious rites in her honor but so far do trace has bebin found of th aln lake into which she p plunged lunged accord ing to one story being ashamed of her hei misdeeds and was completely trans formed into a fish the most famous legend concerning concer her tells of her descent into the under world in search af of the healing waters which are to restore to life her bride croons Taini nuz the young and beau sun god slain by the cruel hand of winter whiter |