The heads of the Levites, princes in their families, abode in Jerusalem.

chief fathers

1 Chronicles 9:13 And their brethren heads in their families a thousand seven hundred and threescore, very strong and able men for the work of the ministry in the house of God.

Nehemiah 11:1-15 And the princes of the people dwelt at Jerusalem: but the rest of the people cast lots, to take one part in ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts in the other cities. . . .

1 Chronicles 8:28 These were the chief fathers, and heads of their families who dwelt in Jerusalem.

;) but the Jerusalem of sacred history is no more. After having been successively destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans, and taken by the Saracens, Crusaders, and Turks, in the possession of the latter of whom it still continues, not a vestige remains of the capital of David and Solomon, not a monument of Jewish times is standing. The very course of the walls is changed, and the boundaries of the ancient city are become doubtful. The monks pretend to shew the sites of the sacred places; but they have not the slightest pretensions to even a probable identity with the real places. The Jerusalem that now is, however, called by the Arabs {El Kouds}, or `the holy city,' is still a respectable, good looking town, of an irregular shape: it is surrounded by high embattled walls, enclosing an area not exceeding two miles and a half, and occupying two small hills, having the valley of Jehoshaphat on the east, the valley of Siloam and Gehinnom on the south, and the valley of Rephaim on the west; and containing a population variously estimated at from

20,000 to

30,000 souls.