y. From Usu the Mohar is naturally
taken to the island rock of Tyre.

Next comes a name which it is difficult to identify. All that is clear
is that between Zar or Tyre and Zair'aun there is some connection both
of name and of locality. Perhaps Dr. Brugsch is right in thinking that
in the next sentence there is a play upon the Hebrew word _zir'ah_,
"hornet," which seems to have the same root as Zair'aun. It may be that
Zair'aun is the ancient city south of Tyre whose ruins are now called
Umm el-'Amud, and whose older name is said to have been Turan.
Unfortunately the name of the next place referred to in the Mohar's
travels is doubtful; if it is Pa-'A(y)ina, "the Spring," we could
identify it with the modern Ras el-'Ain, "the Head of the Spring." This
is on the road to Zib, the ancient Achshaph or Ekdippa.

"The mountain of User" reminds us curiously of the tribe of Asher, whose
territory included the mountain-range which rose up behind the
Phoenician coast. But it may denote Mount Carmel, whose "crest" faces
the traveller as he makes his way southward from Tyre and Zib. In any
case the allusion to it brings to the writer's mind another mountain in
the same neighbourhood, the summit of which similarly towers into the
sky. This is "the mountain of Shechem," either Ebal or Gerizim, each of
which is nearly 3000 feet above the level of the sea. It is the first
mention that we have of Shechem outside the pages of the Old Testament.

Shechem, however, did not lie in the path of the Mohar, and the
reference to its mountain is made parenthetically only. We are therefore
carried on to Hazor, which afterwards became a city of Naphtali, and of
which we hear in the letters of Tel el-Amarna. From Hazor the road ran
northwards to Hamath, the Hamah of to-day. Hazor lay not far to the
westward of Adamim, which the geographical lists of Thothmes III. place
between the Sea of Galilee and the Kishon, and which is doubtless the
Adami of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 33). Here the tour of the Mohar comes to
an abrupt close. After this the writer contents himself with naming a
number of Syrian cities without regard to their geographical position.
He is anxious merely to show off his knowledge of Canaanitish geography;
perhaps also to insinuate doubts as to the extent of his correspondent's
travels.

Takhis, the Thahash of Gen. xxii. 24, was, as we have seen, in the land
of the Amorites, not very far distant from Kadesh on the Orontes.
Kafir-Maron