Merom: Height, a lake in Northern Palestine through which the Jordan flows.
It was the scene of the third and last great victory gained by Joshua
over the Canaanites
(Joshua 11:5-7) It is not again mentioned in
Scripture. Its modern name is Bakrat el-Huleh. "The Ard el-Huleh, the
centre of which the lake occupies, is a nearly level plain of 16 miles
in length from north to south, and its breadth from east to west is
from 7 to 8 miles. On the west it is walled in by the steep and lofty
range of the hills of Kedesh-Naphtali; on the east it is bounded by
the lower and more gradually ascending slopes of Bashan; on the north
it is shut in by a line of hills hummocky and irregular in shape and
of no great height, and stretching across from the mountains of
Naphtali to the roots of Mount Hermon, which towers up at the
north-eastern angle of the plain to a height of 10,000 feet. At its
southern extremity the plain is similarly traversed by elevated and
broken ground, through which, by deep and narrow clefts, the Jordan,
after passing through Lake Huleh, makes its rapid descent to the Sea
of Galilee." The lake is triangular in form, about 4 1/2 miles in
length by 3 1/2 at its greatest breadth. Its surface is 7 feet above
that of the Mediterranean. It is surrounded by a morass, which is
thickly covered with canes and papyrus reeds, which are impenetrable.
Macgregor with his canoe, the Rob Roy, was the first that ever, in
modern times, sailed on its waters.
