To back up some of the articles on this blog (for some perhaps) outrageous claims, that South-Africa is a part the land mentioned from the pages of the Bible, we continue in the same fashion and see if we can identify some of the Benjamite (Benyameni) cities inland from the Zulu coast, that are there today. This are would be called in modern language Israel, or perhaps the more Biblical and ancient name Isakhele, (similar to uhuhleka - laughter) so named after the Patriarch Isak (Uhleka, Ihleka, wich means to laugh in Xhosa).
Now, the names have off course been scrambled over time, the same as with other great areas and cities mentioned in the Bible. Why? Good question. We can only speculate on the fact that peoples languages has been changing and morphing over time in all cultures, and place names would have done the same. However if you have lived or visited these areas you will be able to see and understand (with ease) pretty quickly. And as soon as you see them in the Bible (that means the tedious work of actually checking the Scriptures, dont worry I did it for you - this time :), you will see what cities we are in fact talking about. No matter how much they have become scrambled or faded over time, we should be able to identify them within the area today know as the southern part of Africa (the Zulu-coast, the heavenly coast). Specifically just below the country of Lesotho, where the ancient cities of Benjamin was located. They are indeed there to this very day, also mentioned in the same order as in Scripture. We read in 1. Samuel 10,2:
Tseltsha is now called Tsitsa, was in the time before Mandela and white settlers used as a border of Benjamin. Today the city of Tsitsa.
Wikipedia writes that Tsitsa River used to form a part of the ancient western border of the former Transkei.
Now the Tsitsa-border would be along the Tsitsa River (one of the four Rivers of Mzimvobo (main river from the Garden of Eden), being drawn close to a place now called Emboland.
If we look closer at Scriptures talking about these cities, Joshua 18,20 is of particular interest as they make mention of several obvious Bantu names.
Now even though they are scrambled, you can still find the ancient meanings of some of the names:
Xhora - Beyth Hoglah
Awwim - Gcuwa (Butterworth)
Cofimvaba - Gaba
Motsah - Tsomo
Taralah - Cala
Tesla - Tsolo
You can with ease identify these areas (encircled in red below) and it is no coincidence that exactly these cities are just there. And they can't just be there together, lined up like that. Where they just happen to be, neatly in the somewhat same order as they are mentioned in Scripture. There is just no way this could be a coincidence. There is definite smoke. Read on for the fire...
Knowing this, you can find the tribe of Judahs area and the ancient city of Jerusalem (Umthatha), which was very close to this area. Below is a picture of Tstitsa River, quite massive and rightfully served as a border between Benjamin and Judah. The scale of this river cannot be appreciated in photos only, and has to be seen and felt to understand how big it actually is.
Quite spectacular. And if there was to be undertaken any archeological excursions in the future close to some of these sites, items and relics are bound to be found in these now rural areas.
So, what do you think? Too little to go on? Well thats all we have for now, the internet and ancient history will tell you none of this because history is written by the conquerors and assailant winners. So dont try to hard to crosscheck to much of this with `authoritative` sources. I`ll save you the time, there aren`t any. Except Xhosa people and their own stories of old. Stories I find much more credible than cryptic lies and dates from the Middle east. Its all what you choose to believe in, in the end.
Giving ear to this, could these really be the areas in question and not the Persian ruins in the Middle East? We know what the Scripture says about how Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed and actually described as a `high place of a forest`, see much forest or vegetation up in that area? Not to mention the numerous verses that talk about the fate of the people of Judah. Why don't we believe what it says?
Jeremiah 9:11
"I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."
Micah 3:12
`Therefore, on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.`
Ezekiel 21:27
'A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I will make it This also will be no more until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him.'
Jeremiah 13:9
"Thus says the LORD, 'Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 19:8
"I will also make this city a desolation and an object of hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters.
Jeremiah 19:11
...and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial.
Jeremiah 32:31
"Indeed this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My wrath from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that it should be removed from before My face,
Psalm 137:7
Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, "Raze it, raze it To its very foundation."
Jeremiah 26:18
"Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, 'Thus the LORD of hosts has said, "Zion will be plowed as a field, And Jerusalem will become ruins, And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest."'
Luke 21:20
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near.`
Jeremiah 44:2
"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'You yourselves have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are in ruins and no one lives in them,
Jeremiah 44:6
'Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day.
Ezekiel 43:3
And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to destroy the city And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.
Ezekiel 33:21
Now in the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth of the tenth month, the refugees from Jerusalem came to me, saying, "The city has been taken."
Psalm 55:11
Destruction is in her midst; Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets.
2 Kings 14:13
Then Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem and tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, 400 cubits.
2 Kings 25:10
So all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 1:3
They said to me, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire."
Jeremiah 39:2
in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city wall was breached.
Nehemiah 2:3
I said to the king, "Let the king live forever Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?"
Nehemiah 2:17
Then I said to them, "You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach."
Psalm 79:1
O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
Psalm 79:7
For they have devoured Jacob And laid waste his habitation.
Lamentations 2:9
Her gates have sunk into the ground, He has destroyed and broken her bars Her king and her princes are among the nations; The law is no more Also, her prophets find No vision from the LORD.
Lamentations 4:11
The LORD has accomplished His wrath, He has poured out His fierce anger; And He has kindled a fire in Zion Which has consumed its foundations.
Psalm 89:40
You have broken down all his walls; You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
Daniel 9:2
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Lamentations 2:13
How shall I admonish you? To what shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I liken you as I comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea; Who can heal you?
Psalm 74:3
Turn Your footsteps toward the perpetual ruins; The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary.
Isaiah 52:9
Break forth, shout joyfully together, You waste places of Jerusalem; For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.
Now if you survived all them Scriptures and came out a little bit wiser (or even unwiser) congratulations :) These verses might not all be talking about Jerusalem or Benjamin or Judah cities, still they should paint the grim picture of the seriousness of the stuff that went on back then. Lots of people died. Which could be why this has been THE stone left unturned for so long. Its hard to rip up the past. And epic past event like these would go bone deep, if not deeper. I suspect it does.
I feel an urge in the closing of this post, to say that ancient Israel was not just in the southern most parts of Africa, remember there where 12 tribes in total. So as you travel towards the North you will start identifying remnants of Israel. I do not at this point in time know all of the other tribes. What I do know, is that for instance Ghana - who seems a likely candidate for being the priestly Levites, though this is a theory (work in progress, Nigerians might also have e place in this theory). There are people in Ghana in touch with what the elders are saying (folklore and oral traditions) that gives detailed accounts of cities and customs inherited from ancient times. Truth from elders is where you get real UNBIASED history, not google or wikipedia, I got news - They lie.
Consider this, if much of what we have been taught on history is really up for editing, what if what you where taught about the Almighty is up for edification?
Now, beit Christian, Catholic, Protestant or Adventist etc, what if what you where taught in any denomination, what you have learnt and grown up with. And places where you was given the opportunity to learn for yourself the depth of a proverb or how to use them in real life, what if all this up for edification to?
Uxolo lube nani