^*  Bethsaida  is  sometimes  called  a  village,  at  others  a  town  or
city  ;  though  only  a  village,  large  enough,  according  to  Josephus ;
who  says  that  every  village  in  Galilee,  even  the  least  of  them,
contained  15,000  inhabitants  (but  surely  there  must  be  some
mistake  in  the  number).  This  Bethsaida,  he  says,  was  for  the
pleasantness  of  it  erected  into  a  city,  and  called  Julius ;  but  let
it  be  then  what  it  would,  our  Saviour's  woe  is  now  accomplished
against  it,  and  it  is  reduced  to  its  first  original,  a  lodge  in  the
wilderness;  nothing  thereof  now  remaining,  as  travellers  tell  us,
besides  seven  or  eight  scattered  cottages,  which  scarcely  deserve  the
name  of  houses.
