I Appeal To Caesar!

Unfortunately, Saul and his companions are not aware that a disastrous, hot lowland lies between lower Mount Hermon and the thickly covered, oasis-like landscape of Damascus. These focused travelers are totally unprepared for the horrendous trial about to seize them. Having passed below the Hermon Range, the team now find themselves laboring under burning heat and blinding light. They have become the hapless target of the arrow-sharp rays of a merciless sun; in addition, heat radiates into their faces, reflecting off the hard rock and encrusted, waterless ground. And, the air! What has happened to the air? Since they entered this wasteland, they have not breathed bona fide air. A terrible aching fills their minds and bodies. The suffocation is both internal and external. Not only does sand fill their mouths and nostrils, penetrating throats and lungs, but also fine, black dust invades their mouths, upon which their teeth constantly grind. Any exposed body or clothing is coated with this ominous, clinging dust, and their mantles are incapable of protecting them. Their blackened faces, necks, and beards render them unrecognizable. They enter the deepest, hottest part of the lowland, a desolate stretch devoid of foliage or shelter: a pit of fire, a great rock caldron, which will evaporate any living creature hesitating to move forward.

Saul and his men lead their horses, tottering and sometimes falling; rising and reeling, they walk like