The Land of Canaan: Topography and Characteristics. Adaptation. Ancient Peoples. Typical Aspect.

11 1 And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor heard thereof, that he sent to Jobab 2 king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, and to the kings that were on the north, in the hill country, and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the low-

3 land, and in the heights of Dor on the west, to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the hill country, and the

4. Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea-shore in multitude, with horses and

5 chariots very many. And all these kings met together; and they came and pitched together at

6 the waters of Merom, to fight with Israel. And the LORD said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to-morrow at this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou

7 shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. So Joshua came, and all the peo-

8 ple of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly, and fell upon them. And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they

9 smote them, until they left them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

10. And Joshua turned back at that time, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the

11 sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was none

12 left that breathed: and he burnt Hazor with fire. And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and he smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly

13 destroyed them; as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. But as for the cities that stood on their mounds, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn.

14. And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed

15 them, neither left they any that breathed. As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua: and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.

16. So Joshua took all that land, the hill country, and all the South, and all the land of Goshen, and the lowland, and the Arabah, and the hill country of Israel, and the lowland of the same;

17 from mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under

18 mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and put them to death. Joshua

19 made war a long time with all those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the

20 children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: they took all in battle. For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.

21. And Joshua came at that time, and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country

22 of Israel: Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, did some re-

23 main. So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD spake unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land had rest from war.

12 1 Now these are the kings of the land, whom the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land beyond Jordan toward the sunrising, from the valley of Arnon unto mount Hermon,

2 and all the Arabah eastward: Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the

3 valley, and half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon; and the Arabah unto the sea of Chinneroth, eastward, and unto the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt

4. Sea, eastward, the way to Beth-jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah: and the border of Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, who dwelt at Ashtaroth and

5 at Edrei, and ruled in mount Hermon, and in Salecah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

6. Moses the servant of the LORD and the children of Israel smote them; and Moses the servant of the LORD gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.

7. And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel smote beyond Jordan westward, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon even unto mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir; and Joshua gave it unto the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their di-

8 visions; in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the Arabah, and in the slopes, and in the wilderness, and in the South; the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, 9 the Hivite, and the Jebusite: the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Beth el, 10, 11 one; the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one; the king of Jarmuth, one; the 12, 13 king of Lachish, one; the king of Egon, one; the king of Gezer, one; the king of Debir, 14, 15 one; the king of Geder, one; the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one; the king of 16 Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one; the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Beth el, 17, 18 one; the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one; the king of Aphek, one; the 19, 20 king of Lassharon, one; the king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one; the king of Shim- 21 ron-meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one; the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, 22, 23 one; the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one; the king of Dor in the 24 height of Dor, one; the king of Golim in Gilgal, one; the king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty and one.

Canaan was virtually subdued before the arms of Joshua in two great decisive battles; the first against five confederate kings of Southern Palestine (ch. 10); the second, against a similar but larger confederation of the petty kingdoms of Northern Palestine (ch. 11). H. C. — A powerful confederacy was formed, embracing all the tribes that had not yet fallen before Joshua, E. V. — King Jabin, of Hazor—far to the north—headed this new confederacy. He issued a call to various kings and peoples—to those on the north, even beyond the Lebanon Mountains—to those on the south, “in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor on the west;” that is, of the plains of Jezreel and Megiddo, the Arabah south of the Sea of Galilee, across to the Mediterranean Sea below Carmel—also to those on the east, “the Hivite under Hermon, in the land of Mizpeh”—and to those directly west, down on the plain of Phoenicia. In answer to this call, the fighting-men of the whole region flocked together into a set place. The kings “went out, they and all their hosts with them came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.” Lake Merom—the modern Huleh—a dozen miles north of the Sea of Galilee, is a considerable body of water, the deeper central part being about four miles long by three and a half wide. Around it are extensive marshes and plains. Probably the level country in the neighborhood led to its being selected by the confederates for an engagement, since here they would have opportunity for manoeuvring their horses and chariots, on which they appear to have chiefly relied. Horses and chariots do not seem to have been encountered by the Israelites in the previous campaign. These could not be effectively used in the mountain regions of Judea. Doubtless the Israelites had a special dread of them, and hence God’s promise of success against the new confederacy, given to Joshua on the eve of battle, included a distinct reference to them. The language is: “Be not afraid of them”—of the hosts of the new combination—“for to-morrow, about this time, will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.” No details concerning this victory are recorded. Joshua and his forces fell suddenly upon their enemies, and “the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel.” To the east—into the fastnesses of Mount Hermon, and to the west—down upon the plain of Phoenicia, and across to the great and strong maritime city of Sidon, the beaten allies fled. It is specially declared that Joshua hamstrung the captured war-horses and burnt the chariots, according to the divine command. N. C. B.

3. These nations were thus distributed: “The Hittites,” or sons of Heth, “the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwelt in the mountains;” “the Canaanites” dwelt in the midland, “by the sea,” westward, and “by the coast of Jordan,” eastward; and “the Hivites” in Mount Lebanon, under Hermon, in the land of Gilead, northward. Hules.

5-7. The highland plateau west of the Waters of Merom has always been fertile and well peopled, and was the centre of the Canaanitish power in the north before and after the conquest by Joshua. From the head of the Lake of Galilee to the Waters of Merom, a distance in a straight line of ten miles, the course of the Jordan is through a rich but deserted plain, shut in, as elsewhere in its course, by the enclosing ranges. There are many mounds in this plain, marking the site of perished villages, but not one inhabited, though here and there the wattled huts of the stationary Arabs or the black tents of the wandering tribes may be seen. But the lofty plateau which faces the little Lake of Huleh, the Waters of Merom, on the west side, is full of ruins, many of which recall Scripture names. The hills descend precipitously, and the ruins are crowded near their brow. Merom is only mentioned in the Bible as the scene of the great battle in which Joshua utterly broke the power of Jabin, King of Hazor, and the confederate Canaanites of the north. This battle was for the north what that of Beth-horon was for the south. It was the last combined struggle against the conqueror. All were gathered for it from Philistia to Hermon. “They went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots diers burst upon them. Taken thus by surprise, their immense numbers only increased the confusion of the Canaanites, which the horses and chariots would render more inextricable. The rout was complete. The Canaanites were chased westward to Zidon and eastward to the valley of Mizpeh. The conqueror returned to finish the action by the capture of Hazor. This city, like Ai and Jericho, was burned. The rest of the cities taken in this campaign were simply pillaged, and left standing “each on its own

very many.” It must have been in the low plain, west of the Lake, that the army of Israel fell suddenly upon them, routed them utterly, and chased them westward over the hills to Great Zidon and north-eastward up the Jordan valley to the plain of Mizpeh or Coelo-Syria. H. B. T.

7. Suddenly.** As before on so many occasions, Joshua’s prompt decisiveness secured him the victory. Almost before the kings could have learned that he had left Gilgal, he and his solhill” (5 : 13). E. V.—The actual features of the land are seen to be entwined with the Scripture history, in a way most strongly to uphold it as veritable and to exhibit it as vividly real. The natural features of Palestine—its fountains, its lakes, its rivers, its mountains, its plains, its peculiarities of climate and soil and productions—are mute yet eloquent witnesses for the truth of the Scriptures, and expounders of the Bible as the Book of God. N. C. B.

8. Unto great Zidon.** A well-known city of ancient Phœnicia, situated on the east coast of the Mediterranean, about twenty-five miles north of Tyre, fifty south of Berytus (Beyroot), and sixty-six west of Damascus. Its modern name is Said. The epithet great, here affixed to it, is expressive of number rather than of size, and implies not only its populousness, but the extent and variety of its resources of every kind. Bush.—Sidon is mentioned in Gen. 10 : 19, as marking one of the limits of the Canaanite, and it appears to have acquired importance at a very early period; for we find Joshua here alluding to it as “great Sidon,” and Homer makes special mention of the skill of the Sidonian workmen; the embroidered robes of Andromache, and the bowl given as a prize by Achilles at the games in honor of Patroclus, were of Sidonian workmanship. Wilson.

To live carelessly after the manner of the Sidonians (Ju. 18 : 17), became the proverbial synonym of perfect prosperity. Her merchant ships sailed over every sea. She built strong cities along the shore—Beirût, and Gebal, and Arvad, and Accho, and Dor, and many more. She planted colonies in Cyprus and the Grecian Isles, in Libya and in Spain, while by her side she nourished her fair daughter Tyre until she overgrew and quite eclipsed the mother. Then began her long and sad decline. The streams of her prosperity were dried up or diverted. The proud Pharaohs from the Nile—the stern Assyrian from distant Nineveh—the cruel Chaldean and Persian from Babylon—the rough he-goat from Grecia, and the king of fierce countenance from the Tiber, all helped to lay poor Sidon in the dust. And, long after, those locusts which came out of the bottomless pit, with Apollyon at their head, completed the work during those dismal days when men sought death but could not find it. And yet Sidon still exists, and has always clung to life with a strange tenacity. Her history runs parallel with the march of time, down the ceaseless current of human generations. Not so Tyre. Long ages have rolled away since continental Tyre sunk beneath the “burden” of prophecy, and the very site where she stood was lost. Thompson.

10,11. The destruction of Hazor is particularly recorded, because in it and by the king thereof, this daring design against Israel was laid. The king of Hazor escaped with his life out of the battle, and got back into his own city. There he was slain, and his city, for his sake, burned. Yet we find that the remains of it being not well looked after by Israel, the Canaanites rebuilt it and settled there under another king of the same name (Ju. 4 : 2). H.

13. The cities that stood. It appears that the Israelites forbore to destroy those cities which were seated on an eminence, and of greater strength, reserving them for their own occupation. Wells.

15. The frequent repetition of God’s order is to be carefully noted, as showing that Israel’s action was exceptional and performed solely at God’s command.

16. Joshua captured : (1) the mountain country; (2) the Negeb (south of the mountain country); (3) Goshen (the southern slopes of the mountains); (4) the Shephelah (Philistine country); (5) the Arabah (Jordan and Dead Sea valley); (6) the mountain of Israel (the northern mountains); (7) the northern Shephelah (the upper part of the Shephelah). Compare ch. 12 : 8. Crosby.

All the South or the Negeb. The mountain plateau in the northeast of the desert is full of interest, both to the geographer and to the Biblical student. This plateau is called Jebel el Magrah, and is about seventy miles in length, and from forty to fifty broad, commencing at Jebel ‘Araif, and extending northward by a series of steps or terraces to within a short distance of Beersheba, from which it is separated by Wády or Raknuth from the mountains of the same name. It projects into the Tih (the desert) much in the same way as the Tih projects into Sinai, and, like it also, terminates in steep escarpments toward the south, falling away to a lower level on the south-eastern side. This mountain plateau is the “South” or South Country. Palmer. (See Vol. II., Map, title-page.)

17. From Mount Halak unto Baal-gad. “From Dan to Beersheba” (2 S. 3 : 10 ; 24 : 2) was in David’s day the popular expression for the whole country. Two other landmarks are mentioned here and 12 : 7 by the sacred historian : “from the Mount Halak that goeth up to Seir even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon.” Mount Halak was in the parallel of Beersheba, and Baal-gad is identical with Banias, four miles east of Dan. These were the limits of what we may call “the land in possession.” The “land of promise” was much larger. Porter.—As the result of this third campaign, Israel was master of the whole land from Mount Halak (the smooth mountain), at the ascent to Mount Seir, on the south, to Baal-gad, under Mount Hermon, on the north. But a much longer time was required for the subjugation of the numerous kings, who held each his own fortified city. P. S.—Altogether the war in the south and north must have occupied at least seven years. From Josh. 14 : 10 we learn that forty-five years had elapsed since the spies returned to Kadesh. But as thirty-eight of these were spent in the wanderings in the wilderness, it follows that the wars for the occupation of Canaan must have lasted seven years. A. E.

20. The meaning here is simply that having sinned for a long tract of ages against the light of conscience and providence, God was now pleased to leave them to a judicial hardness of heart, to give them up to vain confidence, pride, stubbornness, and malignity, that they might bring upon themselves his righteous vengeance and be utterly destroyed. This result is said to be “of or from the Lord,” because he did not interpose to prevent it. Bush.

The Old Testament (like the New) always speaks of hardening only in connection with a divine testimony in revelation—in reference to a divine revelation offered to the sinner but rejected by him. This is applicable to Pharaoh, who sees the miracles of Moses, which forced even the Egyptian Magi to feel (Ex. 8 : 19), “this is God’s finger;” “but,” it is continued, “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.” The same thing is applicable to Israel in view of the divine guidance in the wilderness; and according to this also, that which is said of the Canaanitish tribes (Josh. 11 : 20) is to be explained: “For it was of Jehovah to harden their heart to strive with Israel, that He might destroy them, and they might find no grace.” The Canaanitish tribes merited punishment on account of their idolatrous abominations; and now that this judgment was executed upon them in the form of extermination, it was effected by themselves through their hardening themselves to do battle with Israel, for whom God manifestly fought. In such passages the point is not a dark and hidden decree of reprobation, but a divine decree of judgment, well-grounded and perfectly manifest. The course of this hardening is described in Is. 6 : 10; incapability to hear the divine word and to see God’s ways connects itself with dulness of heart, and this again reacts on the heart so that its insusceptibility becomes incurable. O.

21. The mountains of Judah and Israel were the habitations of those mountains of men; but neither their height, nor the strength of their caves, nor the difficulty of the passes to them, could secure these mighty men from the sword of Joshua. The cutting off of the sons of Anak is particularly mentioned because these had been such a terror to the spies forty years before, and their bulk and strength had been thought an insuperable difficulty in the way of the reducing of Canaan. H.—Though these Anakims were now for the most part reduced, yet numbers of them escaped and took refuge in the country of the Philistines, and settled there, from whom Goliath and other giants descended. After a time some of them returned with followers and rebuilt the cities from which they had been expelled; and Caleb and Othniel, to whom that region was assigned, vanquished and destroyed them after the division of the land (ch. 14 : 6-15; 15 : 13-17).

23. So Joshua took the whole land.** Not absolutely the whole, for in ch. 13 : 1 the Lord is represented as saying to Joshua, “There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed,” but all the country described here and in the preceding chapter; the greatest and best part of it. Bush.

12. We have in this chapter a recapitulation of all the victories thus far achieved. As the writer is about to enter upon a particular account of the distribution of the land among the tribes, he here pauses to give a general view of the territory to be divided, including the tracts on both sides the Jordan. This he does by specifying the kings, rather than the countries over which they reigned; for the power of a state is concentrated in the person of its sovereign, and such an enumeration presents the subject more vividly to the mind of the reader. The first six verses contain a list of the kings on the east side of Jordan, conquered by Moses, with their territories, and the remainder of the chapter is occupied with a catalogue of those that were reduced by Joshua. Bush.

The Book of Joshua transports the reader across the Jordan to Jericho, takes him from the camp at Gilgal to the high hills of the Amorite princes and the other Canaanite kings; and, after the victory is won, spreads out before the eye a bright and living picture of the land as it lay divided among the twelve tribes of Israel. From the wilderness of Arabia, from Kadesh-Barnea and Beersheba in the south, to the sources of the Jordan near Dan, and to the heights of Hermon and Lebanon, the Promised Land comes out in the narrative of Joshua in all its unity, and with all its characteristic features in the best possible manner to aid us in our study of its geography. Ritter.

12 : 3. The Galilean Lake is rarely mentioned in the Old Testament, where it is known as “the Sea of Chinnereth (Nu. 34 : 11), and is given as on the eastern border of the western tribes; and again in Josh. 11 : 2 and here, where it is called “Chinnereth,” and ch. 13 : 27, “the edge of the sea of Chinnereth.” It never recurs till we meet it, as the chief scene of our Lord’s ministry. H. B. T.

12:24. All the kings, thirty and one. From the number of these kings, we learn how numerous and yet how small were the petty principalities into which the land of Canaan was divided. The extent of this country from north to south was not more than one hundred and fifty miles, and not more than fifty from east to west. In like manner were nearly all the different nations of the world divided. The consequence was that civil wars and border feuds continually prevailed, making them an easy prey to foreign invaders. Thus history informs us that when Cæsar invaded Britain there were no less than four kings in the single county of Kent. Bush.

The results of the whole conquest, besides the previous victories over Sihon and Og, are summed up in the subjugation of thirty-one kings of cities on the west of the Jordan, belonging to the seven nations, which had been mentioned in the first promise to Abraham, the Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites, and Perizzites. Special notice is taken of the extermination of the giant Anakim, who had struck such terror into the spies, and who were only left in the Philistine cities of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod, though they had before occupied the whole of the central highlands, with Hebron and other cities. The defeat of these thirty-one kings did not involve, in every case, the capture of their cities. Jerusalem, for example, was not taken till after the death of Joshua, and its citadel remained in the hands of the Jebusites till the time of David. Many other cities held out for a long time. But besides such isolated posts there were whole tracts of country—“very much land”—yet to be subdued, within the limits which God had originally named, and which He now once more promised. These were, speaking generally, the plains along the Mediterranean, the coast of Phœnicia, and the ranges of Lebanon. P. S.

The conquest of the land of Canaan under Joshua is distinguished from all others by the four following features, which, at the same time, mark it as subservient to the kingdom of God:—(1) That the conquering nation was the people of God, to whom of old the Lord had appointed this land for an inheritance (De. 32: 8, 9): (2) That the destruction of the inhabitants was a judgment from God, which had long ago been announced (Gen. 15), and was then carried out; (3) That God himself took an extraordinary part in this conquest by his aid and co-operation; (4) That it represents, typically, the way of obtaining the heavenly Canaan. Thus no one need wonder that the Book of Joshua too, with all its histories of war, is found in the Bible; and likewise the distribution of the land, which occupies a great part of the book, has its significance for the history of the kingdom of God. C. G. B.

The period of the Conquest, properly speaking, began from the passage of the brook Zered under Moses: it was not finally closed till the capture of Jerusalem by David. But, in a more limited sense, it may be confined to the period during which the territory, afterward known by the name of Palestine, was definitively occupied as their own by the Israelites. The Israelite conquest of Palestine, although it stands above all other like events from its intrinsic grandeur, yet is in itself but one among a succession of waves which have swept over the country, and each of which may be used as an illustration of those that have gone before and after. The Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabians, Turks, Crusaders, French, English, have followed in their wake; the Philistines, the Canaanites, the aboriginal inhabitants, accompanied or preceded them. A. P. S.

As the Hebrew records are silent with respect to Egypt and Assyria during the entire period from Joshua to Samuel, so the Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions are silent with respect to the Hebrews. If there is not a positive, there is a negative accord between them. From the Hebrews’ account of themselves we gather that during their long period of struggle with the Canaanitish nations, they were unmolested by either Egypt or Assyria. From the accounts given by the Egyptians and Assyrians of the same period, we learn that they led no expeditions into the country occupied by the Hebrews during these centuries. G. R.

The Bible history is in thorough agreement with that which the monuments of Egypt and Assyria have been found to furnish. No serious historical discrepancy has been pointed out between the contents of these monumental records and the facts of Bible history. On the other hand, the testimony, at a hundred points, to the accuracy of Scripture is very remarkable. One of the most interesting of these testimonies is that borne by the Egyptian records to the condition of Palestine as parcelled out among a large number of independent chiefs or kings at a very early time. Another fact which we gather from these records is, that the conquest of Canaan under Joshua must have been a very serious and difficult undertaking. Though the separate chiefs may have been but feeble, they were accustomed to act in concert, and their combinations, such as Joshua encountered, were very formidable. The Khita or Hittite race, which prevailed in Western Syria, was indeed a very formidable one, able on some occasions, as the records show, to give no little trouble to the power of Egypt. W. G. B.

The narrative of Joshua represents to us the nation of the Hittites as being at the time of the conquest of Canaan the principal power in Upper Syria, or the country between Palestine and the Euphrates. This fact is abundantly confirmed by the Egyptian remains, which show us the Hittites (Sheta) as the chief opponent of Egypt, in the valley of the Orontes, during a period which must certainly include within it the judgeship of Joshua. And as the Hittites appear in Joshua to be the dominant race to the north of Galilee, so does the whole narrative from Exodus to Samuel represent the Philistines as the dominant people of the tract between Judea and Egypt. Here, once more, the Egyptian records agree, since they assign to the Philistines the same sort of lead among the enemies of Egypt in the south which belongs to the Hittites in the regions of the north. G. R.

THE LAND OF CANAAN: TOPOGRAPHY AND CHARACTERISTICS. ADAPTATION TO ITS PURPOSE AND WITNESS TO ITS DESIGN. ITS ANCIENT PEOPLES. ITS TYPICAL ASPECT.

Name. The Hebrew word which in our English version of the Bible is translated “Palestine” in Joel 3 : 4, and “Palestina” in Ex. 15 : 14, and Is. 14 : 29, 31, is only found elsewhere in the Psalms, and is there rendered by “Philistia.” In the Bible the name is used for the country of the Philistines alone, but it afterward came to signify the whole land occupied by the Jews, and in this sense we find it employed by Josephus, Philo, and some of the writers in the Talmud. The country is alluded to in the Bible under several other names; it is the “land of Canaan” of the patriarchs and Joshua; “the land” of Ruth, Jeremiah, and St. Luke; the “holy land” of Zechariah; the “glorious land” of Daniel and Amos; the “land of Jehovah” of Hosea, the “land of promise” of the Epistle to the Hebrews; the “land of Israel” of the Monarchy; and the “land of Judea” of the New Testament. It is now most commonly known under its name of Palestine, or the Holy Land.

Position. No one can help being struck by the peculiar position of Palestine in regard to the powerful nations immediately surrounding it, as well as by its remarkable geographical position, almost in the centre of the ancient world; and it is hardly too much to say that in no other country could that striking combination of moral and physical conditions have been found which rendered Palestine the most fitting theatre for those momentous events which have had such a great and lasting influence on the history of the world.

Separated from the great nations of the East by the arid plains which lie beyond the Jordan, and from Egypt by the southern desert, Palestine was from the very first a country set apart from the rest of the world, and this isolation was increased by the religion of the Jews, which forbade their forming any alliance with the surrounding nations. No great highway led through the country; the hosts of Egypt on their way to Assyria, those of Assyria, of Babylon, and of Persia on their way to Egypt, swept by it along the low maritime plain which fringed the coast; their object was the conquest of the rival empire, and the hill country of Palestine hardly possessed sufficient attractions to induce them to turn aside from the most direct road to the end they had in view. Napoleon, when he was asked, during his Syrian campaign, to visit Jerusalem, replied that it did not lie in the line of his operations, and it was probably to a similar feeling on the part of the leaders of the hostile armies that the Jewish nation for so many years owed its independence; it was only after the lapse of centuries that the country became involved in disaster by neglecting the Divine commands and forming alliances with one or other of the contending powers. Later, Alexander passed over the country on his way to Oriental conquest, and when, on his death, the empire which he had formed fell to pieces, it became the battle-field of the Seleucidæ and the Ptolemies; later still, under Roman dominion, Palestine became one of the thoroughfares between the East and the West, and it was during these troubled times that a stream of Western civilization flowed into the country, exercising a powerful influence on the arts, the mode of thought, and the history of the Jews during the last three centuries of their existence as a nation. Isolated as Palestine was from all other countries, its geographical position with reference to the three great continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as to the Mediterranean and Red Seas, was such that, when the fulness of time came, the knowledge of the Gospel could be spread to the remotest corners of the earth, and it is not unworthy of notice that the principal means by which the glad tidings were conveyed was that sea which had once seemed an almost impassable barrier.

The physical character of Palestine is no less remarkable than its geographical position; there is no other country which, within the same narrow limits, contains so many striking contrasts, or exhibits features at once so varied and comprehensive that, as has been justly observed, there is no land or nation in the world which does not find something of itself reflected there. In the north are the lofty peaks of Lebanon and Mount Hermon, rarely free from snow, with their cedars, their alpine flora, and their wild thunder-storms, to which allusion would seem to be made in the 29th Psalm; in the south is the deep depression of the Dead Sea, with its tropical climate, and a flora and fauna similar in many respects to those of the lake regions of Equatorial Africa. On the west the rich corn-growing plains of Philistia are in close proximity to the sandy, unprofitable desert of the south; in the centre the terraced hills, with their Italian climate so suitable for the cultivation of the vine, olive, and fig, pass almost imperceptibly into the barren wilderness of Judea; and on the east the downs of Moab and Gilead, with their abundant pasturage, are bordered by the dry and thirsty land of the great eastern desert. Lastly, there is the “great sea” which is so frequently alluded to in the Psalms, in familiar passages which come home with especial force to the hearts and minds of the people of a great maritime nation such as England. From the Phœnician traders who did their “business in great waters,” the Psalmist would hear of “the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep,” and how, after one of the wild westerly gales which visit the coast of Palestine, the ships in which they sailed would “mount up to heaven” and “go down again to the depths,” reeling “to and fro” and staggering “like a drunken man.”

Ezien’. Every writer has noticed the narrow limits of the Holy Land. From Dan to Beersheba is no more than 140 miles, and from the Mediterranean to Jordan the average breadth is only 40 miles, containing less than 6000 square miles.

Physical Features. Perhaps the most striking feature in the general aspect of Palestine is its natural division into four parallel strips of territory—the coast plain, the hill country, the Jordan valley, and the eastern plateau.

The Coast Plain extends without a break from the desert south of Gaza to the long ridge of Mount Carmel on the north; beyond Carmel lies the plain of Acre, stretching northward to the headland of Ras el-Nakura (Ladder of Tyre), which separates it from the long narrow plain of Phœnicia. The two latter sections of the coast plain are not mentioned in the Bible; the first contains within its limits the plain of Sharon reaching from Carmel to Jaffa, and the plains of Philistia extending southward to the margin of the desert. The greater portion of the plain is flat, but north of Jaffa there are some low hills, through which at a remote period tunnels were cut to drain the marsh land lying behind them; the soil is rich and of marvellous fertility, producing year after year magnificent crops, though the ground is tilled in the rudest manner, without manure and without irrigation. The broad expanse of the Philistine plain, covered as it is at harvest time with a waving mass of golden grain, unbroken by a single hedge, is one of the most beautiful sights in Palestine. Under the burning sun of Syria the stubble becomes so dry that a single spark might kindle a flame that would run before the wind like the fires which sweep over the American prairies, and strict precautions are taken by the Bedawi to prevent the occurrence of such a calamity. We cannot, therefore, wonder that the Philistines were stirred to fierce wrath when Samson turned his three hundred foxes with their firebrands “into the standing corn,” “in the time of wheat harvest;” fanned by the steady land breeze, which at that season of the year blows every morning for three or four hours, the flames would spread with fiery speed, licking up corn, olives, and vines, until they were checked by the sea; and in those days, when the intercourse between country and country was so slight, the loss of their harvest must have been felt almost as a national calamity by the Philistines. Wilson.

The plain of Philistia is thirty-two miles long, from Ekron to Gaza, with a breadth of from nine to sixteen miles, and a height above the sea of from 50 to 300 feet. In the hill country (behind the plain of Philistia), the spurs, not more than one mile or so apart, are often separated by narrow ravines 1500 to 2000 feet deep, at the bottom of which, in the rainy season, rapid torrents roll. Warren.

The Hill country commences about fifty miles south of Jerusalem, and runs northward through the land to the plain of Esdraelon, beyond which it rises again and is connected with the Lebanon by the hills of Galilee. This highland district varies but slightly in altitude, and its general appearance as seen from the sea is that of a long wall without any prominent peak to break the monotony of its outline. Its average height may be gathered from the following altitudes:—Hebron, 2840 feet; Mount of Olives, 2665 feet; Neby Samwil, 2900 feet; Mount Ebal, 3029 feet; Neby Ismail, 1790 feet; and Jebel Jermuk, 4000 feet. The hills are broad-backed, and present none of the grander features of mountain scenery, but every here and there rounded summits rise above the general level of the range, and afford striking panoramas of the surrounding country; such are the views from Neby Samwil, Mount Ebal, Little Hermon, Neby Ismail, near Nazareth, and the hill on which Safed stands, each embracing no inconsiderable portion of the Holy Land. The effect of the views is increased by the transparency of the atmosphere, which diminishes apparent distances in a manner unknown in moister climes, and by the rich and varying tints that light up the steep slopes of the Jordan valley. Through the centre of the hill country runs the main road from Jerusalem, through Samaria, to Galilee, following nearly the line of the watershed, and passing close to many of the chief cities of Judah and Israel; it is the route now usually followed by travellers, and was probably always one of the most important thoroughfares in the country. East of this road the hills descend abruptly to the Jordan valley; west of it, they fall more gradually to the coast plain. The wonderful ramifications of the valleys which cut up the hill country on either side of the watershed form one of the peculiar features of Palestine topography; rising frequently in small upland plains of great richness, such as El Mukhna, near Nablus; the valleys at first fall very rapidly, and then, after a tortuous course, reach the plain on the one side and the Jordan valley on the other. The effect of this is to split up the country into a series of knife-like ridges, generally preserving an east and west direction, and effectually preventing any movement over the country from south to north, except along the central highway; the valley of the Kishon, which spreads out into the broad plain of Esdraelon, and the valley of Jezreel, are the only two which are more than mere torrent-beds. The soil of the hill country, except in the wilderness of Judea, southeast of Jerusalem, and some portions of the eastern slopes of the hills, is extremely rich, and where cultivated very productive. Everywhere traces are found of that “terrace-culture” for which the hill-sides were so peculiarly adapted, and which the Jews brought to such great perfection. Professor Palmer found the walls of old vineyards far south of Beersheba, on the very verge of the desert, and there is hardly a hill in Palestine on which ruined walls and the cisterns in which the scanty rainfall was husbanded are not found. It would appear from several indications in the Psalms that the land was highly cultivated when the Israelites came into possession. There is evidence, too, of the existence of large forests in certain districts, especially in Galilee.

The Jordan Valley runs nearly parallel to the coast from the base of Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea, and contains the one great river of the country, the Jordan, a purely inland river, like no other on the face of the earth, “having no embouchure on the sea, and closing its course in the very deepest part of the Old World.” After the junction of the three streams which rise respectively at Hasbeiya, Tell el-Kady, and Banias, the Jordan spreads out into the Lake el-Hulch, and descends rapidly to the Sea of Galilee, whence it follows a tortuous course wholly below the level of the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. On either side of the river is a strip of plain of varying width, with a rich soil, formerly irrigated by the numerous springs and by the streams that descend from the hills, which rise abruptly on the east and west.

The Eastern Plateau has a general altitude of 2000 feet, and is tolerably uniform in its character. Wilson.—Though the trans-Jordanic range is quite as high as the hills of Western Palestine, it is not so broken up. Only four streams of any size furrow it: the Yarmuk, the Jabbok, the Callirhoe, and the Arnon. There is a beauty in Gilead, a richness in Moab, and a grandeur in Bashan, which makes it hard to believe that only the narrow cleft of the Jordan valley separates them from the gray hills and naked rocks of Western Palestine. Tristram.

Palestine proper may be very briefly described as a mountainous central district, running north and south, flanked on each side by a broad plain. The plain on the west, or that of the sea-coast, has an average width of twelve or fourteen miles. Its southern portion, from Gaza northward nearly to Jaffa, was the ancient Philistia, which included five great cities. Its middle portion, from Jaffa northward to Mount Carmel, which juts into the sea, was the plain of Sharon. North of Carmel on the coast is the plain of Acre, and north of that the narrow strip of ancient Phœnicia.

The plain on the east flank of Palestine is the valley of the Jordan, lying between the Dead Sea on the south and the Sea of Galilee on the north. This is narrower than the plain of the coast, reaching a breadth of only eight or ten miles in its widest part, at Jericho.

Between these two plains—of the west and the east—of the Mediterranean and the Jordan—lay the principal bulk of Palestine—a mountain district—extending from below Hebron on the south to the plain of Esdraelon on the north, eighty miles long by thirty wide. This was the country held most securely by the Israelites after their conquest of the land. Here dwelt the great historic and rival tribes—Judah on the south and Ephraim on the north—with little Benjamin compressed between them. Here were the cities of greatest fame—here the chief capitals of government, and the chief sanctuaries of religion. This district—especially its southern half, the Judea of the New Testament—is indescribably rough and rocky. It is corrugated with ridges, or embossed with hill tops. The northern half—the Samaria of the New Testament—shows more continuous mountain chains and broader valleys. The general height of this district varies from twenty-eight hundred feet—that of Hebron, to seventeen hundred—that of Shechem. Perhaps the average is nearly twenty-two hundred—that of Jerusalem.

To complete this outline view, we should mark the broad Plain of Esdraelon, sweeping across the country east and west, along the northern end of the central region just described; and then the hill country of Galilee rising steeply out of this plain, and extending northward up the high slopes of Lebanon and Hermon. N. C. B.

The southern slope of the highlands of Galilee and the northern elevation of Mount Ephraim are intersected by three plains, which are connected among themselves, and run across the highlands west of Jordan, from the sea-shore to the banks of the Jordan. These are—the plain of Acco by the sea, the plain of Jezreel, and that of Bethshean, which stretches toward Jordan. The plain of Jezreel, or of Esdraelon (Josh. 17: 16), is exceedingly fruitful. It is the most extensive valley of Palestine. Its connection with the two others makes it the most open plain in the country. Hence it always formed the central point of military evolutions. According to the barometrical measurements of Schubert, it rises 439 feet above the level of the sea. A narrow rocky valley to the northeast, which runs between the base of Carmel and the projecting ledges of the mountains of Zebulun, connects it with the plain of Acco. The Kishon, which rises at the foot of Tabor, flows through the whole extent of these two plains into the sea. At the northeastern termination of the plain of Jezreel rise Mount Tabor in majestic beauty, and south of it, running from east to west for about two German miles, the chain of hills called Little Hermon; still farther south, and stretching to the northwest, Mount Gilboa. A rocky elevation forms the watershed, and connects the western terminations of these two mountains, embracing at the same time the plain of Bethshean, which extends to the banks of Jordan.

From the plain of Acco, the northeastern side of Mount Carmel (Jebel Mār Elyās) rises abruptly to a height of 1500 feet, forming a fruitful field, the hills of which are watered by many rills, and covered successively by meadows, with their rich bloom, by pleasant valleys, by fruitful vineyards, olive groves, and corn-fields. It runs for three German miles (from southeast to northwest) to the Mediterranean. There it terminates in a promontory—bearing the same name (1200 feet high)—in which nature has formed thousands of caverns, which have served for the dwelling, first of Troglodites, and then of monks. The southwestern side of the mountain slopes into the plain of Sharon. As Carmel to the northwest, so Mount Gilboa to the northeast, forms a kind of advanced post of MOUNT EPHRAIM. The latter rises abruptly from the plain of Jezreel, and attains its highest elevation in the neighborhood of Shechem. Kurtz.

As we rode slowly onward we were able to take in, almost at a glance, the whole of the magnificent plain of Esdraelon. From the shores of the Mediterranean, where it is guarded on one side by the noble promontory of Carmel, and on the other by the less lofty headland of Akka, it extends over a space of more than twenty miles to the banks of the Jordan, being separated into minor valleys by mountains as it approaches toward the river. Its average width is between ten and twelve miles, the richly-wooded range of Carmel, and the less bold mountains of Samaria, bounding it on the south, while on the north it is hemmed in by the green hills of Galilee. It possesses an extraordinary natural fertility, and is so level that every inch of it is as capable of culture as the plains of Lombardy. Men competent to judge have declared that, if this single plain were brought under the hand of skilled agriculture, it would yield grain enough to support the entire population within the limits of the Holy Land. A. Thomson.

Noteworthy Points of Detail.

With the exception of some volcanic rocks near the Lake of Galilee, limestone is the sole formation in the country. Blocks of rock, ravines, and caves are found everywhere, being the characteristic features of a limestone district. The whole history of the country accords with this fact. W. G. B.—Perhaps no one aspect of Palestine, along its central line of hills, strikes the stranger more with surprise than the amount and roughness of its rock surface. At the first glance the thought of the superficial observer is that of disappointment. He sees it almost treeless, rocky and rough and neglected, and thinks that it is, after all, a much overrated and overpraised country. But when he looks more closely, he perceives that all this rock, being limestone, and not sandstone nor granite, when it pulverizes, carries with it, not barrenness but fertility. He observes how the noble olive grows in successive tiers up the sides of seemingly hopeless hills, what sunny exposures are everywhere offered to the vine, and how green are the wheat-fields even when wedged in among the cliffs—and how all these hills appear once to have been diligently and laboriously laid out in terraces almost to their tops—and he changes his mind. He travels through a multitude of fertile valleys, and crosses plains like that of Esdraelon, as rich of soil as a western prairie, almost abandoned now. He passes from the deep tropical valley of the Jordan by the Dead Sea to the high mountains of Galilee, and the still higher range of Lebanon, and sees how this little country, not larger than Wales, is fitted to produce almost every species of fruit or grain of whatever climate upon the globe. And as he watches the brooks and springs of water, and the singular variety of surface, orchards, glens, bold mountains, fertile flowery plains, picturesque sites such as those of Jerusalem, Hebron, Samaria, and a multitude of other places, he cannot but perceive how, in its palmy days, when the heights were crowned with foliage, the hill-sides with cattle, and the fields with grain, Palestine must have been indeed a goodly land, presenting to its children home attractions and inextinguishable recollections beyond even those of Scotland, Switzerland, or New England. Bartlett.

Beneath the apparent monotony, there is a variety in the Holy Land really remarkable. There is the variety due to the difference of level between the different parts of the country. There is the variety of climate and of natural appearances, partly from the proximity of the snow-capped Hermon and Lebanon on the north and of the torrid desert on the south. There is also the variety inevitably produced by the presence of the sea—“the eternal freshness and liveliness of ocean.” Each of these is continually reflected in the Hebrew literature. The contrast between the highlands and lowlands appears in “going up” to Judah, Jerusalem, Hebron; “going down” to Jericho, Capernaum, Lydda, Cesarea, Gaza, and Egypt. The differences in climate are no less often mentioned. The Psalmists, Prophets, and historical Books, are full of allusions to the fierce heat of the mid-day sun and the dryness of summer; no less than to the various accompaniments of winter—the rain, snow, frost, ice, and fogs of Jerusalem and the upper country. Even the sharp alternations between the heat of the days and the coldness of the nights, which strike every traveller in Palestine, are mentioned. Dic. B.

The purpose which the Israelites were designed to subserve required that they should be kept in a state of isolation until they attained a power which should operate as a leavening principle on the mass of mankind. The boundaries and natural defences of Palestine are in this respect particularly noticeable. These cut it off in a manner from all the earth, and rendered it a grand and unassailable fortress in the midst of the surrounding nations. Between the Israelitish community and the great empires of the East two obstacles were interposed: the desert, which protected the outposts of the little Hebrew state, while a second line of defence was provided in the vast Jordanie fissure. On the south, as a barrier between them and Egypt, stretched the “great and terrible wilderness.” The west was only accessible by sea, and at the time of the Israelites’ first settlement in Palestine, the Mediterranean or great sea was not yet the thoroughfare; it was rather the limit of the eastern nations, and on the north rose the mighty ranges of Lebanon. Further, the limited area of the land, taken in connection with its great fertility and its central situation, greatly contributed to the object for which it had been selected. D. M.

In itself and in its relation to other countries, the country which the Lord had chosen as a nursery for his kingdom was, from its soil and position, better adapted for this purpose than any other on the face of the globe. The covenant-people was in the organism of mankind to be the heart of the nations. The land of Israel must have been suitable for the purposes which that nation was to serve. If Israel was to unite in itself the two requisites of greatest seclusion from all other nations and yet of occupying the most central position among them, the country in which these purposes were to be realized must have corresponded to them. And in point of fact Palestine united in itself, in an unparalleled and wonderful manner, the apparently opposed characteristics of being secluded from, and yet central to, all other countries. In truth, whether viewed geographically, politically, or commercially, Palestine is the “umbilicus terrarum” of the ancient world. Lying right in the middle of the three then known parts of the world, it may in some respects be regarded as belonging to all the three. From this central position Palestine became also the central point of all political movements and of the commerce of the world. All the routes, both by water and by land, which connected the three parts of the ancient world, passed through Palestine. On the other hand, it will readily be perceived that the Holy Land was also almost as secluded as an island. South and east inhospitable deserts, to the west the sea, shut it off from other lands, while Lebanon on the north bounds it by an almost insurmountable wall, stretching from the sea to the eastern desert. This characteristic of seclusion appears even more distinctly and prominently when we bear in mind that (as is abundantly evident) the highlands west of Jordan were the central portion of the country, assigned to the covenant-people, where it was intended that all the principal events in its history should, and where they actually did, take place. The district in question rises like a mighty, lofty, and impregnable rocky fortress, from the wilderness of the south, from the sea-shore in the west, and from the deep valley in the east. These high mountains, with their steep rocky sides, their chasars, caverns, and defiles; these high plains, with their numberless hills, and deep valleys, could not but impede equally the destructive progress of conquering armies and the corrupting influence of foreign spiritual elements. On the other hand—despite the numerous population which inhabited these valleys, and the continual intercourse and interchange all around—the peculiarities of the country would also offer special advantages for the quiet, undisturbed, organic development of all the powers and faculties inherent in, or bestowed upon, the peculiar and independent culture of its inhabitants, both in its social, moral, and religious aspects. Like the people, the land of Israel may be compared to a vineyard well fenced in, watched over, and planted (Is. 5 : 1), where everything had been done that could be done. Kurtz.

The separation from other peoples commanded in the law (see specially Lev. 20 : 24, 26) was made easier by the secluded position of the land, which was enclosed on the south and west by great wildernesses, on the north by the high mountains of Lebanon, and which even on the west was unfavorably situated for maritime intercourse, since the coast has few landing-places or inlets. On the other hand, by the situation of the land in the midst of the cultivated nations which figure in ancient history (comp. Ezek. 5 : 5 ; 38 : 12), as well as by means of the great highways of the old world which led past its borders, the future theocratic calling of the people was made possible. O.—This union of the greatest contrasts in respect to local position, viz., the utmost isolation and retirement, combined with everything to favor wide connections on all sides with the chief civilized regions of the old world by commercial intercourse and language, by sea as well as by land, with the Arabians, Indians, Egyptians, Syrians, Armenians, and with the Greek and Roman world of culture, in their common centre, local and historical, is a characteristic peculiarity of this promised land which was destined from the beginning to be the home of the chosen people. Ritter.—A first consequence of the position of Israel in the midst of the nations was, that it courted the powers of the world and was chastised by all, so that all became instruments of judgment on Israel. But on the other side, it was this central position which made this land fit for the starting-point of the religion of the world. O.

The land of Canaan occupied a place in the ancient world that entirely corresponded with the calling of such a people. In its immediate vicinity lay both the most densely peopled countries and the greater and more influential states of antiquity,—on the south, Egypt, and on the north and east, Assyria and Babylon, the Medes and the Persians. Still closer were the maritime states of Tyre and Sidon, whose vessels frequented every harbor then known to navigation, and whose colonies were planted in each of the three continents of the old world. And the great routes of inland commerce between the civilized nations of Asia and Africa lay either through a portion of the territory itself, or within a short distance of its borders. Yet, bounded as it was on the west by the Mediterranean, on the south by the desert, on the east by the valley of the Jordan with its two seas of Tiberias and Sodom, and on the north by the towering heights of Lebanon, the people who inhabited it might justly be said to dwell alone, while they had on every side points of contact with the most influential and distant nations. Then the land itself, in its rich soil and plentiful resources, its varieties of hill and dale, of river and mountain, its connection with the sea on one side and with the desert on another, rendered it a kind of epitome of the natural world, and fitted it peculiarly for being the home of those who were to be a pattern people to the nations of the earth. Altogether, it were impossible to conceive a region more wisely selected and in itself more thoroughly adapted for the purposes on account of which the family of Abraham were to be set apart. If they were faithful to their covenant engagements, they might there have exhibited, as on an elevated platform, before the world the bright exemplar of a people possessing the characteristics and enjoying the advantages of a seed of blessing. And the finest opportunities were at the same time placed within their reach of proving in the highest sense benefactors to mankind, and extending far and wide the interest of truth and righteousness. Possessing the elements of the world’s blessing, they were placed where these elements might tell most readily and powerfully on the world’s inhabitants; and the present possession of such a region was at once an earnest of the whole inheritance, and, as the world then stood, an effectual step toward its realization. Fairbairn.

Palestine was from the beginning an isolated country, and was intended so to be just as Israel was ordained to be a peculiar people; and thus it happened that, for thousands of years, both remained unintelligible as well as inaccessible to other lands and nations. The position which Palestine held with reference to the world at large became apparent, in its historical individuality, at an early period. Though surrounded on all sides by the capitals of the most flourishing and civilized nations, yet the country with its temple-city was little affected by the active operations of its neighbors; deserts and seas rendering it of difficult access in those times, and the rocks, ravines, and hills that guarded its frontiers, proving a competent barrier against such small temptations as a district but moderately adorned by nature, and poor withal, could hold out to foreigners. Thus, by perseveringly cultivating its poor soil, which, however, amply remunerated the labor bestowed on it, and by always falling back on its own patriarchal centre, there being no navigable rivers leading to the sea, nor other channels encouraging external commerce, the people of Israel were enabled to complete their internal development independently, and thus to arrive at a high degree of compactness. This it was competent to perform through what nature had portioned out to it—an insulated position on the globe; this it was destined to perform, by reason of its having kept itself undefiled by the heathen rites and idolatry of its immediate neighbors (of those tribes that were severally less powerful than the people of Israel, and that had not yet been incorporated with the great monarchies), from the time of Abraham, during fifteen hundred years at the least, until Palestine had gone through the part it had to act as the home of one people, until it had fulfilled its prescribed mission exactly on that spot of our planet that was now to take its rank as the spiritual home of all the nations on earth. Ritter.

In the conformation of the Jewish hills, the secret of the immense vitality of the Jewish nationality is probably to be found. Had the capital of Judea been placed at Cæsarea, on the high road from Greece to Egypt—had it even been permanently fixed at Shechem, accessible through the open valley of Samaria, it cannot be doubted that Greek or Egyptian influence would have affected far more the manners and religion of the Jews. Remote and inaccessible in its rugged mountains, Jerusalem was removed from the highway by which the hosts of the Pharaohs advanced on Assyria. It was only accessible by one of three difficult passes, unless the whole country of Samaria were in the hands of the enemy. Hence, in the mountains of Judea, the national faith had a secure home. The Philistines overran the plains, and even came up into the Shephelah; Egyptian and Assyrian monarchs conquered Samaria and Galilee; but a small band of undisciplined peasants was able, under the Maccabees, to hold at bay the armies of the Seleucidæ, and it required the fullest efforts of Roman energy and discipline to compass the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus or under Hadrian. The history again repeats itself in Crusading times. The Judean hills resisted long after all other parts of the country had been lost, and Saladin held Jerusalem undisturbed while Richard overran the plains. Conder.

Witness of the Land to the Sacred History.

The geographical details of the Book of Joshua admit of being brought to the test of comparison with the ascertained condition of the country; and the result is that their accuracy has been fully established in the minutest particulars. The entire political and religious life of the Hebrews was interwoven in the closest manner with the geography of the land; and hence the opportunity to verify the alleged or implied connection between places and events is the more perfect, and affords results the more satisfactory. By this new species of testimony, the authenticity of Old Testament historical books finds an additional vindication; and their fidelity in all matters within the sphere of geography places a new argument in the hands of the defenders of Revelation. Ritter.

The reality of the Hebrew history and of God’s supernatural revelation stand or fall together. Anything that throws light on the reality of the history throws light at the same time on the reality of the supernatural manifestation. If the great historical results were as they are stated to have been, there must have been a supernatural element in the history, for otherwise the results are unaccountable and impossible. And as one but not the only means of establishing the reality of the facts, we may appeal to the witness of the land. Particularly, in the history of the campaigns of Joshua, when the country was subdued and divided, we may trace a remarkable coincidence between the facts as they are recorded and the actual physical condition of the country—a coincidence the more remarkable that it must have been unknown to the writers of the history, the science of physical geography by which it is brought to light being quite modern. In many other facts of the history, occurring at subsequent times, both in the Old Testament and the New, a similar coincidence may be found between the history and the land. And finally, in the present condition of the land, we find its testimony to the truth of the prophetic record, which not only foretold that the Israelites would be driven from it, but also that it would be kept in a condition of semi-desolation, as if waiting for their return. W. G. B.

The narrow strip of country which extends from the mountain-peaks of Lebanon to the Egyptian desert, with the sea on the one side and the Jordan on the other, has been known under the various names of Canaan, of Palestine, and of the Holy Land. It is a land of hill and plain; but the hills, bare and rocky for the most part, much exceed the plains on which they look. The farther north we go, the more mountainous does the country become, rising finally into the lofty mass of Hermon, and the ranges of Lebanon and Antilibanus. Fertile plains and valleys are cut off from one another by intervening ridges, while wild cliffs and almost trackless ravines offer shelter to brigands or fugitives.

The very nature of the country, therefore, fitted it to be the home of many different and independent tribes. When the Israelites, under Joshua, first entered the Promised Land, they found it in the possession of a variety of races, in various stages of culture and civilization, and often engaged in war with each other. In the plains were the cities of the dissolute and effeminate Canaanites, on the sea-coast lived wealthy communities of merchants and sailors, while the mountain fastnesses were held by warlike clans whose ruined strongholds were the Ai’s, or “stone heaps” of later times. The population was broadly distinguished into Canaanites, the inhabitants of the Canaan, or “lowlands,” and Amorites, or “Highlanders.” Canaan was originally the name of the coast on which the great trading cities of the Phoenicians stood; but long before the time of the Israelitish invasion the name had been extended to denote the dwellers in the plain wherever they might be. Indeed, passages like Ju. 1 : 9 show that it had been extended even farther, and had come to signify tribes which were properly Amorites. Hence it is that the language, spoken alike by the Hebrews and the older inhabitants of the country, is called “the language of Canaan” (Is. 20 : 18). The same wide extension that had been given to the name of Canaanite was given also to that of Amorite. But the Amorites, of whom we chiefly hear in the Bible, lived in the south, at Hebron and Jerusalem (Josh. 10 : 5, 6); at Shechem (2 S. 21 : 2), and even in Bashan on the eastern side of the Jordan (De. 3 : 8). It is probable that the Amorites of the Egyptian monuments were those to whom the name was first applied, and that it accompanied the twin-name of Canaanite when the latter was carried beyond the boundaries of its original territory.

Side by side with the names of Canaanite and Amorite were two other names, which similarly had a descriptive rather than a national signification. These were Perizzite, or “peasant,” and Hivite, or “villager.” The Perizzite was the agriculturist, or fellah, as opposed to the citizen of the town, and was accordingly found both in Ephraim and in Judah (Josh. 11 : 3 ; 17 : 15 ; Ju. 1 : 4, 5), like the Hivite, who is placed in the north (Josh. 11 : 3 ; Ju. 3 : 3 ; 2 S. 24 : 7), as well as in Gibcon (Josh. 9 : 7 ; 11 : 19), and at Shechem (Gen. 34 : 2). Horite was another descriptive term of the same kind; it denoted the troglodytes, the inhabitants of the caves, with which the cliffs of Mount Seir were pierced, Equally descriptive, though in a different way, was the name of the Rephaim, or “giants.” They represented the earlier inhabitants of the land whom the Canaanites of the Old Testament found already occupying it, before their own arrival. To what race they belonged, or what languages they spoke, we have no means of determining. The names of a few only of their tribes have been preserved to us. In the neighborhood of the Dead Sea they were known as Zazim (Gen. 14 : 5); perhaps the same name as Zamzummim (De. 2 : 20). In Moab the Emim preceded the Moabites (De. 2 : 11); while in the hill country of Judah the Anakim, with whom the Egyptian monuments are also acquainted, survived to the period of the Israelitish invasion, and, farther south, the country, in which the five cities of the Philistines stood, had been wrested from the Acim (De. 2 : 23).

The Egyptian monuments have thrown much light upon the origin of the Philistine colonists. They came, as we learn from the Bible, from Caphtor (Amos 9 : 7; Jer. 47 : 4; De. 2 : 23; the clause in Gen. 10 : 14 is misplaced). Now Caphtor is the Egyptian Keft-ur or “greater Phœnieia,” a name given to the coast-land of the Delta in consequence of the number of Phœnicians settled there at an early date. Some of these were planted on the southern frontier of Palestine by the Egyptian kings after their conquest of Canaan, in order to garrison the newly acquired territory, and became the Philistines of later history. Their five cities were originally the garrison towns of the Egyptian Pharaohs.

Their neighbors, in the age of the patriarchs, were Hittites, who, in Gen. 23, appear in possession of Hebron. They seem to have taken it from the Anakim, who, however, must subsequently have recovered the city which had been founded by their forefather, Arba (Josh. 15 : 13). But the south of Canaan was not the proper home of the sons of Heth, and their presence there can only be explained by supposing that Hittite clans had formed part of the great Hyksos army which invaded and held Egypt in bondage for five hundred years, and that some of them had remained behind in what was afterward the territory of Judah. According to the Egyptian historian Manetho, Jerusalem was founded by Hyksos fugitives, and Zoan or Tanis, the Hyksos capital, was built seven years after Hebron (Nu. 13 : 22). Manetho’s statement is confirmed by Ezekiel, who says that the father of Jerusalem was an Amorite, and the mother a Hittite (Ezek. 16 : 3). The Hittites were a literary people, as we learn both from the Egyptian inscriptions and from their own recently discovered monuments; and it is therefore worth noticing that the earlier name of Debir, near Hebron, was Kirjath-sepher, or “Booktown” (Ju. 1 : 11). Debir itself signifies “the shrine,” and points to the existence of some famous temple there.

The Phœnicians traced their origin to the “Assyrian Lake,” or Persian Gulf. It was here that the Semites learned the elements of culture from their more civilized neighbors, the primitive inhabitants of Chaldea, and from hence band after band of emigrants started for the regions of the west. The first to arrive on the shores of the Mediterranean were the builders of Tyre and Sidon, of Gebal and Arvad, whom later history knew under the name of Phœnicians. Sidon, “the fishers’ town,” was the first of their settlements. Here they built their boats, and ventured into the waters of the sea in search of the murex, or purple-fish. The “fishers’ town” grew in time into a city of merchant princes, whose trade was rivalled by that of Tyre, “the Rock,” founded a little to the south on a rocky island two miles distant from the shore. The most prosperous and advanced of all the populations whom the Israelites found in Palestine were the Phœnicians on the coast. Their cities—Tyre, Sidon, Zarephath or Sarepta, Berytos, now Beyrüt, Gebal or Byblos, Arvad, and Zemar (Gen. 10 : 18), or Simyra—were governed sometimes by kings, sometimes by “judges.” They had established colonies in Cyprus, and their merchantmen, the “ships of Tarshish,” as they are called in the Old Testament, made long voyages in the Mediterranean as far as Tarshish or Tartessus, and Cadiz in Spain, or started from Ezion-geber, in the Gulf of Akabah, for the southern coast of Arabia and Ophir, at the mouths of the Indus. But the tract of country they inhabited in Canaan was a mere strip, shut in by the lofty peaks of Lebanon, and the territories of the Girgashites. They were therefore obliged to get rid of their surplus population by emigration; and first the islands and shores of Greece, then Utica, Carthage, and other places in Northern Africa, were planted with colonists. But, whether at home or abroad, the Phœnicians, the original Canaanites, were industrious traders and artisans; art and literature flourished among them at an early date, and the alphabet we still use is ultimately derived from that which they first borrowed from the Egyptians and then improved. Their religion was a sensuous nature-worship, at once cruel and licentious. The Sun-god under various forms was the chief object of their cult. His general title was Baal, “Lord,” and each city and state had its own special Baal. Altars to the Sun-god were raised on the summits of the mountains, where the worshipper seemed to approach nearest to the sky, and in each of these “high places” the deity was adored under a new name derived from the locality in which his altar stood. But the Phœnicians formed but a small portion of the advancing wave of Semitic immigration. Other Semitic tribes, claiming the same ancestry, worshipping the same gods, speaking the same language, and therefore included in the Old Testament under the common name of Canaanites, overran the country to the east and south, and succeeded in establishing themselves on the plains and coasts, if not in the more mountainous parts. Sometimes they exterminated the older population, sometimes they intermarried with it. They devoted themselves to trade and agriculture, and the arts of life sprang up among them. But in the train of culture came vices and idolatries which brought upon them the curse of God. The instrument of their punishment was made the Hebrew tribes, who had been the last of the Semitic family to leave their old home on the banks of the Euphrates, and who, after a sojourn in Egypt, were led by Joshua to take possession of “the Promised Land.” Stronghold after stronghold of the Canaanites fell before the invaders, who attempted to extirpate, so far as they could, both the aboriginal inhabitants of Palestine and the subsequent Semitic settlers. The extirpation, however, was far from complete; and to this day the peasantry of the Holy Land are in physical type and character the descendants of those whom Joshua was commissioned to destroy. Sayce.

The Canaanites in Abraham’s time seem to have been rather a collection of village communities, who recognized the supremacy of the Hittite invaders. The country was not lawless. It was the highway of the great commercial route or caravan road between the empires of Chaldea and Egypt, and the few allusions in Scripture point to industrious and peaceful communities. Such certainly were Shechem and Hebron. Recent research has cast a flood of light on the movements of the Hittites who then ruled at Hebron; and we know from Egyptian records that, not long before the time of Abraham, they had pushed from northern Syria, halted for some little time at Hebron, and then moved on to Egypt, where they established for some generations the dynasty of the Hyksos or shepherd kings. Hence the significance of that passing remark in Nu. 13:22: “Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.” Zoan was the capital of the Hyksos dynasty, and the Hittites had paused seven years at Hebron before making their farther advance.

Very different was the state of Canaan four hundred and fifty years later, when conquered by Joshua. The whole country was studded with walled towns. Places which, like Bethel, had been but a name in the days of Abraham, were now considerable cities. Scripture gives but one incidental hint of the changes which had occurred meanwhile. Hebron and Kirjathsepher, which had been Hittite in the time of the patriarchs, were now Amorite, and the name of the latter changed to Debir; while in Joshua’s time the Hittites were found in the mountains. The Egyptian annals explain this. A century before the Exodus, the Shepherd, or Hyksos, dynasty having been overthrown, Thothmes III., and after him Rameses II., prosecuted great campaigns against the Hittites, invading Canaan and Syria, driving their hereditary foes out of Hebron, and overrunning the country as far as the Euphrates, but making no permanent conquests.

The period before Thothmes was the epoch of Canaanite development; for we find, in the Egyptian records, a list of over a hundred places submitting, given in the same topographical order in which the names occur in the Book of Joshua. With the exception of a few strongholds, and some remote and inaccessible districts, the Israelites occupied the walled towns and the villages built by the Canaanites. Tristram.

1. The earthly Canaan was neither designed by God, nor from the first was it understood by His people to be the ultimate and proper inheritance which they were to occupy; things having been spoken and hoped for concerning it which plainly could not be realized within the bounds of Canaan.

2. The inheritance was one which could be enjoyed only by those who had become the children of the resurrection, themselves fully redeemed in soul and body from all the effects and consequences of sin,—made more glorious and blessed, indeed, than if they had never sinned, because constituted after the image of the heavenly Adam. And as the inheritance must correspond with the inheritor, it can only be man’s original possession restored,—the earth redeemed from the curse which sin brought on it, and, like man himself, rendered exceedingly more beautiful and glorious than in its primeval state,—the fit abode of a Church made like, in all its members, to the Son of God.

3. The occupation of the earthly Canaan by the natural seed of Abraham was a type, and no more than a type, of this occupation by a redeemed Church of her destined inheritance of glory; and consequently everything concerning the entrance of the former on their temporary possession was ordered so as to represent and foreshadow the things which belong to the Church’s establishment in her permanent possession. Hence, between the giving of the promise which, though it did not terminate in the land of Canaan, yet included that, and though it prospectively exhibited the better inheritance, a series of important events intervened, which are capable of being fully and properly explained in no other way than by means of their typical bearing on the things hereafter to be disclosed respecting that better inheritance. If we ask, why did the heirs of promise wander about so long as pilgrims, and withdraw to a foreign region before they were allowed to possess the land, and not rather, like a modern colony, quietly spread, without strife or bloodshed, over its surface, till the whole was possessed? Or, why were they suffered to fall under the dominion of a foreign power, from whose cruel oppression they needed to be redeemed, with terrible executions of judgment on the oppressor, before the possession could be theirs? Or why, before that event also, should they have been put under the discipline of law, having the covenant of Sinai, with its strict requirements and manifold obligations of service, superadded to the covenant of grace and promise? Or why, again, should their right to the inheritance itself have to be vindicated from a race of occupants who had been allowed for a time to keep possession of it, and whose multiplied abominations had so polluted it, that nothing short of their extermination could render it a fitting abode for the heirs of promise? The full and satisfactory answer to all such questions can only be given by viewing the whole in connection with the better things of a higher dispensation,—as the first part of a plan which was to have its counterpart and issue in the glories of a redeemed creation, and for the final results of which the Church needed to be prepared by standing in similar relations, and passing through like experiences, in regard to an earthly inheritance. No doubt, with one and all of these there were connected reasons and results for the time then present, amply sufficient to justify every step in the process, when considered simply by itself. But it is only when we take the whole as a glass, in which to see mirrored the far greater things which from the first were in prospect, that we can get a comprehensive view of the mind of God in appointing them, and know the purposes which He chiefly contemplated. Fairbairn.

INHERITANCE OF TWO AND A HALF TRIBES UNDER MOSES. DISTRIBUTION BY LOT TO THE NINE AND A HALF TRIBES. SETTING UP OF THE TABERNACLE AT SHILOH. REMAINING LAND DIVIDED INTO SEVEN PORTIONS AND ASSIGNED TO SEVEN TRIBES BY THE LOT.