Chapter II: Palestine (2)

“Now we may see what this amounts to. We have got the same genus of fishes represented in a variety of specific types from the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan that are found in the feeders of the Nile, and in the Central African lakes down to the Zambezi. The conclusion is natural that all these fishes come from a common origin, and that during the Tertiary period there was a chain of fresh-water lakes, extending to the lakes in Africa, similar to the chain of lakes in North America.

“We find in Palestine forty-three species of fishes, of which only eight belong to the ordinary ichthyological fauna of the Mediterranean rivers. But these belong to the rivers of the coast. In the Jordan system only one species out of thirty-six belongs to the ordinary Mediterranean fauna, viz., _Blennius lupulus_. Two others, _Chromis niloticus_ and _Clarias macracanthus_, are Nilotic. Seven other species occur in other rivers of South-Western Asia, the Tigris, Euphrates, &c. Ten more are found in other parts of Syria, chiefly in the Damascus lakes, and the remaining sixteen species of the families _Chromidæ_, _Cyprinodontidæ_, and _Cyprinidæ_, are peculiar to the Jordan, its affluents, and its lakes. This analysis points at once to the close affinity of the Jordan with the rivers of Tropical Africa. The affinity is not only of species, but of genera, for _Chromis_ and _Hemichromis_ are peculiarly Ethiopian forms, while the other species are identical with, or very closely allied to, the fishes from other fresh waters of Syria. But the African forms are a very large proportion of the whole, and considering the difficulty of transportation in the case of fresh water fishes, the peculiarities of this portion of the fauna are of great significance.

“The fluviatile fishes claim special attention, dating, as they probably do, from the earliest time after the elevation of the country from the Eocene ocean. In the _Foraminifera_, mentioned above as found in the Dead Sea sand, such as _Gr. capreolus_, we have the relics of the inhabitants of that early sea. But of the living inhabitants we must place the Jordanic fishes as the very earliest, and these, we have seen, form a group far more distinct and divergent from that of the surrounding region than in any other class of existing life. During the epochs subsequent to the Eocene, owing to the unbroken isolation of the basin, there have been no opportunities for the introduction of new forms, nor for the further dispersion of the old ones. These forms, as we have seen, bear a striking affinity to those of the fresh-water lakes and rivers of Eastern Africa, even as far south as the Zambezi. But the affinity is in the identity of genera, _Chromis_ and _Hemichromis_ being exclusively African, while the species are rather representative than identical.

“The solution appears to be that during the Meiocene and Pleiocene periods the Jordan basin formed the northernmost of a large system of fresh-water lakes, extending from north to south, of which, in the earlier part of the epoch, perhaps the Red Sea, and certainly the Nile Basin, the Nyanza, the Nyassa, and the Tanganyika lakes, and the feeders of the Zambezi, were members. During that warm period, a fluviatile ichthyological fauna was developed suitable to its then conditions, consisting of representative, and perhaps frequently identical species, throughout the area under consideration.

“The advent of the glacial period was, like its close, gradual. Many species must have perished under the change of conditions. The hardiest survived, and some perhaps have been gradually modified to meet those new conditions. Under this strict isolation it could hardly be otherwise; and however severe the climate may have been, that of the Lebanon, with its glaciers probably corresponding with the present temperature of the Alps at a proportional elevation (regard being had to the difference of latitude), the fissure of the Jordan being, as we certainly know, as much depressed below the level of the ocean as it is at present; there must have been an exceptionally warm temperature in its waters in which the existing ichthyological fauna could survive.”

Such facts as these tell us that Palestine is not to be regarded as a European country, but rather as an African outlier, while it has also strong affinities with Asia, as proved by others of these fishes. In fact, it stands in the midst between three continents, and is, in a very important sense, the centre of the world. Dr Tristram, our best authority in this department, shows us how Palestine contains an epitome of the life of the world, and does so just because it includes almost every variety of climate.

Linnæus said that we know more of the botany and zoology of farther India than we do of those of Palestine. It is pleasant to reflect that, to some extent, this reproach has been removed. It always entered into the plans of the Palestine Exploration Society to study the natural history of the Holy Land; and although they have not been able to equip and maintain a party of naturalists, charged with this business alone, some of their officers have gathered interesting facts incidentally. Other inquirers, like Rev. Wm. Houghton and Mr Thaddeus Mason, have been usefully engaged on the same work. Mr H. Chichester Hart, who accompanied Professor E. Hull through the Arabah and Southern Palestine, has written an interesting volume on “The Animals mentioned in the Bible.” But it is to Rev. Dr Tristram we are chiefly indebted. The Memoirs of the Survey include a magnificent volume on the “Fauna and Flora of Western Palestine,” in which he works out his valuable series of investigations, and besides giving facts and details, treats the subject in a large philosophical way, as he does also in his lectures. “You have on Lebanon and Hermon,” he says, “a climate like that of the Alps, or two-thirds of the way up Mont Blanc. You have on the tops of Lebanon and Hermon an almost arctic climate, and you have a fauna and a flora (animals and plants) corresponding to that climate. You know that when you descend a coal-pit 1300 feet deep you get into a very warm temperature indeed. Now the Dead Sea is 1300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and the consequence is that you have around the Dead Sea a tropical or sub-tropical climate, and you have sub-tropical products.

“At the northern end of the Holy Land you find yourself at the starting point of the Jordan, which, being 1000 feet above the Mediterranean at the grotto of Banias, descends so rapidly that it is only a few feet above the sea level at Lake Huleh. Mount Hermon rises abruptly from its base near Lake Huleh (the ancient Waters of Merom). Although Hermon is only 10,000 feet high, I am not aware of any mountain which rises so suddenly or so directly from its base. Take, for instance, Chamounix. If you want to go to the top of Mont Blanc, you know that Chamounix is many hundred feet above the platform of the Mediterranean. It is true that Mont Blanc is many thousand feet higher than Mount Hermon, but from its immediate base it is not so high. When you get up to the Grand Mulets you are not so far from the summit of Mont Blanc as you are at Lake Huleh from the summit of Hermon. The consequence of this is that you have brought together in that spot a greater contrast of produce, animal and vegetable, than I have found anywhere else. You have the arctic climate of the north on the tops of the mountains, and a tropical climate in the Jordan Valley, where, in the month of January, I have been glad to sleep in the open air, the thermometer never being below 80° at midnight. At the east and south you have the dry sandy desert; so that you have four distinct climates within view of each other. I can stand on any of the hills of Judea and see the snow-capped tops of Hermon and Lebanon, and look over this vast desert eastward and down to the seething tropical valley of the Dead Sea.

“Now, with all that, there is nothing in the physical character of that country which is striking or phenomenal, as people would call it. It is about the most commonplace and ordinary country in the world that I have ever seen. There are no startling features, but there is endless variety in it, and I cannot help thinking that there is something very providential in the extraordinary variety which is brought together within a district of the Holy Land, which is not so large as the six northern counties of England; because I remember that it was chosen as the country in which was written a Book, which was to be for the teaching and guidance of all mankind in every country and in every age; and I know no spot in the world in which there could have been found brought together so many phenomena of Nature, maritime and desert, mountain and plain, hill and valley, tropical, temperate, and arctic, as are brought together there within the space of a few miles. And when I remember that that Book was to be for the teaching of all men, for all time, I feel that there is something providential in that ordering of circumstances which led to the selection of the only spot, as far as we know, in the whole world, in which there is such a great variety of objects for the illustration, comparison, and elucidation of Holy Writ as in that country of the Holy Land. Often, when I have been in that country, on one of its hills, and have noticed the variety of scenery brought into my view at one time, I have thought to myself, ‘What would the Bible have been if its pages had been written by men who had lived only in the monotonous valley of the Nile? What would they have been able to pen in the way of illustration which would have come home to the heart of the English peasant?’ Again, if that Book were written by men who were only familiar with the phenomena of Arabian deserts, how could it have come home to those who dwell on the sea? Had it been written by inhabitants of tropical India, how would it have come home to those who are familiar with ‘snow and frost and vapour, fulfilling His will?’ In fact, there are illustrations taken from every kind of natural phenomena, and yet none of them are very marked or startling.”

[_Authorities and Sources_:--“Palestine in its Physical
Aspects.” Rev. Canon Tristram, F. R. S. Survey Memoirs: “The
Fauna and Flora.” Rev. Canon Tristram. “The Animals mentioned
in the Bible.” Henry Chichester Hart, B.A., F.L.S.]

7. _The Topographical Survey of Western Palestine._

Before we can properly understand the history of any country we must have before us an accurate map, showing its physical features of mountain, plain, and river, and the relative positions of its cities and important places. This is true in an unusual degree in the case of Palestine, a country peculiar in its physical contrasts, and for more than a thousand years the home of a peculiar people. The sacred books of other religions--consisting greatly of rhapsodies, prayers, and devotions--might have been written as well in one country as another; but the Bible contains the history of a particular people, occupying a definite district of country, fighting their battles, making their journeys, and singing psalms oft suggested by their surroundings. It is absolutely necessary for the student of Hebrew history to make himself acquainted with Palestine geography and topography. “The history assumes everywhere a knowledge of the country, and the writer never stops to explain where the scene of every episode occurs, except to name it as a spot already known.” Yet, until lately, no accurate map of the country could be obtained--because no scientific survey had been carried out. Bible towns and villages had disappeared, and their sites were not known. The visitor to Palestine, consulting Murray’s “Handbook” as his best guide, found long columns of “places mentioned in Scripture, but not yet identified”--Admah, Adullun, Debir, Edrei, Gallim, &c., &c. In going up from Jaffa to Jerusalem he was shown a brook, and told that David there selected the five smooth stones before his combat with Goliath; but the brook was in the wrong locality. Down by the Jordan he found the grave of Moses on the wrong side of the river. In Galilee he was perplexed how to decide between two rival sites for Cana, especially as the water-pots connected with the marriage feast were to be seen at both places. General uncertainty attended his footsteps throughout.

The people who did most to bring about this confusion in regard to the sacred sites were the Crusaders. Knights and priests of the twelfth century, arriving in Palestine, were strangers in the country, and although enthusiastic they were ignorant and illiterate. They used to land at Athlit, and journey thence to Nazareth or to Jerusalem, fixing as many places _en route_ as they could. Athlit itself they regarded as the ancient Tyre! Meon, the home of Nabal, they fixed close by, because Mount Carmel was not far off, and Abigail came from Carmel. They did not recognise that the Carmel of Abigail and Nabal was a city in the south of Judah. Knowing that Capernaum was a fishing town, they placed it on the Mediterranean coast and identified it with a fortress of their day, now the village called Kefr Lam. These three places, which were shown to the religious devotee as soon as he landed, are in reality many days’ journey apart. Caipha (Haifa) was shown as a place where Simon Peter used to fish. Shiloh was south of Bethel, and was in fact the mountain now called Nebi Samwil. Sychar and Shechem were one and the same place. “The Quarantania or Kuruntul mountain” (says Conder) “has, from the twelfth century down, been shown as the place where our Lord retired for the forty days of fasting in the desert. Near to it the Crusaders also looked for the ‘exceeding high mountain’ whence the Tempter showed our Lord ‘all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them’ (Matt. iv. 8). Saewulf tells us that the site of this mountain was 3 miles from Jericho. Fetellus places it north of that town and 2 miles from Quarantania. The measurements bring us to the remarkable cone called the Raven’s Nest. The story is wonderfully descriptive of the simplicity of men’s minds in the twelfth century, for the summit of the ‘exceeding high mountain,’ whence all the kingdoms of the world were to have been seen, is actually lower than the surface of the Mediterranean, and it is surrounded on every side by mountains more than double its height.”

Tradition having been shown to be untrustworthy, when unsupported by other evidence, a general uncertainty prevailed with regard to Scripture places. No traveller could believe what his guide or guide book told him, and no student could have confidence in his map. The labour of investigation was beyond the power of private individuals; and no Government and no Society had ever sent out an organized expedition. But now happily this reproach is removed. The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund were able to send out Major Conder, R.E., and Colonel Kitchener, R.E., and these officers, with their little party, spent seven years in carrying out a triangulation survey of the entire country west of the river Jordan. As a result of their labours, followed up by much patient work at home, we are now presented with a magnificent map of Western Palestine, on the scale of one inch to the mile, as beautifully and accurately executed as the ordnance map of England, with every road and ruin marked, and every conspicuous object filled in; with the hills and mountains correctly delineated and shaded, with the rivers and brooks all running in the right directions; with every vineyard, every spring of water, and almost every clump of trees set down in its place, and with thousands of names that never appeared on a Palestine map before. Moreover, while there are six hundred and twenty-two Scripture names of places west of the Jordan, and out of these three hundred and sixty were missing, the surveyors have succeeded in finding one hundred and seventy-two of these. A reduced map, on the scale of three-eighths of an inch to the mile, has been prepared, and contains the Old Testament names and New Testament names conspicuously marked, while other forms of the map show the watershed and physical features of the country, or give the divisions of the land and the Arabic names of places in use to-day.

There could be no better aid in studying the Scriptures than to have such maps by our side; for whether we read of the marching and counter-marching of armies; of the positions taken up before a battle; of the direction taken by the retreating foe; the sites selected for places of worship; the journeys of prophets of the Old Testament, or of Jesus and his disciples in the New, so much depends upon the relative positions of places, and their distances one from another, that we necessarily lose a part of the meaning, and miss a portion of the enjoyment unless we have a correct map by our side.

The best modern map of the Holy Land, previous to that prepared by the Palestine Exploration Fund, was the work of Van de Velde, a careful and scientific traveller and scholar. Van de Velde not only took observations himself, but laid down on his map all the observations made by previous travellers. Yet, when at the annual meeting of the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1886, a portion of Van de Velde’s map was shown on an enlarged scale, side by side with the same portion of the Society’s map, similarly enlarged, the contrast was striking. The first, with its hills roughly sketched in, its valleys laid down roughly, and its inhabited places, villages, or ruins, gave all that was known of this piece of country before the Survey. It was on such a map as this, the best at the time, because the most faithful, that the geographical student had to work. There was little use, from a geographical point of view, in consulting previous books of travel, because Van de Velde had gleaned from them all their geographical facts. Yet hardly any single place was laid down correctly; none of the hill shading was accurate; the course of the rivers and valleys was not to be depended upon; the depression of the Lake of Galilee was variously stated; distances were estimated by the rough reckoning of time taken from place to place; and the number of names was only about eighteen hundred, whereas the large map of the Palestine Exploration Society contains ten thousand.[16]

[_Authorities and Sources_:--“Tent Work in Palestine.” Major
Conder, R. E. “Twenty-one Years’ Work in the Holy Land.” P. E.
Fund. “Quarterly Statements of the P. E. Fund.”]

8. _Israel’s Wars and Worship, considered in connection
with the Physical Features of the Country._

_The Wars._

Now that we possess a detailed and accurate map of the Holy Land we are in a position to study with advantage the conquest of the country by Joshua, and to appreciate the motives of strategy and policy displayed in the successive phases of Israel’s wars and worship.

The twelve tribes, coming out of the wilderness, encamped in the Plain of the Jordan, opposite Jericho. While they rested there, Balak, king of Moab, alarmed by their numbers, and uncertain as to their intentions, sent to Mesopotamia for Balaam, to come and curse them. Balaam ascended Mount Peor (sacred to Baal Peor, _i.e._, Baal the Opener) and was constrained to bless them, and speak of them as “a people that dwell alone--not reckoned among the nations” (Num. xxiii. 9).

Under Moses the Israelites conquered the country east of Jordan. The gorge of the Arnon, 2000 feet deep, and with almost perpendicular sides, was a natural boundary for the Moabites. Sometimes, indeed, they possessed territory north of it; but since it would take a traveller several hours to cross at the easiest parts, it was a natural boundary. The district between the Arnon and the Jabbok, Moses wrested from Sihon, king of Heshbon. And then, with the aid of the Ammonites, he conquered the country north of the Jabbok, from Og, the king of Bashan. These lands were not divided among all the tribes of Israel, but were given to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh as their portion, for it was planned and intended that the country west of the Jordan should be conquered and given to the rest.

The country west of Jordan was occupied by the Amorites and the Canaanites--that is, as some suppose, by the Highlanders of the central hills, and the Lowlanders of the plains around. But these peoples appear to have been subdivided, so that, together with the tribes of the Lebanon, we read of the Jebusite and the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite and the Hamathite, as well as Zidon and Heth (Gen. x. 15); and, in another place, of the Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, and the Rephaim (Gen. xv. 19). Of all these “nations” we are told by St Paul that seven were eventually destroyed, and Israel received their land for an inheritance (Acts xiii. 19).

It was not the object of Joshua in the first place to conquer the “nations” in the plains, but rather those in the hills. It is true that the hills were comparatively barren and infertile, while the plains were exceedingly fruitful; but the hill country offered counter-balancing advantages. Compared with the Egyptians, who sometimes invaded Syria, the Israelites were small and weak, and their greatest security would be in the hill fastnesses. More immediately also, they have to consider that they are but a nation of foot soldiers, while the Canaanites of the plains possess chariots and horses. In any case, if they can once gain possession of the hills, it may be easier thence to conquer the plains at their leisure, than it would be for them by-and-bye to conquer the hills, with the plains as their base of operations.

They approach the river opposite Jericho, and prepare to cross. The spot is very well known, and it is where the pilgrims now go to bathe. At this part the Jordan is ordinarily a brown, rapid, swirling stream, some 20 yards across, fringed with a jungle of tamarisk, cane, and willow, in which the leopard and the wolf find their hiding place. The stream often runs low and is easily fordable in two or three places hereabout. When we remember that the spies sent by Joshua had crossed and recrossed without difficulty a few days before, we might suppose that Joshua intended to march the entire army over at the fording places, at low water, were we not told that at this season the Jordan overflowed all its banks, it being the time of barley harvest. The Jordan, it is recorded, was divided--“The waters which came down from above stood and rose up in one heap a great way off from Adam, the city which is beside Zarethan: and those that went down toward the Sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho” (Josh. iii. 16). Major Conder has discovered the name Zarethan, still in use, applied to a district 3 miles west of Bethshan; and on examining the gorge of the Jordan at this part, a good way north of “Admah” or _Damieh_, he found that the lower cliffs approach in places so close to one another that a very little would dam up the river. In that event, in place of a shallow stream some 20 yards across, a lake would be formed nearly a mile in width, and the waters would have to rise to a height of 50 feet before they overflowed the barrier and descended again to the south. But whether in this way the bed of the Jordan was rendered dry while the Israelites passed over, is a question upon which, of course, opinions will differ.

When the tribes are safely across they encamp at a place called Gilgal.

An important success in the way of identifying Scripture sites has been the recovery of Gilgal. Robinson had heard the name Jiljûlieh, but had not been able to fix the site. In 1865 a German traveller (Herr Schokke), more fortunate, was shown the place, at a mound about a mile east of the modern Jericho; and Major Conder succeeded in fixing the spot. Just west of the ruins grows a magnificent old tamarisk tree, conspicuous from a distance. South-east of the tamarisk is an oblong tank, measuring about 100 feet by 80 feet; and near this about a dozen small mounds. The mounds are called Telleilât Jiljûlieh (the little hillocks of Gilgal), and the tank is named Birket Jiljûlieh (the Pool of Gilgal). “The Bedawin of the district,” says Conder, “have a well-known tradition regarding the site of Jiljûlieh. Over the coffee and pipes in the evening, after the day’s work was done, they related it to us. By the old tamarisk once stood the City of Brass, which was inhabited by Pagans. When Mohammed’s creed began to spread, Aly, his son-in-law, ‘the lion of God,’ arrived at the city, and rode seven times round it on his horse Maimûn. The brazen walls fell down, destroyed by his breath, and the Pagans fled, pursued by the Faithful toward Kŭrŭntŭl; but the day drew to a close, and darkness threatened to shield the infidels. Then Aly, standing on the hill which lies due east of the Kŭrŭntŭl crag, called out to the sun, ‘Come back, O blessed one!’ And the sun returned in heaven, so that the hill has ever since been called ‘the Ridge of the return.’ Here stands the Mukâm, or sacred station of Aly, and here also is the place where Belâl ibn Rubâh, the Muedhen of the Prophet, called the Faithful to prayer after the victory.”

Such is the legend, in which we see the fall of Jericho mixed up with the battle of Aijalon, and assigned to Mohammedan heroes instead of to Joshua.

Quite apart from the facilities of a ford, there was a good reason why the Israelites should cross the Jordan where they did. The hill country of Western Palestine is much broken by gorges, which serve not only as torrent beds after the rains, but as passes to the central plateau. The principal pass is by that great gorge, the continuation of the Wady Kelt, which runs to the north of Jericho and up to Ai and Bethel. Joshua intends to ascend by this pass. But there is an obstacle in the way. Just at the foot of the hills--where the springs issue forth and make a beautiful oasis--is the city of Jericho, “walled up to heaven.” This is the key to the pass, and it would be bad generalship to rush past the place and leave it in the rear. So Jericho, “the city of palm trees,” was besieged and taken.

Modern Jericho is not a city of palm trees, but a very poor village, of mud huts and black tents, standing amid low vineyards. For the convenience of travellers, indeed, an excellent hotel has lately been opened--the “Jordan Hotel”--but the proprietor has been disappointed in his neighbours; the peasantry will not do a good day’s work for good wages, he cannot even get fruit and garden stuff from them, and every requisite has to be brought down from Jerusalem.

The site of Jericho has shifted considerably since Scripture times, for the Bible city was near the Sultan’s Spring--Elisha’s Fountain--at the foot of the pass, the only natural position, whereas the present village is at a distance from the spring. Some Russian excavations in the neighbourhood have brought to light shafts, columns, and lintels, lamps, jars, rings, and weapons, some indication of former splendour.

The next city in the way of the invaders was Ai. We learn from the narrative that Ai had Bethel on the west of it, and a plain in the front or on the east, while there was a valley on the north side, and low ground on the west between Ai and Bethel. With these particulars it should be possible to identify the site. Sir Charles Wilson examined the district in 1865, and confirmed the opinion of Rev. Canon Williams that there is only one spot which answers to the description. “The description applies in a very complete manner” (says Conder) “to the neighbourhood of the modern village of Deir Diwan, and there are here remains of a large ancient town, bearing the name Haiyan, which approaches closely to Aina, the form under which Ai appears in the writings of Josephus. Rock-cut tombs and ancient cisterns, with three great reservoirs cut in the hard limestone, are sufficient to show this to have been a position of importance. To the west is an open valley called ‘Valley of the City,’ which, gradually curving round eastward, runs close to the old road from Jericho by which Joshua’s army would probably advance. To the north of the site there is also a great valley, and the plain or plateau on which the modern village stands, close to the old site, expands from a narrow and rugged pass leading up towards Bethel, which is 2 miles distant on the watershed.”

Ascending from Jericho the path at one point enters upon the plain in front of Ai, so that no army on its way to Bethel could afford to leave Ai behind. Joshua took the city by stratagem, and we can see every step of the proceeding. Marching troops up the northern valley, he placed an ambush in the depression west of the city. The main body of his troops attacked in front and presently feigned a retreat, drawing the men of Ai after them till the city was empty. Then, at a given signal from Joshua--who had posted himself on the hills to the north and could be seen by both sections of his army--the ambush rose up and fired the city, the men retreating turned back to fight, and the men of Ai, caught “between two fires,” became utterly demoralised.

Bethel itself is now called Beitin. The site is known but with the exception of a church of crusading date, and a tower, there are no ruins of any importance. On a hill to the east is a stone circle, consisting of large and small boulders.

After the victory at Ai a rapid march was made to Shechem, where, upon the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, the tribes assembled to hear the reading of the Law and to pronounce their “amens” after the blessings and the curses. It has been questioned whether they could hear one another at the distance apart of these two mountain tops; but they would hardly be on the mountain summits, for there is a natural recess in the hills, with natural benches in the limestone rock, an amphitheatre which might seem to have been formed for the purpose. Modern travellers have stood in the midst of that valley and heard their companions on either side reading the Law, and they assure us that those who were reading could hear one another’s voices with sufficient distinctness to take up the verse, each where the other left off.

Shechem is now called Nablous--a corruption of the Roman Neapolis, by which name it was rebaptized--and is a considerable city. The Samaritans, now reduced in numbers to about one hundred and sixty individuals, all told, live in this city, and none are found elsewhere. In their synagogue they preserve several old copies of the Pentateuch, and one of them, which is kept in a silver case and jealously guarded, they declare to have been written by Abishua, the great-grandson of Aaron. On a stone built into a tower near the synagogue is an inscription--the oldest known in the Samaritan character--which it was formerly impossible to read, because the inscription is upside down in its place, and the investigator had to dangle on a rope and hold his head downwards. But here we see the advantage of photography: the picture was obtained in the camera, and the inscription when turned right way up was seen to be the Samaritan version of the Ten Commandments.

After the solemn ceremony of reading the Law at Shechem the Israelites under Joshua returned to the camp at Gilgal. But by this time the news of their victories had spread, the neighbouring cities became alarmed, and all the kings throughout an extensive district gathered together to fight against them. Meantime the wily Gibeonites, wearing “old shoes and clouted,” and pretending to be ambassadors from a far country, came to Joshua and succeeded in making a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive. After three days the deception was found out; but it was held that the covenant must be kept, and when the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon--“the five kings of the Amorites”--went and encamped against Gibeon, Joshua went up from Gilgal all the night to raise the siege. He came upon them suddenly, and a terrible battle took place, which deserves to rank among the decisive battles of the world. The conflict raged before Gibeon, and the defeated kings were pursued, with continued slaughter, to higher ground (the ascent of Beth-horon) and then to lower ground (the going down of Beth-horon), as they vainly sought to escape down the Valley of Aijalon into the Plain of Philistia. According to the poetical book of Jasher,[17] quoted by the historian, “the sun stood still upon Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Aijalon,” and lengthened out the day until Joshua had defeated his foes utterly. The five kings were found hidden in a cave at Makkedah, and were imprisoned there till the pursuit was over and Joshua had leisure to decide their fate.

Makkedah has been identified by Colonel Sir C. Warren as being _El Mughar_--“the cave”--a little south-west of Ekron. Conder tells us that this is a remarkable place, and one of the most conspicuous sites in the plain. A promontory of brown sandy rock juts out southwards, and at the end is the village climbing up the hill-side. The huts are of mud, and stand in many cases in front of caves; and from these caves the modern name is derived. It is worthy of notice, he says, that this is the only village in the Philistine plain at which he found such caves.

Joshua made his victory complete, by overthrowing Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and other cities in succession, “utterly destroying all that breathed,” until the centre and the south of the hill country were altogether in his power.

In the spring of 1890, a _firman_ having been obtained, Mr Flinders Petrie went to excavate at _Umm Lakis_ and _Ajlan_, the supposed sites of Lachish and Eglon, two of the five strongholds of the Amorites (Josh. x. 5). As soon as he arrived and could examine the ground, he saw, from his Egyptian experience, that the two sites named were only of Roman age and unimportant; while _Tell Hesy_ and _Nejileh_ in the same neighbourhood promised better results. _Tell Hesy_ is a mound of ruins 60 feet high and about 200 feet square, and one side of it has been washed away by the stream, so that a clear section is afforded from top to base. The generally early age of it was evident from the fact that nothing later than good Greek pottery was found at the top of it, while near the middle, and from that to three-quarters of the height, was found Phœnician ware, which is known in Egypt to date from 1100 B.C. The foundation seems to date from about 1500 B.C., agreeing nearly with the beginning of the Egyptian raids under Thothmes I.

The actual remains of _Tell Hesy_ consist of a mound which is formed of successive towns, one on the ruins of another, and an enclosure taking in an area to the south and west of it. This enclosure is nearly a quarter of a mile across in each direction, and is bounded by a clay rampart still 7 feet high in parts, and in one place by a brick wall. This area of about 30 acres would suffice to take in a large quantity of cattle in case of a sudden invasion; and such was probably its purpose, as no buildings are found in it, and there is but little depth of soil. The city mound is about 200 feet square, and rests on natural ground 45 to 58 feet above the stream in the _wady_ below. The earliest town here was of great strength and importance, the lowest wall of all being 28 feet 8 inches thick, of clay bricks, unburnt; and over this are two successive patchings of later rebuilding, altogether 21 feet of height remaining. “Such massive work” (says Mr Petrie) “was certainly not that of the oppressed Israelites during the time of the Judges; it cannot be as late as the Kings, since the pottery of about 1100 B.C. is found above its level. It must, therefore, be the Amorite city, and agrees with the account that ‘the cities were walled and very great’ (Num. xiii. 28), ‘great and walled up to heaven’ (Deut. i. 28), and also with the sculptures of the conquests of Rameses II. at Karnak, where the Amorite cities are all massively fortified.”

Mr Petrie feels little doubt that _Tell Hesy_ is Lachish and _Tell Nejileh_, 6 miles south of it, Eglon. There are no sites in the country around so suited to the importance of Lachish and Eglon as these two _tells_; they command the only springs and water-course which exist in the whole district, and it is certain that the positions must have been of first-rate importance from the time of the earliest settlements.

Above the Amorite wall at _Tell Hesy_ Mr Petrie finds 5 feet of dust and rolled stones corresponding to the barbaric period of the Judges; then a wall 13 feet thick, probably belonging to Rehoboam’s fortifications of Lachish (2 Chron. xi. 9), and above this successive rebuildings until the city is finally destroyed about 500 B. C. The mound is full of potsherds, and the good fortune of such a grand section as that of the east face from top to bottom, affords at one stroke a series of all the varieties of pottery extending through a thousand years. “We now know for certain,” Mr Petrie says, “the characteristics of Amorite pottery, of earlier Jewish, and later Jewish influenced by Greek trade, and we can trace the importation and the influence of Phœnician pottery. In future all the _tells_ and ruins of the country will at once reveal their age by the potsherds which cover them.”

Lachish, with its wall 28 feet in thickness, is a specimen of the Amorite cities which Joshua overthrew in the south.

But now the kings of the north are alarmed, and Jabin king of Hazor gathers together the tribes of the Lebanon. He calls to his assistance the kings of the Jordan Valley, the kings of the Sharon Plain, with the Jebusites and all who are willing to come. The battle takes place near the Waters of Merom. The Canaanites are furnished with chariots and horses, and the Israelites, being without such helps, are prudently posted on the hills. We read that Joshua “fell upon” the foe, down the slopes, and drove them before him, on the west as far as to Zidon, and on the east to the valley of Mizpeh: he burned their chariots, hamstrung their horses, and again “left none remaining.” So now the north as well as the south of the hill country is subdued; Joshua settles four tribes in these northern districts, and the Sea of Galilee becomes a Hebrew lake.

There is no need any more to come back all the way to Gilgal, for no foe is left to dispute their occupation anywhere, and the armies only return as far as Shiloh, in the centre of the hills, and there set up “the Tent of Meeting.” Nor is there need any longer to detain the two and a half tribes from the east of Jordan who have come across to assist in the conquest. So the soldiers of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh are sent back to their homes. “And when they came to the region about Jordan that is in the land of Canaan” they built there an altar--“a great altar to see to,” and which was afterwards called “Ed” or Witness. Their brethren were so indignant at this action--regarding it as heathen worship, and rebellion against the God of Israel--that they thought of going to war against them. However, they prudently sent envoys to demand an explanation, and the explanation was perfectly satisfactory.

Where was this altar of Ed, so conspicuous from afar? If we stand in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, and look northwards, we cannot fail to see, at a distance of 20 miles, a conical peak called _Kurn Surtabeh_, standing out like a bastion at the eastern end of a chain of blue hills. This peak is 1500 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and 2500 feet above the Jordan, near to it. From the top of it one may see the Dead Sea to the south, the Sea of Galilee to the north, the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim in the centre. According to the Jewish Talmud this mountain was a beacon station, where the fires were lighted, in connection with fires on the Mount of Olives, to signify the advent of the new moon. Conder, some years ago, pointed out that this mountain would be in the path which the two and a half tribes should naturally take in going from Shiloh to their home in Gilead, the fords of the Jordan being a little way north of it. On the top of this almost inaccessible peak he found some huge masonry work of ancient character, which he was inclined at the time to regard as remnants of the altar. And when the identification seemed to be thus nearly complete, it appeared to be confirmed by the discovery that the north side of the mountain, the only accessible side is called “the Ascent of Ed.” But the identification was disputed.

It was pointed out that Josephus says the altar was on the east side of Jordan, and that the Scripture narrative makes the tribes to cross the river at “the passage of the Children of Israel,” which is supposed to describe the Jericho ford and not the ford at Damieh. For these reasons Conder now regards his idea as “only a conjecture.”

It may be reasonably questioned, however, whether the identification should be given up. We are told in Joshua xxii. 10, that the altar, so high to look to, was in “the region about Jordan that is in the land of Canaan”--“in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region about Jordan, on the side that pertaineth to the Children of Israel.” The historian takes pains to distinguish between the two sides of the river, and if one side pertained to the Children of Israel more than the other, it was surely not the eastern side. Moreover, the altar was in the land of Canaan, and the eastern boundary of Canaan was the Jordan itself (see Gen. x. 19, and page 107 of this volume). The altar was “in the forefront of the land of Canaan,” at the extreme of its eastern side, and therefore close by the Jordan. The Hebrew faced the rising sun, and spoke of the south as the right hand, the north as the left, so that his forehead or forefront was to the east. It was apparently because the supposed idolatrous altar was set up on territory belonging to the western tribes that those tribes felt so insulted. The east of Jordan was unclean, but the western country was “the possession of the Lord.” “Come across”, they said, “into the Lord’s land, if you will; but if you come, do not build rebel altars” (v. 19). Further, the object of the two and a half tribes, according to their apology and explanation, was to have a memorial in that western land from which the Jordan seemed to cut them off.

Two and a half tribes being settled east of Jordan, three tribes north of the Plain of Esdraelon, and one in the Plain itself, the remainder of the country is divided between the remaining five tribes and a half.

In the Book of Joshua the boundaries of the tribes are given with the greatest minuteness, but it was impossible for us to trace them with any accuracy before the topographical survey was carried out. Many of the villages by which the border lines passed were lost, in some cases the sites were displaced; but as soon as these things were rectified the boundaries could again be drawn.

The blessing which Jacob pronounced upon his sons, according to Gen. xlix., was true to the position of the tribes in their several districts; and their position determined in some degree their conduct and their fortunes. When Joshua dismissed the two and a half tribes, they went away to their tents: living on those green hills east of Jordan, they remained for a long time a pastoral people. Reuben, bordering on Arabia, and being “unstable as water,” became hardly distinguishable from an Arab tribe. Gad, of whom Jacob said, “a troop shall press upon him,” was subject to attacks from troops of Bedouin plunderers. Divided from their brethren by the great gorge of the Jordan, the eastern tribes were separated also in their fortunes. The three northern tribes of Asher, Zebulon, and Naphtali were also partially cut off by the great plain of Esdraelon. They got into communication with the northern nations from whom they were less separated geographically, and they entered into alliance with Phœnicia. Solomon gave away twenty of their cities to Hiram, king of Tyre, apparently thinking that the allegiance which was so nearly gone, might as well be parted with altogether. These northern tribes, like those east of Jordan, seldom came to the assistance of their brethren in any great crisis. When Deborah required help from all quarters she had to complain that Asher “sat still at the haven of the sea,” and Reuben “sat among the sheep-folds, to hear the pipings for the flocks.” In the south--in a country half a desert, the lair of wild beasts--Judah “couched as a lion,” and it was dangerous to rouse him up. Ephraim, the most powerful of the tribes, secured to himself the choicest portion of the hill country. Manasseh, with territory on both sides of the Jordan, was “a fruitful bough by a fountain, whose branches run over the wall.” Little Benjamin, situated between the two powerful tribes of Ephraim and Judah, knew not which to be guided by, and was at last torn asunder in the effort to follow both. Yet Benjamin, on whose eastern border we still find a valley, called the Wolf’s Den, was “a wolf that ravineth” and often “devoured the prey.” Issachar “saw the land that it was pleasant”--namely, the fruitful plain of Esdraelon,--and “bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant under task-work,” cultivating the ground.

The tribe of Levi had no district of country assigned to it, but in place thereof forty-eight cities, scattered throughout the tribes. Of these cities two have been identified by the agents of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

The recovery of the site of _Gezer_ we owe to M. Clermont Ganneau. It is in the lowland district, and off the road to the right as one goes up from Jaffa to Jerusalem, about 8 miles past Ramleh. The modern name, _Tell Jezer_, represents the Hebrew exactly. Gezer had been a royal city of the Canaanites; and it was in a position commanding one of the important passes. The Levitical cities had around them a margin of 1000 cubits. In 1874 M. Ganneau was shown by the peasantry a rude inscription deeply cut in the flat surface of the natural rock. It appears to be in Hebrew letters, and to read “Boundary of Gezer.” He afterwards found a second, similar to it; and from their position he judges that the city lay four-square, and had its angles directed to the cardinal points of the compass. It was this city of Gezer which was reconquered from the Philistines by Pharaoh, and handed over to Solomon as a dowry with his daughter.

We owe to Major Conder the discovery of another of these Levitical cities, namely, the royal city of Debir, south-west of Hebron, together with the “upper and nether springs of water” (at a distance), which Caleb gave to his daughter, on the occasion of her marriage (Judges i. 15). The modern name is Dhâheriyeh, and the place is evidently an ancient site of importance, to which several old roads lead from all sides. Another name for this place was Kirjath-Sepher, which means Book-Town; so that it must have been noted for books or writings of some kind.

In tracing the boundaries of the tribes the surveyors found reason to look upon the Book of Joshua as “the Domesday Book of Palestine.” The towns in a district are all mentioned together, and in such consecutive topographical order that many Scripture sites could be identified from this very circumstance. The tribal boundaries are shown to be almost entirely natural, namely, rivers, ravines, ridges, and the watershed lines of the country. It is a remarkable fact, however, that while the descriptions of tribal boundaries and cities are full and minute in the territory of Judea, and scarcely less so in Galilee, they are fragmentary and meagre within the bounds of Samaria. There is no account of the conquest of Samaria, nor does the list of royal cities include the famous Samaritan towns of Shechem, Thebez, Acrabbi, and others. No list of the cities of Ephraim and Manasseh is included in the topographical chapters of the Book of Joshua, nor any description of the northern limits of Manasseh, and only a very slight one of the southern border, where that tribe marched with Ephraim.

Thus far, in our description of Joshua’s conquest, we have seen how his good generalship secured possession of the hills--the central hills only, and not the plains. The Canaanites still dwelt in the plains round about. The Philistines held the south-west. The Phœnicians were secure in the north. The outlying nations of Edom and Moab were undisturbed. In this condition things remained for a long time; and the Israelites, occupying the hills only, were not likely to become a race of sailors. Nor did they desire it, if we may judge from such notices of the sea as occur in the Bible, for they seem to show the awe with which the writers regarded its rolling waves. And besides, the coast was not suited for it. The principal harbour was Tyre; but that was in Phœnicia, which was hardly to be included in Palestine. South of Tyre we have Accho, Caipha, and Joppa; but these are by no means good and convenient as ports. Accho is the best, but has been the least used, although Napoleon considered it “the key of Palestine.” It was to Joppa that the Phœnicians brought timber in rafts for the building of Solomon’s Temple; and thence it was carried by road to Jerusalem. It was at Joppa that Jonah found a ship going to Tarshish, and took his passage.

If the sea coast was little available for the Israelites, the Jordan was still worse: a narrow, shallow, rocky stream, ending in the Dead Sea, it led to nowhere, and was useless for purposes of commerce.

Naturally the capitals of the country were inland--Jerusalem in the centre of the hills, and afterwards Shechem. The main road of the country ran from south to north, along the watershed, the backbone of highest ground. But since the hills were comparatively unfruitful, the dwellers there suffered more in times of famine than the dwellers in the plains. In times of war they had some advantage, and preferred to fight from the hillsides, as they did not possess chariots and horses, and could have found no use for them. Their enemies said of them,--“their God is a God of the hills; He is not a God of the plains!”