CHAPTER V.

PALESTINE.

SECTION I.-Geographical Outline.

PALESTINE, or the Holy Land, lies between Phoenicia on the north, and Idumæ'a on the south, separated from both by chains of lofty mountains; to the east its boundaries were the Asphaltic lake, the river Jordan, and the sea of Galilee; on the west it extended to the Mediterranean. The mountains are the most remarkable features in the geography of Palestine. These mountains divided Palestine into a series of valleys and tablelands, leaving two great plains, called "the region about Jordan," and the plain of Esdraélon, or Jez'reel. These valleys and plains were of very unequal value; some were so unproductive as to be called deserts, others were the most fertile spots in western Asia.

Jordan was the only great river of Palestine; it falls into the Asphaltic lake, or Dead sea, which occupies the site of the ancient cities Sodom and Gomorrah. There is no outlet from the Asphaltic lake, and its waters are bitter and unwholesome. The sea of Galilee, through which the Jordan flows, is a beautiful fresh-water lake, abounding in fish.

The principal cities were Jerúsalem, the metropolis of the kingdom of Judah, and Samária, the capital of Israel. Idumæ'a lay south of Palestine, beyond the chain of Mount Seir: it was in general a rocky and barren country; but being the high road of Arabian traffic, its natural capabilities were improved to the utmost, and it contained the great city of Pétra, whose commercial wealth was deservedly celebrated. Idumæ'a, or Edom, was annexed to the kingdom of Israel in the reign of David.

The valleys of Palestine were in general very fruitful; and the varied elevations of the country, causing so many different climates, gave the country a greater variety of natural productions than is usually found in so confined a space.

A series of calamities, unparalleled in any other portion of the globe, has now reduced Palestine almost to sterility; but even now there are spots to be found whose luxuriance revives the memory of the verdure and beauty that once covered the entire country.

SECTION II.-History of Palestine.

FROM B. C. 1920 TO B. c. 975.

GOD called Abram from the land of the Chaldees to Palestine, then named Canaan, to be the founder of a nation that should be his peculiar

people (B. c. 1920). Abraham, at his death (B. c. 1821), transmitted the inheritance of the divine promise to his son Isaac; and he was deceived into making his second son Jacob, or Israel, the heir of this glorious privilege. The twelve sons of Jacob sold their brother Joseph as a slave to some Arabian merchants, by whom he was carried into Egypt. There he became the chief minister of the Pharaoh of Egypt; his brethren having come into that country to purchase corn, he made himself known to them, and invited his father, with his whole family, to dwell to the rich district of Góshen (B. C. 1705). In process of time, the Israelites became so numerous as to excite the envious alarm of the Egyptians: they were in consequence cruelly persecuted, until God raised up Moses as their deliverer. The miraculous plagues he inflicted on the land of Egypt induced the reigning Pharaoh to consent to the departure of the Israelites (B. c. 1491). Repenting of his permission, he pursued them with a mighty host; but he and all his followers perished in the Red sea.

After the miraculous deliverance of the Hebrews from the Egyptian army, and their safe passage through the Red sea, it seemed as if their chief difficulties had been overcome; that with Jehovah for their protector, and Moses for their guide, they would soon reach the frontiers of Canaan, and find no difficulty in subduing its idolatrous inhabitants. Were there no other difficulties to be overcome than the ruggedness of the way, and the hostility of the various warlike races in and round Palestine, the wanderings of the Israelites would soon have terminated, but during their protracted bondage they had been deeply imbued with all the vices of slavery; they had become stubborn, rebellious, and inconstant; they vacillated between the extremes of cowardice and rashness, and they had acquired an almost invincible fondness for idolatry and superstition, which proved a constant source of misfortunes to themselves and of the most harassing vexations to their leader.

In the beginning of the third month after the departure from Góshen, the Israelites reached the plains around Sin'ai, where amid the most awful manifestations of the Divine presence, Moses ascended the mountain, and received from the Lord the sacred code of laws by which the Israelites were thenceforth to be ruled under God's immediate government, and which was moreover designed, both by its moral and ceremonial institutions, to be "a schoolmaster to the Jews to bring them unto Christ." The constitution thus given to the Israelites may be described as a theocracy; that is, a government in which God himself was the sovereign, communicating his will by certain authorized ministers. The priests through whom the Divine commands were made known, could only be chosen from the descendants of Aaron; and all the inferior ministers of religion belonged to the tribe of Levi. All the institutions appointed for the people were directed to one great object, the preservation of the purity of religious worship: the Israelites were not chosen to be the most wealthy or most powerful of nations, but to be the guardians of the knowledge of the true God, until the arrival of that divine Savior who was to unite both Jews and Gentiles as one flock, under one shepherd. While Moses continued on the mount, the Israelites, impatient at his long absence, formed a golden calf, or representation of a young bull, as an object for their idolatrous worship.

When Moses, who had been now forty days on the mount, learned from the Lord the crime of which the people had been guilty, he hastily descended toward the camp; as he approached, the sight of the people, dancing round the object of their stupid veneration, filled him with such wrath that he broke the tables of stone on which the Ten Commandments had been graven by "the finger of God." The tribe of Levi, which seems not to have participated in the national guilt, slew three thousand of the worst criminals; the idol was broken to pieces, and the people compelled to drink the water with which its dust had been mingled; and atonement having been made for the sin, Moses again ascended the mountain, and, after an absence of forty days, returned with two new tables of commandments, in place of those that had been broken.

Having broken up the encampment at Sin'ai, the Israelites directed their march to the frontiers of Canaan; but notwithstanding all the signs and wonders that had been wrought in their favor, they broke out into acts of rebellion against Moses, and on every trifling occasion provoked, by their seditions, severe chastisements from the righteous anger of the Almighty; until, at length upon the very borders of the promised land, for their rebellious murmurings at the report of the spies, the Lord ordained that none of the existing generation should enter the promised land, except Joshua and Cáleb. Forty years of wandering in the Desert were to expiate the national crime, after which a new generation was to inherit the promise made to Abraham.

In their wanderings, the miraculous pillar, which had guided them from Egypt, continued still to direct them, and the manna to nourish them; their raiment and their shoes suffered no decay, and their feet were unhurt, by their long and frequent marches. Notwithstanding these signal proofs of the Divine protection, the children of Israel frequently rebelled against Moses, and provoked severe chastisements from their offended God.

Thirty-eight years after their departure from Egypt, the march to Cánaan was resumed; but being defeated in their first attempt, and, though more successful on a second trial, finding the western frontiers of Palestine difficult, the Israelites resolved to make a circuit, and attack the country more to the eastward. On this march, Moses and Aaron, having evinced a want of confidence in the divine power, were included in the sentence of not being permitted to enter the promised land.

Commanded by God to regard the descendants of Esau as their brethren, the Hebrew army avoided the land of Edom, turning their course northward, encountering various enemies, who tried to impede their passage. They gained signal victories over Síhon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the gigantic ruler of Básan, and spread the terror of their name through the surrounding nations. In a pitched battle, which the Israelites fought also against five kings of Mid ́ian, the confederate monarchs fell; a terrible slaughter was made of their subjects, the cities of the land were taken and sacked, and a considerable booty brought to Moses and Eleázar, the latter of whom had succeeded Aaron in the priesthood.

Immediately after the punishment of the Midianites, Moses, by the

divine direction, took a census of the people, and assigned to the tribes by lot their future inheritance in Cánaan. He found that all the old murmuring generation, save Joshua and Cáleb, had disappeared, as God had foretold. Being warned that his own end was approaching, he solemnly constituted Joshua his successor, and assembling the people, recapitulated all the miracles which God had wrought in their favor since their departure from Egypt, and exhorted them to be firm in their allegiance to Jehovah, setting before them the blessings promised for obedience, and the curses denounced against idolatry. Having thus completed his task, he ascended Mount Nébo, by God's command, whence he was gratified with a view of the promised land; after which he breathed his last, in the one hundredth and twentieth year of his age (B. c. 1451). The place of his burial was carefully concealed, probably to prevent the Israelites from making his tomb an object of idolatrous veneration.

SECTION III.-The Conquest of Canaan by Joshua.

NOTHING less than the strongest assurance of divine aid could have supported Joshua's courage in so arduous an enterprise. He was now ninety-three years of age, and wanted neither experience nor sagacity to foresee the perils which he had to encounter. Though at the head of six hundred thousand fighting men, his army was encumbered by a multitude of old men, women, and children, beside servants and cattle; before him was a large river, which he was to cross, equally exposed to the arms of those he went to attack, and those he left behind. The nations he had to subdue were warlike, remarkable for their personal strength and gigantic stature; their towns were well fortified by nature and art; their forces and interests cemented by mutual treaties; they had long been aware of the meditated invasion, and had made formidable preparations for the defence of their country.

The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, preferred settling in the land east of the Jordan, but they sent a contingent of forty thousand men to aid their brethren in the subjugation of Cá

naan.

Passing over the river Jordan by a miraculous passage, the Israelites celebrated the feast of the passover, which had been intermitted since their encampment on Sin'ai, from the want of corn to prepare unleavened bread; now, also, that they were in a productive land, the miraculous supply of manna ceased, being no longer necessary. So great was the alarm of the Canaanites, that no attempt was made to interrupt the Israelites while celebrating this solemn feast; when it was concluded, they advanced against the fortified city of Jer'icho, which was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel,-" none went out, and none came in. By divine command, Joshua made no military preparations for the siege of this important place, but led the army round the city once a day for six days, preserving strict silence, broken only by the sound of the sacred trumpets which accompanied the Ark of the Covenant. On the seventh day, the people "compassed the city, after the same manner, seven times; and it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said un

to the people, Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city. . . . And the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city."

The king of A'i next became the victim of a stratagem devised by Joshua, and its citizens were utterly exterminated. Great fear spread over the land of Canaan in consequence of the destruction of Jer'ícho and A'i; the Gibeonites, anxious to escape from impending ruin, sought a treaty of peace from Joshua, and obtained it by pretending to be natives of a distant country.

Adonized'ec, king of Jerusalem, was greatly enraged when he heard that the Gibeonites had deserted the common cause; he sent ambassies to four of the neighboring princes to aid him in punishing their defection; they readily assented, and "went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it." Joshua immediately marched to their deliverance. The five kings were completely routed; at Joshua's command "the sun stood still and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel."

During the space of seven years, the Israelites were almost incessantly engaged in completing the conquest of Canaan, but they met with no very formidable resistance after the memorable battle against the five kings before Gibeon. They did not however wholly exterminate the idolatrous tribes, as the Lord had commanded; they became weary of the protracted warfare, and the warriors of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, were naturally anxious to return to their families beyond Jordan. This impolitic act of disobedience was subsequently productive of fatal consequences, for the surviving Canaanites eagerly sought and embraced every opportunity of taking revenge for the extermination of their brethren. Even in peace they were scarcely less dangerous to the prosperity of the chosen people than in war, for they frequently seduced the Israelites to join in the impure and impious rites of their licentious idolatry.

Soon after tranquillity had been established in Palestine, and the different tribes and families had taken possession of their allotted portions, Joshua died, at the advanced age of one hundred and ten, having ruled the country as wisely as he had conquered it bravely: "And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel."

SECTION IV.-History of Israel under the Judges.

UNDER the theocracy, as established by Moses, the civil government of Israel was to be administered by Shophetim, or Judges, nominated by the divine oracle, the mysterious Urim and Thummím, which were in the custody of the high-priest; but after the death of Joshua the Israelites frequently apostatized to idolatry, the oracles of God were neglected, the appointment of chief magistrates omitted. The tribe of Judah at first actively engaged in completing the conquest which had