Great Se Arabia: on s, near whe e frequer order to dea Occupation naan, the ided the c ad of a nu of Jordan: ites, Cana These hites, An they finally subdued until the reigns of David and Solomon, who reduced them to the condition of slaves: the latter employed 153,600 of them in the most servile parts of his work, in building his temple, palace, &c. (2 Sam. v. 6-8. 1 Chron. xi. 4-8. 1 Kings ix. 20. 2 Chron. ii. 17, 18. and viii. 7, 8.) Besides these devoted nations there were others, either settled in the land at the arrival of the Israelites, or in its immediate environs, with whom the latter had to maintain many severe conflicts: they were six in number. 1. The PHILISTINES were the descendants of Mizraim, the second son of Ham; who, migrating from Caphtor or the north-eastern part of Egypt, very early settled in a small strip of territory along the sea-shore, in the south-west of Canaan, having expelled the upwards of Avites, who had before possessed it. (Deut. ii. 23. Amos ix. 7. Jer. xlvii. 4.) The district occupied by the Philistines was in the ngdoms. time of Joshua distinguished into five lordships, denominated, from ten nations the chief towns, Gaza, Ashdod, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron. They were the most formidable enemies perhaps whom the children of Israel had to encounter: and of the inveteracy of their enmity against the latter, we have abundant evidence in the sacred writings. Though they were subdued by David, and kept in subjection by some succeeding monarchs, yet they afterwards became so considerable, that from them the Holy Land was called by the Greeks Palestine, which appellation it retains to this day. The country was finally subdued, about the year of the world 3841 (B. c. 159) by the illustrious general, Judas Maccabæus; and about sixty-five years afterwards Jannæus burnt their city Gaza, and incorporated the remnant of the Philistines with such Jews as he placed in their country. the Reph Jebusites Judæa, s sea, west shites, or and the H peh or G Judges prites bea ond the times pu xiv. 15.1 f Israel seven and J d gave the old prove t ments 1 Moses: ress the and Norwe Micha 2. The MIDIANITES were the descendants of Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah. (Gen. xxv. 2.) In the Scriptures two different places are assigned as the territory of the Midianites: the one, almost the north-east point of the Red Sea, where Jethro the father-in-law of Moses was a prince or priest. These western or southern Midianites were also called Cushites, because they occupied the country that originally belonged to Cush. They retained the knowledge of the true God, which appears to have been lost among the eastern or northern Midianites who dwelt on the east of the Dead Sea. (Gen. xxv. 2-6. xxxvii. 28. Exod. ii. iii. xvii.) These northern Midianites were either subject to or allied with the Moabites; and their women were particularly instrumental in se-ducing the Israelites to idolatry and other crimes; which wickedness was punished by Jehovah with the almost total destruction of their nation (Numb. xxii. 4-7. xxv. xxxi. Josh. xiii. 21.); although they afterwards recovered so much of their former strength as to render the Israelites their tributaries, and for seven years greatly oppressed them. From this bondage, Gideon delivered his countrymen with a very inferior force, and almost annihilated the Midianites, whose surviving remnants are supposed to have been incorporated with the Moabites or Ammonites. bounded on the west by the Mediterranean or Great Sea, as it is often called in the Scriptures; on the east by Arabia; on the south by the river of Egypt (supposed to be not the Nile, but the Sichor, Josh. xiii. 3. Jer. ii. 18.), and the Desert of Sin, or Beersheba, the southern shore of the Dead Sea, and the river Arnon; and on the north by the chain of mountains termed Antilibanus, near which stood the city of Dan: hence in the sacred writings we frequently meet with the expression, from Dan to Beersheba, in order to denote the whole length of the land of Israel.1 III. The Land of Canaan, previously to its occupation by the Israelites, was possessed by the descendants of Canaan, the youngest son of Ham, and grandson of Noah; who divided the country among his eleven sons, each of whom was the head of a numerous clan or tribe. (Gen. x. 15-19.) Here they resided upwards of seven centuries, and founded numerous republics and kingdoms. In the days of Abraham, this region was occupied by ten nations; the Kenites, Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, to the east of Jordan; and westward, the Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaims, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and the Jebusites. (Gen. xv. 18-21.) These latter in the days of Moses were called the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (Deut. vii. 1. Josh. iii. 10. xxiv. 11.); the Hivites being substituted for the Rephaims. These seven nations were thus distributed : The Hittites, or sons of Heth, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwelt in the mountains, or hill country of Judæa, southward; the Canaanites dwelt in the midland by the sea, westward, and by the coast of Jordan eastward; and the Girgashites, or Gergesenes, along the eastern side of the sea of Galilee; and the Hivites in Mount Lebanon, under Hermon, in the land of Mizpeh or Gilead, northward. (Compare Numb. xiii. 29. Josh. xi. 3. Judges iii. 3. and Matt. viii. 28.) Of all these nations the Amorites became the most powerful, so as to extend their conquests beyond the river Jordan over the Kadmonites; whence they are sometimes put for the whole seven nations, as in Gen. xv. 16. Josh. xxiv. 15. and 2 Sam. xxi. 2. These nations were the people whom the children of Israel were commanded to exterminate. Within the period of seven years Moses conquered two powerful kingdoms on the east, and Joshua thirty-one smaller kingdoms on the west of Jordan, and gave their land to the Israelites; though it appears that some of the old inhabitants were permitted by Jehovah to remain there, to prove their conquerors, whether they would hearken to the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses and the nations thus spared were afterwards suffered to oppress the Israelites with great severity. (Numb. xxi. 21-35. xxxii. and xxxiv. Deut. ii. 26-37. iii. 1-20. Josh. vi. 21. Judg. i. 4.) Nor were 1 For a full investigation of the boundaries of the promised land, see Michaelis's Commentaries on the Law of Moses, vol. i. pp. 55-97. they finally subdued until the reigns of David and Solomon, who reduced them to the condition of slaves: the latter employed 153,600 of them in the most servile parts of his work, in building his temple, palace, &c. (2 Sam. v. 6-8. 1 Chron. xi. 4-8. 1 Kings ix. 20. 2 Chron. ii. 17, 18. and viii. 7, 8.) Besides these devoted nations there were others, either settled in the land at the arrival of the Israelites, or in its immediate environs, with whom the latter had to maintain many severe conflicts: they were six in number. 1. The PHILISTINES were the descendants of Mizraim, the second son of Ham; who, migrating from Caphtor or the north-eastern part of Egypt, very early settled in a small strip of territory along the sea-shore, in the south-west of Canaan, having expelled the Avites, who had before possessed it. (Deut. ii. 23. Amos ix. 7. Jer. xlvii. 4.) The district occupied by the Philistines was in the time of Joshua distinguished into five lordships, denominated, from the chief towns, Gaza, Ashdod, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron. They were the most formidable enemies perhaps whom the children of Israel had to encounter: and of the inveteracy of their enmity against the latter, we have abundant evidence in the sacred writings. Though they were subdued by David, and kept in subjection by some succeeding monarchs, yet they afterwards became so considerable, that from them the Holy Land was called by the Greeks Palestine, which appellation it retains to this day. The country was finally subdued, about the year of the world 3841 (B. c. 159) by the illustrious general, Judas Maccabæus; and about sixty-five years afterwards Jannæus burnt their city Gaza, and incorporated the remnant of the Philistines with such Jews as he placed in their country. 2. The MIDIANITES were the descendants of Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah. (Gen. xxv. 2.) In the Scriptures two different places are assigned as the territory of the Midianites: the one, almost the north-east point of the Red Sea, where Jethro the father-in-law of Moses was a prince or priest. These western or southern Midianites were also called Cushites, because they occupied the country that originally belonged to Cush. They retained the knowledge of the true God, which appears to have been lost among the eastern or northern Midianites who dwelt on the east of the Dead Sea. (Gen. xxv. 2-6. xxxvii. 28. Exod. ii. iii. xvii.) These northern Midianites were either subject to or allied with the Moabites; and their women were particularly instrumental in se-ducing the Israelites to idolatry and other crimes; which wickedness was punished by Jehovah with the almost total destruction of their nation (Numb. xxii. 4-7. xxv. xxxi. Josh. xiii. 21.); although they afterwards recovered so much of their former strength as to render the Israelites their tributaries, and for seven years greatly oppressed them. From this bondage, Gideon delivered his countrymen with a very inferior force, and almost annihilated the Midianites, whose surviving remnants are supposed to have been incorporated with the Moabites or Ammonites. rowest, towards the north. From the latest and most accurate maps, however, it appears to have extended nearly two hundred miles in length, and to have been about eighty miles in breadth about the middle, and ten or fifteen, more or less, where it widens or contracts. By the Abrahamic covenant recorded in Gen. xv. 18. the original grant of the Promised Land to the Israelites, was from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates. The Boundaries of it are thus accurately described by Moses (Num. xxxiv. 1-16.), before the Israelites entered into it: "When ye come into the land of Canaan, (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan, with the coasts thereof,) your SOUTH Quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin, along by the coast of Edom," or Idumæa. This was its general description. The boundary itself is next traced: "And your south border shall be the utmost coast of the Salt Sea eastward;" or as explained by Joshua's description afterwards, (xv. 2-4.) "the south border of the tribe of Judah began from the bay of the Salt Sea that looketh southward;" or by combining both, from the south-east corner of the Salt Sea, or Asphaltite lake. "From thence, your border shall turn southwards to the ascent of Akrabbim," or the mountains of Accaba, (signifying "ascent" in Arabic) which run towards the head of the Elanitic, or Eastern gulph of the Red Sea; passing (we may presume) through the sea-ports of Elath and Eziongeber, on the Red Sea, which belonged to Solomon (1 Kings ix. 26.), though they are not noticed in this place. "Thence it shall pass on to [the wilderness of] Zin," on the east side of Mount Hor, including that whole mountainous region within the boundary; "and the going forth thereof shall be to Kadesh Barnea southwards; and it shall go on to Hazar Addar,1 and pass on to Azmon." "And the border shall fetch a compass," or form an angle, "from Azmon," or turn westwards "towards the river of Egypt," or Pelusiac branch of the Nile ;" and its outgoings shall be at the sea," the Mediterranean.2 "And as for the WESTERN BORDER, ye shall have the Great Sea for a border. This shall be your west border." The Great Sea is the Mediterranean, as contrasted with the smaller seas or lakes, the Red Sea, the Salt Sea, and the Sea of Tiberias, or Galilee. And this shall be your NORTH BORDER: from the Great Sea you shall point out Hor ha-hor, (not "Mount Hor," as rendered in our English Bible, confounding it with that on the southern border, but) "the mountain of the mountain," or "the double mountain," or Mount Lebanon, which formed the northern frontier of Palestine, dividing it from Syria; consisting of two great parallel ranges, called 1 Joshua (xv. 3.) interposes two additional stations, Hezron and Kirkaa, before and after Addar, or Hazer Addar, which are not noticed by Moses. 2 This termination of the southern border westwards, is exactly conformable to the accounts of Herodotus and Pliny the former represents Mount Casius lying between Pelusium and the Sirbonic lake, as the boundary between Egypt and Palestine Syria, (3, 5.) the latter reckoned the Sirbonic lake itself as the boundary. (Nat. Hist. 5. 13.) 3 The Septuagint Version has judiciously rendered it, rapa тo opos тo opos, "the mountain beside the mountain." |