Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/137

 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.

[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."]

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