Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/546

 53J PALAESTINA, between Ekron and Gaza, -which the Israelites did not occupy; in tlie mountains 11+9+10+6 + 2 = 38 cities, with their villages; and in the wilderness, i. e. the western side of the Dead Sea, 6 towns and their villages; in all, according to the Hebrew ver- sion, no less than 1 12 towns, exclusive of their future capital, of which the Jebusite still held pos- ses.--ion. But the Septuagint version inserts the names of 1 1 other cities in the mountain district, among which are the important towns Bethlehem and Tekoa, which would make the total 123 in the tribe of Judah alone, implying an enormous popu- lation, even if we admit that these towns were only large villages with scattered hamlets. It must be remarked, however, that the tribe of Simeon was comprehended within the limits above assigned to the tribe of Judah; and that 17 cities in the south of Judah are referred to Simeon, as is expressly stated: " Out of the portion of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon : for the part of the children of Judah was too much for them : therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of them." (Josh. xix. 1—9.) As Simeon possessed the southern part of the ter- ritory assigned to Judah, so did the tribe of Dan im- pinge upon its north-west border; and in the list of its seventeen cities are some before assigned to Judah {Josh. sis. 41 — 46); a limited extent of territory on the confines of the plain of the Philis- tines, from which they early sent out a colony to the extreme north of the Holy Land, where their city, synonymous with their tribe, situated at the southern base of Mount Hermon, became proverbial in Israel for the worship of the golden calf. {Judges, xviii.) Benjamin. — The tribe of Benjamin was bounded by Judah on the south, by the Jordan on the east. The northern line was drawn from Jericho west- ward through the mountains, by Bethel and Ata- roth-adar, to a bill that lay to the south of the lower Beth-horon, from which point the boundary was drawn to Kirjath-jearim of the tribe of Judah. They possessed twenty-six cities, including Jeru- salem. {Josh, xviii. 11 — 28.) It is evident that Josephus is mistaken in stating that they ex- tended in length from Jordan to the sea ; fcjr it is clear that the tribe ot Dan and the plain of Philistia lay between them and the Mediterranean. His remark that the width of their territory was least of all, is more accurate, though his explanation of the fact may be doubted, when he ascribes it to the fruitfulness of the land, which, he adds, compre- hended Jericho and Jerusalem. Eplirnlm. — The tribe of Epliraim was contermi- nous on the south with the tribe of Benjamin, as far as the western extremity of the latter ; from whence it passed by Tappuah and the river Kanah to the sea. On the east side are named Ataroth- addar and Beth-horon the upper, and on the north, beginning at the sea and going east, Jlichmethah, Taanath-shiloh, Jancihah, Ataroth, Naarath, Jericho, and the Jordan. The cities of Ephraim are not catalogued ; but it is remarked that " the separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages" (svi. 5 — 9). According to Josephus it extended in width from Bethel even to the great plain of Esdraelon. Manasseh. — The portion of JIanasseh on the west of Jordan was contiguous to that of Ephraim, and appears to have been allotted to the two tribes PALAESTINA. jointly, as the same boundaries are assigned to both (svi. 1 — 4, comp. 5 — 8 with xvii. 7 — 10), but in general the southern part was Ephraim, and the north Manasseh, which latter also possessed towns in the borders (if Asher and Issacliar, as Bethshean and Endor, on the east, in Issachar, and Taanach, Jlegiddo, and Dor, on the west, in Asher (ver. 1 1 ). It will have been seen that these twin tribes did not extend as far as the Jordan eastward, btft that their eastern boundary excluded the valley of the Jordan, and formed, with their northern boundary, a curved line from Jericho to the sea, south of Mount Carmel. Issachar. — This tribe covered the whole of the north-east frontier of Manasseh and Ephraim, and so comprehended the valley of the Jordan northward from Jericho to Mount Tabor, and the eastern part of the plain of Esdraelon, in which Tabor is situated, containing sixteen cities, among which were Shunem and Jezreel of Scripture note, the latter for many years the capital of the kingdom of Israel. Asher. — To the west of Issachar was Asher, oc- cupying the remainder of the valley of Esdraelon, now the Plain of Acre, and extending along the coast of the Mediterranean, from Mount Carmel to Sidon. Our ignorance of the modern geography of Upper Galilee does not allow us to assign its limits to the east; but there is little doubt that careful inquiry would still recover the sites at least of some of their twenty-two cities, and so restore the eastern boundary of their territory, which extended along the western borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, which two tribes occupied the highlands of Galilee to the extremity of the Land of Promise. Zebulun. — Of these two, Zebulun was to the south, contiguous to Issachar, having the sea of Tiberias for its eastern boundary, as far perhaps as the mouth of the northern Jordan. None of its twelve cities can now be identified with certainty; but Japhia is probably represented by the modern village of Yapha, in the plain, not far to the south of Nazareth, which was certainly situated within the borders of this tribe; and Bethlehem may, with great probability, be placed at the modern village of Beitlahem, not far from tlie ruins of Seppho^ii-i to the north-west. [Caesauea-Dio.] Naphtali. — The northernmost of the tribes was Naphtali, bounded by the Upper Jordan on the east, from its source to its mouth, near which was situ- ated the city of Capernaum, expressly declared by St. JIatthew to have been in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali (iv. 13). On the south was Zebulun, on the west Asher, and on the north the roots of Libanus and the valley of Coelesyria, now called the Belkaa'. Of their nineteen cities Kedesh is the most noted in Scripture history; and its ruins, exist- ing under the same name at this day, attest its ancient importance. Josephus absurdly extends their territory to Damascus, if the reading be not corrupt, as Eeland suspects. Having completed this survey of the tribes, it may be remarked in anticipation of the following section, that the subsequent divisions of the country followed very much the divisions of the tribes: thus the district of Judaea was formed by grouping together the tribes of Judah, Simeon, Dan, and Benjamin; Samaria was coextensive with Ephraim and the half of Manasseh; Issachar and Asher occu- pied Lower Galilee; Zebulun and Naphtali Upper Galilee. Trans-Jordanic tribes. — A few words must be