Read Ebook: Bible Atlas: A Manual of Biblical Geography and History by Hurlbut Jesse Lyman Vincent John Heyl Author Of Introduction Etc

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During the middle kingdom, 2900-1570 B.C. Thebes was capital until about 2000 B.C. The dates are very uncertain, but between 2500 and 2000 B.C. the kingdom declined. 12th Dynasty 2500-2300.

THE OLD TESTAMENT WORLD.

Of these, two are situated mainly between the Zagros chain of mountains and the Tigris river, Assyria and Elam; two are between the Tigris and Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Chaldea; and one is the vast Arabian desert.

These lands will receive more extended treatment in connection with other maps, so that we give them only a brief mention here.

OUTLINE FOR TEACHING AND REVIEW.

Review the entire map, from the beginning; then erase it, and call for the class to give the names as they are indicated by the pointer without marking.

ANCIENT WORLD, AND DESCENDANTS OF NOAH.

ONE of the most ancient and valuable accounts of the races of mankind is found in the tenth chapter of Genesis. It states the location and, in large degree, the relationship of the various families upon the earth, as they were known to the descendants of Abraham.

These belonged to seven families, who are called "sons of Japheth" in Gen. 10:2; and seven others, who are spoken of as his grandsons in Gen. 10:3, 4. These statements are not necessarily to be understood literally. There may have been other sons and grandsons of Japheth; but these were the ones whose names are remembered as the founders of nations. The peoples descended from Japheth belong to what is called the Aryan or Indo-European race.

Three of the families descended from Gomer formed separate tribes, named, in the table of nations in Gen. 10:3, after Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. All of these had homes around or near the Black Sea.

Five lands and races are named as subdivisions of the family of Javan in Gen. 10:4, all of which were situated near each other.

The descendants of Shem are placed last in the list of the table of nations, not because their founder was the youngest, but because out of their lines one family is chosen as the especial theme of the history, which thus receives a fitting introduction. Shem was the founder of five great races, and of many subordinate tribes.

OUTLINE FOR TEACHING.

REVIEW CHART--THE TABLE OF NATIONS.

PHYSICAL PALESTINE.

THE terms Canaan, Palestine and the Holy Land are used with various meanings. The first is the original name, taken from the ancestor of its early inhabitants; the second is a modernized form of the word "Philistine," a race occupying its southwest portion; the third is the name applied to it as the land where the Saviour of the world lived and died. In either one of these three names we may also find three different limitations of meaning. 1. Strictly speaking, the word "Canaan" refers to the country between the Jordan and the Mediterranean; bounded on the north by Mount Lebanon, and on the south by the desert. The name "Palestine" is often given to this section only. This region includes about 6,600 square miles, a territory smaller than the State of Massachusetts by 1,200 square miles. 2. Palestine Proper, the Land of the Twelve Tribes, embraces both Canaan and the region east of the Jordan, loosely called Gilead, though that name strictly belongs to but one section of it. Palestine Proper is bounded on the north by the river Leontes, Mount Lebanon and Mount Hermon; east by the Syrian desert, south by the Arabian desert, and west by the Mediterranean; and forms a sort of parallelogram, embracing an area of about 12,000 miles, about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 3. The Land of Promise , in its largest meaning, extended from the "Entrance of Hamath," on the north, to Mount Hor, Kadesh-barnea, and the "River of Egypt" ; and from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean; including an area of 60,000 square miles, a little less than that of the five New England States. This was realized only during a part of the reigns of David and Solomon. Not all of even Palestine Proper was possessed by Israel during most of its history; for the plain along the sea-shore was held by the Philistines on the south, and by the Phoenicians on the north.

The divisions of Palestine made by the natural features of the country are four, generally parallel to each other: 1. The Maritime Plain. 2. The Mountain Region. 3. The Jordan Valley. 4. The Eastern Table-Land.

These may be noticed under three heads: 1. The River Jordan. 2. The Three Lakes. 3. The Brooks, or mountain torrents.

These may be considered either in order of height or of location. The diagram groups the principal mountains in the relation of their comparative height above the sea-level; we may notice them in their order of location. They naturally divide into two sections: 1. Those of the Mountain Region west of Jordan. 2. Those of the Eastern Table-Land.

The Eastern Table-Land has fewer elevations, and is generally less noticed in the Scriptures. 1. On the north rises Mount Hermon, 9,000 feet high, the southern end of the range known as Anti-Lebanon, or "Lebanon toward the sun-rising." 2. South of the river Hieromax is Mount Gilead, about 3,000 feet high. 3. Near the northern end of the Dead Sea is Mount Nebo, 2,670 feet high, on a "shoulder" of which, Mount Pisgah, Moses beheld the Promised Land, and died.

These have been already noticed, to some extent, but may be named together. Upon the Maritime Plain, we notice: 1. Phoenicia, a very narrow strip along the Mediterranean, north of Mount Carmel, never possessed by the Israelites, and having Tyre and Sidon as its principal cities. 2. Directly south of Mount Carmel, Sharon, having Caesarea and Joppa as its most important places. 3. Still further south, Philistia, the land of Israel's ancient enemies, containing several cities, of which Gaza and Ashkelon were chief. Upon the Mountain Region we find imbedded, 4. The Plain of Esdraelon, a Y-shaped region, 250 feet above the sea-level, surrounded by mountains, and situated between Mounts Carmel, Tabor and Gilboa. 5. The Negeb, or South Country, between Hebron and the desert, in Southern Judaea, may be regarded as a plain, though of rolling character, as its hills are not so high as those on the north. 6. In the Jordan Valley, just north of the Dead Sea, is a place called "the Plain of Jordan," or "the Plain of Jericho," the site of the destroyed "cities of the plain." 7. In the northern section of the Eastern Table-Land is the vast highland known as "the Hauran," anciently called Bashan, watered by the streams which form the Hieromax river.

OUTLINE FOR REVIEW.

THE JOURNEYS OF THE PATRIARCHS.

AT the close of the eleventh chapter of Genesis a change is made in the subject of the Bible story. Thus far it has been a history of the entire race; but from this point to the close of Genesis a single family is brought into prominent notice, and the rest of the tribes of men are referred to only incidentally. The family of Abraham, of Semitic origin, deserve all their prominence in sacred history, since through them the true religion was perpetuated until the world was ready for its wider dissemination in the gospel period.

These extend over nearly all the lands of the Old Testament, from Chaldea to Egypt. They represent the separation of a Semitic clan from the great body of the race, which was then ruled by an Elamite dynasty; and they bring to our notice the political relations of the world about two thousand years before Christ, in the early Chaldean period of the East.

The life of Isaac, though longer than the lives of Abraham and Jacob, was spent in a comparatively small range of territory, and with comparatively few events. We have not noted upon the map the lines of his journeyings; but the localities may be seen, as far as they are identified, upon the map of Palestine, on page 58.

The Journeys of Jacob may be arranged as follows:

OUTLINE FOR REVIEW.

PALESTINE BEFORE THE CONQUEST.

THE knowledge which we possess of the inhabitants of Palestine before the 13th century B.C. is quite scanty. The names of tribes, more or less settled, are given; but we know very little of their language, customs or origin. The description of Palestine during the first eight hundred years after the Deluge may be arranged as follows: 1. The Earliest Inhabitants. 2. The Tribes of the Patriarchal Era. 3. The Nations at the Time of the Conquest. 4. The Surrounding Nations.

In most lands the earliest people have been of an unknown race, as the mound builders of America and the cave dwellers of Europe. Very early in the history of the race a people entered Palestine, and settled upon both sides of the Jordan, generally among the mountains. They were remembered by different names in various parts of the country, but the names show the dread inspired by them among the later tribes. They were doubtless of one race, but whether of Hamitic or Semitic stock is uncertain; and their history is as unknown as their origin. They were already in their decline in the times of Abraham, when the Canaanite races, the second series of inhabitants, were in possession of the land. They belonged to six tribes or divisions, each having a different name and location, but all bearing the same characteristics, and all regarded as giants by those who came after them. Our principal authorities concerning these archaic peoples are Gen. 14:5-7, and Deut. 2:10-23.

The chosen family came to Palestine about 1921 B.C., according to the common chronology, but probably from two to four hundred years earlier. At this time these earliest races were already superseded in nearly all the land by later tribes, of Hamitic origin, with which the patriarchs were often brought into contact. Those tribes were often called Canaanites, because the nation of that name was both the original stock and in possession of the richest and best portion of the land.

We notice these tribes, as far as practicable, in the order of their location in the four great natural divisions of the country: the tribes of the maritime plain, those of the mountain region, those of the Jordan Valley, and those of the eastern table-land.

It is probable, that, during the patriarchal era, while Abraham and his family lived as wanderers in their Land of Promise, the lands east of the Jordan were occupied by their primeval inhabitants, the Rephaim in the north, the Zuzim between the Jabbok and the Arnon, and the Emim in the south.

What changes may have taken place among the tribes of Western Palestine during the four centuries while the Israelites were in Egypt, is not known; but, as the land became more thickly settled, the strifes of the Canaanite tribes and their roving traits would result in many alterations of boundary lines. But east of the Jordan the changes may be more distinctly marked.

The principal nations bordering upon the land of Canaan before the conquest were the following:

OUTLINE FOR REVIEW.

LANDS OF THE SOJOURN AND WANDERING.

THE LAND OF EGYPT.

OUTLINE FOR REVIEW.

THE WILDERNESS OF THE WANDERING.

OUTLINE FOR REVIEW.

THE LAND OF EDOM.

OUTLINE FOR REVIEW.

THE WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS.

There are great difficulties in fixing the location of the places and the order of events in the history of the forty years which intervened between the exodus, or "going out," from Egypt, and the entrance into the Promised Land . These difficulties arise from various causes: the antiquity of the events, the fragmentary character of the history, the extent of the country, our scanty knowledge of the region, and especially the changes which have taken place in the sea-coast during the 3,000 years past. While the general course of the journey can be easily defined, the particular localities are, in many instances, exceedingly uncertain. For the convenience of the student, we divide the entire journey from Egypt to Canaan into sections.

STATIONS OF THE ISRAELITES DURING THEIR JOURNEY FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN.

THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN.

AFTER the forty years of the Wandering came the seven years of the Conquest. Yet it is true, that in the complete sense the conquest began before the Israelites crossed the Jordan under Joshua, and was not finished until long after the period of the Judges. As Dean Stanley says: "The conquest began from the passage of the brook Zered, under Moses; it was not finally closed till the capture of Jerusalem by David. But in a more limited sense it may be confined to the period during which the territory, afterward known by the name of Palestine, was definitively occupied as their own by the Israelites." The map on page 36 shows us the territorial divisions of the land before the conquest; the one which we are now studying presents the campaigns by which it was won. These may be divided into three sections. 1. The conquest of the territory on the east of the Jordan, in three campaigns, during the rule of Moses. 2. The conquest of that on the west of the Jordan, under the leadership of Joshua, in three campaigns. 3. A series of supplementary conquests completing the work of subjugation.

This region was occupied, at the time of the arrival of the Israelites, by the Moabites between the brooks Zered and Arnon, and by the Amorites north of the Arnon. The latter people were divided into two kingdoms. The land of Gilead was ruled by King Sihon, whose capital was at Heshbon; and the table-land of Bashan by Og, a remnant of the old race of the Rephaim. Tributary to Sihon, and on the border of the Arabian desert, were the Midianites ; and near the Moabites were their nomadic kinsmen, the Ammonites.

The entire country east of the Jordan and north of the brook Arnon was thus conquered by the Israelites before the death of Moses. It was assigned to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, as their home, upon condition that their warriors should accompany the rest of the tribes in the conquest of Western Palestine. Their boundaries will be noticed in connection with the map of Israel, as divided among the Twelve Tribes.

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