Lecture XII: The Battle of Merom and Settlement of the Tribes (part 2)
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
3. It was the occupation of "the Holy Land," — the
land set apart for the "Holy People." I have
described elsewhere what may be called the
geographical evidence for the Providence which guided
the steps of Israel. By its absolutely unique confor-
mation, — by the unparalleled peculiarity of the Jordan
valley, — by its seclusion, through sea, and land, and
desert, and river, from the surrounding world, — the
country has a mark set upon it, corresponding to those
features which have caused the Jews to "dwell alone"
among the nations. And yet also its central situation
between Assyria and Egypt, and its opening to the
Mediterranean, gave it the power of at last bursting
its bond. Its smallness and narrowness gave it the
compactness, and, at the same time, the outward in-
significance, which, as in the case of Greece, so highly
enhances the moral grandeur of the Church and State
that rose within those boundaries. And, within these
bounds, the variety and diversity of features, — sea,
mountain, plains, desert, tropical vegetation, springs,
earthquakes, perhaps volcanoes, sharp divisions between
one state and another, — made it the fit receptacle of
a nation which was to give birth to the Sacred book
of all lands; which was to be the parent and likeness
of a Church whose name was to be "Catholic," and
whose chief distinction was to be its variety of gifts
and diversity of character.
4. From this time, also, for the Israelite common-
wealth, sprang up by degrees that state of
society which, as has been often observed,
the country was so well suited, and which, in time
so well favored the growth of individual liberty, of
national independence, and of general purity of do-
mestic life. To Joshua, a fixed Jewish tradition as-
cribed ten decrees, laying down precise rules,
which were instituted to protect the prop-
erty of each tribe, and of each householder, from law-
less depredation. Cattle, of a smaller kind, were to
be allowed to graze in thick woods, not in thin
wood; in woods, no kind of cattle, without the own-
er's consent. Sticks and branches might be gathered
by any Hebrew, but not cut. Herbs, of any kind,
might be gathered, with the exception of pease.
Woods might be pruned, provided that they were
not olive or fruit-trees, and that there was sufficient
shade in the place. Each district or town was to
have its river and its spring for its own use. Fish
might be caught in the Lake of Gennesaret with
hooks, but nets or fishing-boats were only to be used
by the members of those tribes who lived on its
shores. The roads were to be kept free from public
nuisance. Any one lost in a vineyard might proceed
in it without trespass, till he reached his home. If
the roads became impassable they might be left for
by-paths. A dead body might be buried wherever
found, provided that it were not near or in a town.
These rules, whatever may be their date, both show
the traditional estimate of Joshua, as the
founder of the common law of property in
Palestine, and also the general framework of society
at least in some early period of the history. The
glimpses into the private life of the Jewish house-
holders are naturally so few that we can hardly form
any conclusion as to the extent to which the inten-
tions of the Mosaic law and of the settlements of
Joshua were carried out. Some instances, however,
remain to us in later times, which, bearing as they
do on their face every appearance of long-inherited
usage, may be fairly taken as samples of the rest.
Boaz, the owner of the cornfields of Bethlehem, in
the midst of his reapers and gleaners; Nabal, the
rich shepherd on the slopes of the southern Carmel;
Barzillai, the powerful chief beyond the Jordan, with
his patriarchal possessions of sheep and cattle; Na-
both, the independent owner of the vineyard on the
hill of Jezreel, — all in their different forms, present
the same picture of the established usages in indi-
vidual and family life; and the reluctance even of
kings to break through these usages, and the vehe-
mence with which the Prophets denounce any such
attempt on the part either of kings or of nobles,
showed the firm hold that the traditions of the Con-
quest kept the national mind.
IV. The survey of this great event would not be
complete without a last glance at the fate
of the conquered inhabitants. The disturbed
state of the whole subsequent period, reserved
for the next Lecture, shows how far less sweeping
than at first would appear was the extirpation of the
vanquished race. It will be sufficient here briefly to
indicate the traces of them which were permanently
left in the country.
The usual relation of the conquering and the con-
quered occupants was, as a general rule, reversed.
We find the old inhabitants taking refuge not in
the mountains but in the plains: the invaders re-
pelled from the plains, but victorious in the moun-
tains. This, we are expressly told, arose from the
respective forces of the combatants. The strength of
the Canaanites was in their chariots and horses; of
the Israelites, in their invincible infantry. In one in-
stance only, the battle of Merom, the victory was
won on level ground against the formidable array of
Jabin's cavalry. Another resource in the hands of
the old inhabitants was the strength of their for-
tresses. "The cities, great and fenced up to heav-
en," had always been a subject of alarm to their
less civilized invaders; and, though in the first onset
some had fallen, yet, after the fervor of the Conquest
was passed away, the native inhabitants, especially
when on the edge or in the midst of the friendly
plains, recovered spirit, and maintained their ground
for generations, if not centuries, after the time of
Joshua.
Amongst these the five cities of Philistia, although
three of them (Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron)
were for a short time in the hands of the
Israelites, resisted the attempts of Judah. The abo-
riginal Avites also lingered beside them. Je-
bus, the only instance of a completely mountain fast-
ness which remained untaked, was conspicuous for its
defiance of the same great tribe, defended by the
the steep natural trench of its deep valleys.
Along the sea-coast were all the Phœnician cities
from Dor and Accho as far as Zidon, not
to speak of Arvad in the farther north. In
the plain between Beth-horon and the sea was the
little kingdom of Gezer, which remained indepen-
dent till it was conquered by the king of Egypt, and
given as a dowry to Solomon's queen.
In the north the strong towns along the plain of
Esdraelon held out against even the vigor of
Manasseh, though expressly charged with the
duty of expelling them, which properly belonged to
the less warlike tribes of Issachar and Asher. These
were Taanach and Megiddo, the future encampments
of Sisera's army; Endor, hence naturally the abode
of the witch whom Saul consulted; Ibleam in the
same region; Bethshan, with its temple of Astarte,
the Jebus of the north, which remained, under the
name of Scythopols, a heathen and Gentile city, even
to the Christian era.
On the northern frontier, four remnants of the an-
cient inhabitants survived both the shock of the in-
vasion of Machir, and also of the battle of Merom.
At the source of the Jordan was the Phœnician
colony of Laish. Beyond this was the fortress of
Maacah. Its situation in the upland plain, above the
sources of the Jordan, and thus beyond the actual
frontier of Palestine, gave it a natural independence,
which was still further sustained by the oracular rep-
utation of the wisdom of its inhabitants. It was
known from its position in that well-watered plateau
as Abel-Beth-Maacah, "the Meadow of the House of
Maacah." On the east of the same plateau was the
tribe of the Geshurites, ruled by a race of indepen-
dent kings. Still more remote, but yet within con-
tact of Israel, was the Hivite settlement on Lebanon
and round the sanctuary of Baalgad on the sacred
heights of Hermon.
These (till David's time) were independent. Others
remained either in friendly relations or tributary.
Amongst the friendly tribes may be reckoned
the Kenites, or Arabian kinsmen of Jethro,
in the south and north; the Gibeonites, with the
towns in their league; the second Luz, founded by
the secret ally who had betrayed the first; and a
remnant of Hittites in or near Shechem. Amongst
the tributaries were the four comparatively obscure
towns of Kitron, Nahalol, Bethshemesh, and Betha-
nath; and the general population who appear in that
capacity in the reign of Solomon.
Less conspicuous vestiges of the Canaanite race may
be found in the names of towns, struggling for exist-
ence with the new names imposed by the conquerors,
— Kirjath-arba with Hebron, Kirjath-sepher with Debir,
Kenath with Nobah, Luz with Bethel, Ephratah with
Bethlehem; and yet again, in a more striking form,
in the few individuals who, from time to time, ap-
pear in the service or alliance of the Israelite kings,
— Uriah the Hittite, Ittai of Gath, Araunah the Je-
busite.
That any escaped by migration, is never expressly
said, but it is probable, that we may well
accept eve very slight confirmations of it from other
sources. Two traditions are preserved to this effect.
When Procopius was in Africa, in the army of Beli-
sarius, two pillars of white marble were pointed out
to him near Tangier, bearing an inscription in Phœ-
nician characters, which was thus explained to him:
"We are they that fled from before the face of the
robber Joshua, son of Nun." The genuineness,
or even the antiquity, of the monument may be more
than doubtful; but it shows the belief which lingered
amongs the remnant of the Phœnician colonies on
the coast of Africa. Another story, preserved in Rab-
binical legends, represented that when Alexander ar-
rived in Palestine, the Gergesenes, or Girgashites, who
had fled to Africa, came to plead their cause before
him against the Israelites, for unlawful dispossession.
Trivial as these traditions may be in themselves, they
have some interest, as showing the last lingering rem-
iniscences — if not in the conquered, at least in the
conquerors — of the old race which they had cast out
and superseded.
V. One final effect of this epoch must be noticed,
the establishment of the first national sanc-
tuary, and the first national capital in Pales-
tine. Bethel — which by its sacred name and asso-
ciations would have been naturally chosen — was, at
this early stage of the Conquest, still in the hands
of the Canaanites. Shiloh, therefore, became
and remained the seat of the Ark till the establish-
ment of the monarchy; and thus was, as long as it
lasted, a memorial of the peculiar accidents of the
Conquest in which it first originated. The general
appearance of the sanctuary and its ultimate fate be-
long to the ensuing period of the history. But the
selection of the site belongs to this period, and could
belong to no other. The place of the sanctuary was
naturally fixed by the place of the Ark. This, as
we have seen, was, in the first instance, Gilgal. But,
as the conquerors advanced into the interior, a more
central situation became necessary. This was found in
a spot unmarked by any natural features of strength
or beauty, or by any ancient recollections; recom-
mended only by its comparative seclusion, near the
central thoroughfare of Palestine, yet not actually upon
it. Its ancient Canaanite name seems to have been
Taanath. The title of "Shiloh" was probably given
to it, in token of the "rest" which the weary con-
querors found in its quiet valley.
But Shiloh — although it succeeded to Gilgal as the
Holy Place of the Holy Land, and although from
thence was made the survey and apportionment of
the territory — was intended only as a temporary
halt. It was still not the city, but the "camp of
Shiloh." The spot which the conquerors fixed as
the capital was Shechem, the ancient city
before which Jacob had first encamped, and now the
centre of the great tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of
Joshua himself. When he first arrived at this his
future home, is uncertain. In the variations of the
Hebrew and Septuagint texts, we may be allowed to
follow the guidance of Josephus, and connect the
celebration of this marked event in his life with its
closing scenes, which unquestionably took place in
the most beautiful of all the sites of Western Pales-
tine. In that central valley of the hills of Ephraim,
which commands the view of the Jordan valley on the
east, and the sea on the west — a complete draught
through the heart of the country — was the fit seat
of the house of Joseph, the ancient portion of their
ancestor, given by Jacob himself. Here were the two
sacred mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, marked out for
the curses and blessings of the Law. From the low-
er spurs of those hills, all but meeting across the nar-
rowest part of the valley, those curses and blessings
were first chanted, and the loud Amen from the vast
multitudes below echoed back by the surrounding
hills. Ebal stretching along the northern side of the
valley became, as its many rock-hewn tombs still in-
dicate, the necropolis of the new settlement. Gerizim,
the oldest sanctuary in Palestine, reaching back even
to the days of Abraham and Melchizedek, became the
natural shelter of the capital. From its steep sides
and slopes burst forth the thirty-two springs which
have filled the valley with a mass of living verdure.
Here the two tribes of the house of Joseph depos-
ited, at last, the sacred burden they had borne with
them through the wilderness, — the Egyptian coffin
containing the embalmled body of Joseph himself, to
be buried in the rich cornfields which his father had
given to the favorite son of his favorite Rachel.
This was "the border of the sanctuary, the moun-
tain which the right hand of God had purchased,"
for the tribe which now through its victorious leader
stood foremost amongst them all, and which hence-
forth retained its supremacy till it fell, in the fall,
though but for a time, of the nation itself. How
closely the grandeur of Ephraim and the selection of
this seat of their power are connected with the career
of Joshua, may be seen from the fact that he
alone of all the Jewish heroes after the time of Moses,
is enshrined in the traditions of the Samaritans. He
is "King Joshua": he takes up his abode on the
"Blessed Mountain," as Gerizim is always called: on
its summit are still pointed out the twelve stones
which he laid in order: he builds a citadel on the
adjacent side of Samaria: he confers once a week
with the high priest Eleazar: he leaves his power to
his son Phinehas, and in this confusion the
history of Israel abruptly terminates. But
the connection of Joshua with Shechem and with
Ephraim, though more soberly, is not less clearly
marked in the Sacred narrative. He appears there as
the representative of his tribe; yet, as we have seen,
checking that overbearing pride which at last caused
their ruin. Beneath the old consecrated oak of Abra-
ham and Jacob, of which the memory still lingers in
a secluded corner of the valley, under the northeast-
ern flank of Gerizim, he made his farewell address
and set up there the pillar which long remained as
his memorial. In and around Shechem arose the
first national burial-place, a counterpoise to the patri-
archal sepulchres at Hebron. Joseph's tomb
was already fixed: its reputed site is visible to this
day. A tradition, current at the time of the Chris-
tian era, ascribed to the purchase of this tomb to Abra-
ham, and included within it the remains, not only of
Joseph, but of the twelve Fathers of the Jewish
tribes, and Jacob himself. Eleazar was buried in
the rocky side of a hill which bore the name of his
more famous son, Phinehas, who was himself, doubt-
less, interred in the same sepulchre. It is described
as being in the mountains of Ephraim, and is pointed
out by Samaritan tradition on a height immediately
east of Gerizim. The grave of Joshua has been by
the Musselmans claimed for a far distant spot. On the
summit of the Giant's Hill, overlooking the Bosphorus
and the Black Sea, his vast tomb is shown, with the
gigantic proportions in which the Orientals delight. But
the reverence of his own countrymen cherished the
remembrance of it with a more accurate knowledge,
in the inheritance which had been given to him —
as though he were a sole tribe in himself — in Tim-
nath-serah, or Heres, "on the north side of the hill
of Gaash;" and in the same grave (according to a
very ancient tradition) were buried the stone knives
used in the ceremony of circumcision at Gilgal, which
were long sought out as relics by those who came
in after-years to visit the tomb of their mighty De-
liverer.
from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. I : Abraham to Samuel,
Lecture XII: The Battle of Merom and Settlement of the Tribes.
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1879, pp. 286-301
Posted Apr 16, 2018, 3:53 PM UTC
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