Bible Atlas: A Manual of Biblical Geography and History

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

II. THE TRIBES OF THE PATRIARCHAL ERA.

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 At this time these earliest races were already superseded in nearly all the land by later tribes, of Hamitic origin, with which the patriarchs were often brought into contact.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.

1. Beginning at the north, on the narrow plain by the Mediterranean Sea, we find the Zidonians, with their two great cities, Zidon the earlier, and Tyre the later. Perhaps the latter city was not yet founded in the patriarchal age. These people were early famous as the traders of the Mediterranean world, having commercial relations as far as Spain. They occupied a narrow strip of territory between Mount Lebanon and the sea, north of Mount Carmel. Their country was never possessed by the Israelites, and most of the time the relations between the two races were peaceful.

2. Next in order of location we come to the Canaanites proper, or that branch of the descendants of Canaan which retained the family name. While all the tribes of Palestine are often called Canaanites, as descended from one stock, the name strictly belongs only to people who lived in two sections of the country. The word means "lowlanders," and was applied particularly to those dwelling on the maritime plain, on both sides of Mount Carmel, the plain of Esdraelon and that of Sharon; and to those in the Jordan Valley. These together constituted "the Canaanites on the east and on the west." (Josh. 11:3.) They occupied the richest and most valuable portions of the land. The only city on the coast belonging to the Canaanites existing during the patriarchal age was Joppa, still standing. The Canaanite cities in the Jordan Valley were the "five cities of the plain," Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Zoar, of which all except the last were destroyed by the visitation of God. (Gen. 19.) Their location was in the plain on the north of the Dead Sea, and there is no reason to suppose that they are covered by its waters. In the time immediately before the conquest we find Jericho has arisen in the place of the destroyed cities, and not far from their site, as the most important city of the Jordan Valley.

3. South of the Canaanites, on the maritime plain, were the Philistines. "Emigrants" is the meaning of the word, supporting the view that they came from Caphtor, or Crete, which is but little more than a surmise. They were related to the Egyptians, and hence were of Hamitic stock. They came to the land before the time of Abraham, drove out and subdued the earlier Avim (Deut. 2:23), or Avites, and had frequent dealings with Abraham and Isaac. In the patriarchal age their principal cities were Gaza and Gerar; but before the conquest they had moved northward, and were a powerful confederacy of five cities: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Ekron. (Josh. 13:3.) Their territory, if taken at all during the campaigns of Joshua, was soon reconquered, and the Philistines were the most dangerous enemies of Israel during all the period of the Judges. In David's time they were subjected; but not until the Maccabean age were they fully conquered, and their land made a part of Israel.

4. We turn now to the tribes of the mountain region, beginning, as before, at the north. As these northern regions are not alluded to in patriarchal history, and only very briefly named in the annals of the conquest, it is not easy to determine which of the tribes occupied them. But, from allusions in Josh. 1:4 and 11:3, and from frequent mention on the monuments of Egypt, we incline to the opinion that the Hittites were the possessors of this country. They have left their name in Hattin, the Caphar Hittai of the Talmud, near the Sea of Galilee. Another branch, more frequently mentioned, were in the south, at and around Hebron (Gen. 23), perhaps extending as far south as Beersheba. (Gen. 27:46.) With these people the relations of the patriarchs were ever peaceful, and of them Abraham purchased his family sepulchre.

HEBRON.

5. The position of the Girgashites is uncertain, from the infrequent mention of them. But the slight indications point to the region west of the Sea of Galilee, where we locate them conjecturally. They may have been absorbed by the surrounding tribes.

6. South of Mount Carmel, and extending to what was afterward the border of Benjamin, we find the Hivites, having Shechem as their principal city in the time of Jacob. (Gen. 34:2.) Afterward, they occupied several towns immediately north of Jerusalem, four of which formed the "Gibeonite league," and made a treaty of peace with Joshua. (Josh. 9:3-15.) They were a quiet people, averse to war, and submitting readily to foreign domination.

7. The Perizzites, "villagers" are always named in connection with the Canaanites. From the allusions in Gen. 34:30, Josh. 17:15, and other places, we locate them between the Hivites and the western Canaanites, in the northern portion of the Shefelah, or foot-hills, where villages would more readily cluster than among the mountains. They remained in the land as late as the time of the restoration from Babylonian captivity. (Ezra 9:1.)

8. The Jebusites lived in the mountains around their city Jebus, afterward Jerusalem. They were of Canaanitish origin, a small but warlike tribe. Their king was slain by Joshua; but the city, though burned by the Israelites (Judges 1:8), was still held by its own people, and remained in their possession, a foreign fortress in the midst of the land, until finally taken by David, and made his capital. (2 Sam. 5.) South of the Jebusites were the southern branch of the Hittites, already referred to.

9. One more nation of the Canaanite stock remains, perhaps the most powerful of all, the Amorites, or "mountaineers." They occupied, originally, the wilderness between Hebron and the Dead Sea, having Hazezon-tamar (afterward En-gedi) as their capital; were smitten by Chedorlaomer, but aided Abraham in his pursuit and battle. (Gen. 14.) Afterward they pushed northward, crossed the Jordan, and possessed all the eastern table-land north of the Dead Sea, dispossessing the Ammonites of its southern portion, and the Rephaim of its northern. This great country was the "land of the Amorites" at the time of the conquest, ruled by two kings, Sihon and Og.

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.