Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

The Wars.

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 for the Moabites. Sometimes, indeed, they possessed territory north of it; but since it would take a traveller several hours to cross at the easiest parts, it was a natural boundary. The district between the Arnon and the Jabbok, Moses wrested from Sihon, king of Heshbon. And then, with the aid of the Ammonites, he conquered the country north of the Jabbok, from Og, the king of Bashan. These lands were not divided among all the tribes of Israel, but were given to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh as their portion, for it was planned and intended that the country west of the Jordan should be conquered and given to the rest.

The country west of Jordan was occupied by the Amorites and the Canaanites—that is, as some suppose, by the Highlanders of the central hills, and the Lowlanders of the plains around. But these peoples appear to have been subdivided, so that, together with the tribes of the Lebanon, we read of the Jebusite and the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite and the Hamathite, as well as Zidon and Heth (Gen. x. 15); and, in another place, of the Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, and the Rephaim (Gen. xv. 19). Of all these “nations” we are told by St Paul that seven were eventually destroyed, and Israel received their land for an inheritance (Acts xiii. 19).

It was not the object of Joshua in the first place to conquer the “nations” in the plains, but rather those in the hills. It is true that the hills were comparatively barren and infertile, while the plains were exceedingly fruitful; but the hill country offered counter-balancing advantages. Compared with the Egyptians, who sometimes invaded Syria, the Israelites were small and weak, and their greatest security would be in the hill fastnesses. More immediately also, they have to consider that they are but a nation of foot soldiers, while the Canaanites of the plains possess chariots and horses. In any case, if they can once gain possession of the hills, it may be easier thence to conquer the plains at their leisure, than it would be for them by-and-bye to conquer the hills, with the plains as their base of operations.

They approach the river opposite Jericho, and prepare to cross. The spot is very well known, and it is where the pilgrims now go to bathe. At this part the Jordan is ordinarily a brown, rapid, swirling stream, some 20 yards across, fringed with a jungle of tamarisk, cane, and willow, in which the leopard and the wolf find their hiding place. The stream often runs low and is easily fordable in two or three places hereabout. When we remember that the spies sent by Joshua had crossed and recrossed without difficulty a few days before, we might suppose that Joshua intended to march the entire army over at the fording places, at low water, were we not told that at this season the Jordan overflowed all its banks, it being the time of barley harvest. The Jordan, it is recorded, was divided—“The waters which came down from above stood and rose up in one heap a great way off from Adam, the city which is beside Zarethan: and those that went down toward the Sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho” (Josh. iii. 16). Major Conder has discovered the name Zarethan, still in use, applied to a district 3 miles west of Bethshan; and on examining the gorge of the Jordan at this part, a good way north of “Admah” or Damieh, he found that the lower cliffs approach in places so close to one another that a very little would dam up the river. In that event, in place of a shallow stream some 20 yards across, a lake would be formed nearly a mile in width, and the waters would have to rise to a height of 50 feet before they overflowed the barrier and descended again to the south. But whether in this way the bed of the Jordan was rendered dry while the Israelites passed over, is a question upon which, of course, opinions will differ.

When the tribes are safely across they encamp at a place called Gilgal.

An important success in the way of identifying Scripture sites has been the recovery of Gilgal. Robinson had heard the name Jiljûlieh, but had not been able to fix the site. In 1865 a German traveller (Herr Schokke), more fortunate, was shown the place, at a mound about a mile east of the modern Jericho; and Major Conder succeeded in fixing the spot. Just west of the ruins grows a magnificent old tamarisk tree, conspicuous from a distance. South-east of the tamarisk is an oblong tank, measuring about 100 feet by 80 feet; and near this about a dozen small mounds. The mounds are called Telleilât Jiljûlieh (the little hillocks of Gilgal), and the tank is named Birket Jiljûlieh (the Pool of Gilgal). “The Bedawin of the district,” says Conder, “have a well-known tradition regarding the site of Jiljûlieh. Over the coffee and pipes in the evening, after the day’s work was done, they related it to us. By the old tamarisk once stood the City of Brass, which was inhabited by Pagans. When Mohammed’s creed began to spread, Aly, his son-in-law, ‘the lion of God,’ arrived at the city, and rode seven times round it on his horse Maimûn. The brazen walls fell down, destroyed by his breath, and the Pagans fled, pursued by the Faithful toward Kŭrŭntŭl; but the day drew to a close, and darkness threatened to shield the infidels. Then Aly, standing on the hill which lies due east of the Kŭrŭntŭl crag, called out to the sun, ‘Come back, O blessed one!’ And the sun returned in heaven, so that the hill has ever since been called ‘the Ridge of the return.’ Here stands the Mukâm, or sacred station of Aly, and here also is the place where Belâl ibn Rubâh, the Muedhen of the Prophet, called the Faithful to prayer after the victory.”

Such is the legend, in which we see the fall of Jericho mixed up with the battle of Aijalon, and assigned to Mohammedan heroes instead of to Joshua.