18. The country is uplifted midway between the Jordan and the Mediterranean and forms an irregularly broad mountainous ridge stretching from the far south to the borders of the plain of Esdraelon, called in Scripture “the valley of Megiddo.” This plain is the largest in Palestine and extends from near the Mediterranean on the west to a valley plain near the Jordan valley on the east, where it is called the valley of Jezreel. It is generally about 100 feet above the sea level, or 150 in its highest average level.
In various parts it has been the chosen battle-ground of several of the fiercest contests in Biblical and in modern warfare.
North of the plain of Jezreel the land rises again into the broken and irregular hill country of Galilee until the region of the Lebanon Mountains appears.
CHAPTER IV.
THE BATTLES OF CONQUEST.
1. The capture of Jericho was not the result of battle, but was due to the divine interference in behalf of the Israelites. Jericho was a strong city and well defended by strong walls, and the destruction of these walls under the simple process described in the text was not only a lesson of great significance to the Israelites, but it indicated to the Canaanitish tribes the mystery of that power with which they were now called to deal.
Under Joshua three great battles completed the general conquest of Canaan and transferred to the Israelites the cities of thirty kings, Josh. 12:9–24, and if we include the king of Jericho the number will be thirty-one.
Nearly all of the book of Joshua is composed of the history of these battles and of the division of the land among the tribes after the conquest.
2. The first of these battles took place on the high land west of Jericho, at a town called Ai (pronounced A´-i). The site of this ancient town is known, and it was not far off from the site of Bethel, which is 13 miles west by north from the position of Jericho at that time. Ai, now called Haiyan, was two miles, or a little more, east of Bethel.
Just north of Ai is a high elevation, 2,570 feet above the Mediterranean,whereas the site of Jericho at the fountain of Elisha[72] is 700 feet below, so that the troops of Joshua had a march of about 1,500 feet ascent up a rocky ravine. Bethel is still higher (2,890 feet).