Such was to be its metallic wealth, that it was to be “a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper.”[9]Unlike Egypt, which is dependent upon the Nile for a supply of water, it was to be a country superior in its mountain springs and in its “early and latter rains.”[10] Repeating the eulogistic utterances of Moses, and realizing the promises he had made, five centuries later David sings, “The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys are covered with corn; they shout for joy; they also sing.The Lord causeth the grass to grow for cattle, and herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine.”[11]
But, whatever may have been the appearance of Southern Palestine in those distant ages, it appears at present, especially its mountain regions, to be little better than a vast limestone quarry, covered with small gray stones, offensive to the eye, painful to the foot of man and beast, and seemingly incapable of a harvest.An aspect so sterile and forbidding induced the author of “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” to institute the comparison that “Palestine is a territory scarcely superior to Wales either in fertility or extent.”[12] Conceding this apparent barrenness, the causes of the change which has taken place in the lapse of so many centuries are at once natural and miraculous. The frequent changes of government, the rapacity of officials, the insecurity of property, the religious animosity of rival sects, the barbarian ignorance of the peasantry as to the enlightened principles of agriculture, together with a moral degradation universally prevalent, are adequate causes, when operating during a long series of years, to change the face of any country, and doom it to almost irreclaimable barrenness. It is also true that the destruction of the woods of any section on the earth’s surface, and particularly the trees on the mountain-tops, which invite and arrest the passing clouds, tends to the diminution of rain and to the consequent evils of the drought.The condition of Germany since the disappearance of its great forests, and of Greece since thefall of the large plane-trees which once shaded the bare landscape of Attica,[13] illustrates the fact that where the land is denuded of its herbage and foliage, which casts a cooling shade upon the ground, the scorching rays of the sun penetrate more certainly and intensely, promoting evaporation, causing the springs and fountains to fail,and at the same time increasing the absorbent capacity of the soil;[14] but where the valleys are clothed with verdure, and the mountains with forests, a larger quantity of moisture is retained in the ground, a lower temperature exists in the atmosphere,and the clouds are drawn to the spot in obedience to meteorological laws.[15] To Titus belongs the shame of having stripped the hills about Jerusalem of their magnificent olive-groves, and, from the destruction of the Holy City to the present century, Southern Palestine has been a vast common for the marauding and predatory bands of Saracens and Persians, of Mamelukes and Turks, whose innumerable herds and flocks have wandered at liberty over gardens and fields, through groves and forests, consuming and destroying both plants and trees, and thereby diminishing the usual quantity of rain in the proper seasons.
While to every candid mind such are sufficient causes for this apparent sterility, yet to the Christian a miraculous interference with the ordinary course of nature for the attainment of a moral end is an additional consideration why Palestine is not now what it was in the days of Moses and David. Assuming to exercise a special care over the land, Jehovah represents himself as sending and withholding rain according to the obedience or disobedience of his chosen people:“Thou hast polluted the land with thy wickedness, therefore the showers have been withholden, and there has been no latter rain.”[16]“I have withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city.”[17] Hazardous as it would seem, in human estimation, to suspend the continuance of rain and national prosperity upon the continued faithfulness of human beings, yet it most evidently appears that, so long as the Jews remained faithful and obedient as a nation, just so long, and no longer, was their land blessed with prosperity; and, whenever they became guilty of defection,the rains of heaven were withheld, and their land became desolate. The evil, however, experienced by the present tiller of the soil is not the want of rain, but rather its proper distribution. Whatever effect the denudation of the country of its foliage may have had to diminish the vernal and summer showers, it is a remarkable fact that it rains more copiously in Syria than in the United States; but, commencing in November, the rainy season continues only till February, while during the eight or nine succeeding months there is scarcely a shower falls.Such an unequal distribution of rain could not fail to injure the most fertile portions of the globe.[18]
Though unquestionably true that the structure and composition of the soil for miles around Jerusalem must always have been essentially what it is now, of a rough limestone nature, and as such it must have appeared in the palmiest age of the Jewish commonwealth, yet in those happier days, under a mild and an enlightened government, no part was waste; the more fertile hills were cultivated in artificial terraces, others were covered with orchards of fruit-trees, while the more rocky and barren districts were converted into vineyards. But in the process of time the terraces which supported the soil upon the steep declivities have been destroyed, and the accumulated earth has been swept away by the rains, leaving naked hills “where once grew the corn and crept the vine.”
Those who quote Gibbon against Moses and David with so much triumph, should also cite pagan authors of higher antiquity and of equal authority in their favor. In his description of Jericho, Strabo speaks of “a grove of palms, and a country of a hundred stadia full of springs and well-peopled.” According to Tacitus, “the inhabitants of Palestine are healthy and robust, the rains moderate, and the soil fertile.” Ammianus Marcellinus is even more explicit than his predecessors:“The last of the Syrias is Palestine, a country of considerable extent, abounding in clean and well-cultivated land, and containing some fine cities, none of which yield to the other, but, as it were, being on a parallel, are rivals.”[19]
Regarding it as a valuable accession to their dominions, Palestine was a prize for which the Assyrians and Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans, the Persians and Saracens, fought to conquer and retain. To each it was the “diamond of the desert;”and coveting the fruits of the soil, and sighing for the delights of the climate, they each in turn also contended for the advantages its central position afforded as a military station between the east and west, the north and south.Charmed with its gardens, the fascinating Cleopatra induced Antony to take from Herod the Great the noble plain of Jericho and annex it to her dominions, that she might possess the celebrated balm and the other valuable drugs and fruits it then produced.[20] Delighted with its fertility, its opulence, and populousness, Chosroes of Persia aspired to its permanent conquest; and, a quarter of a century later, the Saracens feared to have Omar see Jerusalem, lest the richness of the surrounding country and the purity of the air might tempt him never to return to the holy city of Medina.As significant of its fruitfulness, both Vespasian and Titus caused medals to be struck on which Palestine is represented by a female under a palm-tree; and there are medals still extant on which Herod is represented as holding a bunch of grapes, and the young Agrippa as displaying fruit.[21]
Confirming alike the testimony of both sacred and profane writers, there are still two traces of the ancient productiveness of the soil. On the plains, in the valleys, upon the hills, every where, from the river to the sea, from “Dan to Beersheba,” are ruins—broken cisterns, prostrate walls, crumbling terraces, and old foundations, indicating the greatness of an earlier population, and the abundant harvests which supported the millions once dwelling within these narrow limits. These silent but unmistakable indications of the populousness of a former age are more significant than the testimony of Tacitus and Josephus. Though wanting the air of grandeur of the ruins of Thebes and Palmyra, yet there is the vineyard tower, the peasant’s cottage, the streets, the walls, the dwellings of the once large and thriving village; and on the hillside and in the field is seen the ruined sheepfold, the wine-press, the ancient oil and flour mill; while along all the highways, and in many a retired valley, are water-tanks and reservoirs now dry and broken. Neither in Egypt nor in Greece is the aspect of desolation more complete. In the one and in the other are the remains of mighty cities, with their stupendous temples and magnificent palaces; but here, in close proximity, as one might expect tofind in a country of shepherds and husbandmen, is the mound of ruins, the forsaken village, the desolate city.
Like the remains of those ancient habitations, there are still evidences, in the present capacity and products of the soil, sustaining the claim that the Holy Land was once a land of “wheat and barley,” of “wine and oil.” As of old, the Plain of Jericho repays the toil of husbandry, and only requires proper tillage to make it “even as the garden of the Lord.” For many miles around Joppa the Plain of Sharon is a vast and beautiful garden, yielding the most delicious oranges, lemons, plums, quinces, apricots, and bananas. In the Vale of Eshcol and on the Heights of Urtâs are produced the finest grapes in the world; while around all the larger towns of Philistia, and in the environs of Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Gibeon, are the largest and richest olive-groves, fig and almond orchards in the East.
Though forbidding in aspect and apparently hopelessly sterile, yet, considering the nature of the soil, the kind of crops it is best adapted to produce, and the crude husbandry here practiced, the flinty region of Southern Palestine is equal in productiveness to many of the best portions of Europe and America. All that can be reasonably demanded of a country is to yield in fair proportion, with ordinary appliances, the indigenous fruits of the climate. The mountain tract from Shiloh to Hebron is the proper region for the olive and the vine, and one acre of the stony surface of Olivet, planted with olive-trees and carefully tended, would yield more through the exchanges of commerce toward human subsistence than a larger tract of the richest land in New York planted to corn. While corn is simply an article of food, the olive berry subserves a variety of purposes.Besides being used by the natives for food, and, as such, in large quantities exported to other countries, it contains a delicious oil, which, in domestic life, is the substitute for butter and lard, and in manufacture is employed in making soap and candles, and for lubricating machinery.[22] While, as in the days of the Psalmist, the olive and the grape, together with wheat, barley, and corn, are the staples of life, yet there are here annually raised in great abundance cauliflowers, cabbages, radishes, lettuce, beans, peas, onions, garlic, carrots, beets, leeks, lentiles, celery, parsley, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, together with the egg-plant and sugar-cane.There are also cultivated, in all their deliciousness, figs, apricots, peaches, plums, oranges, lemons, citrons, limes, mandrakes, pomegranates, apples, pears, dates, bananas, quinces, cherries, watermelons, muskmelons, with almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. In many northern districts cotton and tobacco are extensively cultivated, while in all sections herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats are raised for food and raiment. Possessing a climate marked with the peculiarities of the three zones, and yielding annually such harvests of grains and fruits for the sustenance of more than a million and a half of people, the Promised Land, under an enlightened Christian government, might be restored to its original fertility and pristine beauty.
Whatever apology is necessary for the vindication of the sacred writers as to the southern portion of their native land, none, however, is needed to sustain them in their loftiest praises of all their ancient territory north of the ruins of Bethel. While in the south “Judah washed his garments in wine and his cloths in the blood of grapes,” in the north the powerful house of Joseph had the “precious things of heaven and the precious things of the lasting hills.” Beyond the tribal possessions of Benjamin the soil is no less rich than the scenery is grand; within the inheritance of Ephraim, the Plain of Mukhnah and the Vale of Shechem resemble vast gardens, while the mountains and valleys of Samaria, the plains of Sharon and Esdraelon, and the fields and hills of Galilee, stretching from the lakes to the sea, pronounce their own eulogy.