CHAPTER XXXIII.
BEYOND THE JORDAN.
Plain of Moab—Children of Israel—Moses’s Request—Moab a Rich Country—Lawless Clans—A Traveler Brutally Murdered—A Typical Son of Ishmael—Dens and Strongholds—Captured by a Clan of Arabs—Shut up in Mountain Caves—Heavy Ransom Exacted—The Moabite Stone—Confirmation of Scripture—Machaerus—John the Baptist—Prison Chambers—Character of John—How to Gauge a Life—Hot-Springs—Herod’s Visit—“Smell of Blood still”—Mount Nebo—Fine View—Life of Moses—From Egypt to Nebo—An Arab Legend—Death of Moses.
THE Plain of Moab, east of the Jordan, is, in character of soil and state of cultivation, very much like the Jericho plain described in the last chapter. The Plain of Moab is bounded on the east, as before stated, by a wall of rock which lifts itself up at some places almost perpendicularly, several hundred feet above the valley. From the top of this mountain ridge there stretches far away toward the east, a broad, elevated table-land, sloping gently as it recedes. This table-land is traversed here and there by deep wadys and narrow ravines, most of which have a general westwardly, direction, and empty their waters into the Jordan and Dead Sea. This goodly land of Moab is about fifty miles long by twenty broad, and this rolling plateau, though 3,200 feet above the sea level, is remarkably rich and well watered. The country only needs a wise head and an energetic hand to make these plains once more blossom as the rose.
In order to enter the promised land, it was necessary for the Israelites to pass through this delightful region of country. Accordingly Moses “sent messengers unto Sihon, King of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king’s highway, until we be past thy borders.” A reasonable request this; but instead of granting it, “Sihon gathered all his people together” and went out to fight against Israel; went out to meet Moses and—death! Having routed the foe and possessed the land, Israel marched into Heshbon, the imperial city. Heshbon, now called Hasban, is situated among the hills of Moab, a little to the north, and about eight miles to the east, of the Dead Sea. The ancient city, as the present ruins clearly show, was situated on two high hills some distance apart, east and west from each other, and on the saddle connecting the two.
The inhabitants of this fair land ought to be gentlemen living like kings and princes. But instead of that they are separate, independent, and lawless clans or tribes of Arabs who live now, as in ancient times, not altogether, but chiefly, on plunder and the spoils of war. These clans east of the Jordan are now, and have always been, a curse to Palestine. Frequently at night they swoop down like eagles upon the inhabitants west of the river, rob them of their grain, and drive away their camels, their flocks and herds. This practice frequently becomes so common that the government is forced to protect the people by keeping an armed body of soldiers along the river.
Lest the reader should think me unduly prejudiced against these sons of the desert, I here introduce a quotation from the “Desert of the Exodus.” Be it remembered that this splendid work was written by Prof. E. H. Palmer, a member of the faculty of Cambridge University, England. Perhaps no man has lived during the present generation who knew more than he about Arab life and character. The fact that Prof. Palmer was afterwards brutally murdered by these people shows that his estimate of their character was correct and just. He says: “Robbery is not regarded by the Bedawin as in the least a disgraceful thing, but ‘a man taketh his sword, and goeth his way to rob and steal’ (Esdras IV., 23), with a profound feeling of conscious rectitude and respectability. Several plans have been tried, from time to time, to make him a respectable member of society, but have signally failed; missionaries have gone to him, and, so long as they could supply him with tobacco and keep open tent for all comers, have found him sufficiently tractable. But they have made absolutely no impression upon him, after all. Indeed, the state of desert society has but little changed since the messenger came in to the tent of Job, and said: ‘The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword’” (Job I., 17).