iv. Compressed into the narrow space between the north-western hills of Judah and the Mediterranean was the tribe of DAN, containing within the 14 miles from Joppa to Ekron one of the most fertile tracts in the land, the corn-field and garden of southern Palestine. But for this rich prize it had to contend first with the Amorites (Judg. i. 34), and afterwards with the Philistines (Judg. xiv. &c.), and eventually, as we shall see, was obliged to seek a new home in the North (Judg. xviii. 27–29).
The central portion of the Holy Land, the _Samaria_ of after ages, was assigned to the two brother tribes of the _house of Joseph_, EPHRAIM and MANASSEH. Of this territory, which may be roughly estimated at 55 miles from E. to W., and 70 from N. to S., and which was about equal in extent to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk combined[164], (i) the more southerly portion was assigned to Joshua’s own tribe of EPHRAIM. It extended as far south as Ramah and Bethel within a few miles of Jerusalem, and was rich in fountains and streamlets, in “wide plains in the hearts of mountains, and continued tracts of vegetation,” in corn-fields and orchards, _the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof_, which the Lawgiver invoked on _the ten thousands of Ephraim_ (Deut. xxxiii. 13–17), and of whose father Jacob had said that he should be _a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well_ (Gen. xlix. 22). (ii) And as the duty of guarding the northern outposts on the east of Jordan had been assigned to one half of the tribe of MANASSEH, so to the remaining half on the west was assigned the duty of defending the passes into the great plain of Jezreel. Its territory stretched westwards to the Mediterranean and the slopes of Carmel, but did not quite reach the Jordan on the East.
The northern portion of the Holy Land, the _Galilee_ of after times, extending from the range of Carmel to the mountains of Lebanon, was assigned to four tribes “allied by birth, and companions on the desert march,” ISSACHAR, ZEBULUN, ASHER, and NAPHTALI.
i. The territory of ISSACHAR lay above that of Manasseh, and exactly consisted of the plain of Esdraelon (the Greek form of the Hebrew _Jezreel_, = _the seed-plot of God_). The luxuriance of this plain,――the battle-field of Palestine[165]――is the theme of every traveller. The soil yielded corn and figs, wine and oil (1 Chr. xii. 40), the stately palm waved over the villages, and the very weeds to this day testify to its extraordinary fertility. Here Issachar rejoiced in his _tents_ (Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19), couched down as the strong he-ass (Gen. xlix. 14, 15) used for burden and field-work, and seeing that _rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant, bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to the tribute_, which various marauders, Canaanites (Judg. iv. 3, 7), Midianites, Amalekites (Judg. vi. 3, 4), Philistines (1 Sam. xxix. 1; xxxi. 7–10) exacted, bursting through his frontier open both on the east and west, and tempted by his luxuriant crops[166].