When Abraham came down over the backbone of Canaan and stood on the summit of Mount Ebal, which crowns the highlands, he chose for himself the hill country of Judah and Hebron. There may have been a stern prescience in this, as well as generosity to his luxury-loving nephew. Thenceforth the history of the Hebrews, like that of the Scotch, was largely that of highlanders. How suited were those hills for defense is suggested by photographs (304, 344, 356 H.T.). These highlands slope up gradually from the lowland plain on the west, but on the east they fall toward the Jordan with frightful rapidity, broken by kopjes, small canyons, and almost inaccessible swift streams. What this country is like is suggested by the picture (154 G.B.). It was a fitting home for such lonely prophets as Elijah and John the Baptist. Along these highlands rested the high towns of Hebron (44 H.T.), Bethlehem (14 H.T.), Jerusalem (496 H.T.), Shechem (82 H.T.), Samaria (156 T.J.), and, beyond Esdraelon, Nazareth (60 L.J.). Farther to the north lived the brave prophets of the Northern Kingdom among the mountain sanctuaries of the Lebanon (44 S.A., 460 H. T.) under the shadow of the King of the Land, Mount Hermon (60 S.A.). On these highlands this mere speck of a people intrenched themselves for ages against the mightiest of world powers. Here lived all their great men. Here were written their histories. Here were their two capitals. In one of their hill towns lived the Master for thirty years; in another, Jerusalem, he consummated his mission.
Jordan is more glorious in poetry than in history or in fact. As a stream it begins nowhere and ends in a salt lake. Its lower banks are a great hot muggy bowl (126, 394 T.J., 280, 290 H.T.). The stream has never been anything but a boundary, since it is not navigable and is too low for purposes of irrigation. Its fords have been the scene of many wars of conquest and defense (284 H.T., 64 L.J.), but the people living near it have always been weak and degenerate. It has been called the pantry of Canaan, fertile for food but ever open for easy attack. In literature, the stream has been often referred to as the symbol of the transition of death, and the outlet, the Dead Sea, as the emblem of judgment (34, 258 H.T.).