must have been too much altered from what it was in the days of Joshua ; for perhaps the Jews themselves, in their later days, have found the face of things dif ferent from what it appeared in these times. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were lost in the captivity. Two tribes only, Benjamin and Judah, with some few families of the other tribes, incorporated with them, returned from Babylon. And the number which returned was comparatively so small, that, if all Canaan had been restored to them, they would in no wise have been sufficient to enter upon a full possession of what had been the inheritance of the twelve tribes in their several divisions of it. Judea alone was a country more than large enough for them, and they were obliged to contrive means, that Jerusalem itself should not want people. In this state of things, the country of the ten tribes might not be much enquired after. Other nations of people were become the possessors of it; and the bounds of the inheritances which had formerly been known in it might be, in a few ages, not to be ascertained with great exactness, even before the times of a very late posterity. Accordingly, I think, we find not only Adrichomius, and other modern chorographers, giving us, in many particulars, very confused and unscriptural accounts of the situation of divers of the ancient towns of these 'Prideaux Connect. part. 1. b. 1. Id. ibid. * Prideaux ubi sup. & Id. b, 3. i Nehem. xi. countries; but even Josephus himself rather able to say at large, whereabouts each tribe had been placed, than to describe with exactness the borders of their situations. He represents that Zebulun had his country from the lake Gennesaret to Mount Carmel, and to the sea; but we cannot, I think, conceive, that this tribe had this situation. That the country of Zebulun touched upon Gennesaret, is indeed confirmed by St. Matthew;" but how shall we extend it from thence to Carmel, and to the sea? Asher reached to Carmel westward: Ephraim and Manasseth met together in Asher on the north. The only point, where these two tribes could thus meet, must be at the sea of Carmel; but they could not meet in this point, if the land of Zebulun lay there between them. I might observe further; Zebulun's inheritance, according to what Jacob had prophesied of him, was to reach, not unto Carmel, but unto Zidon; and undoubtedly, according to this account of what was to be his border, his portion was in due time assigned to him. We must therefore suppose, that the inheritance of this tribe had been extended from Gennesaret, between the lands of Asher and Naphtali, up to the northern extent of Canaan; and in this manner the border of Zebulun 1 Walton. in Prolegom. ad Bib. Polyglot. κι Ζαβυλωνιται δε την μηχρι Γεννησαριτιδα, καθήκεσαν δε περι Καρμηλον και θαλασσαν ηλαχον Joseph. Antiq. lib. 5. c. 1. "Mat. iv. 13. Josh. xix. 26. P xvi. 10. Any map of the country will present this to view. 'Gen. xlix. 13. might indeed be unto Zidon. Zidon was a town perhaps not of Zebulun, but of Asher ;' Zebulun's country then reached only to the borders of it. u When Joshua and the persons in commission with him had made an end of dividing the land for inheritance by their coasts; the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua. They gave him the city which he asked, even Timnath-Serah in Mount Ephraim, and he built the city, and dwelt therein.* What he asked for was in a situation not occupied by any to whom inheritances had been given; for it was in Mount Ephraim, probably in that part of the hill, of which Joshua had observed to his people, that it was a wood, and that they might cut it down, and open to themselves an enlargement of their borders in the outgoings of it. If Timnath-Serah was a town before Joshua built it, it might perhaps be an old ruined village, which had been long evacuated in this wild and overgrown country; so that Joshua asked a property, such as might give him an opportunity of being an example to his tribe for improving their inheritance, to instruct them how to make their allotment commodious for them. Joshua built the city, and dwelt therein : In so commanding a situation, we may conceive that he formed, as it were, a 8 See Josh. xix. 27, 28. I might observe, that the giving Zebulun this situation, agrees with another hint of Joshua; that Zebulun lay east, or to the sun-rising of Asher. Josh. xix. 27. Josh. xix. 49, 50. * Ibid. y xvii. 18. new and beautiful country round about him; and planted himself not inelegantly, and agreeably to a taste, which the ancients of almost all countries were not strangers to in their early times." The inheritances being fixed, the Israelites appointed the six cities of refuge, and agreed upon the cities to be set out in every tribe for the Levites to dwell in.2 All things being now hereby settled for the Israelites to enjoy their respective possessions in every part of the land; Joshua called together the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, whose inheritances were on the other side Jordan, and having made a public acknowledgment of their assistance to their brethren, and of their having now punctually fulfilled all that Moses had required of them, he strictly charged them to resolve most stedfastly to keep the law. He likewise ordered them their share of the spoil of the conquered nations, and dismissed them, in order to their going home to their own possessions. The two tribes and a half drew off from the congregation, and began their march towards their own country. When they were come to Jordan, before they passed the river, they built a very large altar, near the place where the Israelites had formerly come over into Canaan ; a intending to leave here a lasting monument to all future ages, that they acknowledged themselves to belong to the tribes in Canaan, and that they had no separate 2' ώκισε πόλεις μικρας και συνεχείς επι τοις ορεσιν, όσπερ ήν τοις Badaιois TPoños OIXnσews σurens. Dionys. Halicar. lib. 1, c. 12. a Josh. xx. xxi. Chap. xxii. 1—8. altar in their own country; but that the alar at which they were to sacrifice was on the other side the river, before the tabernacle of the LORD their GOD." A ru mour of what they were doing soon came to Shiloh ; at which the congregation there were greatly alarmed." The Israelites in Canaan, not knowing their intention, were afraid they were setting up an altar for themselves; and that they intended to fall off from the worship, which the law commanded, and resolved upon a war against them, rather than suffer an innovation, which they apprehended, would bring down the divine vengeance upon all Israel. Hereupon they sent an embassy. The two tribes and the half tribe explained their intention to the princes who were sent to them; so that they returned with an account, which gave great satisfaction to the congregation, who thereupon blessed Gon, that their brethren were not guilty of the defection from his worship, which they had imputed to them.' Thus with great joy they laid aside the preparations which they were making for a war.TM As the sword of Joshua had been fatal to the Canaanites, wherever he had marched against them; for we read of all the nations conquered by him, that he utterly depopulated them, as the LORD. GOD of Israel had commanded;" so it is supposed, that many com |