TRIBES EAST OF JORDAN.

411

of Israel east of the Jordan. This is the Arnon, now the Wady el Moyib, a little rivulet running directly west into the Dead Sea, and dry in summer. This rivulet Arnon forms also the northern boundary of Moab, below which, at the lower end of the Dead Sea, commences Edom. Due east of Jericho was the section of GAD, running north as a broad tract for about thirty miles, then narrowing into a strip up the Jordan, and thence to the Lake of Tiberias.1 Below GAD was REUBEN'S section.2 East of our position, a little toward the south, the river makes a remarkable curve toward the east for about a mile from its former course, and thus it forms a round tract of land which seems to push the river into Moab's territory. It is well calculated to attract general attention. As the Wady Hesbân passes through the mountains eastward from this point, it is probable that the northern boundary of Reuben commences here; and this line of division between Gad on the north and Reuben on the south might have been the line near which the hosts of Israel gathered when led to their first entrance upon the promised land. Here Joshua thought proper to say "to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh," (which also had its part east of Jordan and north of Gad,) "Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, The Lord your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this

1 Joshua xiii. 24-28.

2 Joshua xiii. 15-23.

3 The point from the castle is S. 72° E. by compass, as corrected for variation on the map it is S. 80° E.

412

ISRAELITES' FIRST ENTRANCE.

land: your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valor, and help them, until the Lord have given your brethren rest as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the Lord your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you on this side of Jordan, toward the sunrising.'

2

Now, the interest of these parts of the Jordan, so plainly seen from this point, will be in proportion to the knowledge of the Scripture we possess. The hosts of Israel crossed the Jordan after forty-one years of wandering. On their approach to the promised land, they first enter the land on the south and southeast of the Dead Sea. This was the land of Edom, where was Mt. Seir, the dwelling-place of Esau; for "Esau's land" was called "Edom," or Idumea. It probably extended twenty-five to thirty-five miles eastward of the sea and beyond the district of Moab, which adjoined Edom on the north. The land of Moab commenced at Edom, at the lower part of the sea, running northward and terminating midway at the river Arnon. The Moabites were descendants of Moab, born to Lot while he was

1 Joshua i. 12-16.

2

Compare Deut. i. 3 and xxxiv. 8.

3 Gen. xxxvi. 8.

4 Compare Deut. xi. 8, 19, where in reference to the Edomites it says, "We passed by from Esau, our brethren," and "we turned," and then they passed the coast of Moab; as also x. 1-4, where it took "many days to compass Mt. Seir."

ISRAEL'S TROUBLES ON ENTRANCE.

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living in the cave at Zoar;1 and Lot being a nephew of Abraham, the Israelites were commanded to pass. Moab, and also Ammon, Moab's brother, as being near of kin to themselves.

They were remarkably obedient to the command2 "distress not the Moabites" "nor meddle with" the Edomites and the Ammonites; and the only distress occasioned to Moab was to Balak, its king, who was ignorant of the motive which caused the Israelites to ravage the territories of the Amorites, who were immediately adjoining Moab and across the river Arnon, on the north, and the land of Og, King of Bashan, north of the Amorites, and so quietly pass by his own land. This course of the Israelites was to Balak only a source of suspicion and anxiety. The Edomites on his southern border, though nearer by kin to the Israelites than these children of Lot, and knowing their history3 and their "travail," resisted any advance upon their territory, threatening them with the sword if they attempted it, and this, too, in answer to a very respectful and humble deputation sent by Moses when at Kadesh, on the utmost edge of their land.1

1 Gen. xix. 30-38.

2 Deut. ii. 5, 9, 19.

3 Numb. xx. 14: "Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us." Numb. xx. 16.

414

BALAAM.

415

CHAPTER XX.

THE NATIONS AROUND-PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN.

THE relation of these "outside tribes" of Israel is interesting, and may be seen by the table of genealogy given on the preceding page.

The King of Moab did not perceive the relation between his own people and the Israelites, nor yet God's purposes to spare the country; or-becoming timid, from the fact that the AMORITES had, during the reign of his predecessor, robbed Moab of all the lands and cities on the north of the Arnon, to such an extent that their violence became a proverb-he feared to have a people in his vicinity who showed themselves stronger than his conquerors. Notwithstanding this timid king "served his own idols, he feared the Lord;" and hence his desire to obtain a curse of the Israelites through Balaam, who, though a prophet, had not the wisdom of the ass he rode, for that saw the Divine opposition to his course before his master's eyes were opened to the same vision. And surely such a prophet was a fit companion for such a king, who had not the wit to see that God would not certainly not through such an instrument as Balaam-curse his own people Israel. Balaam's love for the wages of unright