Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 042. The Land

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 042. The Land


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II



The Land



1. According to Gen_10:6, Canaan, into whose country Abraham journeyed with the object of settling, was the descendant of Cush, and the inhabitants ought therefore to have spoken a Hamitic language. Historically, however, this cannot be proved, but it is certain that if the Canaanites spoke a Hamitic language, they soon changed it for the speech which they seem to have used as far back as history can go, this speech being closely akin to Hebrew. In fact, there is very little doubt that Abraham and his descendants, forsaking their mother-tongue, the language of Babylonia, adopted the dialect of the Canaanitish language which they afterwards spoke, and which is so well known at the present day as Hebrew. To all appearance Abraham's relatives who remained in Mesopotamia, in “the city of Nahor,” spoke a dialect of Aramaic, a language with which Abraham himself must have been acquainted, and which may have been spoken in Babylonia at that early date, as it certainly was, together with Chaldæan, later on.



2. It is noteworthy that the country to which Abraham migrated, and which is called by the Hebrew writers Canaan, is called by the same name in the Tell el-Amarna letters, and the fact that the Babylonian king Burra-Buriaš uses the same term shows that it was the usual name in that part of the world. Among the Babylonians, however, it was called mât Amurrî, “the land of Amoria,” the common expression, among the Babylonians and the Assyrians, for “the West.” In later times the Assyrians designated this district mât atti, “the land of Heth,” the home of the Hittites. The inference from this naturally is that, at the time when the Babylonians became acquainted with the country, the Amorites were the most powerful nationality there, whilst the Hittites had the dominion, and were in greater force later on, when the Assyrians first traded or warred there. These two linguistic usages show that the two great races in the country, both of them Hamitic according to Gen_10:15-16, were the Amorites (who spread as far as Babylonia, and even had settlements there), and the Hittites, known from other sources to have extended their empire far into the north among the Cappadocians, and south as far as Carchemish and Hamath.1 [Note: T. G. Pinches.]



3. Every thoughtful student of Bible history will recognize, in the geographical position of Palestine, certain conditions which eminently fitted it for the purpose to which God destined it. Not by accident did that strip of Syrian territory become the theatre of sacred events, the home of the covenant people, and the seat of Divine revelation. There was no other region on the earth's surface which could have answered so well.



(1) The first feature which eminently marked out the land for the residence of God's chosen nation is this: it unites, as no other does, the two indispensable conditions of central position and yet of isolation. To lie in the midst of the nations, at the focus and gathering-place of those mighty and cultured empires whose rivalries ruled the politics, as their example led the civilization, of antiquity, yet at the same time to be shut off from such contact with them as must of necessity prove injurious, seemed to be opposite requirements, very hard to be reconciled in the land of promise. It lies at a corner where Asia, Africa, and Europe meet, or all but touch. The six ancient states of Babylon, Assyria, Media, Persia, Phœnicia, and Egypt stood round about it. The main lines of ancient traffic ran close past its border. Whenever, for purposes of war or trade, bodies of men sought to pass from the populous and powerful states of the north, whose centre lay along the Euphrates, to the populous and powerful states of the south, whose centre lay along the Nile, there was only one road by which they could travel. “Syria,” says a famous modern geographer, “is bounded by a great sea of sand on the east, as by a great sea of water on the west. Across that natural barrier of sea and sand, there is but one convenient highway.” Palestine is like “a bridge arching across a double sea of desert sands and of waters which the want of harbours made useless to it. It connected the Euphrates with the Nile.” While thus set in the middle of all lands, it stood strangely apart from all. “No great highway,” says the same authority, “led through it from nation to nation; all went by it, over the roads which skirted it without traversing it; and which all found their type in the sea-line which ran from the harbours of the ancient Phœnician cities to Egypt, along a shore which was almost devoid of havens.” In fact, it was so isolated that, if its people chose, they could dwell apart. On the west, a harbourless coast; on the north, great mountain ranges; on the east and south, vast waterless wastes; yet alongside it, and close by its very borders, there must pass, by fatiguing and hazardous journeys, the long caravans or laden ships which carried traffic from one civilized state to another, and the cumbrous armies by which rival empires sought to crush each other. Geographically, politically, commercially, no country is so situated in relation to three great continents and five great bodies of water; none unites such amazing contrasts,-perfect isolation and independence, with the ability to go out from this isolation and establish relations with all the greatest nations of antiquity.



(2) Another characteristic which qualified Palestine to be a training-ground for the Hebrews was this, that it combined to an unusual degree high agricultural fertility with exposure to sudden and severe disasters. In most years, it could sustain a dense population of cultivators, supposing them to be industrious and frugal, without any excessive or grinding toil. Enough, not always for export, but for home consumption at least, its well-watered valleys and vine-clad hills could furnish in ordinary seasons. For comfortable sustenance, therefore, though not for wealth or luxury, such a nation of peasants was sufficiently provided within its own borders. It could dwell apart, yet experience no want. At the same time, the people were kept in close dependence for the fruits of harvest upon the bounty of Providence. Their proximity to a desert on one side exposed the land to calamities of various kinds. A deficient rainfall, or the prevalence of hot winds from the south and east, might entail a total failure of the crops. Flights of locusts might strip the fields bare before they were reaped, or predatory bands of Bedouins pillage the granaries of the peasantry under the eyes of a feeble government. The land lay along an ancient axis of volcanic action, and has been, within the historic period, visited again and again by earthquakes. To this day these are still the occasional plagues of Southern Syria; and so long as it was peopled by a race whose national annals constituted one long providential discipline, all such forms of disaster, like arrows in the Almighty's quiver, lay ready to be employed for the chastisement of His wayward and indocile people.



(3) To these advantages for its special design, this perhaps ought to be added, that hardly any regions offer so few temptations to corrupt the simplicity of their inhabitants or better facilities for the defence of their liberties. Destitute of good harbours (for Tyre was always in foreign hands) or of a navigable river, Palestine never could have become an important mercantile power. The attempts which were made with this view, under its most prosperous sovereign, depended, for any success they enjoyed, upon its foreign conquests on the shores of the Red Sea; and they had no permanent success. Western Palestine always has been, and always must be, a land of agriculturists on a small scale, especially of vine-dressers and oil-growers. But for a hardy race of peasants, leading a simple life from father to son, and congregated in small village communities, it formed a safe and easily defended home. In the caves with which its limestone hills are honeycombed, and in the rocky fastnesses which command the passes leading from the flat border on all sides up into the heart of the land, a small, brave people could hold their own against superior force, and by guerilla warfare could wear out, as its patriotic sons more than once proved, the efforts of trained armies.



When all these considerations are combined, it may be fairly said that the selection of Canaan to be the future heritage of Abraham's seed was not a result of caprice or accident, but the carrying out of a plan which was foreseen by the Divine wisdom when God laid the foundations of its hills and scooped out its fertile water-courses.



Canaan, says Lange, unites within itself a rich variety of most significant contrasts, by the blending of which is formed that unity, the Chosen Land, which was destined to be the place of education for the chosen people. In its eastern highlands it exhibits the Asiatic characteristic of mountain vastness; in its western formation of hills and valleys are seen touches of its affinity to Europe; towards the south are reflected Egypt and Africa, in the glaring contrasts it presents of both paradisaic and terrible scenes; towards the north the mountainous district of Lebanon forms the boundary of the land, the white peak of Hermon, seen far through the country, represents the region of eternal winter; while in the low-lying tracts of the valley of Jordan the palm, the pride of tropical regions, revels in the hot climate of Arabia. How extensive is the scale of climatic contrasts in the land! And what a happy medium in those warm boundaries of the temperate zone, in which it is easier for man to maintain the due proportion between labour and rest, in which, in the pleasant contrast of their alternative, both light and darkness could be called gifts of God, and looked upon as welcome blessings!



With the pleasant occupations of rural life between seed-time and harvest was interspersed the romantic feature of nomadic life, and the anchorite's freedom from care for supplies was experienced within the sphere of pastoral life; while the domestic comforts of the western life were here met with, on the very boundaries of the desert and of the torrid zone. The Israelite could often pass both night and day in the open air, but not without experiencing the excitement which man always feels in the romantic wilderness of the earth. He was surrounded by the kindly sights and sounds of Nature; but the sublime was everywhere the predominant element. His country was rich in enjoyments, but exposed to the vicissitudes of great natural catastrophes. The sharp contrast between oasis and desert, between the soil of the aromatic and variegated palm and the naked briny, sandy rock of Arabia, is found here-e.g. in the contrast between the frightful rocky wilderness of Quarantania and the blooming gardens of Jericho, and especially between the fertile borders of the Lake of Galilee and the desert shores of the Dead Sea. These contrasts point to the delicate and spiritual nature of the country, to its delicate suspension on the line between the blessing and the curse. It lies midway between those great natural extremes, in which the earth seems almost to overpower man, as, e.g., in the heat and luxuriance of the East Indies and the frozen desert of Greenland.



4. We have now to ascertain from the sources accessible to us the conditions of the land in which Abraham found a new home. That he was not viewed by the inhabitants of Palestine as a stranger is evident from his friendly relations with the leading men of the country. There are introduced by name three Amorite chiefs, Mamre, and his brothers Eshcol and Aner, whose friendly offices were placed at the disposal of Abraham in his conflict with Chedorlaomer. From what Sayce and Hommel have told us about the Arabian origin of the Babylonian dynasty, it may be assumed that Abraham was even racially allied to the Amorite chiefs in S. Palestine. In Gen_14:7 the Amorites are further spoken of as in Hazazon-tamar, on the western shore of the Dead Sea. It is clearly established that in the time of Abraham, in S. Palestine, particularly about Hebron, Amorites formed the main stock of the population. Abraham thus took up his residence in the midst of the racially allied Amorite population of S. Palestine, and, as an immigrant from the district on the Great River, he may readily have been called by the Canaanites Abram ha-‘Ibrî. We know the significance which the Euphrates as a boundary between Mesopotamia and Syria still possessed in the Achæmenid period, giving rise to the designation of Syria as the land “beyond the river” (Ezr_4:20; Ezr_6:13). There are also indications which justify the conclusion that, although to a limited extent, there was an affinity between the cultus practised by Abraham and that of the S. Palestinian Amorites. Foremost among these is the venerable form of Melchizedek, the priest-king of (Uru-) Salim, where El Elyôn was worshipped in a fashion approximating to monotheism.



The language which we call Hebrew is the language of the glosses to the Tell el-Amarna letters, and Isa_19:18 calls it “the language of Canaan.” It differs little from the dialect spoken by the Phœnicians. The place-names of the Israelites were nearly all derived from the earlier inhabitants, and many of them are found in the Egyptian inscriptions and in the Tell el-Amarna letters.1 [Note: L. B. Paton, in Encyclopœdia of Religion and Ethics, iii. 177.]



The modern peasantry of the country closely resemble the ancient Canaanites in physical character, to judge from the remains of the latter that excavation has revealed; indeed, in all probability the substratum of the population has remained unchanged in racial affinities throughout the vicissitudes that the country has suffered.1 [Note: R. A. S. Macalister, in Hastings' Single-volume Dictionary of the Bible, 673.]