John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: May 30

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: May 30

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Surveying

Joshua 18

The war which commenced with the defeat of the confederate kings ceased not until the whole of the south country had been subdued by the Israelites. This portion of the land was assigned by lot to the tribe of Judah and Ephraim, and the unprovided half-tribe of Manasseh. The withdrawment of three populous tribes to take possession of their allotments, must have caused a sensible diminution of the numbers encamped around the tabernacle at Gilgal, and have made it inconvenient as a place of resort to those who were becoming settled at a distance. It hence became advisable to remove the tabernacle to a more central position. The spot selected—probably by Divine appointment—was Shiloh in the territory of Ephraim, to the north of Bethel. The spot, if correctly identified by Dr. Robinson with the present Seilun, is surrounded by hills, with an opening by a narrow valley into a plain on the south. After this, there was a considerable interval of time during which little or nothing was done by the unprovided tribes to gain possession of the rest of the country. The cause of this “slackness” is not stated. But as the portion allotted to Judah was soon found to be too large, and that assigned to Ephraim too small, the probability is, that they were unwilling to make the imperfect survey, on which that appropriation had been founded, the basis of a further distribution. At least this may have been an excuse by the people for their own slothfulness in a matter of so much importance. At present they did not feel the need to bestir themselves in the matter. They were enriched by the spoils of the country already won, and enjoyed abundance from the stores laid up for the use of the former inhabitants. They were thus living at ease in the midst of their brethren, while the lands which remained to be divided were remote from the station around which they were clustered, and if they went to take possession, of them, they must break up their present connections, disperse their flocks and herds, change their habits of life, and convey their families to strange places, and undergo new hardships and trials. Besides, the unappropriated districts were well filled with warlike Canaanites, who were disposed to leave them unmolested at present, but who could not be expelled without great exertion and peril. So they sat still, contented with things as they were, and disposed to let the future take care for itself.

But Joshua at length came forward to rouse them from this state of mind. He urged them no longer to delay taking possession of their heritage; and that there might be no excuse, he ordained that there should be a new and more systematic survey of the country in its entire extent. Hitherto the distribution had only had regard to the land actually possessed. But now the whole was to be first surveyed, and then distributed, without regard to the present state of its occupancy; and the several tribes would naturally be stimulated to exertion by the heritage appropriated to their possession being placed in this distinct form before them. Three men from each of the unprovided tribes, twenty-one in all, were to go through the length and breadth of the land, to take proper note of the particulars, and to divide the whole into seven parts, the special appropriation of which among the tribes was afterwards to be determined by lot. When we look in the map to the unequal extent of the allotments made on the basis of this survey, we may presume that the interpretation which Josephus put upon their instructions is correct. According to him, they were to take careful note of the relative advantages of the several districts, and as it often happened, especially in Palestine, that one acre of some sort of land was of equal value with a thousand other acres, they were to make the division under the careful consideration of these circumstances.

This was an arduous and difficult operation. To be of any value it must have been a scientific survey—and that it was such is shown by the minute description of the boundaries of the several portions, as assigned to the tribes by lot. In fact, this seems to us the most interesting scientific operation recorded in the early Scripture, and, indeed, the only one of the kind of which very ancient history has left any record. It is out of all sight the earliest example of land-surveying of which we have any knowledge—and that it was undertaken in the circumstances, shows that there was more of scientific knowledge among the Israelites at this time them they have usually credit for, and that they were by no means so rude a people as some have conceived.

Josephus says that the survey occupied seven months, and to be so particular and accurate as it was, it could not well have been done in less time. We are told that “the men passed through the land, and described it by cities, into seven parts, in a book.” For “book,” read “tablet,” and understand a kind of map or chart, accompanied, perhaps, by a written description of the leading features of the country. What a treasure beyond price would a copy of this map and of these notes be to us now! But the substance of the latter is probably embodied in the description of the boundaries of the tribes, which we eventually obtain, and which, was doubtless stated from these materials.

The explorers must have been acquainted with geometry, or rather, perhaps, as Josephus says, some geometricians were sent with the responsible explorers, whose skill insured a correct statement, and division of the land. This knowledge had doubtless been acquired in Egypt, to which country all ancient authorities concur in ascribing the origin of land-surveying and geometry. It took rise from the peculiar exigencies of that country, in the continual necessity for adjusting the claims of persons with regard to the limits of lands, under the changes annually produced by the inundation of the Nile. It is reasonable to suppose that much litigation arose between neighbors, respecting the limits of their unenclosed fields: and the fall of a portion of the bank, carried away by the stream during the inundation of the Nile, frequently made great alterations in the extent of the land near the riverside. We, therefore, readily perceive the necessity which arose for determining the quantity which individual, whether to settle disputes with a neighbor or to ascertain the tax due to the government. It is, indeed, difficult to ascertain when this science of land-mensuration commenced in Egypt; but there is evidence that it was already a well-established science in that country before the age of Sesostris (to which Herodotus ascribes the invention), and even in and before the age of Joseph.

The operation now under consideration was of a larger nature, and involves no less the observations proper to geography than the demonstrations which belong to geometry. Here again we are referred to Egypt. Not as unimportant, but as beside our object, we can afford to neglect the traditions which assign to the Egyptians, in the most remote ages, a knowledge of geography such as no other nation possessed, and which, among the writings ascribed to the first Thoth or Hermes, finds one of cosmography, including the chorography of Egypt, and a description of the course of the Nile. We are content with the intimations of Scripture, which indicate the existence of this knowledge, in the fact that Egypt was already divided into provinces, or nomes, which Joseph visited in succession, to take such measures as the particular resources of each province might afford, against the impending famine. Note: Gen_41:46. Compare the further mention of such provinces in Gen_41:57. We wish some one would collect all the intimations of ancient geographical knowledge which exist in the early Scriptures. Such a person will not get beyond the second chapter of Genesis without finding matter for admiration in the geographical peculiarity with which the site of Paradise is described. It has all the characters of a geographical description. It was situated in the land of Eden, towards the east. A river went out of it which became divided into three branches. The course of each of these branches is described, and the countries watered by it are named. Ever the different, and more remarkable productions of these countries are mentioned in a very special manner. The historian not only says that the land of Havilah afforded gold, but adds, that the gold of that land was very pure. There, also, he continues, were found the bdellium and the onyx. It is impossible to read these details without apprehending that geographical science and description had made much progress before the age of Moses, and that there might well be Israelites qualified to furnish a satisfactory topographical survey and description of the land of Canaan.