A Good Land
A Good Land
When God told Moses that he was about to bring them out of Egypt into Canaan, he described it as “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod. 3:8), adding later that it was “the most beautiful of all lands” (Ezek. 20:6, 15). And when the twelve spies, whom Moses had sent to explore the land, reported they confirmed this description from their own experience. Joshua and Caleb said:
The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good … a land flowing with milk and honey. (Num. 14:7–8)
They were able, moreover, to supply evidence for their assertion, for they had brought back with them from the Valley of Eshcol (a little north of Hebron) a single cluster of grapes so heavy that it had to be slung on a pole and carried by two of them, with some pomegranates and figs as well (Num. 13:23–24).
Then, just before entering the land, after a delay of forty years because of Israel’s disobedience and unbelief, Moses urged the people to keep God’s commandments and added:
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. (Deut. 8:7–10)
Although Palestinian farmers have to work hard to secure a good yield, this is still an accurate description of the country’s fertility and produce. The country we are describing extends only about 200 miles from north to south and 100 miles from west to east. It is hemmed in by natural boundaries. To the north rises the mountainous mass of the Lebanon (meaning “white” because of its snows) and the Anti-Lebanon, the valley between being known as “the entrance to Hamath.” To the west lies the Mediterranean or “the Great Sea,” and to the east and south the forbidding deserts of Arabia and of Zin (see Num. 34:1–15).
Several popular expressions were used to refer to the whole country from north to south. One was “from the entrance to Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah” that is the Dead Sea (for example, 2 Kings 14:25). But the commonest was simply “from Dan to Beersheba” (for example, Judg. 20:1; 1 Sam. 3:20; 2 Sam. 3:10; 1 Kings 4:25), Dan being Israel’s most northerly city, while Beersheba was its most southerly, situated at the edge of the desert of Zin, about halfway between the Mediterranean and the southern tip of the Dead Sea.
Visitors to the Holy Land, provided they have an opportunity to explore it adequately, are struck by the great variety of its terrain. The contrast is nowhere greater than between the “seas” or “lakes” at the northern and southern ends of the Jordan River. For the colorful beauty of Galilee—with its blue lake surrounded by mountains, its carpet of springtime flowers and its distant backdrop of snowcapped Mount Hermon to the north—is a veritable paradise in comparison with the heat, the stench and the desolation of the Dead Sea and its surroundings.
The biblical record often alludes to the different “regions” into which Palestine is divided. For example, its inhabitants are described as living “in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast” (Deut. 1:7). The “Arabah” is the deep gorge of the Jordan Valley running south to the Gulf of Aqabah. The “mountains” refers to the mountains of Judea, while the “western foothills” refers to the Shephelah district. The “Negev,” meaning “the dry,” is the great southern desert whose other name is the wilderness of Zin, and the “coast” lies along the Mediterranean.
Perhaps a simpler way to remember the map of Palestine is to visualize four strips of country running parallel from north to south. The most striking is the Jordan Valley. The river cuts its way deep between two mountain ranges—the central highlands which form the backbone of Palestine (its western slopes going down to the coastal plain) and the eastern tableland beyond which lies the desert. So the four strips between the sea and the desert are the coastland, the central highlands, the Jordan valley and the eastern tableland. We shall look at each in turn.