The Eastern Tableland
The Eastern Tableland
The fourth strip of Palestinian country we have to consider is the eastern tableland, between the Jordan Valley and the Arabian Desert. This was the area inherited by two and a half of Israel’s twelve tribes:
Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan. (Josh. 18:7)
It is a vast plateau stretching for about 250 miles from north to south, divided by four rivers which have cut deep canyons on their way westwards into the River Jordan or the Dead Sea. The first is the River Yarmuq, which flows into the Jordan just south of Lake Tiberias. The second is the River Jabbok which reaches the Jordan approximately halfway between Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea. It was here that “Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak” (Gen. 32:22–32). The River Arnon flows into the middle of the Dead Sea and the River Zered into its southern tip. These rivers formed natural frontiers for Israel’s neighboring tribes, Ammon claiming the territory between the Jabbok and the Arnon, Moab that between the Arnon and the Zered (though often spilling over to the north), and Edom that south of the Zered.
Perhaps it is easiest, however, to visualize the plateau east of the Jordan by remembering the main divisions which Denis Baly describes in his Geography of the Bible. Bashan, the tableland east of Lake Tiberias, he calls “the land of the farmer,” for though it was probably well wooded in Bible times it was famed for its corn crop and for its rams, lambs, goats and bulls, “all of them fattened animals from Bashan” (Ezek. 39:18; cf. Ps. 22:12).
South of Bashan was Gilead, a term covering virtually the whole of Transjordan between Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea. This is the “land of the highlander.” As the terrain rises to over 3,000 feet, the rainfall is considerable and brings fertility to both forest and vineyard. The grapes of Gilead were unrivaled throughout Palestine and “the balm of Gilead” (an aromatic spice of some king) was famous. The caravan of Ishmaelites to whom Joseph was sold by his brothers were “coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt” (Gen. 37:25).
Continuing our journey south in Transjordan, Moab comes next, occupying the mountainous territory east of the Dead Sea. Apart from the deep gorges of the River Arnon and of some smaller streams, most of Moab is a high plateau. Denis Baly calls it “the land of the Shepherd”: “Everywhere … there are sheep, great flocks and converging lines of them, like the spokes of a limitless wheel, moving in clouds of golden dust to be given their water at the well” (see Gen. 37:25; cf. Jer. 8:22).
So, too, we read in the Bible:
Now Mesha king of Moab raised sheep, and he had to supply the king of Israel with a hundred thousand lambs and with the wool of a hundred thousand rams. (2 Kings 3:4)
It was from the mountains of Moab (Mount Nebo, to be precise) that Moses viewed the promised land before he died, and on the plains of Moab that the children of Israel encamped before crossing the Jordan to take possession of it (Deut. 32:49–50; 34:1–8; Num. 22:1).
The most southerly section of Transjordan is Edom. At its highest points it rises to about 3,500 feet, towering above the deserts to the west, east and south. Denis Baly names it “the land of the trader,” for through it passed the great eastern trade route known as “the King’s Highway.” It was because of Edom’s refusal to allow Israel to use this route on their way to the promised land that there was long-standing enmity between the two countries (Num. 20:14–21; 21:4).
Such is the “good land” which the Lord their God gave to Israel. It was a country for farmers, who kept livestock and cultivated the arable soil.