The town names of Palestine are so ancient that their occurrence does not, as a rule, affect critical questions; yet the absence of the names of Jeru- salem, Samaria, Tirzah, and Zereda in the Pent. is
notable. The permanence of the population has preserved some three-fourths of the OT nomen- clature to the present day, and these names are equally traceable in the 4th and 12th centuries A.D. in a large number of instances. The survey of the country has brought to light some 150 biblical sites which were unknown, because, as a rule, they do not appear on earlier maps. In Genesis the Heb. ancestors are represented as migrating from Ur on the Lower Euphrates to Harran in the north, thus entering Canaan through Syria ; and Pheenician tradition points to the same line of immigration. The Amraphel and Arioch, with whom in Gn 14 Abraham is said to have been pu emnipeny bare been supposed (though Jensen, Ball, and King [Letters ie Geacriokions of Khammurabi, 1899) dispute this) to be the Bab. Khammurabi and Eriaku, whose date is fixed b many at about B.C. 2376-2333 (see Sayce, ΕΗ ἢ 281). The Hebrews naturally reached Bethel before Hebron and Beersheba. Of the cities noticed in Gn, those of Syria (Gn 10%8) are known in B.C. 1700, 1600, and 1500 on monuments in the cases of Sidon, Arka, Arvad, Zemar, and Hamath. Gerar and Gaza in Palestine (v.!) are noticed in B.c. 1600 and 1500 respectively ; but Dan (if really a town name in Gn 1412) does not seem to have been so named till the time of the judges (Jg 18%). Dothan (Gn 3717) is noticed by Thothmes ΠΙ. about B.c. 1600, and its site is equally certain with those of the preceding cities. Damascus (Gn 15) is noticed by Thothmes I. in B.c. 1600, and on the Tel el-Amarna tablets a century later.* These tablets also refer to the land of Hobah (Gn 14) north of Damascus, and to the land of Ham (Gn 14°) in Bashan. The topography of Exodus is mainly confined to the desert, and unfortunately contains many names of unknown localities. That of Numbers refers largely to a region never reached by the Egyptians, and only conquered by the eee in the 8th cent. B.c. The chief sites in Moab and Gilead retain their ancient names, and some are noticed on the Moabite Stone about B.c. 850. The conquest of Eastern Palestine in five months by the Israelites was less arduous than many of the yearly campaigns of the Egyptians and Assyrians, which extended over much greater distances through hostile of Palestine. The view of Palestine from Nebo (Dt 3413) accords with the actual view, excepting that Dan and the ‘ Western Sea’ are hidden by nearer mountains.
The great geogra hical book of the OT is, however, that of Joshua. The description of the boundaries of the land applies, in the judgment of the writer of the present article, to a time previous to that of the captivity of Gad in B.c. 734 (1 Ch 5*), and to that of the Moabite conquest in B.C. 850. It also refers to a period not later than that of David, according to the note (1 Ch 451) concern- ing the dispersion of Simeon. Ai (Jos 85) was apparently no longer in ruins in B.C. 701 (Is 10*), and was repeopled after the Captivity (Neh 11"). The curse of Joshua on Jericho (Jos 655) was ful- filled (1 Καὶ 1652) in Ahab’s time, about B.c. 850; and the regions unconquered by Joshua (185: were part of David’s kingdom. Jebus (Jos 15%) was ins taken by David ; and Nob, which is un- noticed in Jos (21) as a priestly city, had its popu- lation massacred by Saul (1 S 22"), but ap yarently was reoccupied by B.C. 701 (Is 10). On the other hand, the distinction of Israel and Judah seems to be indicated geographically (Jos 11’**), and it is very remarkable that there is no account of the conquest of Central Palestine, and that the deserip- tion of the Samaritan region is much less com-
* On the names in these tablets see esp, Petrie’s Syria ana Egypt from the Tell el-Amarna Letters, yp. 144-187.
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plete than that of Galilee and Judea. There is an important difference in the order of the sage referring to the fulfilment of the law at Shechem (Jos 8”) in the LXX, and it has been suspected that the original book has lost portions referring to Samaria. The geography, however, does not 2 idee that of the later period (Neh 11”), when Judah colonized the earlier possessions of Simeon, and Benjamin settled in towns that had belonged to Dan. The forty-eight Levitical cities were assigned in obedience to the law (Nu 35°), but the arrangement laid down in Ezk (4555) is quite different, and these cities are not so assigned in Neh (11%), The majority of the Levitical cities are well-known sites, and the variations in the imperfect parallel list (1 Ch 6) are few. Beth- shemesh, Bass Beth-horon, Eltekeh, Aijalon, Gath-rimmon, Taanach, Ashtaroth, Daberath, and En-gannim are among the Levitical cities which are noticed on Egyp. monuments, and in the Tel el-Amarna letters, in the 16th and 15th cents. B.C., excepting Beth-horon and Eltekeh—noticed by Shishak (B.C. 935) and by Sennacherib (B.C. 701) ΤΕΕΠΟΘΑΥΘΙΣ.
When we compare the final arrangements of the conquest — for at first Judah, Benjamin, and Joseph occupied country (Jos 16. 17) out of which portions were taken for Issachar, Dan, and Simeon —with the twelve provinces which existed in the time of Solomon, the two accounts are found to coincide very closely, but in subsequent ages the boundaries mentioned differ considerably from those of the Bk. of Joshua. Ephraim, Naphtali, and Asher are noticed as provinces with Issachar and Benjamin (1 K 4%); the second province in- cluded towns of Dan; the third appears to have been in Judah ; and the fourth perhaps in Zebulun. East of Jordan the northern province had its capital at Ramoth-gilead (Reimén) and the southern at Mahanaim (probably Makhneh), while the twelfth province coincided with the lot of Reuben. Bec had already ceased to hold the Beersheba plains,