Naphtali will thus be seen to have, in virtue of its lands of varying altitude and deep depression, a greater variety of climate, scenery, and possible variety of production than any other tribe of Israel. To it more than to any other could be applied the words of promise uttered ere the Land was yet entered — ' a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates, a land of oil olives and honey ' (Dt 8'^-^). Apart from the barren stretches men- tioned, these words describe most naturally the state of Naphtali to-day. Diflerent parts are renowned for their varied products — Rameh for the excellence of its olives and its oranges, el-Jish for its vineyards, the north and the ^luleh valley for their fine crops of wheat and barley. Elsewhere we meet with the lemon, fig, mulberry, apricot, and even tobacco and tomatoes, in great abundance. As the Targum (on Gn 49-') has it, ' Naphtali's lot was cast in Ji pleasant land.' From shortly after the connnencement of the rainy season it is brilliant with flowers — anemones of many varied tints, cycla- mens, and lilies, while all its water-courses may be traced by the red blooui of the oleander. The hills are greener than those of any other tribe, and the grass and the spring flowers continue among its uplands long after the rest of Palestine is burned black and bare. This arises from the fact that Na])htali enjoys first and most of all the nnich praised ' dews of Hermon that descend upon the
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NAPKI>^
mountains of Zion ' (Ps ISS^). When the N.E. wind has come gently blowing over the great mountain, we have seen the dew-clouds rolling down in great volumes over its fields, supplying all nature with fresh vigour and sensations of pleasantness. Modern products, such as oranges, tobacco, and tomatoes, were absent in our Lord's time, as was also another feature that attracts the eye in these days, viz., the great hedges of prickly pear or cactus, by which many of the villages are practically fortihed. This plant is of modern importation, though, unfortu- nately, it has often found its way into pictures of Bible scenes. Compared with the present day, the hills of Naphtali were much more wooded in NT times. Just after such another period of unrest and unsettlenient as Galilee had passed through before the Advent, Arculphus, a pilgrim (A.D. 67U), found that the hills in his time were wooded down to the shores of the Lake. The woods of Naphtali are mentioned in the Palestinian Talmud (Baba Bathra v. i).
Of the productiveness of the soil there is ample testimony. We are told that Gush ^alab (Gis- chala ; el-Jish) was famous for the quantity of its oil (Erukhin ix. 6 ; Menahhoth, 856), and as this was considered to be a border town adjoining the tribe of Asher, the Kabbis saw here a fulfilment of Gn 49^", Dt 33'''. Josephus, speaking of the same place, tells us that its people were generally hus- bandmen, and apjilied themselves to the cultivation of the fruits of the earth [BJ iv. ii. 1). The quality of the wheat of Chorazin and Capernaum is well spoken of {Me,n. 85«). It is elsewhere stated that Naphtali j^ossessed vines and fruitful fields (Bab. Meq. 6«), and we meet with incidental reference to the honey of Safed, the indigo of Magdala, and the raw silk of Gush ^alab. And, in so far as productiveness is concerned, it must be remembered that whatever may be said of the hills of Naphtali applies with tenfold more force to the Plain of Gennesaret and the southern shore of the Lake (Jos. BJui. X. 8). If the evidence of Josephus and the Talmuds does not all refer to the time of our Lord's ministry, at least it shows us clearly what the district was becoming during that period.
2. The people. — Zebulun and Naphtali were in the year B.C. 135 practically Gentile (1 Mac 5^^), but from that time onward they became gradually reoccupied by a population of Jewish blood, and from the time of this resettlement its people were pre-eminently patriotic {Ant. XIV. ix. 2, xv. 10). It Avas a district of great memories and inspiring .scenes, and the new settlers acted up to them. The kind of immigrants — those who sought a freedom unknown at the court of Herod — would guarantee their quality, and, besides, there is something in the free air of the moimtains — especially mountains that have a past heroic history — that goes a long way to make heroes and warriors. In B.C. 4, Judas the son of Hezekiah had made an unsuccessful attempt to revolt, and again in A.D. 6, Judas of Galilee and his Zealots (cf. Lk 6^^), declaring 'There is no king but God' {Ant. xviii. i. 6). [With this saying we may compare that in the Jewish Morning Prayer, nnx n^n ^i^a »^ pN, and its repudiation in the cry of the Jews to Pilate (Jn 19'5), as well as the GaliLnean Arabic proverb met with in el-Jish to-day, ' Md fish sultan gher alia,' 'There is no king but God']. The milder govern- ment of Antipas, and his presence, as a ' half-Jew,' between them and their conquerors, kept the Zealots at peace during a long period in the 1st cent. (A.D. 6 -A.D. 66), and allowed the population to grow, so that probably all the villages of to-day represent cities of that time {BJ III. iii. 2). The population did not in peaceful days sink into sloth and indulgence. They were essentially sturdy sons of hardy toil ; and where commerce, agaiculture.