1. The South — the undulating pasture country which
JUDAH
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JUDAH
iatervened between the hills, the proper possession of the tribe, and the deserts which encompass the lower part of Palestine (Josh, xv, 21). It is this which is once designated as the wilderness (midbar) of Judah (Judg. i, 10). It contained twenty- nine cities, with their dependent villages (Josh, xv, 20-32), whi£h,.with Ether and Ashan in the mountains, were ceded to Sim- eon (xix, 1-9). Amongst these southern cities the most familiar name is Beersheba. These southern pasture- lands were the favorite camping-grounds of the old pa- triarchs, as they still are of those nomad tribes that fre- quent the southern border of Palestine. See Sijif.on.
2. The Lowland (xv, 33 ; A. V. "valley")— or, to give it its own proper and constant appellation, the Shephelah —the broad belt or strip lying between the central high- lands—"the mountain" — and the Mediterranean Sea; the lower portion of that maritime plain which extends through the whole of the sea-board of Palestine, from Sidon in the north to Rhinocolura at the south. This tract was the garden and the granary of the tribe. In it, long before the conquest of the country by Israel, the Philistines had settled themselves, never to be com- pletely dislodged (Neh. xiii, 23, 24). There, planted at equal intervals along the level coast, were their five chief cities, each with its circle of smaller dependents, overlooking, from the natural midulations of the ground, the " standing corn," " shocks," " vineyards and olives," which excited the ingenuity of Samson, and are still no- ticeable to modern travellers, "They are all remark- able for the beauty and profusion of the gardens which surround them — the scarlet blossoms of the pomegran- ates, the enormous oranges which gild the green foliage of their famous groves" (Stanley, .S'yr. and Pal. p. 257). From the edge of the sandy tract, which fringes the im- mediate shore right up to the very wall of the hills of Judah, stretches the immense plain of corn-fields. In those rich harvests lies the explanation of the constant contests between Israel and the Philistines {Syr. and Pal. p. 258). From them were gathered the enormous cargoes of wheat which were transmitted to Phoenicia by Solomon in exchange for the arts of Hiram, and which in the time of the Herods still " nourished" the country of Tj're and Sidon (Acts xii, 20). There were the olive-trees, the sycamore-trees, and the treasures of oil, the care of which was sufiicient to task the energies of two of David's special officers (1 Chron. xxvii, 28). The nature of this locality would seem t(j be reflected in the names of many of its towns if interpreted as Hebrew words: Dllean = cucumbers ; Gcderah, Gederoth, Gede- rothaim, sheep-folds; Zoreah, wasps ; Ex-gannim, spring of gardens, etc. But we have yet to learn how far these names are Hebrew, and whether at best they are but mere Hebrew accommodations of earlier originals, and therefore not to be depended on for their significations. The numljer of cities in this district, without counting the smaller villages connected with them, was forty-two. Of these, however, many which belonged to the Philis- tines can only have been allotted to the tribe, and, if taken possession of by Judah, were only held for a time. What were the exact boundaries of the Shephelah we do not know. We are at present ignorant of the princi- ples on which the ancient Jews drew their boundaries between one territory and another. One thing only is almost certain, that they were not determined by the natural features of the ground, or else we should not find cities enumerated as in the lowland plain whose mod- ern representatives are found deep in the mountains. See Jaumuth ; Jiphtah, etc. (The latest information regarding this district is contained in Tobler's Dritie Wanderung, 1859.)
3. The third region of the tribe — the 3fountaw, the " hill-country of Judah" — though not the richest, was, if not the largest, yet the most important of the four. Be- ginning considerably below Hebron, it stretches north- ward to Jerusalem, eastward to the Dead Sea slopes, and westward to the Shefelah. and forms an elevated district or plateau, which, though thrown into consider-
able undulations, yet preserves a general level in both directions. It is the southern portion of that elevated hilly district of Palestine which stretches north until intersected by the plain of Esdraelon, and on which He- bron, Jerusalem, and Shechem are the cliief spots. On every side the apiiroaches to it were difficult, and the passes easily defended. The towns and villages, too, were generally perched on the tops of hills or on rocky slopes. The resources of the soil were great. The country was rich in com, wine, oil, and fruits ; and the daring shepherds were able to lead their flocks far out over the neighboring plains and through the mountains. The surface of this region, which is of limestone, is mo- notonous enough. Kound swelling hills and hollows, of somewhat bolder proportions than those immediately north of Jerusalem, which, though in early times prob- ably covered with forests [see Harktii], have now, where not cultivated, no growth larger than a brush- wood of dwarf-oak, arbutus, and other bushes. In many places there is a good soft turf, discoverable even in the autumn, and in spring the hiUs are covered with flow- ers, The number of towns enumerated (Josh, xv, 48- 60) as belonging to this district is thirty-eight, but, if we may judge from the ruins which meet the eye on every side, this must have been very far below the real number. Hardly a hill which is not crowned by some fragments of stone buildings more or less considerable, those which are still inhabited surrounded by groves of olive-trees, and inclosures of stone walls protecting the vineyards. Streams there are none, but wells and springs are frequent — in the neighborhood of "Solo- mon's Pools" at Urtas most abundant ones,