RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Paleario Palestine
land inhabited in general by the Israelites or Jews, obviously with special reference to the land west of the Jordan. In the Old Testament the land is called Canaan (see Canaan, Canaanites). The northern boundaries of this region were left undefined (Gen. x. 15-19), or were extended to the Euphrates (Gen. xv. 18; Ex. xxiii. 31; Deut. xi. 24); while a distinction was drawn between the districts of Canaan conquered by the Israelites (Josh. xi. 17, xii. 7) and the land which they had not yet subdued (Josh. xiii. 2-6). The formula "from Dan to Beersheba " (II Sam. xxiv. 2,15; I Kings iv. 25), therefore, implies simply the northern and southern limits of the region actually occupied by Israel. Attempts at more exact delimitation are found in Num. xxxiv. 1-12 and Ezek. xlvii. 15-20, xlviii. 1 sqq. (cf. Josh, xv. 2-4). In Ezek. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28 the southern boundaries are given as Tamar, Meribath-kadesh (see Negeb), and the " brook of Egypt." The " brook of Egypt " (cf. I Kings viii. 65; II Kings xxiv. 7; II Chron. vii. 8) is doubtless identical with the modern Wadi al-'Arish. The same boundary, partly under other names, is implied by Num. xxxiv. 3-5 and Josh. xv. 2-A. The western boundary is given as the Mediterranean, " unto the entering in of Hamath " (Num. xiii. 21, xxxiv. 6-8; Josh. xiii. 5; I Kings viii. 65; Ezek. xlvii. 20; Amos vi. 14). The northern boundary of Canaan, accordingly, is to be sought near the plain of Emesa, either in the Nahr al-Kabir (between Lebanon and the Nusairi mountains) or in the district of al-Rastun, the classical Arethusa (ten hours north of Riblah and four hours from Hamath). The determination of all the individual sites mentioned in the passages giving this western boundary is no longer possible. The northern boundary is given as running from Hamath to the east of Baal-gad at the foot of Mount Hermon (Josh. xiii. 5), thus comprising " all Lebanon " (cf. Num. xxxiv. 8-9; Judges iii. 3; II Kings xiv. 25; Ezek. xlvii. 15-17; Amos vi. 14). Hazarenan, mentioned as the eastern extremity of the northern boundary in Num. xxxiv. 9-10 and Ezek. xlvii. 16, can not have been far from the Orontes, especially as the eastern boundary described in Num. xxxiv. 10-12 and Ezek. xlvii. 18, excludes the territory west of the Jordan. It is a problem whether these boundaries were based upon topographical conditions or on ethnographical distinctions. At all events, it is noteworthy that the land east of the Jordan was evidently no part of Canaan, although large portions of it were Israelitic before the Exile.
Besides the name Judea (q.v.), the land was also called Idumsea, especially by Roman poets, who extended the term to the entire country, though primarily it was restricted to Hebron and its vicinity. Greek writers, on the other hand, extended the name Phenicia to the more south- 2. Other em land. The oldest Assyro-Baby- Names. Ionian designation of Palestine is A-mur-ru, which comprised Palestine and Phenicia (see Phenicia, Phenicians) with parts of Coele-Syria. In the time of the Amarna Tablets (q.v.) A-mur-ru was restricted to the district of the Lebanon and northern Phenicia, the southern portion of the country, as in the Egyptian
inscriptions, being called Canaan. The inroads of the Hittites led the Assyrians, beginning with Tiglath-Pileser III., to term Syria and Palestine the " land of the Hittites." Another general designation arose later, 'Ebhir nari, " (the land) beyond (i. e., west of) the river (Euphrates), and this name was applied to the Syrian satrapy of Persia from the reign of Darius I. (cf. Ezra viii. 36 and often). Other appellations of Palestine have a more restricted connotation. Here belong "land of Israel" (I Sam. xiii. 19), "land of the Hebrews " (Gen. xl. 15; Josephus and Pausanias), "the land of Yahweh" (Hos. ix. 3), "the house of Yahweh " (Jer. xii. 7), " the holy mountain of Yahweh " (Isa. xi. 9, lxv. 25), " the holy land " (Zach. ii. 16; II Mace. i. 7), and "the land of promise " (Heb. xi. 9). The Israelites were also held to dwell in the center of the nations and in the navel of the earth (Ezek. v. 5, xxxviii. 12). This was due, in part at least, to the position of Palestine between the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates to the north and Egypt to the south, as well as between the desert on the east and the sea on the west; also, in some measure, to the high table-land possessed by Israel, as well as to the fact that the nation was to be a center for the dissemination of true religion to the Gentiles (cf. Isa. ii. 1-4).
II. Topography: The topography of Palestine is conditioned by a gigantic geological rift, running from the Bay of Elath apparently to Hermon, though it really continues to the valley of the Orontes and
finally disappears north of the ancient
i. In Antiochia. This rift, which reaches
General, its greatest breadth and depth in the
Dead Sep,, divides the chalk plateau between the Syrian desert and the sea into two parts, designated as the districts east and west of the Jordan. As far north as the promontory of Ras al-Nakurah the recession of the Mediterranean has left the present coast plain; while from this promontory in the north to the desert in the south there extends, between the mountains and the sea, a plain of varying breadth increasing southward and broken only by the range of Mt. Carmel. Between this plain, however, and the mountains proper comes a low hill country which frequently breaks the level stretches of the region. The mountain system east of the Jordan falls abruptly to the valley of the river, but the western slopes are more gentle. The watershed is thus of great importance, especially for southern Palestine, furnishing the natural means of communication for the inhabitants of the mountain region, and also affording numbers of small plateaus valuable for cultivation. This mountain district can be reached from the east and west only by narrow valleys hemmed in by precipices. On the south, on the other hand, it is more easy of access. To the north the mountain region spreads to the foothills of the ranges of Gilboa and Carmel, then gradually sinks to the triangular plain of Jezreel, and finally rises to the plateau of Galilee, which forms the approach to Lebanon and Antilebanon. Here again access to the mountain district is relatively easy in at least two places. The land east of the Jordan rises in terraces from the valley of the river and reaches a general level higher than that
Palestine