iv. Compressed into the narrow space between the north-western

hills of Judah and the Mediterranean was the tribe of DAN, containing within the 14 miles from Joppa to Ekron one of the most fertile tracts in the land, the corn-field and garden of southern Palestine. But for this rich prize it had to contend first with the Amorites (Judg. i. 34), and afterwards with the Philistines (Judg. xiv. &c.), and eventually, as we shall see, was obliged to seek a new home in the North (Judg. xviii. 27–29).

(b) _The Centre._

The central portion of the Holy Land, the _Samaria_ of after ages, was assigned to the two brother tribes of the _house of Joseph_, EPHRAIM and MANASSEH. Of this territory, which may be roughly estimated at 55 miles from E. to W., and 70 from N. to S., and which was about equal in extent to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk combined[164], (i) the more southerly portion was assigned to Joshua’s own tribe of EPHRAIM. It extended as far south as Ramah and Bethel within a few miles of Jerusalem, and was rich in fountains and streamlets, in “wide plains in the hearts of mountains, and continued tracts of vegetation,” in corn-fields and orchards, _the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof_, which the Lawgiver invoked on _the ten thousands of Ephraim_ (Deut. xxxiii. 13–17), and of whose father Jacob had said that he should be _a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well_ (Gen. xlix. 22). (ii) And as the duty of guarding the northern outposts on the east of Jordan had been assigned to one half of the tribe of MANASSEH, so to the remaining half on the west was assigned the duty of defending the passes into the great plain of Jezreel. Its territory stretched westwards to the Mediterranean and the slopes of Carmel, but did not quite reach the Jordan on the East.

(c) _The North._

The northern portion of the Holy Land, the _Galilee_ of after times, extending from the range of Carmel to the mountains of Lebanon, was assigned to four tribes “allied by birth, and companions on the desert march,” ISSACHAR, ZEBULUN, ASHER, and NAPHTALI.