i. The territory of ISSACHAR lay above that of Manasseh, and

exactly consisted of the plain of Esdraelon (the Greek form of the Hebrew _Jezreel_, = _the seed-plot of God_). The luxuriance of this plain,――the battle-field of Palestine[165]――is the theme of every traveller. The soil yielded corn and figs, wine and oil (1 Chr. xii. 40), the stately palm waved over the villages, and the very weeds to this day testify to its extraordinary fertility. Here Issachar rejoiced in his _tents_ (Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19), couched down as the strong he-ass (Gen. xlix. 14, 15) used for burden and field-work, and seeing that _rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant, bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to the tribute_, which various marauders, Canaanites (Judg. iv. 3, 7), Midianites, Amalekites (Judg. vi. 3, 4), Philistines (1 Sam. xxix. 1; xxxi. 7–10) exacted, bursting through his frontier open both on the east and west, and tempted by his luxuriant crops[166].