A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine, Book 5 · Part 1 · Chapter 10 – Chapter 11
CHAP. X. Objections against Ephraim answered.
Philol.
YOu make a strange desultory Description of the bounds of this Tribe, va…lting over from length to breadth in such a fashion as is hard to be understood, and worse to be applied to the letter of the *Josh. 17.Text.
Al…th.
Wise Agur confessed he knew not the †Prev. 30. 19way of an Eagle in the aire, whose flight therein … not to be traced, leaving no visible perforation behinde it, partly through the swiftness of his motion, partly through the subtileness of the aire presently closing up the passage. So short and concise is the Holy Spirit in bounding the children of Ioseph, and so long since hath time taken all impression of many limitary obscure places there mentioned, that exactness herein, by the confession of the*Masins in Josh. 17. best Authors, is not to be attained. But herein we have followed the direction of the learned Bonfrerius, save that we have not contracted the east of Ephrain to wards Iordan into so narrow a point, but bounded it broader, to make it a degree the better with the descriptions of other Authors.
Philol.
You make Sechem in this Tribe, full seventy miles from Hebron in the Tribe of Iudah. Me thinks they should be much nearer seeing Iacob sent Ioseph fromaGen. 37.14. Hebr…n to Sechem to give a visite to his brethren. Now how could his tender love adventure his darling child alone so tedious and dangerous a journey? Surely the distance was far less then you make it.
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Philol.
Rama in this Tribe, doubtlesly was a City of the Levites as doth appear by Elkanah and Samuel their constant habitation there, both of then Levites. Why therefore is it not surrounded in your Map with a double circle, like other Cities of the saine qualification?
Aleth.
I acknowledge Ra…a for the reasons by you alledged, probably pertaining to the Levites, but have omitted the double incircling thereof, because I finde it not amongst the four Cities given the Levites in Ep…raim, nor the fortycSee Josh. 21. eight assigned to them in the whole kingdome.
Philol.
Was it not then usurpation in the Levites to inhabite a City which by God was never granted unto them?
Aleth.
Under favour I conceive, though the Levites must have four, they might have moe Cities in Ephrain, or elsewhere, if the charity of well disposed people was pleased to bestow them. Thus, beside the three Cities for Refuge west of Iordan the Israelites were bound, if God did inlarge their dD…ut. 19. 8, 9.coasts, to adde three more for the same service. By which analogy it may be collected, that the Ephraimites in gratitude to God, who gave them more intire possession of their portion then any other Tribe in Ioshua's division (nothing out …ezer, a Levites City being detained from them by the Can…anites) might give this Ra…a as a gratuity to the Levites. Besides, the suburbs and lands of the Levites reached from th… walls of the Cities three thousand Cubits round about, with in which space they might erect what buildings they please, being therein (without incroaching on any other Tribe) resident on their proper inheritance. Rama therefore might be built within that circumference, and by the proportion of miles we collect it to stand within the circuit of Gezer, so that though they could not get Gezer it self, they might gain and build Rama within the compass thereof for their habita…ion. However, we define nothing positively, much less impose it on the beliefe of others. Clipt money is worth as much as it weighs, though it will not pass for what it was coined; and conjectures, though they will not goe for certain truths, deserve to finde as much acceptance, as they bring probability with them.
Philol.
Have you nothing more to observe concerning the blessings, and … pronounced on mount Ebal and Gerizim
Aleth.
I conceive on second thoughts, that the Prie…ts with the A…ke stood in the valley betwixt the two hils (whilest the whole body of the ordinaryeDeut. 30. 2. Levites were on the mount of Gerizi… ) whose station in the half way betwixt both, when they pronounced the blessings and the cursings, facilitated the conveyance of the sound on both sides, as appeareth on the seriousfCompare Deut. 11. and cap. 27. with Josh. cap. 8. comparing of the Scripture.
Philol.
Tiphsah is made by you a City in this Tribe. But, if it were situate herein, very short were the dominions of Solomon even in the very height of his greatness, who then reigned on this side of the river from g1 King. 4. 24.T…phsah even to Azza, or Gaza, in the Tribe of Simeon, not fully an hundred miles, as appears by your Scale in the generall Description of the land.
Aleth.
Tiphsah there mentioned being the eastern boundary of Solomons Empire (from ourh2 Kin. 15. 16. Tiphsah where cruell Menahem began his reign) was near a thousand miles north-east on the river Euphrates, probably the same with the City Tharsacus, whereof Ptole…y, Strabo, and Stephanus take speciall notice.
Philol.
Have you any miraculous faith, who so easily have removed the mountain of Phinehas (wherein Eleazar was buried) from the north of this Map, within the suburbs of Bethhoron a Levites City, to the south thereof near Shiloh, where in your Map generall the same is presented?
Aleth.
On better consideration I see no necessity, that his mountain should be brought within the bounds of any Leviticall City. Phinehas was an extraordinary person, and therefore his land might be extraordinary in the location thereof. This his portion was no part of the Levites patrimony in their forty eight Cities given them by God, but seems rather the s…perpondium of the peoplesiJosh. 24. 33. bounty cast into the balance, as an honourable augmentation in reward of hiskNum. 25. …. eminent desert. I conceive therefore it lay in Mount Ephraim, near Shilob, where the Tabernacle was set up, bestowed upon him thereabouts, for his more convenient attending of Gods service therein.
CHAP. XI. Objections against Dan answered.
Philol.
YOu positively affirme that the land of Dan belonged primitively to Iudah, yet produce no Scripture for the proof thereof. We beleeve the same of Simeon, theaJosh. 19. 1. Text affirming that their inheritance was within the inheritance of Iudah, but no evidence appears of such derivation of Dans possession originally from Iudah.
Aleth.
The same is infallibly collected from Scripture, because the Cities of Eshtaol, bJosh. 15. 33.Zoreah, cJosh. 19. 57.Timnah, dJosh. 19. 45.Ekron were first bestowed on Iudah, andeJosh. 19. 41. 43. afterwards we finde the same places, (with the Countrey thereabouts by necessary consequence) conferred upon Dan's posterity for their portion.
Philol.
Such an alteration seems utterly inconsistent with divine immutab…lity, with whom is no …, nor shadow of fJames 1. 17.changing. To give a thing and take a thing is unproportionable with his proceedings, whose Gifts are pronounced by the Apostle to be foreign,gRom. 11. 29. without Repentance.
Aleth.
Indeed such gifts as amount to the notion of foreign are uncapable of alteration, to which his other grants are subject. Besides, God never so passed away that land but he still reserved it as his own Demesnes. For the land (saith he) is mine; not was, but is, even after the Israelite, had long possessed the same. Is it not lawfull for him to doe as he will with his own, iMat. 20. 15.and to change at pleasure what tenants to rent, or rather what Bailifes to occupy his own ground?
Philol.
The faces of the Men which bear the great bunch of grapes, are set the wrong way. For being to goe south-east to Kadesh-…arnea, they look full west to the Mediterranean sea.
Aleth.
You put me in minde of a man, who being sent for to pass his verdict on a Picture, (how like it was to the person whom it was to resemble) fell a finding fault with the frame thereof (not the Limners but the Ioiners work) that the same was not handsomely fashioned. In stead of giving your judgment on the Map, (how truely it is drawn to represent the Tribe) you cavill at the History…properties therein, the act of the …raver, not Geographer. Yet know Sir when I checkt the*Ro. Vaughan. Graver for the same, he answered me that it was proper for Spies, (like Water-men and Rope-makers) for surety sake to look one way and work another.