According to Yohanan Aharoni (The Land of the Bible), the purpose of Genesis 10 is to provide a historical and geographical description of the land of Canaan as the land between. The geopolitical situation of the Levant was certainly impressed upon the minds of the ancients, and Moses waxes eloquently in describing the land through a genealogy of the inhabitants in and around the land between. The roster is a survey of mostly Gentilic nations, 70 in number (the number 70 representing the number of totality, in Job 38-40 the Lord asks Job 70 questions, forgive 70 times 7 is quoted in Matthew 18:22). The chapter is in the form of a genealogical tree, working in the form of a pyramid from the top down, starting with the three sons of Noah; Shem, Ham and Japheteh. The sons of Shem settled mostly to the east of the Levant and were the closest related to the Israelites, the sons of Ham mostly to the south, and the sons of Japheteh mostly to the north and northwest. The order followed in the survey is political and territorial, as well as being divided by their ethnicity and language, the sons of Noah and their sons are allotted homelands. The sons of Japheteh settled on the outermost fringes of the known world in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The sons of Japheteh were the progenitors of the Greek and Pre-Greek nations. Gomer the father of the Celtic family, Magog in Russia, Madai the Medes, Javan in Greece, Tubal in Anatolia around the Black Sea, Mesheceh in Anatolia, and Tiras, the progenitor of the Thracians. The next generation of the sons of Japheteh continued to expand their territor; the son of Gomer, Ashkenaz dwelt in modern day Germany, and the sons of Javan; Elishah in Cyprus, Tarshish in Tarshish, Kittim in Crete, and Dodanim in Rhodes. The sons of Japheteh were of an Indo-European dialect. The second group contains the sons of Ham which were Semitic despite their allegiance to Egypt. To the sons of Ham belong the Canaanites such as the Jebusites, Amorites, and Girgashties. Even the Philistines who settled in the southern coastal plain were considered in the orbit of the sphere of Egyptian influence. The descendants of Ham, Seba, Havilah, Sheba, and Dedan settled in the South Arabia region but still had a close affinity to Africa. Though Asshur is included in the genealogy of the sons of Shem, the son of Cush, Nimrod the mighty hunter, was the progenitor of settlements in Assyria between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Nimrod founded cities in southern Mesopotamia in Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh. In northern Mesopotamia he founded cities in Nineveh, Rehoboth, and Calah. The borders of the land of Canaan are given in the allotment to the sons of Ham. The border starts at the Phoenician coastal city of Sidon, traverses south through the Plain of Acco, the Sharon Plain, and the Coastal Plain to the port city of Gaza, the "strong city," which was the most important and closest city in the Levant to Egypt. The border continues from Gaza east to the cities of the plain, Sodom, and Gomorrah which are traditionally located at the southern end of the Dead Sea. The border continued north to Lasha (Dan) and did not include any of Transjordan. The sons of Shem were speakers of a northwest Semitic dialect and did not inhabit any of the region of Transjordan. The third group contains the sons of Shem, which were the closest related to the Israelites, through Joktan the father of Eber. Besides Elam who settled in southern Persia, and Lud who settled in Asia Minor, the sons of Shem inhabited three different regions to the east of the Levant. Asshur and his sons settled in Mesopotamia, Aram and his sons settled in northern Mesopotamia, along the Fertile Crescent to Syria and into northern Transjordan, and the sons of Joktan settled in the region around South Arabia. The purpose of the Table of Nations is to reflect the ethnic and geographical world of the Israelites at a very early stage. The survey is to show the sphere of influence of the three sons of Noah, to identify how they settled to the south, east, north, and northwest of the land of Canaan. This is the main idea, to show how all of humanity is connected to and came from the Levant, the Promise Land.
(The Sacred Bridge page 30) Although it is used often in religious circles, the term "Promise Land" is not documented in the Bible. Genesis 15:18-21 furnishes the basis for this term. The promise or land covenant between God and Abram says "on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, unto thy seed have I given this land, from the River of Egypt, unto the great river, the River Euphrates..." The area encompassed here begins in the south at the River of Egypt, which is to be identified with Wadi el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, and the River Euphrates to the north is well known. 1 Kings 5:4 makes specific allusion to Tiphsah at the bend in the Euphrates were convenient fords existed in antiquity as the northern border of the Solomonic kingdom. The geographical entity envisioned in the Genesis promise is repeated in Deuteronomy, ".....turn and set out...to Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the River Euphrates (1:7)," as well as in Joshua, "from the wilderness and this Lebanon, unto the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hitties (northern Syria), and unto the Great Sea (Mediterranean), towards the going down of the sun shall be your coast" (Joshua 1:3,4). Yet the territory where the sons of Israel settled was traditionally between Dan and Beersheba (1 Kings 4:25), the same idea is given as early as Deuteronomy 34:2,3 when Moses saw the land which the Lord sware unto Abraham, Issac, and Jacob from Mt. Nebo in Transjordan, "unto Dan.....unto the Negev." This does not mean that the exact border or Israel ran alongside the tel’s of Dan and Beersheba, but that these two cities were located at the northern and southern most extremity of the country recognized as being settled by the tribes of Israel. There are also some east-west or west-east cross-sectional descriptions of the land that represent a Judahite viewpoint since they include the Shephelah (Deuteronomy 1:7, Joshua 10:40, 11:16, 17, Judges 1:9, 2 Chronicles 26:10). The overall character of the land of Israel is given in Deuteronomy 8:7,8 "For the Lord thy God brings thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil olive, and dates." The list gives the two basic components of the topography of the land; valleys and hills. The list also includes the seven species of food for which the country is known. The foodstuffs are divided into winter foods in the valleys such as wheat and barley, and summer foods in the hills, vines and fig trees, etc. The terrains of each of the 19 regions visited on the 15 day field study will be described in and of themselves. The overall character of the climate of the land of Israel is given in Genesis 8:22, "seedtime and harvest," or "cold and heat," and "summer and winter." The Bible only recognizes two seasons in the Levant. (The Sacred Bridge page 41) The year is divided into two halves, one beginning with Nisan, the first month, and another beginning with Tishri, the seventh month. These Babylonian month names were not in use in pre-exilic Israel but adopted afterwards. The Old Testament sacred festivals fell in the seventh month period embracing the Passover in Nisan and the Tabernacles in Tishri. During the winter, the main agricultural activities are devoted to grain crops expected in the spring and summer, in the summer the work was on vines and in orchards, for the summer fruits (2 Samuel 16:1, Micah 7:1). Every month there was something to do, there was never an unfertile season in the Levant, either in the north of south. The "eyes of the Lord" were upon the land from the beginning to the end of the year (Deuteronomy 11:12). The weather pattern in winter consists of low-pressure systems that arrive from the west and northwest. Those from northern Italy pass along the Adriatic to Greece and the Aegean, reaching Syria. The others come from southern Italy to the central Mediterranean and across to the Levant. The rainy season begins during October or November and usually come in three phases, the "early rain," "rain," and the "latter rain" (Deuteronomy 11:13-17). The early rain is hoped for just after the Feast of Tabernacles, it is a light sprinkling to soften the hard earth and to facilitate plowing. It may come in September but usually arrives sometime in October. 3The principal rain, about 75%, falls between December and February. The main sowing takes place from November through December and late sowing usually is done during a break in the rains in January. By March the grass is high enough to cut for fodder, and in April the "latter rain" is needed as a final dose to swell the grain. Though near the end of March the hot desert winds, sirocco or khamsin can begin. The rains are deposited more intensively on the mountain ranges of Judah, Ephraim, and Galilee than in other regions. The differing climate of the respective regions is an outcome of the contest between the arid desert and wet sea colliding. The amount of precipitation varies greatly in different parts of the country due to their geographical location and is intensified by the great differences in altitude. There is a difference of several degrees in temperature during the winter between Jerusalem and the seacoast, the latter being much milder. Beyond the watershed ridge in Ephraim and Judah there is a rain shadow since most of the precipitation has fallen on the hills, thus the dry chalk of the Judean Wilderness has little chance of getting moisture. However, the same winds that brought the rains from the west descend again to the humid depression and greenhouse of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea region where they pick up more moisture to be deposited in the ranges of Gilead and Moab. In a drought year for western Israel, the dry winds and high temperatures cause higher evaporation in the Rift Valley so that Transjordan actually may have a slightly higher precipitation for a change (Ruth 1:1). The snows of Mt. Hermon provide the principal water source for the Jordan River. Most of the winter rainwater is absorbed by the limestone mountains of Cisjordan and descend to a deep underground water table which was not utilized in antiquity. However, some of the water did break through to the surface in the form of springs and wells though some were considered brackish. These were generally located along the edge of the plains at the foot of the hill ranges. The true agricultural cycle of Israel is reflected in a school exercise from the 10th century, viz. the Gezer Calendar. The calendar will be discussed later in the Gezer section, but there is no doubt that it deals with twelve months, four periods of two months each and four periods of only one month. The series matches the real cycle of agricultural activities in the Levant. In the history of Israel and the connected regions, the network of roads was of prime importance because of their value as arteries or lifelines for regional and international commerce in the Near East. Unlike the country’s geographical structure which tends to induce fragmentation, the network of important routes crossing the Levant cultivated political and economic unification in periods, often under the power of a foreign empire. (The Land of the Bible page 43) The broken landscape of Israel makes it very difficult to develop new roads, so the pattern has remained more or less the same. For example, the Senonian valleys were the most suitable for traffic, (as they are today, such as Route 38 traversing the Shephelah on the Senonian seam between the Hill Country and the Shephelah) as the soft rock developed a smooth surface and were exposed at the base of hills. At strategic points dominating the major road junctions important cities were founded (i.e. Gezer, Megiddo, Hazor) whose fate became linked with the economic and military development of the route. 5Three types of routes may be distinguished according to function and measure of importance: international highways, intra-regional routes, and local trails. Preparation of road beds was limited to removing rocks and leveling surface when necessary (Isaiah 62:10, Amarna 199, Mesha Stone line 26). Many roads were named after the final destination such as "the way to Shur" and "the way to Edom" (Genesis 16:7, 2 Kings 3:20). The watershed ridge traversing the entire hill country from Hebron to Shechem follows a single track corresponding to the watershed, and the deep wadis on both sides prevent travelers from turning to the right hand or to the left. The main cities in the hill country were located on or astride from the watershed ridge (Debir, Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Gibeah, Mizpah, Bethel, Shechem), though latitudinal routes crossing the country from east to west are more numerous than longitudinal roads.
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