Exodus 23:31

And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river. "The sea of the Philistines" denotes the Mediterranean, so called from the territory of the Philistines lying along nearly the whole extent of the western shores of Palestine. "The river" is the name given, parexcellence, to the Euphrates (see the notes at Genesis 15:18; Genesis 31:21). Within these specified boundaries was comprehended the whole land promised by Yahweh to Israel, embracing an extent of territory estimated in length, from north to south, about 330 miles, and in average breadth between 80 and 100 miles. The attainment of this destined domain, however, was not realized until the reigns of David and Solomon.

I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Of course, in the manner previously stated-not 'in one year, but gradually,' lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee." Colenso alleges that there was no occasion for any such apprehension, if the number of the people was really as great as the Scripture represents-namely, upwards of 2,000,000; and in support of his allegation he pictures Canaan at the time of its first occupation-as filled with the Israelites and the people of the seven native tribes-to have been as densely populated as the midland counties in England, and therefore the risk of all increase of wild beasts as unlikely as in our own country at the present. The comparison is absurd, as there is no analogy whatever between the two cases-the one an unsettled and pagan country, the other long in a well-ordered and highly civilized condition.

This objection is applied to Canaan, which in the time of Joshua was divided among the tribes; and yet that territory, extending from Dan to Beersheba, in length 220 miles, and in breadth from 80 to 90, was sufficiently large, as appeared at a later period, for a population three or four times larger than the number of the Israelites at the invasion. The passage under review, however, in this verse, does not refer to the land in the time of Joshua, but to the extended boundaries comprised in the terms of the promise as originally made to Abraham; and it must be evident that if the native tribes had been dispossessed of that vast region "in one year," the 2,000,000 of Israel would not have been in circumstances to occupy, either by the erection of towns and villages, or by regular encampments, the deserted lands, which, lying in a state of desolation, must have become infested with multitudes of wild beasts.

The probability, or rather the certainty of this foretold contingency arose from the position of Canaan, covered with immense forests, and surrounded by extensive deserts. Accordingly the very numerous references to wild beasts in the course of the sacred history afford indisputable evidence that not even in the best and highest condition of the country was it ever free from the presence of predatory animals (cf. Judges 14:8; 1 Samuel 17:34; 2 Samuel 23:20; 1 Kings 13:24; 2 Kings 2:24); and the state of the country, when devastated by the Assyrian conqueror, who sent some few of his own subjects to colonize the depopulated lands of Samaria, shows the necessity of the arrangement indicated by Yahweh for the gradual expulsion of the Canaanites. The Assyrian colonists found the wild beasts becoming so formidable in numbers and in daring that they were compelled to apply for the means of protection (2 Kings 17:27); and their experience at so advanced a period in the history of Canaan of an evil to which that country has been at all times exposed, furnishes the strongest proof of the divine wisdom and goodness regarding the progress of the first occupation.

'The population of Palestine,' says Porter, 'at the present moment is about 2,000,000, or about equal to the number of the Israelites at the exodus; and I can testify that more than three-fourths of the richest and the best of the country lies completely desolate.' (Letter in the 'Athenaeum,' January 1, 1863).-Colenso,' says Dr. McCaul, 'seems to suppose that the desolation spoken of (Exodus 23:9) would be caused by the multiplication of wild beasts. But this is not the meaning. God promises not to drive out the Canaanites in one year, for two reasons-first, lest the land should be desolate; and, secondly, lest the beasts of the field should multiply against them. Now, if whole population of Canaan had been destroyed "in one year," which implies continued fighting, disorder, and neglect of agricultural pursuits, was there not a danger that the following year there would be no crops? In such a state of things, in a country like Canaan, when there were wild beasts in the land, and abundance in the neighbourhood-when the fields, and roads, and cities would all be full of the corpses of slain and unburied Canaanites-there would be the greatest possible danger of the wild beasts multiplying against the new-comers, and even disputing possession with them. Even in France, with its immense population, wolves increased during the revolutionary troubles and confusion, from 1793 on, to such a degree as to cause serious alarm; and high rewards were offered by the National Convention for their destruction. In 1797 no less than 5,351 wolves were destroyed, and the alarm had not subsided even in the year 1800.'

Colenso's objection, though elaborately stated, is altogether groundless; and in asserting that the Israelites at their entrance into Canaan would have been as able to ward off the attacks of wild beasts as the inhabitants of modern Britain, he not only shuts his eyes to the entire difference in the circumstances of the two peoples, but forgets the altered relations between man and the predatory beasts, the extirpation of which can now be much more rapidly effected by gunpowder and the rifle than anciently by the sword, the arrow, or the sling. (See Drs. McCaul, Benisch, and Porter; Messrs., Micaiah Hill, J.B. McCaul, Page, Hirschfelder, Stephen, Hoare, and Judge Marshall's 'Answers to Colenso.')