Joshua 18:28-10

Zelah = Beit Jala, S. of the plain of Rephaim, is afterwards mentioned as the burial-place of Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 21:14). 11. Elephis unknown; 12. Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, see note above, Joshua 15:8; Joshua 15:13. Gibeathis the Gibeah of Saul, now Tuleil-el-Fûl, about one hour and 25 minutes north of Jerusalem. Here (a) occurred the outrage recorded in Judges 19; here (b) was Jonathan with a thousand chosen warriors when he made his victorious onslaught on the garrison of the Philistines (1 Samuel 13:2-3). 14. Kirjathis at present unrecognised.

This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin The situation of the territory of this tribe was highly favourable, forming almost a parallelogram, of about 26 miles in length by 12 in breadth. The smallness of the district, hardly larger than the county of Middlesex, was compensated for by the excellence of the land.

(a) The general level of this part of Palestine is very high, being 2000 feet above the level of the Mediterranean on the western side, and 3000 feet above the deep valley of the Jordan on the eastern side. This plateau is surmounted by a large number of eminences (Gibeon, Gibeah, Geba, all = "hill;" Ramah = "eminence;" Mizpeh = "a watch-tower"), which presented favourable sites for strong fortresses.

(b) No less important than these eminences are the torrent-beds and ravines by which the upper country looks down into the deep tracts on each side of it, forming then, as they do now, the only mode of access from either the plains of Philistia and of Sharon on the west, or the Ghôrof the Jordan on the east.

(c) In the broken and hilly country, "little Benjamin" (Psalms 68:27), famous above the rest for skill in archery (2 Samuel 1:22), for its slingers (Judges 20:16) and left-handed warriors (Judges 3:15), became warlike and indomitable. "In his mountain passes the ancient haunt of beasts of prey, he -ravined as a wolf in the morning," descended into the rich plains of Philistia on the one side, and of the Jordan on the other, and -returned in the evening to divide the spoil" (Genesis 49:27). In the troubled period of the Judges, the tribe of Benjamin maintained a struggle, unaided and for some time with success, against the whole of the rest of the nation (Judges 20:21.). And to the latest times they never could forget that they had given birth to the first king." Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, pp. 200, 201.