Joshua 19:16

This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun It is evidently impossible in the present state of our knowledge exactly to define the limits of this tribe. But it seems to have reached on the one side nearly to the lake of Gennesareth, and on the other to Carmel and the Mediterranean. It enclosed one of the fairest portions of Palestine. Besides the fertile plain near the fisheries of the lake of Gennesareth, and the rich mountain-valleys, the tribe possessed the goings out, the outlet, of the plain of Akka (Deuteronomy 33:18), where he could "dwell at the shore," and "suck of the abundance of the seas" (Genesis 49:13; Deuteronomy 33:19). But though possessing a district excelling in natural beauty and fertility, Zebulun, like the other northern tribes, occupies quite a subordinate position in Old Testament History. We read of it as emerging from its obscurity only on two occasions; (a) first, when side by side with Naphtali the men of the tribe "jeoparded their lives unto the death" upon "the high places" of Tabor in the contest with Sisera; and (b) secondly, when fifty thousand "expert in war," with "all instruments of war," came up to the coronation of David at Hebron (1 Chronicles 12:33).