Joshua 19:31

the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher The territory of Asher extended from the Nahr Zerkaon the south, to Zidon on the north, and contained some of the richest soil of the country, and the maritime portion of the fertile plain of Esdraelon, and commanded all approaches to Palestine from the sea on the north. Its soil well fulfilled the prophetic descriptions of Jacob and Moses. Here Asher could "dip his foot" in the oilof his luxuriant olive-groves (Deuteronomy 33:24) such as still distinguish this region, and fatten on the bread, the fruit of the rich plain of Phœnicia and his fertile upland valleys (Genesis 49:20). Here he could "yield royal dainties" (Genesis 49:20), "oil and wine from his olives and vineyards, and milk and butter from his pastures;" while under his shoes(Deuteronomy 33:25) was the iron oreof the southern slopes of Lebanon, and the brassor copper of the neighbouring Phœnician territory. See Stanley's S. and P., p. 362; Pusey's Lectures on the Book of Daniel, p. 294; Porter's Handbook of Sinai and Palestine, ii. p. 363. But to the richness of his soil and the proximity of the Phœnician towns the degeneracy and subsequent obscurity of Asher may be mainly traced. At the numbering of Israel at Sinai, the tribe was more numerous than either Ephraim, Manasseh, or Benjamin (Numbers 1:32-41), "but in the reign of David, so insignificant had it become, that its name is altogether omitted from the list of the chief rulers" (1 Chronicles 27:16-22). "The Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites" (Judges 1:32), and "though not nominally, or even really, a subject people, they were so thoroughly checked in their plans of conquest, and dashed their strength so uselessly against the strong rock of Phœnician power, that in the shock of failure they settled down as a people admitted to be strong, and allowed to exist side by side with the Phœnicians, under certain statutes and arrangements mutually entered into." Ritter's Compar. Geo. of Palestine, iii. 187, 188. With the exception of the aged widow, "Anna, the daughter of Phanuel" (Luke 2:36), no name "shines out of the general obscurity" of the tribe. "The contemptuous allusion in the Song of Deborah sums up this whole history, when in the great gathering of the tribes against Sisera, Asher continued on the sea-shore and abode in his creeks," So insignificant was the tribe to which was assigned the fortress which Napoleon called the key of Palestine. Stanley's S. and P., p. 265.