CHAPTER IV.

THE HEIGHTS AND THE PASSES OF BENJAMIN.

Joshua xviii. 11-13. "And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families and the 'border' of their lot came forth between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. And their border on the north side was from Jordan; and the border went up to the shoulder' of Jericho on the north side, and went up through the mountain 'seaward'; and the goings out thereof were at the wilderness of Beth-aven. And the border went over from thence toward Luz, to the side of Luz (which is Beth-el), southward; und the border descended to Atarothadar, near the mountain' that lieth on the south side of the nether Beth-horon."

Benjamin, the frontier tribe-Its independence.-I. The Passes. 1. The Eastern Passes. (a) Battle of Ai. (b) Battle of Michmash.

(c)

Advance of Sennacherib. 2. The Western Passes-Battles of Beth

horon-Joshua-Maccabeus-Cestius. II. The Heights. 1. NebySamwil or Gibeon. 2. Bethel-Abraham-Jacob-Jeroboam-Josiah. Note on Ramah and Mizpeh.

THE HEIGHTS AND THE PASSES OF

BENJAMIN.

the frontier

Judah and

Ephraim.

JERUSALEM, as we have seen, was on the very outskirts of Judah, only excluded from the territory of Benjamin by the circumstance, that at the division of the land Benjamin, by Joshua, Jebus was not yet conquered. Indeed, in tribe of the blessing on Benjamin it would appear to be reckoned as his portion. "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety, and the ''Most High' shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders," that is, between the rocky sides of Jerusalem. The southern frontier of the Benjamites ran through the ravine of Hinnom, and on them, if not exclusively, yet in common with the tribe of Judah, rested the charge of "driving out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem "."

This peculiar relation to Jerusalem may be traced in the whole history of Benjamin. It was the frontier tribe, and covered the debateable ground between the great rival families, and afterwards kingdoms, of Judah and Ephraim. Alternately, it seems to have followed the fortunes of each. In earlier times it certainly clung to the kindred tribes of Joseph, which had been its associates in the passage through the wilderness.

1 Deut. xxxiii. 12. The translation here given seems the most probable. The word translated "shoulder" is the same that is usually employed (like our English word) for the "side" of a hill, and is so used of this very situation in Josh. xviii. 16, "the 'shoulder' of 'the

Jebusite' on the south." See Appendix ;
Cataph.

2 The duty which, in Judges i. 21, is ascribed to Benjamin, is, in Joshua xv., 63, ascribed to Judah.

3 Numb. ii. 18-24.

It took its place with Ephraim and Manasseh in the gathering of the tribes under Deborah and Barak'. The bitterest enemies of the house of David-Saul, Shimei and Sheba-were Benjamites. It is expressly included under the house of Joseph, at the beginning of the national disruption as well as during its continuance'. Two of its most important towns, Bethel and Jericho, were within the territory of the northern kingdom. On the other hand, besides the fact that Jerusalem belonged to Judah, there must have been a portion at least which remained faithful to the house of David, in order to justify the expression that Rehoboam "assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin "" to fight against Jeroboam; Ramah, though once occupied by the kings of Samaria, seems to have been more generally included within the limits of Judah; and, finally, after the return from the Captivity, the chiefs of Judah and Benjamin always appear together at the head of the restored people".

Small as the tribe was, this ambiguous situation gave it considerable importance, an importance which was increased by a further peculiarity of the Benjamite territory. Of all the tribes of Israel, none, except perhaps Manasseh, contained such important passes of communication into the adjacent plains; none possessed such conspicuous heights, whether for defence or for "high places" of worship. These advantages, in the hands of a hardy and warlike tribe, ensured an Independent power independence to Benjamin, which the Hebrew records constantly contrast with its numerical feebleness and limited territory; "Little Benjamin their ruler," "Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel?" In his mountain passes-the ancient haunt of beasts of prey', Benjamin "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"."

of the tribe.