object of the two and a half tribes, according to their apology and explanation, was to have a memorial in that western land from which the Jordan seemed to cut them off.
Two and a half tribes being settled east of Jordan, three tribes north of the Plain of Esdraelon, and one in the Plain itself, the remainder of the country is divided between the remaining five tribes and a half.
In the Book of Joshua the boundaries of the tribes are given with the greatest minuteness, but it was impossible for us to trace them with any accuracy before the topographical survey was carried out. Many of the villages by which the border lines passed were lost, in some cases the sites were displaced; but as soon as these things were rectified the boundaries could again be drawn.
The blessing which Jacob pronounced upon his sons, according to Gen. xlix., was true to the position of the tribes in their several districts; and their position determined in some degree their conduct and their fortunes. When Joshua dismissed the two and a half tribes, they went away to their tents: living on those green hills east of Jordan, they remained for a long time a pastoral people. Reuben, bordering on Arabia, and being "unstable as water," became hardly distinguishable from an Arab tribe. Gad, of whom Jacob said, "a troop shall press upon him," was subject to attacks from troops of Bedouin plunderers. Divided from their brethren by the great gorge of the Jordan, the eastern tribes were separated also in their fortunes. The three northern tribes of Asher, Zebulon, and Naphtali were also partially cut off by the great plain of Esdraelon. They got into communication with the northern nations from whom they were less separated geographically, and they entered into alliance with Phœnicia. Solomon gave away twenty of their cities to Hiram, king of Tyre, apparently thinking that the allegi-
