**** The itinerary given in Numb. xx. 22-29, xxxi., xxxiii. 37-49, and repeated in Bent, ii., brings the Israelites as far as Ezion-geber, in such a manner as to avoid the Midianites and the Moabites.  The friendly welcome accorded to them in the regions situated to the east of the Dead Sea, has been accounted for either by an alliance made with Moab and Ammon against their common enemy, the Amorites, or by the fact that Ammon and Moab did not as yet occupy those regions; the inhabitants in that case would have been Edomites and Midianites, who were in continual warfare with each other.

There again they were confronted by the Amorites, but in lesser numbers, and not so securely entrenched within their fortresses as their fellow-countrymen in the Negeb, so that the Israelites were able to overthrow the kingdoms of Heshbon and Bashan.*

     * War against Sihon, King of Heshbon (Numb. xxi. 21-31;
     Beut. ii. 26-37), and against Og, King of Bashan (Numb. xxi.
     32-35; Beut. iii. 1-13).

[Illustration:  261.jpg THE VALLEY OF THE JABBOK, NEAR TO ITS CONFLUENCE WITH THE JORDAN]

     Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 336 of the Palestine
     Exploration Fund.

Gad received as its inheritance nearly the whole of the territory lying between the Jabbok and the Yarmuk, in the neighbourhood of the ancient native sanctuaries of Penuel, Mahanaim, and Succoth, associated with the memory of Jacob.* Reuben settled in the vicinity, and both tribes remained there isolated from the rest.  From this time forward they took but a slight interest in the affairs of their brethren:  when the latter demanded their succour, “Gilead abode beyond Jordan,” and “by the watercourses of Reuben there were great resolves at heart,” but without any consequent action.** It was not merely due to indifference on their part; their resources were fully taxed in defending themselves against the Aramaeans and Bedawins, and from the attacks of Moab and Ammon.  Gad, continually threatened, struggled for centuries without being discouraged, but Reuben lost heart,*** and soon declined in power, till at length he became merely a name in the memory of his brethren.

* Gad did not possess the districts between the Jabbok and the Arnon till the time of the early kings, and retained them only till about the reign of Jehu, as we gather from the inscription of Mesa.

     ** These are the very expressions used by the author of the
     Song of Deborah in Judges v. 16, 17.

     *** The recollection of these raids by Reuben against the
     Beduin of the Syrian desert is traceable in 1 Citron, v. 10,
     18-22.

Two tribes having been thus provided for, the bulk of the Israelites sought to cross the Jordan without further delay, and establish themselves as best they might in the very heart of the Canaanites.  The sacred writings speak of their taking possession of the country by a methodic campaign, undertaken by command of and under the visible protection of Jahveh* Moses had led them from Egypt to Kadesh, and from Kadesh to the land of Gilead; he had seen the promised land from the summit of Mount Nebo, but he had not entered it, and after his death, Joshua, son of Nun, became their leader, brought them across Jordan dryshod, not far from its mouth, and laid siege to Jericho.