WHILE much has been written about the background of the Bible, one aspect of it, which forms the subject of the present article, is all too frequently forgotten. It has been well said that "physical geography at once determines and interprets much of the history and many of the stories of the Bible;" hence it is instructive to recall some of the peculiar geographical features of the Holy Land.
The area of Palestine to the west of the Jordan is approximately that of the state of New Jersey, or of the English counties of York and Durham taken together; yet, within the limits of this somewhat restricted area, one encounters striking variations of climate. Jerusalem, lying on the Central Plateau of Judea, is situated nearly twenty-five hundred feet above sea level, and while in summer the weather is hot in the daytime, the nights are cool and refreshing; but only about twenty miles to the east, the traveler reaches the Dead Sea, thirteen hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and so about thirty-eight hundred feet lower than Jerusalem. By the Dead Sea and in the adjoining valley of the Jordan the climate is tropical, but in the hills of Gilead, a few miles farther east, "the cold is always at home," as an Arab proverb expresses it. At one time the Jordan valley was famed for its beauty and fertility, for when Lot settled there it seemed like "the garden of the Lord," but it was not long after Lot had been warned to "escape to the mountain" that the "cities of the plain" were destroyed (Gen.13:10,12; 19:17). Abraham, however, remaining contentedly on the more austere but temperate uplands of Canaan (cf. Gen.13:12), continued to establish his position as the founder of the Hebrew race.
The Old Testament contains constant references to the kingdoms of Judah in the south and Israel or Ephraim in the north of Palestine, and it seems that the geographical differences between these two states aided in conditioning their individual development. The hill pastures of Judah were less suited for farming than for sheep raising, an occupation which often demanded strength and courage (cf. I Sam.17:34—36). King David was originally a shepherd (II Sam.7:8), as was Amos, the founder of written prophecy (Amos 7:15); while it was in Judea that Christ Jesus called himself "the good shepherd" (John 10:11). Then, too, the relative inaccessibility of Judah had its advantages, for when Samaria, capital of the more open district of Israel, was captured by the Assyrians in 722 b. c, Jersualem was spared. Hemmed in as it was by mountains, Judah scarcely ever varied its boundaries; but Israel, adjoining the great highway which crossed the plain of Esdraelon and close to various fords across the Jordan, constantly varied in extent, and had the doubtful advantage of easy contact with the Gentile tribes from the neighboring desert.
