Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal map
Scouting North Canaan
Scouting North Canaan
Scouting North Canaan
Scouting report
Men scouting north Canaan in the Promised Land came back with a mixed report.
27Here’s the report they gave: “We went where you told us to go. This is certainly a land where milk and honey flow like rivers. We picked this fruit there. 28The people who live there have strong defenses and large cities protected behind walls. We saw some descendants of the giant Anak. 29Amalekite people live in the Negev. Further north, Jebusites and Amorites live in the central hill country. Along the seacoast is where some Canaanites live. Others live alongside the Jordan River"...
31Other scouts who had gone with him pushed back, “We can’t beat these people. They’re too strong for us.” 32These men gave a terrible report about what they saw. They told the Israelites, “The land we just explored is too big for us. If we tried to conquer all the people there, they would put us in the ground. These are huge people we’re talking about. 33That’s not all. We saw the giant Nephilim, ancestors of the giant Anak. Looking up at them, we felt like grasshoppers. And looking down at us, they felt we looked like grasshoppers, too." Numbers 13
Too frightened to obey God
Terrified, the people refused to go any further, God or no God.
So, God put them in timeout for a generation, 40 years. One year for every day the scouts had been gone.
The only adults from that generation who would get to step on the Promised Land where the only two scouts who advised going into the land and taking it from the people, Joshua and Caleb:
29"You’re going to die in the badlands. All the men in your armies—everyone age 20 and older who complained about me—dead. 30There’s no way I’m going to let you go into the land I promised you. The only exceptions are Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. 31I’ll bring your children there—the ones you said I’d let your enemies take for themselves. Your children will see the land you turned down. 32But you? You’re going to die in the desert badlands. "
Two-week walk in 40 years
It was 240 miles, 380 km, from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem, also known as Mount Zion. That's about a two-week walk through a lot of wasteland.
But it took Moses and the Israelite ancestors of today's Jewish people, 40 years.
They weren't that slow. They were that stubborn and stuck in their own heads. They had a habit of doing what they wanted instead of doing what God said.
To compare Bible versions, see Bible Gateway.
Battle of Kishon River-Operation Muddy Wheels
Bible map Shechem north Canaan
Bible map Shechem north Canaan
Bible map of Shechem and north Canaan
Bible Map of Shechem region
Bible Map of Shechem region
Map of hills of Canaan
Map of Joshua’s northern campaign
Bible Map of cities where Levite priests lived
Map of Judah and Israel
Two nations: Israel and Judah
Bible map of Assyria’s provinces in Israel
Edom, Israel, Judah
Bible map of Judah and Edom
Bible map of Judah and Edom
Israel, Judah capture land
Israel, Judah capture land
Land grab
Israel and Judah take land from Syria and Edom
Israel, Judah, and Moab are the big winners in a land grab. Each nation fought for control over their individual corners of the region.Assyria weakens Syria
Assyria attacks Syria, leaving it too weak to defend itself against an opportunist like Israel's King Jeroboam. Jeroboam II recovered territory Israel lost to Syria. He restores Israel’s border from Lebo-hamath in the north (about 50 miles/80 km northwest of Damascus), to the Dead Sea in the south. A prophet named Jonah, son of Amittai, said it would happen. Jonah came from the town of Gath-hepher.God helped make it happen
The LORD helped Jeroboam do these things because he saw how desperate the people had become. There was no one else willing to help them, free or slave. One more reason the LORD helped is because he promised not to let anyone erase them from the world. Those are the reasons he helped Jeroboam II, son of Jehoash.Edom and Judah gain land, too
Edom can't stop the young king of Judah, Amaziah, still in his early 20s and ambitious. After taking Edom, he challenges Israel to a battle. He loses, gets captured, and for punishment, Israel's soldiers knock down part of Jerusalem's city walls. Many citizens are taken as slaves.Moab's last stand
As for Moab, the combined armies of Judah and Israel can't break through the defenses of Moab's capital city, Kir-hareseth. Moab’s king saw he was losing the city. So, he took 700 swordsmen and tried to punch through Edom’s line and scatter the enemy. He failed and had to retreat.King sacrifices his son on city wall
Then he killed his oldest son, who would have succeeded him as king. He burned the body on top of the city wall as a sacrifice for everyone to see. Israel saw it, too. Angry and disgusted, they went home.Where to find more Bible maps
The Casual English Bible® has more than 900 Bible maps, many in 3D style. You can search for maps by place name, such as "Sea of Galilee."Dedicated Bible map search engine
But you can also search for maps by Bible book, such as searching for all the maps in the book of Joshua. In addition, you can search by country, region, or era on a timeline, such as when Israel had kings or when Jesus was on earth. Here's a link to the dedicated Map Search Engine.For more Bible features
Syrians surround Israel’s capital
Syrians surround Israel's capital
Syrian invasion force
King Ben-hadad starves Israelites
Syrians had already attacked Israel's capital twice before, reported in 1 Kings 20. This time they surround and besiege the city long enough that the people inside the walled city began to run out of food. People trapped inside the city started running out of food. So the food got expensive. A donkey’s head cost two pounds of silver—which was 80 coins. And a two-ounce cup of dove droppings cost five silver coins.Children, cooked an eaten
The king took a walk on the city wall one day and a woman called out to him, “My king, please help me!” He said, “If the LORD can’t save you, what can I do? I can’t find grain on a bare threshing floor. I can’t give you a drink of wine from an empty winepress.” Then the king said, “What’s wrong?” She said, “See this woman. She told me, ‘Give up your son. We will eat him today and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said, ‘It’s time to give up your son so we can eat him.’ But she hid him.” When the king heard that, he ripped his robe right in front of them. After that people could see that he had been in mourning all along, wearing scratchy sackcloth beneath his outer robe.Mysterious noise scares off the Syrian army
Syrians had run away in a panic, fooled by God. They thought they heard the thunder of a massive army of cavalry and chariots attacking. They guessed it might be the Hittites and the Egyptians, both coming to save Israel. So they fled at dusk, just before the Israelite men arrived. Syrians left nearly everything they had brought, including their tents and livestock such as horses and donkeys.For more Bible features
Jordan River cure
Jordan River cure
Jordan River cure
Seven dips underwater
An Israelite slave girl of Syria's top military commander, Naaman, said he could get cured of his skin disease if he went to Israel an asked the prophet Elisha for help. He would not happy, however, when the prophet refused to meet him, but simply told him to go dip himself in the Jordan River seven times.His mysterious skin disease
The Hebrew word describing the disease, ṣāraʽ, can refer to any serious skin disease that would make an Israelite ritually unclean, and unfit to step foot on the sacred grounds of a worship center. Skin diseases reported in the Bible may often have been what we know today as a simple rash or perhaps eczema or psoriasis. The word is often translated as leprosy, but there’s no way of knowing if Naaman had what we today call Hansen’s disease. It’s caused by bacteria that grows slowly and damages nerves, skin, and eyes. It can produce light patches on the skin. Hansen’s disease is curable today with steroids and antibiotics. Without treatment, lepers sometimes get injured and don’t treat the injury because they can’t feel the pain. Infection sets in and body parts are amputated.Naaman refuses to wash in the Jordan
Naaman left, furious. He said, “I thought he would take me seriously. Why didn’t he come out to see me and to call on the power of his God, the LORD? He should have waved his hands over the spot on my skin to cure me. But no, he’s sends me to the Jordan. I could have washed in the rivers of Damascus—the Abana or the Pharpar. They have better water than anything we’re going to find down here in Israel.” Naaman was becoming livid.He calms down and dips
His servants tried to calm him down. “Please sir, you know that if the prophet asked you to do something huge and hard, you would do it. Why not do it even more so, since he told you to do something so small and easy? Wash and get well.” So Naaman did what Elisha said. He went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times into the water. Then he came up out of the water with skin as healthy and as clear as you’d find on a young boy. (2 Kings 5:11-14)For more Bible features
Elijah goes to Zarephath
Elijah goes to Zarephath
GOD SENDS ELIJAH TO ZAREPHATH
Here comes the drought
Elijah was a prophet from the town of Tishbe. That’s across the Jordan River in the territory of Gilead. He took this message to King Ahab, “I’m going to curse this land with a drought. You won’t see a drop of rain until I say so. And you can count on it, king, as sure as there’s a God in heaven—Israel’s God.”God sends ravens to feed Elijah
God sent another message to Elijah: “I want you to go back across the Jordan River, on the east side. Hide somewhere by the Cherith stream. You’ll get your water from the creek. And I’ll send ravens to feed you.” So, Elijah did what the LORD said. He lived by the Cherith stream east of the Jordan. Sure enough, ravens brought him bread and meat for breakfast and supper. He drank from the stream. After a while, the stream dried up in the drought. It wasn’t raining anywhere in the area.Selfless widow in a foreign land
The LORD send Elijah another message: “Go to the town of Zarephath, in Sidon’s kingdom. There’s a widow there. I’ve told her to feed you when you come.” He left for Zarephath. When he reached the gateway into the walled city he saw a widow collecting sticks. He called out to her, “Excuse me, but could you bring me a cup of water to drink?” 11As she turned to get it for him he added, “Could you also bring me a small piece of bread?” She said, “I don’t have a baked bite of anything in my house right now. What I have is a fist full of flour and a little jug of olive oil. These sticks you see me gathering are for cooking my last meal. I’m baking what I have for my son and me. After that, we die.”Elijah keeps the flour coming
Elijah said, “Hey, don’t be afraid. Go ahead and make that meal. But make me a small plug of bread first. Then make bread for yourself and your son. If you do that, the LORD, who is the God of Israel, makes this promise: Your jar of flour and your jug of olive oil will never bottom out until after the rains return.” The widow did what Elijah said. She and her son had enough food throughout the drought. Her flour jar never emptied, and her jug of olive oil never ran out—just as Elijah promised on behalf of the LORD. 1 Kings 17:1-16For more Bible features
Stephen M. Miller's website , The Casual English Bible, and Bible YouTube channelSolomon’s Galilee
Solomon's Galilee
SOLOMON GIVES AWAY 20 CITIES IN GALILEE
From 1 Kings 9:10- 14. Solomon spent 20 years building two houses. One house for God, the Temple. One house for himself, the palace. 11King Hiram of Tyre supplied Solomon with all the wood he needed for these building projects. Hiram sent gold along with cedar and cypress from the Lebanon forests. In return, Solomon gave him a bonus gift of 20 towns in Galilee, along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.Hiriam's reaction: "Worthless"
12But when Hiram saw the 20 villages he got as a gift for his 20 years of trouble, he felt cheated. 13He told Solomon, “My friend, you call these cities?” Hiram decided to call them “Worthless.” And that’s what he named the region. 14But Hiram felt obligated to give Solomon a gift in return. He sent a little less than four tons of gold.Tallying the gold
Four tons of god would be about 720 gold bars today, weighing a total of 9,000 pounds or 4,000 kilograms. In ancient Hebrew measurement, it was 120 talents, at an estimated 75 pounds or 34 kilograms per talent. The weight of a talent varied by era and location. To haul that much gold today, it would take about five of the half-ton pickup trucks or seven well-built minivans or 60 Radio Flyer classic red wagons. When the writer used the word "worthless" he wrote it in Hebrew, the language of the Israelites. And in Hebrew the word is Cabul. It seems that the name stuck. There’s an Israeli city called Kabul, near the northwest border with Lebanon. The population is mostly Arab. Some scholars suggest this was one of the 20 cities Solomon gave to Hiram. Israel captured the city in 1948 in Operation Dekel, an offensive that also led to the capture of Nazareth and about 30 other Arab towns in western Galilee.Good Galilee
The fertile part of Galilee is south, at the Jezreel Valley. Solomon kept that for himself.Headhunting in northern Israel
Headhunting in northern Israel
David's army takes home a rebel's head
David's army was looking for the right man to behead. They had to travel about a week's march north of Jerusalem—about 100 miles/160 km—to the borderland of northern Israel, to the town of Abel.David's enemy was a rebel trying to pull the northern tribes of Israel away from the united kingdom. He was recruiting walled cities to join the cause. Walled cities are harder to attack without an overwhelming force.
The rebel was Sheba, from the tiny tribe of Benjamin, Judah's neighbor on the north.
David sent his new general and part of the army on the headhunt. The former general went along, Joab, whom David had demoted. Mistake on David's part. Joab had already killed one competing general, Abner, and David's own son, Absalom. He murdered this general, too, and took back his old job. He led the chase to Sheba.
David's army lays siege in northern Israel
From 2 Samuel 20
14Sheba went recruiting throughout the northern tribes of Israel. His extended family clan, the Bichri’s, followed him one day into the walled city of Abel Beth Maacah.15Joab’s army surrounded the city. Some men started building a siege ramp to the top of the wall. Others used a battering ram to try breaking through the walls. 16A wise woman inside the town called out to the attacking soldiers. “Hey listen! Listen! Tell Joab I want to talk with him.”
Negotiating a peace
17Joab came over and the woman said, “Are you Joab?” He said, “Yes, I am.” She said, “Please listen to me.” He said, “Go ahead, I’m listening.” 18She said, “There’s an old saying in Israel, ‘Ask it in Abel.’ After that, people would work out their differences. 19I’m one of the peace-loving people in Israel. And I’m watching you destroy one of the mother cities of Israel. You’re tearing into the heritage of the LORD himself. Why would you do this?”20Joab said, “That’s the last thing on my mind. No way would I want to destroy this place. 21That’s not my plan. But there’s a man inside who has launched a rebellion against King David. The man comes from the hills of Ephraim. His name is Sheba, a son of Bichri. Give him to me and we will leave your town.” The woman said, “We’ll toss his head over the wall.”
Sheba loses his head
22The savvy woman pitched her survival plan to others in town. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it over to Joab. He ordered his trumpeter to blow the ram’s horn signal to stand down and withdraw. The soldiers went home. Joab went to see the king in Jerusalem.For other Bible versions see Bible Gateway.