=Israel in the Desert.=--Often the Israelites wished to turn back. "We
remember," said they, "the fish which we ate in Egypt, the cucumbers,
melons, leeks, and onions. Let us appoint a chief who will lead us
back to Egypt." Moses, however, held them to obedience. At last they
reached the land promised by God to their race.
=The Promised Land.=--It was called the land of Canaan or Palestine;
the Jews named it the land of Israel, later Judea. Christians have
termed it =the= Holy Land. It is an arid country, burning with heat in
the summer, but a country of mountains. The Bible describes it thus:
"Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of
water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a
land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and
pomegranates; a land of oil olive and honey, wherein thou shalt eat
bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it." The
Israelites according to their estimate were then 601,700 men capable
of bearing arms, divided among twelve tribes, ten descended from
Jacob, two from Joseph; this enumeration does not include the Levites
or priests to the number of 23,000.
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