Page 274 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XLYIII.

I t must be evident to every dispassionate mini that the
distribution of the tribes in the land, from Joshua to
the ruin of the kingdom, wholly differs from what is
here predicted, and that nothing answering to the pro­
phecy can be alleged since. Thus Dan is in the ex­
treme north, not Naphtali, as of old; next Asher,
and, not till then, Naphtali. Again Manasseh, instead
o f being divided by the Jordan, is altogether like the
other tribes, with Ephraim to the south, and Reuben
no longer to the east of the Jordan but following, and
Judah immediately before the holy oblation. South o f
the oblation is first o f all Benjamin’s portion reversing
their ancient order, in which the former was north and
the latter south. Simeon comes next, and Issachar (in­
stead of its old position, south-west of the sea o f
Galilee and north of Samaria) follows Simeon. Then
succeeds Zebulun, which of old was north of Issachar;
and Gad, instead of its ancient locality in the east, is
found the most southern of all.
“ Now these [are] the names of the tribes : from the
north end to the coast of the way to Hethlon, to the
entering in of Hamath, Hazar-enan, the border of
Damascus northward to the coast of Hamath; and
these are the sides thereof east [and] west; Dan, one.
And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the
west side; Asher, one. And by the border of Asher,
from the east side even unto the west side; Naphtali,