Who Smote Whom? The geography of Israelite Transjordan (IV)
Back by personal demand: the conclusion to last summer’s series on Gilead and Bashan (Part I, II, III).
First of all, I’d like to draw your attention to an excellent pair of comments by Yitzchak Dickman. Some corrections based on what Yitzchak wrote and the sources he referred to:
- Havvoth-Jair most probably refers to the area around Irbid, more or less where I placed Machir before.
- Rohmer (2020) also places Argob in the Golan (just the northern part in his view) and makes a convincing argument that Bashan only includes the western part of the Hauran. The eastern part was known as… Hauran, but it isn’t mentioned in the Bible (Ezekiel’s Hauran is another region, farther north).
- The identifications of Kenath with Qanawat and Salchah with Salkhad aren’t so straightforward. Yitzchak mentions the possibility of Kenath referring to al-Karak (al-Sharqi), in Daraa Governorate; Rohmer (2020: 296, 298 = 426) alternatively writes that “following Noth, the majority of contemporary Biblical scholars do not place it in the Hauran, but northwest of Amman” (my translation). Rohmer also points out that while the name Salkhad can be traced back to Nabataean at least (ṣlḥd), this is actually quite different from biblical Salchah (slkh): “only the lam is identical between the two words!” (2020: 290; translation mine).
Here’s a nice map from Rohmer illustrating this updated view:
Imagine Havvoth-Jair between Gilead and the Yarmuk.So, what’s up with the tribes shifting north and Gilead shifting south?
Yitzchak Dickman also presented an interesting theory involving Judahite expansion into Transjordan in the comments linked above, but I think we may be able to explain the drift by looking at some other, more securely attested conquests in the Iron Age.
- In Part I, I argued that Israelite control of the Mishor never extended all the way to the Arnon, but that the area between the Arnon and Wadi al-Hidan was Moabite. In the 840s, King Mesha conquered the rest of the Mishor, taking over pretty much all of the territory of Reuben and at least one Gadite outpost (Ataroth).
- In the wars between Israel and Aram (relevant decades: 830s-810s), Hazael of Damascus is said to have conquered all the Israelite lands east of the Jordan during the reign of Jehu (2 Kgs 10:32-33).
- Jehoash of Israel (790s-780s) recaptures towns that Hazael had taken from Israel (2 Kgs 13:25). But apparently these were lost under Jehoash’s father Jehoahaz (810s-800s), while Gilead was lost under Jehoahaz’s father Jehu. So does this really refer to the reconquest of Gilead, as suggested (e.g.) here?
- Jehoash’s son Jeroboam (roughly 780s-750s) extends Israel to its maximum size. According to Amos (6:13), Israelites of this period boasted of taking Lo-Debar (according to Finkelstein et al. 2011: on the border of northwestern Gilead and southeastern Bashan, at modern al-Husn) and Karnaim, in Bashan proper. If Gilead wasn’t reconquered by Jehoash, then Jeroboam probably took it as well.
- Finally, in 733, the Assyrians conquer Gilead and turn it into a province of their empire. In the same year, they conquer Aram-Damascus, which again includes Bashan at this time (apparently the Israelites didn’t hold onto it for long).
Summing up: Israel loses the Mishor (southernmost Israelite Transjordan) and never recovers it; loses, regains, loses Gilead (central Israelite Transjordan); and conquers but then once again loses Bashan (northern Israelite Transjordan). While they end up losing everything, there’s a clear south-to-north shift in Israelite territory over time, while the off-and-on possession of Gilead could account for the blurring of its borders. We can imagine the tribal territories and regional names shifting in a few stages:
Ninth century: Tribal Israelites in northwest Jordan
Status quo before Mesha’s revolt, matching the non-Priestly text of Numbers 32. Reuben is on the Mishor (up to Wadi al-Hidan), Moab south of Wadi al-Hidan, Gad mostly on the east bank of the Jordan between Reuben in the south, Ammon in the east, and the Jabbok in the north. Gilead 1.0 (the highest hilly area north of the western Jabbok IMHO, contra Finkelstein et al.), Machir, Havvoth-Jair and maybe Kenath/Nobah are other distinct tribal regions between the Jabbok (or just south of it) and the Yarmuk. Reconceptualization of all these as Manassite Gilead yield Gilead 2.0. Bashan is not Israelite and therefore not originally mentioned in Numbers.
In the 840s, Moab conquers the Reubenite Mishor. Reuben’s “people become few” (Deut 33:6) and he will “no longer excel” (Gen 49:4).
Eighth century: Transjordan lost and regained, conquest of Bashan
The main terminological development I imagine here is the use of Gilead, the most fertile part of (originally) Israelite Transjordan, as a pars pro toto for all the lost and subsequently regained territory, including that of Gad: Gilead 3.0. The tribal identity of this larger Gilead seems to be more Gadite than Manassite: the loss and recapture may be described as a “trampled” Gad “striking” back (Gen 49:19), or maybe the memory of this tribal expansion is directly attested in the reference to God “enlarging Gad’s domain” (Deut 33:20).
Seventh century and later: Reimagining tribal territories after the Assyrian conquest
After 733, there was no Israelite Transjordan, and after 722 there was no more kingdom of Israel to begin with. What we get in the Deuteronomistic History especially is different combinations of the regions of the Mishor, Gilead (3.0), and Bashan and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh.
One way to do this is by assigning each of these regions to one (half-)tribe: Reuben in the Mishor, Gad in Gilead, and Manasseh in Bashan. This is what we (mostly) see in Joshua 13.
Alternatively, you can keep the historical memory that Gad was south of the Jabbok and Manasseh was north of it. Since Gilead (3.0) now extends on both sides of the Jabbok, that results in Reuben (which hasn’t been historically prominent for centuries) and Gad sharing the Mishor and Gilead south of the Jabbok, part of Manasseh living in Gilead north of the Jabbok, and another part of Manasseh living in Bashan. This is what we mostly see in Deuteronomy 3.
Finally, you can draw the Mishor into a new, Mega-Gilead (Gilead 4.0), using it to refer to all the originally Israelite lands in Transjordan (but excluding Bashan). This appears to be the usage in the Priestly text of Numbers 32, which repeatedly refers to Gad and Reuben settling in “the cities of Gilead”. The Persian-period or early Hellenistic text of 1 Chron 5 also refers to Reuben’s territory in the Mishor as part of Gilead.
Of these three systems, I’m inclined to see Deut 3’s as the oldest (memory of divided Gilead 3.0), followed by Josh 13 (Gilead : Bashan mapped to Gad : Manasseh), and then the Priestly and Chronicles one (Gilead-Mishor distinction abandoned). As far as I can tell, this development matches mainstream ideas about when each of these texts was written.
There’s a few loose ends that we haven’t discussed (why does Joshua 13 say Manasseh starts at Mahanaim, on the Jabbok? why does 1 Chron 5 talk about Gad living in Bashan?). For now, though, I think this makes good sense of the shifting terms and territories we see in the different texts. And just in case anyone wants to fund a trip to Jordan to go see what things look like on the ground—do let me know.
#Bible #Chronicles #Deuteronomy #Genesis #Hebrew #Joshua #Nabataean #Numbers
