“The descendants of Gad built Divon, ‘Atarot, ‘Aro‘er, ‘Atrot-Shofan, Ya‘zer, Yogbehah, Beit-Nimrah and Beit-Haran — fortified cities; and also enclosures for sheep. The descendants of Re’uven built Heshbon, El‘aleh, Kiryatayim, N’vo, Ba‘al-M‘on (these names have been changed) and Sivmah; they renamed the cities they built.”-Numbers 32:34-38
We have been discussing at length how the two tribes of Reuben and Gad and the one half tribe of Manasseh petitioned Moses to let them live in the region east of the Jordan River, the area otherwise known as the Transjordan.
This event followed the Israelite extermination of the Midianites in that region and represents that key point in time when all 12 tribes of Israel were on the cusp of entering the Promised Land.
After some lengthy back-and-forth discussion between the leadership of Israel and the 2 1/2 tribes, Moses ended up agreeing to their request.
In the closing verses of Numbers 32, we are told that the 2 1/2 tribes rebuilt and RENAMED some of the cities that were destroyed in the battle with Midian.
In those days, it was a common practice to rebuild cities instead of starting afresh somewhere else.
Practically speaking, it just made sense.
FIRST, a city was usually located near a good source of water.
SECOND, there were already well established highways, roads, and paths that were already well known by traders and merchants who brought much needed goods.
THIRD, and this is probably the most practical reason, the materials needed to reconstruct a city were already just laying there begging to be re-used.
In those days, since most of the cities were made out of stones, it was usually just a matter of re-piling the stones up again.
Notice the photo of the enormous earthen mound I pasted at the top of this article.
In Hebrew, these earthen mounds are called TELs and if you were to visit Israel you’d see tons of them scattered all over the place.
So what exactly is a TEL?
It’s basically an artificial mound formed from the accumulated remains of ancient cities that used to exist there.
A typical TEL looks exactly like the photo of the one I posted above: it’s basically a huge cone whose top has been cut off and has sloping sides.
Some of these babies can be up to a whopping 30 meters tall!
What’s really interesting about a TEL is that it’s like a multi-layered cake with each layer representing a once vibrant civiization that was destroyed.
The top layer is simply the most recently destroyed city which was built directly on top of the city that was destroyed before that one and so on down to the very bottom.
Some of these TELs are made up of up to 20 layers of formerly destroyed cities.
That’s a lot of history jam-packed into these mounds.
And there’s no doubt the cities Israel had just destroyed had been built on top of the ruins of more ancient cities.
Reuben, Gad, and 1/2 of Manasseh with their decision to live in the Transjordan would simply be repeating the process.
And when they ceased to be, other civilizations would move in and do the same.
Here’s the thing.
It is practically impossible to identify the city names listed at the end of Numbers 32.
The reason is because those names only existed while that city existed (obviously).
Once that city was destroyed, their conquerers usually gave it a new name.
Or in some circumstances, the conquered city was given the same name but it was in a different language.
Kind of like we have the names Jesus and Yeshua referring to the same person.
One profound takeaway that’s coming to me as I finish typing up today’s article is how awesome and miraculous it is that God has preserved Israel and His People ever since their inception to this day.
No matter how many civilizations are destroyed or wither way, Israel will always remain at the top of the mound.
It literally is as Mark Twain observed and commented when he said “All things are mortal but the Jews; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? “
Think about it.
Have you ever met a Hittite or a Jebusite?
I know for a fact your answer will be “no“, because these people groups no longer exist.
Yet, if I was to ask you when was the last time you met a Jew, chances are high that you’ll say “yes“.
So amazing is the immortality of the Jewish race that when over 300 years ago King Louis XIV of France asked Blaise Pascal, the great French philosopher, to give him proof of the supernatural, do you know what Pascal said?
He answered: “Why, the Jews, your Majesty ― the Jews.“
Again, he was referring to their eternal enduring power throughout all history that continues to this day.
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN NUMBERS CHAPTER 33
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