Joshua 1:12

the Reubenites Gadites, and the Half-Tribe of Manasseh, on account of their wealth in flocks and herds (Numbers 32:16; Numbers 32:24), had received already their possessions in "the forest-land," "the pastureland" of the country beyond the Jordan, the territory of the conquered kings Sihon and Og. The remote downs of this portion of Palestine received a special name, "Mishor," expressive of their contrast with the rough and rocky soil of the west. "The vast herds of wild cattle which then wandered through the woods, as those of Scotland through its ancient forests, were in like manner, at once the terror and pride of the Israelite, "the fat bulls of Bashan." The king of Moab was but a "great sheep-master," and "rendered" for tribute a "hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool" (2 Kings 3:4). And still the countless herds and flocks may be seen, droves of cattle moving on like troops of soldiers, descending at sunset to drink of the springs literally, in the language of the Prophet, "rams and lambs, and goats, and bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan" (Ezekiel 39:18). See Dean Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church, i. 217, 218; Sinai and Palestine, App. § vi.