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Abram was seventy-five years old "when he departed out of Haran," accompanied by
Lot and his family. Putting aside the various traditions which describe his prolonged
stay at Damascus, and his supposed rule there, we learn from Scripture that Abram
entered the land of promise, as many years afterwards his grandson Jacob returned to
it, leaving on his right the majestic Lebanon, and on his left the pastures of Gilead
and the mountain-forests of Bashan. Straight on he passed over hills and through
valleys, till he reached the delicious plain of Moreh, or rather the spreading terebinth-
tree of Moreh, in the valley of Sichem. Travelers have spoken in the most
enthusiastic terms of this vale. "All at once," writes Professor Robinson, "the ground
sinks down to a valley running towards the west, with a soil of rich, black vegetable
mold. Here a scene of luxuriant and almost unparalleled verdure burst upon our view.
The whole valley was filled with gardens of vegetables, and orchards of all kinds of
fruits, watered by several fountains, which burst forth in various parts, and flow
westward in refreshing streams. It came upon us suddenly, like a scene of fairy
enchantment. We saw nothing to compare with it in all Palestine."
Another traveler^31 says: "Here there are no wild thickets; yet there is always verdure,
always shade, - not of the oak, the terebinth, or the garoub-tree, but of the olive-
grove, so soft in color, so picturesque in form, that for its sake we can willingly
dispense with all other wood."
Such was the first resting-place of Abram in the land of promise, in the plain, or
rather in the wood of Moreh, which probably derived its name from the Canaanitish
proprietor of the district. For, as shown by the remark of the sacred writer, "and the
Canaanite was then in the land," the country was not tenantless, but occupied by a
hostile race; and if Abram was to enter on its possession, it must once more be by
faith in the promises.
Here it was that Jehovah actually "appeared" unto Abram, under some visible form or
other; and now for the first time in sight of the Canaanite was the promise conveyed,
"unto thy seed will I give this land." It is added that Abram "there builded an altar
unto Jehovah who appeared unto him." Thus, the soil on which Jehovah had been
seen, and which He had just promised to Abram, was consecrated unto the Lord; and
Abram's faith, publicly professed in the strange land, grasped Jehovah's promise,
solemnly given.
From Shechem, Abram removed, probably for the sake of pasturage, southwards to a
mountain on the east of Bethel, pitching his tent between Bethel and Ai. This district
is, in the words of Robinson, "still one of the finest tracts for pasturage in the whole
land." In the glowing language of Dean Stanley: "We here stand on the highest of a
succession of eminences,... its topmost summit resting, as it were, on the rocky
slopes below, and distinguished from them by the olive-grove, which clusters over its
(^)