=16. About 60 miles= in a straight line due north of the Dead Sea the Jordan issues from the Sea of Galilee, the waters of which were called, in our Saviour’s time, the Sea of Tiberias and the Lake of Gennesaret. The shape of the lake is oval, but broader in the northern half, its length north and south being nearly thirteen miles and greatest breadth about seven miles. Its surface is 682 feet below the level of the Mediterranean and the hills on the eastern shore rise to the height of the great eastern plateau of the table-land of ancient Bashan, which is 2,000 feet above the Mediterranean. The waters are fresh and abound with fish. =17. In the times of Joshua= and of the early occupation of the land by the Israelites, the lake was called Chinnereth (Num. 34:11) and Chinneroth (Josh. 11:2), [_pron. Kin´nereth and Kin´neroth_], and a city of the same name existed on its western shore very near the present site of Tiberias. Traces of this ancient city have been recently (1887) discovered just outside the southern walls. Ten miles north of the Sea of Galilee is a smaller reedy lake four miles long, which is supposed to be the “waters of Merom” (Josh. 11:5), but now known as Huleh by the Arabs. Into the northern end the upper Jordan finds its way as it descends from the lower parts of Mt. Hermon. The surface of this lake is seven feet above the Mediterranean, and extended plains are on the west and for several miles northward, beyond which the land rapidly rises into the mountains. =18. The country is uplifted= midway between the Jordan and the Mediterranean and forms an irregularly broad mountainous ridge stretching from the far south to the borders of the plain of Esdraelon, called in Scripture “the valley of Megiddo.” This plain is the largest in Palestine and extends from near the Mediterranean on the west to a valley plain near the Jordan valley on the east, where it is called the valley of Jezreel. It is generally about 100 feet above the sea level, or 150 in its highest average level. In various parts it has been the chosen battle-ground of several of the fiercest contests in Biblical and in modern warfare. North of the plain of Jezreel the land rises again into the broken and irregular hill country of Galilee until the region of the Lebanon Mountains appears. CHAPTER IV. THE BATTLES OF CONQUEST. =1. The capture of Jericho= was not the result of battle, but was due to the divine interference in behalf of the Israelites. Jericho was a strong city and well defended by strong walls, and the destruction of these walls under the simple process described in the text was not only a lesson of great significance to the Israelites, but it indicated to the Canaanitish tribes the mystery of that power with which they were now called to deal.