=6. The location for this great gathering= was admirably chosen. Ebal is a mountain whose highest point is 3,077 feet above the Mediterranean. Gerizim, right opposite, and southward, is 2,849 feet, and between them is the valley, whose surface is about 1,600 feet above the sea. In this valley, which runs east and west, is Shechem, on the southern side and partly built upon the ascent of Mt. Gerizim. The gathering may have taken place on the west of the city, where the valley is bounded on the north by that part of the western extent of the Ebal range which slightly recedes from the line of the valley and takes the form of an amphitheatre. But there is ample room on the east, where the elevations of both sides are far greater. The valley opens eastward upon the great level plain of Moreh, several square miles in extent. Where the valley opens upon this plain is the well of Jacob (John 4:6), and not far north of this well is the traditional tomb of Joseph, Josh. 24:32, whose embalmed body they buried there after they had conquered the country. =7. The vicinity of this well= and the former history made this ground sacred to the Israelites, for here was Jacob’s first settlement and property, purchased of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, 280 years before. Even before that purchase by Jacob it was sacred, because that 189 years before Jacob’s time Abraham built here an altar to the Lord after that He had appeared to him and promised to give this land unto his seed, Gen. 12:6, 7. The altar built here by Joshua, Josh. 8:30, was therefore the third altar erected in this vicinity, the first by Abraham and the second by Jacob, Gen. 33:20. It is very probable that the great battle at Ai was fought with the view of clearing the way for the uninterrupted passage of the entire hosts of Israel to the plain just spoken of, called the plain of Moreh, which stretches out eastward from the bases of Ebal and Gerizim, and was 20 miles north of Ai. =8. Shechem= never was a large town before the conquest. After it was despoiled by the sons of Jacob and all the inhabitants destroyed or taken captive, Gen. 34, it does not appear as re-settled until after the arrival of the Israelites at their first great national convention at Ebal, as described in the eighth chapter of the book of Joshua. =9. The second great battle= or campaign began at Gibeon. This place has been identified with an elevated ruin five and a half miles northwest of Jerusalem. It should be remembered that the Israelites returned to the camp at Gilgal near the ford of the Jordan, this being their first great camping-place, and remaining such during their first seven[73] years, until they removed to Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle in that place, Josh. 18:1. During the second campaign Joshua conquered nearly all the southern half of Palestine.