Pre-eminently pastoral, Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh received the vast pasture-fields of Ammon, Gilead, and Bashan, extending from the River Arnon on the south to the base of Hermon on the north, and from the Jordan on the west to the desert of Arabia and the Haurân on the east. Called by the Arabs Belka, they can pronounce no higher praise upon its rich plains and green sloping hills than in their pastoral proverb to declare, “Thou canst not find a country like the Belka.” Deprived of the “excellency of dignity”――the priesthood; of the “excellency of power”――the kingdom; and of the “double portion” of wealth and temporal blessings which, by the rights of primogeniture, belonged to the first-born son of Jacob, here, between the Arnon and the Jabbok, Reuben was “unstable as water” in the rapid diminution of his numbers, and in being the first of the tribes to be carried into captivity by Tiglath Pileser of Assyria;[32] and never producing a great man to honor his name, and never rising to dignity and influence in the councils of the nation, here also a father’s curse was fulfilled, “Thou shalt not excel.”[33] His tribeship extending from the Jabbok to the Sea of Galilee, and from the Jordan to the desert, and harassed by the Arabian plunderers on his eastern border, but in turn driving them from his dominion, it was said of Gad, “A troop shall overcome him, and he shall overcome at last.”[34] Occupying the Hills of Bashan, together with the rich and picturesque regions along the eastern shore of Gennesaret as far north as Mount Hermon, and rising to distinction in rank and numbers, and in giving to the nation three eminent characters――“the pious Gideon, the opulent Jair, and the valiant Jephtha”[35]――the prophetical benediction on Manasseh was here accomplished: “He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great.”[36]