Celebrated for their activity, bravery, and independence, and represented in the prophetic symbols by a tree planted in a rich soil, and growing to a prodigious size, Naphtali received “Galilee of the Gentiles,” whose fruitfulness of soil is only excelled by the beauty of the scenery: “Naphtali is a spreading oak, producing beautiful branches.”[68] Foreseeing the prosperity awaiting him, in an eloquent apostrophe Moses addressed the tribe: “Oh Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the west and the south.”[69] Embracing within his possession the green hills and valleys of “Upper Galilee,” together with the Sea of Tiberias, his posterity grew rich from the fruits of the one and the products of the other. But, reserved for a higher glory and assigned a more exalted destiny, the inheritance of Naphtali remained undistinguished for any great event till the dawn of our own era. Driven from his native city, our Lord chose Capernaum as his chief residence, situated within this tribeship.[70] Here was his home during the three most eventful years of his life; here the Galileans received him gladly; here is the scene of his greatest miracles and of his most touching parables; here, on the shore of its inland sea, were born most of his apostles; here he founded his infant church; and thus enlightened in the persons of the first Christians and earliest teachers of Christianity, Naphtali possessed the “west and the south” by the spread of the Gospel among the southern tribes, and by its more general diffusion over the “Great Sea” through Europe and America. And now, after more than three thousand years, each tribal possession retains its ancient physical characteristics, yields its former agricultural products, while prophecy has become history in the fortunes and destiny of the whole nation. CHAPTER II.