Tribe of Zebulun

“ After a suffering of 20 years, the two tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, under the leadership of Barak, rallied against their oppressors, and called to their help their stronger neighbours, the men of Ephraim. The tribe of Ephraim was the most settled portion of the Israelites, and they had adopted some form of government, while the other tribes were stragglers scattered over the land, every man doing what was right in his own eyes. ”

“ Zebulun was divided into three families, Ephraim into four, Issachar into four, Naphtali into four, and Reuben into four; Judah, Simeon, and Asher, had five families apiece, Gad and Benjamin seven apiece, and Manasseh eight. Benjamin brought ten sons into Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 21) , but three of them, it seems either died childless or their families were extinct, for here we find seven only of those names preserved, and that whole tribe none of the most numerous; for Providence, in the building up of families and nations, does not tie itself to probabilities. ”

“ Levites.
Chapter VII. 1‒40.
Genealogies of Six Remaining Tribes.
The treatment of the several tribes in this chapter is very unequal. In the case of Issachar (1‒5) , Zebulun (6‒12, see note verse 6) , and Asher (30‒40) , genealogies are given and the number of fighting-men of each tribe is stated. To Naphtali is devoted a single verse (13) , giving only the names of his sons. For Manasseh and Ephraim (14‒29) genealogies are given and their possessions are shortly enumerated. The mention of Dan is obliterated, owing to the state of the text of verse 12. ”

“ Beside the [Pg 104] tribes of Issachar and Zebulun, between Mount Tabor and the Kishon, dwelt a part of the tribe of Manasseh. The family of Abiezer, belonging to this tribe, possessed Ophra. In an incursion of the Midianites the sons of Joash, a man of this family, were slain; [199] only Gideon, the youngest, remained. ”

“ The country of Zebulun lay in the fertile hilly country to the north of the plain of Jezreel, which forms the first step towards the mountains of Asher and Naphtali, and included the goodly upland plain of el-Baṭṭōf. ”

“ Either Zebulun is used in a broad sense for all the Galilean tribes, or the phrase “from Beersheba to Dan” is merely rhetorical, for to the north, between Zebulun and Dan, lay the territories of Asher and Naphtali. It is to be noticed that the tribes beyond Jordan are nowhere referred to; they had already fallen out of the history of Israel, and were scarcely remembered in the time of the chronicler. ”

“ Zebulun and Naphtali acted quite differently. Zebulun showed itself as a people that despised its life even to death, i.e., that sacrificed its life for the deliverance of its fatherland. Naphtali did the same in its mountain home. The two tribes had raised 10,000 fighting men at Barak's call (Jdg 4:10) , who constituted at any rate the kernel of the Israelitish army. ”

“ Baruch
Our shame is theirs, and Israel’s need is Egypt’s.
Zebulon
Naught have we in common with any other folk on earth. Our strength lies in isolation.
The Other
But they will fight for us.
Zebulon
They will fight for themselves. Each nation fights for itself alone.
Baruch
Are we still to be slaves? Shall Zedekiah be a king of slaves, and Zion remain in bondage to Chaldea? Were but Zedekiah a true king!
Zebulon
Silence, I command you. It befits not a boy to lay down the law for kings.
Baruch
It is true that I am young; but who is Jerusalem, if it be not her young men? ”

“ Zebulun shall improve his acquaintance and commerce with the neighbouring nations, to whom he goes out, for this noble purpose, to propagate religion among them, and to invite them into the service of the God of Israel. Note, Men of great business, or large conversation, should wisely and zealously endeavour to recommend the practice of serious godliness to those with whom they converse and among whom their business lies. Such are blessed, for they are blessings. It were well if the enlargement of trade with foreign countries might be made to contribute to the spreading of the gospel. ”

“ Whatever seems, at first sight, to be different, melts away while handling it. Thus, for example, the blessings which Israel enjoyed by his dwelling on the sea-side, are pointed out in the blessing upon Zebulun, because he had his name from the dwelling, Gen. xxi. 20. That Zebulun is here viewed only as a part of the whole, appears from the fact that, afterwards, he did not live by the sea at all. In the case of Issachar, it was the individuality of the ancestor Jacob which gave him occasion to describe, from his own example, the dangers of an indolent rest. ”

“ Nations will they invite to the mountain; there offer the sacrifices of righteousness: for they suck the affluence of the seas, and the hidden treasures of the sand.” The tribes of the last two sons of Leah Moses unites together, and, like Jacob in Gen 49:13, places Zebulun the younger first. He first of all confirms the blessing which Jacob pronounced through simply interpreting their names as omnia, by calling upon them to rejoice in their undertakings abroad and at home. ”

“ The prickly-pear, which grows to a prodigious size in the Holy Land, sprouts luxuriantly among the rocks, displaying its gaudy yellow blossoms, and promising abundance of a delicious cooling fruit. Off either side of the road the ruins of fortified places exercise the ingenuity of the antiquarian traveller, who endeavours, through the mist of tradition and the perplexing obscurity of modern names, to identify towns which make a figure in Jewish and Roman history. All remains of the strong city of Zabulon, called by Josephus the "city of men," have disappeared ”

“ The Zowia itself seemed even more Eastern than most buildings of its kind, the walls merely baked mud, the towers but hardly overtopping them, and all the animals of a superior class to those raised by the ordinary Moors. The tribe ranks high for fighting qualities, as riders, shots, and swordsmen, and though small, can hold its own against all comers. The women, taller and thinner than the women of the Moors, were dressed in blue, after the desert fashion, and in procession walked to the well, with each one carrying an amphora upon her head. ”

“ Or else he would talk about a mighty treasure that was to be found, and of the beasts he would buy for his gardens when that treasure came into his hands. Zabulun would tell the King of beasts he had seen or heard of—of the aurochs with its mighty horns, of the uni [Pg 55] corn that was so white and so swift, of the satyr that is so marvelous that no one knew whether it was a wonderful beast or a wild man. And often, as they sat there talking, the King would have his servants stir up the beasts in his gardens so that their roarings might be heard by those in the palace. ”

“ With the tribes of Issachar and Zebulon families were connected, whose antiquity did not go so far back, and thus Issachar and Zebulon were held to be younger sons of Jacob by the same wife. The tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, were not considered equally pure ”

“ So Zabulun was defeated, and so release was given to Eean, The Boy Apprenticed to the Enchanter. Zabulun mounted the black horse that was King Manus’s and had him swim the water. He rode across the plain and over one mountain and another mountain until he came to the castle of King Manus. There he left the horse to neigh for his grooms. ”

“ On the other hand, Zebulon and Naphthali are commended for jeoparding their lives in the high places of the fields, and are approved in that practice of fighting against the king of Canaan, that then ruled over them, ver. 18, 19. Hence, if people be reproved and cursed for staying at home to look to their own interests, when others jeopard their lives for their countries defence and freedom from tyranny and oppression ”

“ The Zwiya Arabs, now masters of the land by right of conquest, claim to be amongst the most zealous disciples of the Prophet since they have accepted the teachings of the Senusiya brotherhood. A Zwiya sheikh will never present himself before the people of his tribe except on horseback, shaded by an umbrella, bearing a falcon on a small cushion, and followed by a greyhound. ”

“ Zabulon figured as one of the most active and respected members of the Jewish community,—an individual indispensable to all beneficent works, a loud singer in the synagogue and a great friend of the Rabbi, whom he called "our spiritual chief," an assiduous attendant at all homes where a fellow-religionist lay suffering, ready to accompany with his prayers the gasps of the dying man and afterwards lave the corpse according to custom with a profusion of water that ran in a stream into the street. ”

“ The Zidonians, it should seem, were more addicted to idolatry than the Tyrians were, who, being men of business and large conversation, were less under the power of bigotry and superstition. The Zidonians were noted for the worship of Ashtaroth; Solomon introduced it, 1 Kings xi. 5. Jezebel was daughter to the king of Zidon, who brought the worship of Baal into Israel (1 Kings xvi. 31) ; so that God had been much dishonoured by the Zidonians. ”

“ As we continued our journey during the following day, still keeping in the Desert, we passed one or two small encampments of the Zobeide tribe. The Arabs, alarmed at the approach of so large a party, and believing us to be horsemen on a foray, sallied forth to meet us at some distance from their tents, flourishing their weapons and chanting their wild war-cry. The plain, although now without any stationary population, was once thickly inhabited. ”

“ Anluan cried.
“Harut and Marut laid hands upon me. Am I to have no more mastery because of that?” said Zabulun. “For forty days I was laid in the cave that is under the sea, and do men think that all power is gone from me because of that? I thought all that time that what I worked for would come to pass, and that the Magic Mirror of Babylon would be lost in the ruin of the Tower of Babylon and that destruction would come upon [Pg 146] the Babylonians. This would have been if the boy who was my apprentice had been faithful to me. ”

“ I said, “there is one named Zabulun, an evil Enchanter, who pursues us. We have come to beg you to tell us how we may escape him.”
[Pg 115]
“Not to me should you have come,” the voice of Chiron boomed out. “What have I to do with men who are as far from wisdom as Zabulun? Only one who is like him may strive with him. Go to another, go to another.”
“To whom shall we go, O Centaur?” I prayed.
“Hermes Trismegistus in Egypt is nearer to Zabulun than I am. Go to him and he may tell you how to baffle Zabulun. Tell him that you have seen the Phœnix in the cave of Chiron the Centaur.” ”

“ Not this the visionary figure created by the tear-dimmed yearning of the Ghetto; no second Sabbataï Zevi, master of celestial secrets, divine reincarnation, come with signs and wonders to lead back Israel to the Promised Land. Still less the prophet prefigured by Christian visionaries, some of whom, fevered nevertheless, press upon the Congress itself complex collations of texts, or little cards with the sign of the cross. Palestine, indeed, but an afterthought: an aspiration of unsuspected strength, to be utilized—like all human forces—by the maker of history. ”

“ These chieftains arrived at the dwelling-place of a certain tribe, named Djezila, whom they fought with and pillaged. Amongst their booty was a black woman of extraordinary beauty, the mother of two children. Her name was Zebiba; her elder son was Djaris; her younger Shidoub. Shedad became passionately enamoured of this woman, and yielded all the rest of his share in the booty in order to obtain possession of her and her two children. He dwelt in the fields with this negress, whose sons took care of the cattle. In course of time Zebiba bore a son to Shedad. ”

“ And while the Grand Seignior was meditating the annihilation of all the Jews of the Ottoman Empire for their rebellious projects, with the forced conversion of the orphaned children to Islam, the Jews of the world were celebrating—for what they thought the last time—the Day of Atonement, and five times during that long fast-day did the weeping worshippers, rocking to and fro in their grave-clothes, passionately pronounce the blessing over Sabbataï Zevi, the Messiah of Israel. ”

“ This is the territory of the ancient Makhzin tribe of Zemoul, situated between Djebel Gerioun on the east and another mountain to the south-west, the highest point of which is, from its peculiar shape, called by the natives Enf-en-neser, or the Eagle’s Beak.
The 4th, arrived at Tattubt, 5 miles; where there remains nothing but the ruins of a modern building.
Tattubt is also in the tribe of Zemoul, not far from the lakes. From the Roman remains here were obtained the columns used to build the Mosque of Souk el-Ghazel, now the Cathedral of Constantine. ”

“ Zebulun is chosen, because being the sixth and youngest of all Leah's sons, he was the least honorable of those who proceeded from the free woman; and Reuben is chosen, who, though the eldest of Jacob's sons, and entitled to the birthright, had lost it by his transgression. And hence he, in his posterity, was degraded, and was obliged to pronounce the curse, Cursed is he that lieth with his father's wife. See [658] (note) , and [659] (note) , and the notes on both places.
4. It is strange how long the disgrace consequent on some flagrant transaction of a parent may cleave to his posterity! ”

“ I will punish the princes, and the king's children - After the death of Josiah the kingdom of Judah saw no prosperity, and every reign terminated miserably; until at last King Zedekiah and the king's children were cruelly massacred at Riblah, when Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jerusalem. ”