12. The midst of the land. Literally, “the navel [height] of the earth.” The figure is used elsewhere only in Judges 9:37, but there applied presumably to a hill near Shechem, probably from its central location with respect to the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Here Palestine is represented as in the center of the earth, perhaps in the same way as Jerusalem was set “in the midst of the nations and countries” (Eze. 5:5).