Land naturally moist was considered as irrigated by a god and the special place or habitation of the god.

To the numerous Canaanite Baalims, or local deities, the Israelites ascribed all the natural gifts of the land, the corn, the wine, and the oil, the wool and the flax, the vines and fig trees.

Pasture land was common property, but a man acquired rights in the soil by building a house, or, by 'quickening' a waste place, that is, bringing it under cultivation.

[61] The Israelites thought that they derived their title to the land of Canaan from Jehovah, having received it as a gift from Him.

The association of rights over the land with cultivation and building, pointed out by Professor Robertson Smith, may perhaps explain the right over the village lands which was held to appertain to the village community.