THE HEBREW INVASION OF CANAAN.
When the Israelites had delivered themselves from the dominion of Egypt,
they pastured their flocks on the peninsula of Sinai. Afterwards they
wandered further to the north-east into the Syrian desert, and at
length, as the oases in this district were few, and the wells
insufficient, they threw themselves upon the rich uplands on the east of
the Jordan. From the table-land, which they had conquered, they saw
before them the happy valley of the Jordan, the fig-trees and
pomegranates, the vines and green glades in the valleys beyond it. The
sight roused the greater portion of the Israelites to descend into the
valley, and invade the land beyond the river, in order to win settled
abodes where milk and honey were said to flow.
We have already examined the circumstances of Canaan. The Amorites had
destroyed the power of the Hittites; and in conjunction with the
remnants of the Hittites and Hivites, they possessed the land. They
lived separately in the various mountain cantons, under small princes
from thirty to forty in number. But their cities were old and well
fortified; the nature of the land was in favour of defence, and on the
coasts lay the strong cities of the Phenicians and the Philistines. It
was no light undertaking. The Israelites had left Egypt a nation of
peaceful shepherds, but the sixty or seventy years which they
subsequently passed in the desert, and on the uplands beyond the Jordan,
had hardened them and made them into warriors. The successes which they
gained against the Amalekites, the Amorites of Heshbon, and Bashan must
have roused their courage. If they combined in an attack on the isolated
cantons of Canaan, they might hope to become masters even of the
fortified walls, and perhaps they even found assistance among the
Hittites and Hivites, who lived under the oppressive rule of the
Amorites. About the middle of the thirteenth century B.C., the greater
part of the Israelites marched towards the Jordan. Joshua, the prince of
the tribe of Ephraim, led the army. The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and a
part of the tribe of Manasseh, remained behind on the other side of the
Jordan.[667]
The book of Joshua gives the following account of the conquest of Canaan
by the Hebrews: It came to pass after the death of Moses, that Jehovah
spoke to Joshua the son of Nun: Up, cross over Jordan, thou and all the
people, into a land which I will give thee. Then Joshua commanded the
leaders of the people: Go through the camp and say, Make ready your
provisions; in three days ye shall cross the Jordan. When the people
set out from their tents at Shittim, and reached the Jordan with the
priests carrying the ark before them, and the feet of the priests, who
carried the ark, touched the water of Jordan, the water which flowed
from above stood up, and the water which flowed downwards to the Dead
Sea parted from the upper water, till the ark of Jehovah and the people
of Israel had passed over on dry land. And the people encamped at
Gilgal, on the tenth day of the first month, and Joshua made sharp
knives and circumcised the children of Israel, the whole nation that was
born in the desert, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the
month at evening in the plain of Jericho. And Jehovah said to Joshua:
See, I have given Jericho and her king into thy hand. Go round the city
for six days, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets before the ark,
and on the seventh day ye shall go round the city seven times, and the
priests shall blow upon the trumpets. And when ye hear the sound of the
trumpets, all the people shall make a great cry, and the walls of the
city will fall down, and the people shall pass over them, every man
straight before him. Joshua fulfilled the command of Jehovah, and when
the people marched round the walls of Jericho for the seventh time on
the seventh day, Joshua said: Cry aloud, for Jehovah has given the city
to you, and it shall be sacred, it and all that is in it, to Jehovah,
and all the silver and gold, and all the vessels of copper and iron
shall belong to Jehovah, and shall go into his treasury. When the people
heard the sound of the trumpets, they made a great cry, and the walls
fell down, and the people went up into the city and took it. And they
set apart all that was in the city from the man to the woman, from the
boy to the old man, from the oxen to the sheep, and slew them with the
edge of the sword.
Then Joshua sent spies to Ai. When they returned they said to Joshua:
Let not the whole people go up; two or three thousand men can smite Ai,
for they are few. Joshua sent three thousand, but the men of Ai overcame
them, and pursued them as far as Shebarim, and smote them on the slope
of the mountain. Then Joshua rent his garments and fell upon his face.
But Jehovah said to him: Israel has taken of the forbidden spoil; the
children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies, if that which is
forbidden is not destroyed from their midst. They must come forth
according to their tribes, races, and houses, and the house, which
Jehovah shall choose, shall come forward man by man. And whoever shall
be found with that which is forbidden, shall be burnt with fire and all
that belongs to him. Joshua caused Israel to come forward, according to
their tribes, and the lot fell on the tribe of Judah, and race of Serah;
and in the race of Serah the lot fell upon the house of Sabdi, and of
the men of the house of Sabdi the lot fell upon Achan, the son of
Charmi. Then Achan confessed that he had taken a beautiful mantle of
Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold fifty shekels in
weight, and had hidden them in his tent. And Achan the son of Charmi was
led out "with his sons and daughters, his oxen and asses, his tent and
all that he had, and all Israel stoned them, and they burnt them with
fire, and covered them with stones, and then erected there a great heap
of stones." But Joshua set out towards Ai, with all the people, and
chose 5,000 men of war, and sent them out in the night, and said to
them: Go ye and lie in ambush at the back of the city, between Ai and
Bethel. I and all the people that is with me will draw near towards the
city, and if they come out to meet us, we will fly before them. Then be
ye ready and rise up out of your ambush and set fire to the city. When
Israel went forth towards Ai, the king of Ai came to meet them for
battle; but Joshua turned with his people and fled, and all the people
of Ai pursued them, and left the city open. Then the men in ambush rose,
and set fire to the town; and when the men of Ai looked behind them, the
smoke of their houses rose to heaven; and Israel turned upon their
pursuers and slew the men of Ai, who were between the Israelites on this
side, and the Israelites on that side, so that none remained beside the
king whom they took alive. Afterwards the women and children in Ai were
put to the sword, and of the slain on this day there were 12,000. And
Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree till evening. Then they took the
corpse down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate, and
erected over it a great heap of stones till this day: but the city
remained a heap of desolation.
When the men of Gibeon--a great city like one of the king's cities, it
was greater than Ai, and all the inhabitants were men of war--and the
men of Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim, heard what Joshua had
done, they sent to him, and the messengers put old shoes and clouted on
their feet, and old clothes on their bodies, and took old sacks on their
asses, and patched wine skins, and the bread of their provisions was old
and mouldy. Thus they came into the camp of Israel at Gilgal, and said
to Joshua: We are come from a far country to make a covenant with thee;
behold, the wine skins are torn which we filled new, our bread is dry
and mouldy, our clothes and our shoes are old by reason of the length
of the way. And Joshua made a covenant with them to let them live, and
the princes of the people made an oath with them. But when the children
of Israel set forth from Gilgal, they came on the third day to their
cities. Then Joshua called them and said: Why have ye deceived us and
said, we are far from you. Be ye now accursed, and may ye never cease to
be servants, and drawers of water, and hewers of wood for the house of
my God. Thus he did to them, and saved them from the hand of the
children of Israel that they slew them not.
Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, heard what Joshua had done to Jericho
and her king, and to Ai and her king, and that Gibeon had made peace
with Joshua. He sent to Hoham, king of Hebron; and to Piram, king of
Jarmuth; and to Japhia, king of Lachish; and to Debir, king of Eglon,
and they gathered themselves and went forth, five kings of the Amorites,
and encamped against Gibeon. Then Joshua set forth from Gilgal, and all
the men of war with him. And Jehovah caused the Amorites to flee before
the children of Israel, and Joshua cried: Sun, stand thou still upon
Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood
still, and the moon waned not, till the people took vengeance on their
enemies, and before this was no day like it, nor after it. And the five
kings fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah; and when it was
told to Joshua, that the kings were hidden there, he said: Roll great
stones before the cave, and set men there to watch it. But do ye halt
not, but pursue your enemies, and smite the rear guard, and let them not
come into the cities. And Israel accomplished the slaughter, and turned
back to the camp at Makkedah. And Joshua caused the five kings to come
forth out of the cave, and called to the leaders of his warriors and
said: Come forward and set your feet on the necks of these kings. And
when this had been done, Joshua smote the kings, and hanged them on five
trees, and they hung on the trees till evening. Then Joshua commanded to
take them down, and they cast them into the cave, and laid great stones
on the mouth of the cave till this day.
Then Joshua took Makkedah, and Libnah, and Lachish, and smote them with
the edge of the sword, and let no fugitive escape in Makkedah, Libnah,
and Lachish; and did to the kings of Makkedah and Libnah as he had done
to the king of Jericho. Horam, king of Gezer, went out to help Lachish,
but Joshua defeated him and went from Lachish against Eglon, and from
Hebron against Debir; and he set apart Eglon, and Hebron, and Debir, all
the souls that were therein, and smote the kings of Hebron and Debir
with the edge of the sword, and returned to the camp at Gilgal.
But Jabin, king of Hazor, gathered together the kings of Madon, Shimron,
and Achshaph, and the kings of the north, who dwell towards the
midnight, on the mountain and in the plain, and they encamped a great
nation as the sands on the shore of the sea in multitude, with chariots
and horses on Lake Merom. Then Joshua with all his men of war fell upon
them suddenly, and smote them, and pursued them as far as Sidon, and to
the valley of Mizpeh, and lamed their horses, and burned their chariots
with fire. Then he took Hazor, the chief city of all these kingdoms, and
smote their king with the sword, and all the souls that were therein;
and all the booty of these cities, and all the cattle, the Israelites
took for spoil. For a long time Joshua made war with all these kings,
and he expelled the Anakites from the mountains of Hebron, from Debir
and Anab, from the mountain of Judah and the mountain of Israel; with
their cities he destroyed them. And there was no city which surrendered
peacefully to the Hebrews except that of the Hivites of Gibeon.
Joshua was old and stricken in years, and Jehovah said to him: Divide
this land among the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And
Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun, and the chiefs of the
tribes of the children of Israel divided the land by lot. And the lot of
the children of Judah was in the south, as far as the wilderness of Sin
and the brook of Egypt, and in the east as far as the Dead Sea and to
the end of Jordan, and in the north the border was Gilgal and the valley
of Ben Hinnom, and Beth Shemesh, and the western border was the Great
Sea. And the lot came forth for the children of Joseph, and their
borders on the south ran from the water of Jericho over toward
Bethhoron, and from Bethhoron toward the sea. The land toward the south
fell to Ephraim, and the land toward the north to Manasseh. And the
whole community of the children of Israel were gathered together at
Shiloh, and there they set up the holy tent, and Joshua spake to the
seven tribes, whose possessions were not yet allotted: Choose three men
out of each tribe to write down the land, for I will cast lots for you
here at Shiloh before Jehovah. And so the men went and wrote down the
land according to the cities, in seven parts, and Joshua cast lots at
Shiloh, and divided the land to the children of Israel according to
their divisions. But Jehovah commanded Joshua that he should speak to
the children of Israel, and tell them to fix the cities of refuge, to
which the homicide was to fly who slew a man in misadventure, in order
that the elders of the city might receive him, and if the avenger
pursued him, they were not to deliver him into his hand till he had been
brought before the people. And they consecrated Kadesh, and Shechem, and
Hebron, and Bezer, and Ramoth in Gilead, and Golan. And the chiefs of
the tribe of the Levites went to Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son
of Nun, and asked for cities to dwell in, and land for their cattle; and
the Israelites gave them forty-eight cities and their land for their
possession. And Joshua gathered the elders of Israel, and his leaders
and judges, and gave law and justice at Shechem; and he died one hundred
and ten years old, and they buried him in the land of his possession at
Timnath-serah, on the mountain of Israel; and the bones of Joseph, which
the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem,
on the piece of the field which Jacob bought (pp. 411, 418), and the
children of Joseph kept the place for a possession. And Eleazar, the son
of Aaron, died, and they buried him in Gibeah, the city of Phinehas, his
son, which was given to him on the mountain of Ephraim.
The conception of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel, and of the
arrangement of law, as it existed in complete perfection in later times,
dominates the two texts of the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua, no
less than the prophetic revision of these texts (p. 386), and could not
but exercise an influence on the narrative of the conquest of Canaan,
_i.e._, the fulfilment of the prophecies. Even in the first text it is
the direct command of Jehovah which leads Joshua to set out towards the
Jordan; and it is the priestly ideas of this text which come out
strongly in the feast of the passover and the circumcision before the
conquest of Jericho. The miraculous passage of the Jordan is a
repetition of the passage through the reed-sea. This narrative belongs,
as it seems, to the second text, and is further amplified by the
reviser.[668] The overthrow of the walls of Jericho, when the priests
had blown their trumpets and the people raised the war-cry, is briefly
narrated in the first text; here also the details are the work of the
reviser. If the walls of Jericho were mounted at the first onset,
tradition might well recount the story that they were broken down before
the war-cry of Israel; and from this the farther account could be
framed. The law of the priests ordained: "All that is devoted
(_cherem_), what every man dedicates to Jehovah from all that is his,
from men, or cattle, or the field of his possession, that cannot be
bought or redeemed. All that is devoted is holy to Jehovah."[669] Joshua
had devoted Jericho and all that was in the city to Jehovah. But one of
the nation had taken something for himself from this devoted spoil. The
punishment comes upon the whole people, and the first attempt on Ai is a
failure. The more complete is the victory when that transgressor and his
house is stoned to death. By this narrative the observance of the
command was deeply impressed on all. When it was found long after the
settlement in Canaan what pernicious results for life, morals, and
religious worship followed from the fact that portions of the old
population were allowed to remain among them, it appeared to the
priestly mind that the due regulation and purity of the Hebrew nature
required the extinction of the earlier inhabitants, and even before
they took possession of Canaan, Jehovah must have given the command to
make neither covenant nor marriage with the Canaanites, to destroy their
altars and images, and to extirpate the nation.[670] Without doubt, at
the time of the conquest a considerable number of the old population
were not only driven out, but were put to death; and it is certain that
when cities were taken by storm their inhabitants "from man to woman,
from child to old man," were slain with the edge of the sword; but a
systematic extirpation did not take place. Of the four cities of the
Hivites--Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim--Gibeon, two
good hours north-west of Jebus, was the most important. These four
cities joined the Hebrews against the ruling Amorites,[671] and combined
with them. The craft of the Gibeonites, by which they succeeded in
deceiving Joshua about their Canaanitic descent, is intended to explain
the sparing of such an important part of the old population in
opposition to the pre-dated command of extirpation. And if to this is
added the fact that Joshua, when he had once sworn to grant their lives,
made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole community,
this, no doubt, rests on the fact that at a later time king Saul, "in
his zeal for Israel," intended to extirpate all the Gibeonites, and did
extirpate part, "though Israel had sworn to them;" that David favoured
them, but Solomon made "all that was left of the Amorites, Jebusites,
Hittites, Perizzites, and Hivites bond-servants to this day."[672] The
king Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem, who, startled by the fall of Jericho and
Ai, and "the peace which Gibeon had made with Joshua," brings about the
league of the Amorite princes in the south against the invasion of the
Hebrews, belongs to the prophetic revision; in the first text the
Jerusalem of later times is still the city of the Jebusites. The
description of the great battle and of the miracle at Gibeon against the
Amorites belongs to the second text. The miracle is founded merely on
the poetical expression in the Israelite song of victory, "the sun stood
still and the moon stayed till the people had punished their enemies,"
which meant no more than that the day had been long enough, and the moon
had shone long enough, to allow them to achieve a great defeat of the
Amorites, and to pursue them a considerable distance. After this day
Joshua is said to have taken Hebron, Debir, Libnah, and Lachish, to have
conquered the kings of Northern Canaan in a great battle, and to have
gained their cities, including Hazor. This narrative with its
particulars, according to which the conquest of Canaan took place in
consequence of the battle of Gibeon and a second great victory of the
Israelites at Lake Merom, belongs to the revision,[673] and is open to
serious difficulties. In the first place we are told that Joshua, for a
long time, had fought against all the kings; but Hazor, the abode of
Jabin, which Joshua had attacked, we find shortly after as again the
abode of Jabin. A large number of places which Joshua is said to have
taken are subsequently not in the hands of Israel, and both in the Book
of Joshua and the Book of Judges mention is made of separate battles of
the tribes among which the battle about Hebron, which the tribe of
Judah obtained, is the most conspicuous.[674]
It was the view of both texts that the whole land was promised and
plighted to the Hebrews. They did not dwell on particulars in order to
bring out more definitely and clearly the community of the tribes, the
divinely-arranged and righteous division of the land among them. After
the war, in the traditional account, had continued about five years, and
Joshua was eighty-five years old, he and Eleazar, the son of Aaron,
divide by lot the territory gained on this side of the Jordan. The first
text here defines the portion of the tribe of Judah with special
minuteness, the second dwells upon the importance of the tribe of
Ephraim. Last of all, the forty-eight cities, on an average four in each
tribe, were set apart for the Levites. Of these forty-eight thirteen are
mentioned as allotted to the families of the priests of the tribe of
Levi. These lie entirely in the territory of Judah, Simeon, and
Benjamin, while the ark of the covenant evidently was placed at Shiloh
in the territory of Ephraim. In the neighbourhood of this sanctuary,
therefore, the priests must have had their dwellings. On the other hand,
Nob, which in Saul's time was called a city of the priests,[675] was not
among these thirteen cities. And among the thirty-five cities which are
said to have been given to the Levite ministers, several are found which
were not conquered by the Israelites, such as Taanach, Gezer, Jibleam,
and Nahalal. Of the thirteen towns of the priests and the six cities of
refuge, which were partly cities of the priests and partly of the
temple-servants, Hebron, the first-mentioned, was, as has been already
remarked, conquered later on, and not by Joshua. These arrangements have
arisen out of ideals; there never were Levite cities in Israel, and the
right of asylum in the cities of refuge was not recognised till a later
time. Even if we set aside the sacerdotal scheme for the distribution of
the land, we cannot repose complete confidence in an apparently ancient
enumeration of the conquered kings and cities given in the Book of
Joshua. Allowing that it belonged to one of the two original texts, it
has been altered and interpolated.[676] Cities are mentioned as
conquered which are not mentioned in the preceding narrative; others are
quoted as subjugated which evidently remained long after in the hand of
the Canaanites, like Taanach and Megiddo.[677]
Adopting, therefore, as our principal basis the accounts which are in
existence about the battles of the various tribes, we shall have to
assume that the course of affairs was somewhat of this kind. The two
tribes of Reuben and Gad and the greater part of the tribe of Manasseh
preferred to remain on the east of the Jordan. The fertile depression
round Jericho naturally formed the first object of attack. Jericho was
taken. But the destruction of the city can hardly have been completely
carried out; for not very long after we find it again inhabited.[678]
That the Hebrews after taking Jericho established themselves at Gilgal,
and from this place undertook flying campaigns against the cities of the
Amorites, are statements which, as to the fact, need not excite any
doubts. The covenant with the neighbouring four cities of the Hivites,
which was appealed to even in the time of the kings, proves evidently
that these cities united with the Israelites and fought on their side
against the Amorites. In order to defend Gibeon against the Amorites,
who wished to punish their defection, the great battle against the
Amorites took place near this city, which is proved to be a fact by the
old song of victory. By this overthrow the power of the Amorites seems
to have been broken. Their defence henceforth is confined to each of the
cities maintaining itself. But the attacking party also lost their
unity. The various tribes of the Israelites attempted to conquer the
districts which pleased them; and the campaign of conquest broke up into
local conflicts. The tribe of Ephraim, accompanied by the greater part
of the remaining tribes, turned northwards to the green heights and
shady valleys of Shiloh and Shechem. Here, on "the mountain of Ephraim,"
the Ephraimites settled; the sacred ark was placed at Shiloh, and here
at Timnath-Serah, "which he had sought from the people and had
obtained," Joshua took up his abode, and built the city and dwelt
therein. Round the fortress of the prince the best part of the tribe
must have settled. On the same mountains lay the portion of land which
belonged to the priest of the sacred ark, Phinehas, the grandson of
Aaron.[679] Near a sanctuary at Shechem, under the oak, the priests and
elders of the tribe assembled for the administration of law and justice.
The Ephraimitic text represents the sons of Joseph as saying to Joshua
that they were a numerous people, and that Mount Ephraim was too narrow
for them. Joshua replied, Go up to the forest, and hew out for
yourselves there in the land of the Perizzites and Rephaims, if Mount
Ephraim is too narrow for you. They answered: The mountain will not be
gained by us; there are iron chariots among all the Canaanites who
dwell in the land of the valley at Beth-shean, and in the valley of
Jezreel. But Joshua said: The mountain shall belong to thee. It is
forest, hew it down, and the outgoings shall belong to thee. Thou shalt
drive out the Canaanites.[680]
The tribes of Judah and Simeon turned to the south after the battle of
Gibeon, and settled in the mountain land of Hebron; here they succeeded
in acquiring a considerable territory. But it was only by slow degrees,
through long and severe battles, that the two tribes advanced. The tribe
of Judah first overcame the king of Bezek, and took him prisoner. From
the king as from the rest of the prisoners the thumbs and the great toes
were cut off. Then the king of Bezek said: Three score and ten kings
having their thumbs and their great toes cut off gathered what fell from
my table; now I have been requited.[681] Of more importance was it that
Caleb the son of Jephunneh established himself in Hebron, the old
metropolis of the land of the south (p. 346), and independently
subjugated the surrounding territory.[682] To the man who should conquer
Debir he promised his daughter Achsah to wife, and Othniel his brother's
son gained the city and the woman. From Debir the tribe of Judah pressed
on to the south, and conquered Zephath and Hormah. "And Jehovah"--so we
find it in the Book of Judges--"was with Judah, and he took the mountain
and possessed it, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the low
ground because they had chariots of iron."[683] The inhabitants of the
low ground are the Philistines on the coast, whose power was undoubtedly
superior to that of the tribes of Judah and Simeon. The Simeonites, a
tribe by no means numerous, settled themselves under the tribe of
Judah, and had to be content with the least fertile districts on the
southern border.
The tribe of Manasseh, so nearly related to Ephraim, had in part
remained beyond the Jordan; the other part settled under the
Ephraimites, on their northern border in the region from Hadad Rimmon to
the mouth of the Kishon, but they were unable to gain the mastery over
the greater number of the cities of the Canaanites situated in this
district. The little tribe of Benjamin had settled round Gibeon, perhaps
immediately after the battle, between Bethhoron and Jericho, on the
southern border of Ephraim. The tribes of Issachar and Zebulon, Asher
and Naphtali were the last to acquire settled abodes. Issachar conquered
the heights of Tirzah and Gilboa, as far as Tabor; Zebulon planted
himself between the right bank of the Kishon and the lake of Kinneroth,
in the region of Jokneam and Beth Arbel. Westward of the lakes of
Kinneroth and Merom lay the tribes of Naphtali and Asher; the first was
nearest to the lake of Merom, in the district of the northern Kadesh;
Asher was further to the west, on the borders of the land of Tyre. The
tribe of Dan attempted to gain the spurs of the mountain westward of
Benjamin towards the sea. For a long time it encamped against the
Amorites and the northern cities of the Philistines, Ekron and Gath, but
though occasionally supported by Ephraim and Judah, it never gained
territory enough for its numbers. When the others had long been fixed in
settled abodes, a part of the Danites, finding it impossible to advance
to the coast, set out to the north, and took the city of Laish,
northward of Kadesh and the land of Naphtali, which belonged to the
Sidonians,[684] gave it the name of Dan, and here, as they had become
more warlike than the rest, owing to their prolonged battles, maintained
the northernmost point of the land of Israel.
The conquest was completed. In the middle of the thirteenth century B.C.
the Israelites had broken the power of the Amorites in Canaan, and
gained a considerable territory (about 10,000 square miles), of which
one-half lay on the nearer and the other on the farther side of the
Jordan. But this land, divided by the Jordan, was neither a whole united
from within, nor protected by natural boundaries from without. As the
Israelites immediately after their first successes became again
disunited, and the attack became less powerful at every step in advance,
the Canaanites maintained themselves in independence, in separate
valleys or heights difficult of approach, and in strong fortresses.
Remnants of the Canaanites remained everywhere among and between the
Israelites. Beside the Benjamites the Jebusites (a tribe of the
Amorites) maintained themselves, and at Gibeon, Kirjath-jearim,
Chephirah, and Beeroth were the Hivites, who had made peace with the
Israelites. In the land of Ephraim the Canaanites held their ground at
Gezer and Bethel, until the latter--it was an important city--was
stormed by the Ephraimites.[685] Among the tribe of Manasseh the
Canaanites were settled at Beth Shean, Dan, Taanach, Jibleam, Megiddo
and their districts,[686] and in the northern tribes the Canaanites were
still more numerous. It was not till long after the immigration of the
Hebrews that they were made in part tributary.[687] The land of the
Israelites beyond the Jordan, where the tribe of Manasseh possessed the
north, Gad the centre, and Reuben the south as far as the Arnon, was
exposed to the attacks of the Ammonites and Moabites, and the migratory
tribes of the Syrian desert, and must have had the greater attraction
for them, as better pastures were to be found in the heights of Gilead,
and the valleys there were more fruitful. To the west only the tribe of
Ephraim reached the sea, and became master of a harbourless strip of
coast. The remaining part of the coast and all the harbours remained in
the hands of the powerful cities of the Philistines and the Phenicians.
No attempt was made to conquer these, although border-conflicts took
place between the tribes of Judah, Dan, and Asher, and Philistines and
Sidonians. Such an attempt could only have been made if the Israelites
had remained united, and even then the powers of the Israelites would
hardly have sufficed to overthrow the walls of Gaza, Ascalon, and
Ashdod, of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblus. Yet the invasion of the Israelites
was not without results for the cities of the coast: it forced a large
part of the population to assemble in them, and we shall see below how
rapid and powerful is the growth of the strength and importance of Tyre
in the time immediately following the incursion of the Israelites,
_i.e._ immediately after the middle of the thirteenth century. As the
population and in consequence the power of the cities on the coast
increased, owing to the collection of the ancient population on the
shore of the sea, those cities became all the more dangerous neighbours
for the Israelites.
It was a misfortune for the new territory which the Israelites had won
by the sword that it was without the protection of natural boundaries on
the north and east, that the cities of the Philistines and Phenicians
barred it towards the sea, and in the interior remnants of the
Canaanites still maintained their place. Yet it was a far more serious
danger for the immigrants that they were without unity, connection, or
guidance, for they had already given up these before the conflict was
ended. Undoubtedly a vigorous leadership in the war of conquest against
the Canaanites might have established a military monarchy which would
have provided better for the maintenance of the borders and the security
of the land than was done in its absence. But the isolated defence made
by the Canaanites permitted the attacking party also to isolate
themselves. The new masters of the land lived, like the Canaanites
before and among them, in separate cantons; the mountain land which they
possessed was much broken up, and without any natural centre, and though
there were dangerous neighbours, there was no single concentrated
aggressive power in the neighbourhood, now that Egypt remained in her
borders. The cities of the Philistines formed a federation merely,
though a federation far more strongly organised than the tribes of the
Israelites. Under these circumstances political unity was not an
immediately pressing question among the Israelites; but owing to the
dispersion in which they lived, and the open borders of their new
kingdom, the question seriously arose whether they could enjoy in peace
the land they had won. Whatever the weight with which the want of
internal concentration and external repulsion might be felt, whatever
the difficulties arising from the remnant of Canaanites left in the
land, and however unsatisfactory the maintenance of the borders of the
land, these political drawbacks were only so many advantages for the
development of the religious and moral life of the Israelites.
FOOTNOTES:
[667] That the chronological statements in the book of Judges afford no
fixed point for deciding the date of the invasion of Canaan by the
Hebrews is proved by Noeldeke ("Chronologie der Richterzeit"). The
genealogical tables give only six or seven generations down to Eli and
Samuel, and these cannot fill a longer space than of 150 to 175 years.
As Ramses III. whose reign according to Lepsius falls in the years
1269-1244 B.C. fought against the Pulista, Cheta, and Amari, _i.e._ the
Philistines, Hittites, and Amorites, within the first nine years of his
reign (p. 164) without meeting the Hebrews among them, we may assume
that their settlement in Canaan did not take place till after the year
1260 B.C., about the middle of the thirteenth century, B.C.
[668] Cf. Noeldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 95.
[669] Lev. xxvii. 28, 29.
[670] In the form of a vow, Numb. xxi. 1-3, from the second text; in the
form of a command, Exod. xxiii. 32, 33; xxxiv. 12, from the revision.
[671] If the Hivites are counted in 2 Samuel xxi. 22 among the Amorites,
the reason is to be sought in the comprehensive meaning here given to
the name Amorites.
[672] 2 Sam. xxi. 1-10; 1 Kings ix. 20; cf. Joshua xvii. 12.
[673] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 304, 305; Noeldeke,
"Untersuchungen," s. 98.
[674] Joshua xi. 1, 10, 13; xii. 19; xix. 36; Judges iv. 2, 17; 1 Sam.
xii. 9
[675] 1 Sam. xxi. 1-6; xxii. 11-18.
[676] Joshua xii.; Noeldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 98.
[677] Judges i. 27-30.
[678] Judges i. 16; iii. 13.
[679] Joshua xix. 49, 50; xxiv. 33, both from the first text; Joshua
xvii. 14-18.
[680] Joshua xvii. 14-18.
[681] Judges i. 7.
[682] Judges i. 12-15, 20; Jesus, 46, 11.
[683] Judges i. 19.
[684] Joshua xix. 47; Judges xviii.
[685] Judges i. 22, 29.
[686] Judges i. 27.
[687] Judges i. 30-35.