Desert dwellers take little account of the lapse of time. It is
not strange that the data regarding the duration of the sojourn in
the wilderness are late and exceedingly vague. The number forty in
the Bible is the concrete Hebrew equivalent of many. Ordinarily
the forty years represent a generation. A period of about forty
years accords well with the facts of contemporary Egyptian
chronology. If the Hebrews fled from Egypt about 1200, during the
period of anarchy following the breakdown of the nineteenth
Egyptian dynasty, they could not have entered Palestine much before
the middle of the twelfth century, for Ramses III of the Twentieth
Dynasty succeeded in re-establishing and maintaining his authority
in Southern Palestine until his death about 1167 B.C.
The account of the spies, preserved according to some writers in
variant versions by each of the great groups of Hebrew narratives,
indicates that the Hebrews attempted but failed to enter Canaan
from the south. For tribesmen like the Israelites, chafing under
their harsh environment and recalling the prosperity of the land of
Egypt, Palestine with its green hills and fertile fields was an
irresistible lodestone luring them on to the conquest. The reasons
why they failed to enter Canaan from the south are suggested in the
narrative of the spies and confirmed by a study of the historical
geographical situation. The Canaanite cities of Southern Palestine
were built largely with the view to protecting their inhabitants
from the ever-lurking nomad invaders. On the other hand the
Hebrews had none of the equipment needed to conquer walled cities.
More than that the barren hills of the South Country did not
furnish the base of supplies necessary to maintain a protracted
siege. The early Hebrew narratives imply that certain nomadic
tribes, as, for example, the Calebites, the Kenizzites and the
Jerahmeelites, independently gained a foothold on the southern
borders of Canaan and ultimately assimilated with the Hebrew tribe
of Judah when the latter entered Palestine. The earliest Hebrew
accounts, however, as well as the logic of the situation indicate
that the great body of the Israelites, whose ancestors had been in
the land of Egypt, entered Palestine from the east. Throughout all
its history the east-Jordan land has witnessed the constant
transition of Arab tribes from the nomadic life of the desert to
the more settled civilization, of agricultural Palestine. Here on
the eastern heights that overlook the Jordan valley and the land of
Canaan the traveller still finds the Arab tents and flocks of the
nomads beside the plowed fields of the village-dwellers. On the
rolling plains of northern Moab and southern Gilead there are few
commanding heights or natural fortresses. The important towns,
like Dibon and Heshbon, lay on slightly rising hills. The
character of the ruins to-day does not indicate that they were ever
surrounded by formidable walls. Whether the Hebrews conquered them
by open attack or by strategy, as in the case of the town of Ai, is
not stated. It is certain, however, that here they first gained a
permanent foothold in agricultural Palestine. From the conquered
they here learned their initial lessons in the arts of agriculture
and became acquainted with that more advanced Canaanite
civilization which they later absorbed. Coming fresh from the
desert, where only the fittest survived, their numbers rapidly
increased in this quieter and more favorable environment. Soon to
the constant pressure of the desert population on the east was
added that of over-population, so that necessity, as well as
ambition, impelled them to cross the Jordan to seek homes among the
hills to the west.