The growing numbers and strength of the Israelites at last alarmed
the Canaanites. A certain leader by the name of Sisera formed a
coalition of the strong Canaanite cities encircling the Plain of
Esdraelon. The centre of this coalition was the powerful city of
Megiddo, the ruins of which on the south-western side of the plain
still remain to testify to the natural strength of this ancient
stronghold. The policy of the Canaanites was to keep the different
Hebrew clans apart and thus prevent united action. In the words of
the ancient song:
In the days of Jael the highways were unused,
And travellers walked by round-about paths.
The rulers ceased in Israel;
A shield was not seen in five cities
Nor a spear among forty thousand.
The one who alone appears to have understood the crisis and to have
been able to stir the Israelites to action was Deborah, the
prophetess of the central tribe of Issachar. Israel's struggle for
independence is graphically recorded in the ancient poem found in
Judges 5. The later prose version of the incident, found in Judges
4, supplements the earlier poem. To a chief of a northern tribe of
Napthali, a certain Barak, she turned as the natural leader in the
struggle for independence. Together they sent out the summons to
the different northern tribes. The southern tribes of Judah and
Simeon were apparently ignored. The distant tribes of Asher, Dan
and Reuben were engrossed in their local interests and failed to
respond. The tribesmen who rallied forty thousand strong on the
northern side of the Plain of Esdraelon represented the great
central Hebrew clans. The ancient song, sung by the women as they
met the returning warriors, makes it possible to reconstruct the
battle scene. Through the broad valleys that lead into the Plain
of Esdraelon from the north came the sinewy, unkempt, roughly clad
and poorly equipped Hebrew tribesmen, each clan led by its local
chief. They had "come up to the help of Jehovah against the
mighty." Tribal patriotism, the memory of past grievances, the
desire for plunder, and zeal for Jehovah the God who had led their
forefathers through the wilderness into the land of Canaan, stirred
their courage and fired them to deeds of valor. Well they chose
their battlefield, out on the plain on the northern side of the
muddy, sluggish river Kishon. On the slightly rising ground they
faced the Canaanite warriors who came out across the plain from the
city of Megiddo, six miles away. The Canaanites were armed with
chariots and the best weapons that the early Semitic civilization
could produce, but one thing they lacked,--courage, fired by
religious zeal.
Again a striking natural phenomenon appears suddenly to have turned
the tide of Israel's fortune. On the eve of battle a drenching
thunderstorm seems to have swept across the alluvial plain
transforming it into a morass and the sluggish Kishon into a
rushing, unfordable river. In the words of the ancient triumphal
ode:
From heaven fought the stars,
From their courses fought against Sisera.
The river Kishon swept them away,
The ancient river, the river Kishon.
O my soul, march on with strength!
Then did the horse-hoofs resound
With the galloping, galloping of their steeds.
The Hebrew even brings out the sound of the sucking of the horses'
hoofs in the soft mud. The storm not only gave to the Hebrews, who
were on foot, a vast advantage, but it meant to them that Jehovah,
whose chariot was the clouds, his weapons, the lightning, and who
spoke through the thunders, was fighting in their behalf.
The victory was overwhelming. Sisera, the Canaanite leader, fled,
but only to fall later, ignominiously slain by a woman. Henceforth
the Canaanite cities of central Palestine were occupied by the
Hebrews. The vanquished were either enslaved or absorbed in
intermarriage. From them, however, the Hebrews learned skill in
agriculture and received a heritage of art, ideas and customs that
had been developed by the Canaanites for many centuries. How far
was this heritage beneficial to the Hebrews? What temptations did
it bring to them? Did it mark a step forward in their development?
Were the early Hebrews a pure or a mixed race?
More important than the spoils and lands which fell to the Hebrews
was the new demonstration of Jehovah's ability and willingness to
deliver his people which they received in the battle beside Kishon.
Throughout all of Israel's colonial period the chief force binding
the scattered Hebrew tribes together was their faith in Jehovah.
The victory greatly strengthened that faith and prepared the way
for the closer union which was necessary before Israel could become
a permanent force among the nations of the earth. The vision of
what they had been able to achieve through united action never
completely faded from the memory of the Hebrews. Their subsequent
experiences also tended to revive this memory. Amidst the warring
elements in Palestine a powerful nation was gradually taking form;
in the school of hard experience it was learning the lessons that
were fitting it for a large life.