Thotmose III at once gave orders to surround it. His servants he sent
out to gather the ripening grain on the fields which stretched across
the Plain of Esdraelon and to collect the great herds that were
pasturing over the grass-covered hills and valleys on its border.
Within the city no provision had been made for a siege, and the
thousands shut up within its walls were soon reduced to starvation.
After several weeks, the city was, therefore, compelled to surrender.
The king of Kadesh had fled, but his family and the families of his
nobles fell into the hands of the conqueror. The spoils found in the
captured city reveals the almost incredible opulence of this early
Canaanite civilization. Nine hundred and twenty-four chariots, two
thousand two hundred and thirty-eight horses, two hundred suits of
armor, the royal tent, with the sceptre of the king of Kadesh, an
ebony statue of himself, inlaid with lapis-lazuli and gold, a silver
statue, probably of some god, and vast quantities of gold and silver
were among the spoils which the conqueror claims to have found in the
captured city.
=The Cities of Palestine.= The contemporary literature already
discovered indicates that by 1400 B.C. most of the cities that figured
in Hebrew history were already established and that Palestine was
almost, if not fully, as densely populated as in the days of the
Hebrews. Among the chief Phœnician cities on the coast were Arvad in
the north, Byblos and Beirut in central Syria, and Sidon, Tyre, and
Accho in the south. The coast plains to the south of Mount Carmel,
including the cities of Dor, Gezer, Ashdod, Altaku, Askalon, Gath, and
Gaza, were at this period held by the Phœnicians or their kinsmen the
Canaanites. Among the cities later captured by the Hebrews were Kadesh
and Hanathon in Galilee, and Shechem, Bethel, Beth-horon, Ajalon,
Jerusalem, and Beth-anoth in southern Palestine. As in the days of the
Hebrew occupation, the Plain of Esdraelon was the centre of a strong
Canaanite confederacy, which included Megiddo, Taanach, Shunem,
Bethshean, and certain other cities whose sites have not yet been
identified.
=Disastrous Effects of Egyptian Rule.= The Egyptian rule of Palestine
put a stop for a time to the wars between the petty city states and
brought them all into close contact with the life and culture of
Egypt. But the fertile Nile valley, with its warm climate and
luxurious atmosphere, was not a land to produce a great colonizing or
organizing power. Egypt, because of its shut in position, was always
selfish and provincial. None of the Egyptian rulers of Palestine
sought to develop the interests and resources of the native peoples or
to unite them under a common government. Their sole interest in
Palestine was to protect themselves from the danger of invasion from
that quarter and to extract the largest possible tribute from its
inhabitants. Egypt willingly left the native chiefs of Palestine in
control as long as they paid tribute and did not rebel, for the sharp
contrast between the soft, equable climate of the Nile valley and the
winter cold of the eastern Mediterranean coast lands made residence
there exceedingly distasteful to the Egyptians. The few resident
Egyptians were officials, whose chief duties were to collect the
tribute and to report conditions to their king. Apparently the
Pharaohs never attempted to establish a standing army in Palestine or
Syria; but to maintain their rule they depended upon the rivalry of
the local princes and upon intimidating the natives by campaigns
characterized by the greatest severity and cruelty in the treatment of
rebels. Thus Egypt took the wealth and life blood of Palestine and
gave almost nothing in return.
=Lack of Union in Palestine.= On the other hand, the topography of
Palestine was such that it furnished no basis for a broad patriotism
that would unite all the petty kingdoms and races in its narrow
bounds. This inability successfully to combine against the common foe,
and the broad valleys that opened into central and northern Palestine
from the south and west, made its conquest by an Egyptian army very
easy.
=Exposure to Invasions From the Desert.= Another marked characteristic
of Palestine is the key to the understanding of the next stage in its
history. As has been noted before, "it lay broadside on to the
desert." As surely as air rushes into a vacuum, so the tribes from the
desert steppes irresistibly surged into Palestine through its eastern
gateways the moment its internal strength was relaxed. The selfish,
intermittent, destructive rule of Egypt not only repeatedly decimated
the population of Palestine but weakened its outposts. In time they
even goaded on the native princes to call in the Bedouin tribes to aid
them in throwing off the conqueror's heavy yoke.
=Advance of the Habiri.= The Tell el Amarna letters and those
discovered in Palestine reveal precisely this state of affairs. It was
under the rule of Amenhotep IV, who was more intent upon religious
reforms than on the ruling of his distant provinces, that Egyptian
control of Palestine was first relaxed. A stream of letters poured in
upon the king from the governors of the cities of Palestine, telling
of each other's treachery and of the advance of bands of the Habiri,
who at this time, about 1360 B.C., poured into Palestine from the
desert. These new invaders possess a unique interest for the student
of biblical history, for among them in all probability were Aramean as
well as Arabian tribes, the ancestors of the later Hebrews. They seem
to have been independent tribes under the leadership of their chiefs.
They succeeded in capturing many of the weaker outlying cities. Often
they were employed as mercenaries by the rival princes of Canaan, and
they readily allied themselves with the native peoples in an endeavor
to throw off the yoke of Egypt. The governors of such important cities
as Megiddo, Askalon, and Gezer wrote beseeching the Pharaoh to send
troops to aid them against these strong invaders. In the ruins of
Taanach is found an interesting letter, sent to the governor of the
town by an officer at Megiddo. It reads: "To Istar-washur from
Aman-hashir. May Adad preserve thy life! Send thy brothers with their
chariots, and send a horse, thy tribute, and presents, and all
prisoners who are with thee; send them to Megiddo by to-morrow." In
the ruins of Lachish was found a similar letter, written in Babylonian
by its governor Zimrida, and stating that unless an Egyptian army was
sent quickly the city must submit to the invaders. Jerusalem, under
its governor, Abdhiba, was one of the last cities to resist the
advance of the Habiri. At last, however, these people from the desert
prevailed. An Egyptian officer, writing of the native peoples, states:
"They have been destroyed, their towns laid waste.... Their countries
are starving, they live like goats of the mountain."
=Rise of the Hittite Power.= This chapter in the history of early
Palestine throws much light upon later Hebrew history. The invaders
evidently soon coalesced with the older Canaanite inhabitants,
infusing new blood and energy into the people; but they quickly
adopted the older civilization. The conditions of Palestine remained
practically the same as in the days before the Egyptian invasions. The
geographical characteristics of the land reasserted themselves. The
old rivalries and wars between the little states of Palestine quickly
sprang up again, so that, when the energetic kings of the Nineteenth
Egyptian Dynasty appeared, the land was once more ripe for conquest.
Meantime, however, the Hittites, profiting by the more favorable
physical conditions in northern Syria, had come down from Cappadocia
and the mountains of eastern Asia Minor and had built up a strong
kingdom, having for its southern capital Kadesh on the Orontes. From
this centre they had extended their influence not only over Syria, but
also over Palestine. When Ramses II, the great ruler of the Nineteenth
Dynasty, set out in 1288 B.C. to conquer the eastern Mediterranean
coast lands, he found himself, like Thotmose III, two hundred years
before, confronted by a powerful foe, strongly intrenched in the broad
valleys between the Lebanons. After an undecisive battle and many
campaigns Ramses was glad to establish with this rival power a treaty
which left the Hittites in possession of northern Syria and the
Egyptians masters of Palestine.
=Palestine Between 1270 and 1170 B.C.= The period of half a century
which immediately followed was one of peace and prosperity for
Palestine. Ramses II and his son, Merneptah, kept the great empire
intact by their indomitable energy and efficient organization. With
the passing of the Nineteenth Dynasty there came a period of anarchy
in which the Egyptian rule of Palestine was for a time relaxed. Ramses
III, the great ruler of the Twentieth Dynasty, set about restoring the
former bounds of the empire. For over a quarter of a century
(1198-1167 B.C.) he succeeded in holding Palestine and in inflicting
severe blows upon the Hittite power in the north; but his reign marked
the end of Egypt's greatness. The Valley of the Nile was never fitted
by nature to be the centre of a great world power. Its foreign
conquests had been largely the result of the energy and personal
ability of four or five great Pharaohs. Syria and Palestine, because
of their central position, felt the effect of all the great world
movements, not only in the south and east, but also in the west.
During the beginning of the twelfth century B.C. there was a great
upheaval among the Aryan peoples living along the northern coast lands
of the Mediterranean. As a result, they were obliged to seek homes
elsewhere and so came streaming down the coast of Syria in thousands
both by land and by sea. They overran Syria and broke forever the
power of the Hittites along the eastern Mediterranean. Hordes of them
pressed into the Nile Delta, and were turned back only by the strong
armies and activity of Ramses III. One branch, the Peleset, of the
Egyptian inscriptions, overthrew the old Canaanite population and
settled at this time on the coast plains south of Joppa. They were
known in Hebrew history as the Philistines.
=The Epoch-Making Twelfth Century.= It was also during this
transitional twelfth century that the cumbersome Babylonian language
and system of writing ceased to be used in Palestine. Instead, a
consonantal alphabet, derived by the Phœnicians from the Egyptians and
also possibly in part from the Babylonians, came into use. The same
alphabet, transmitted through the Ionian Greeks, became the basis of
the one now in vogue throughout Europe and the western world. This
same Phœnician alphabet was used by the later Hebrew priests,
prophets, and sages in conveying their immortal messages to the world.
Thus the twelfth century B.C. inaugurated a new and significant era in
the intellectual as well as the political history of mankind.
XII
THE NOMADIC AND EGYPTIAN PERIOD OF HEBREW HISTORY
=The Entrance of the Forefathers of the Hebrews Into Canaan.= The
biblical traditions regarding the beginnings of Hebrew history differ
widely in regard to details, but regarding the great movements they
are in perfect agreement. They all unite in declaring that the
forefathers of the race were nomads and entered Palestine from the
east. The fourteenth chapter of Genesis contains later echoes of a
tradition which connects Abraham, the forefather of the race, with the
far-away glorious age of Hammurabi (Amraphel) who lived about 1900
B.C. Interpreted into historic terms, this narrative implies that the
Hebrews traced back their ancestry to the great movement of nomads
toward Palestine which took place about the beginning of the second
millennium B.C. It was about this time that the earlier non-Semitic
population in Palestine was supplanted by the Semitic races, known to
later generations as the Canaanites. In tracing their ancestry to
these early immigrants, the Hebrews were entirely justified, for the
mixed race, which ultimately occupied central Palestine and was known
as the Israelites, in time completely absorbed the old Amorite and
Canaanite population. The Jacob traditions point to a later movement
of nomadic peoples toward Palestine. In the light of the contemporary
history of Canaan it is exceedingly probable that this is to be
identified with the incoming wave of the Habiri, among whom were
undoubtedly to be found many of the early ancestors of the Hebrews.
These successive waves of nomadic invasion were the inevitable result
of the physical conditions already considered and were a part of that
prolonged mixing of races which has gone on in Palestine through
thousands of years and which contributed much to the virility and
enduring power of the Israelites.
=References to the Israelites During the Egyptian Period.= The
references to the Habiri in the Tell el-Amarna letters and in the
inscriptions found in the mounds in Palestine imply that the majority
of the Habiri either conquered the older Canaanite population or else
coalesced with them and thus found permanent homes in the land. This
infusion of new blood was, in fact, an inevitable consequence of
Egypt's cruel, destructive policy in the treatment of Palestine. Seti
I and Ramses II, of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty, in the record of
their campaigns in Palestine, refer to a state called Asaru or Aseru
in western Galilee. This was the region occupied by the Hebrew tribe
of Asshur and would seem to indicate that by 1300 B.C., half a century
after the invasion of the Habiri, this tribe was already firmly
established in the land of Canaan. Merneptah, the son of Ramses II,
refers to Israel in a connection which leaves no reasonable doubt that
a people bearing this name were to be found in his day in Palestine.
This is the earliest and only reference to Israel thus far found on
the monuments prior to the ninth century B.C. That many if not a
majority of the ancestors of the later Hebrews were already
established in Palestine by the beginning of the thirteenth century
B.C. must now be regarded as a practically established fact.
=The Habiri in Eastern and Central Palestine.= The bounds of Palestine
were narrow and the ancient population numerous. Some of the Habiri
appear to have found homes in the east-Jordan land, where they
gradually acquired the habits of agriculturists and reappear in later
history as the Moabites and Ammonites. Naturally, some of these
invaders retained their flocks and herds and nomadic mode of life.
This was possible because of the peculiar character of Palestine. In
the uplands of the central plateau, and especially in the south, the
traveller still frequently comes upon the flocks and black tents of
the Bedouin. According to the earliest biblical narratives it was here
that certain of the Hebrew tribes remained for a generation or more,
with their flocks and tents, tolerated by the city dwellers who
cultivated the plains even as are the Bedouin by the inhabitants of
Palestine to-day.
=The Trend Toward Egypt.= The Hebrew narratives imply that some of
these tribes lived in the South Country of Judah, beside the great
highways which led to Egypt. The early Egyptian records contain
frequent references to the movements of Semitic nomads from
southwestern Asia toward the Valley of the Nile. In the tomb at
Beni-Hassan there is a picture of thirty-seven Semitic warriors being
received by a local Egyptian ruler. To-day, at certain seasons of the
year, the visitor at Cairo may find encamped on the eastern side of
the city hundreds of Bedouin, who after months of wandering in the
Arabian desert find the banks of the Nile a desired haven of rest. All
the highways from southern, eastern, and northeastern Arabia, as well
as from Palestine, converge at the Wady Tumilat, the natural gateway
of Egypt. When the pressure of population increased in Palestine and
Egyptian rule was re-established, as it was by 1280 B.C., the nomadic
ancestors of the Hebrews sought homes elsewhere. For them a change of
abode to the attractive pasture land along the eastern delta of the
Nile was easy. The biblical narratives state that they also went at
the invitation of their powerful kinsman, Joseph.
=The Land of Goshen.= According to the oldest Hebrew records, the part
of Egypt in which the Hebrews settled was the land of Goshen. The word
has not yet been found on the Egyptian monuments, but there is little
doubt regarding its general situation. In its broadest bounds, it
apparently included the Wady Tumilat, and extended from the Crocodile
Lake, the modern Lake Timsah, to the Pelusiac or the Tanitic branch of
the Nile. It was a narrow strip of land thirty or forty miles long. On
the west, where the Wady Tumilat opened into the Nile Delta, it
broadened into an irregular triangle. Its angles were at the modern
cities of Zigazig, in the northwest, Belbeis in the south, and Abu
Hammâd at the beginning of the valley on the east. By many scholars
this triangle is regarded as the original land of Goshen. Until the
days of Ramses II the entire region, including the Wady Tumilat, was
given up to the shepherds. Here, therefore, the Israelites could keep
their flocks and maintain their tribal unity and practical
independence.
=The Wady Tumilat.= The Wady Tumilat is a low-lying, shallow valley
bounded on either side by the hot, rocky desert. In ancient times it
was dry except when its narrow bed was occasionally flooded by the
inundations of the Nile. On the west it opened into the Nile Delta. At
an early period the Egyptians had established at the eastern part of
the Wady Tumilat a fortress (known as the "Wall of the Prince"), for
it was the most vulnerable spot on all the Egyptian frontier. Amidst
these more favoring conditions on the borders of the Nile Delta it was
inevitable that nomads, possessed of virile physiques, but hitherto
restricted by lack of food and water, would rapidly multiply. The
modern East presents many analogies. The alarm which, according to the
biblical narrative, this increase aroused in the minds of the
Egyptians is in perfect keeping with the fear with which the dwellers
of the Nile always regarded the Bedouin.
=Ramses II's Policy.= The great change in the fortunes of the Hebrews
was in all probability the result of the policy of Ramses II. To carry
out his ambitious building enterprises it was necessary for him to
enlist the services of vast bodies of workmen. Into this service he
naturally pressed the foreigners resident in or on the borders of
Egypt. In order to connect Egypt more closely with its Palestinian
provinces, and above all to develop its resources to the full, this
famous organizer conceived and carried through the plan of converting
the eastern Nile Delta and the Wady Tumilat into tillable land. To
this end he probably repaired and enlarged the canal that had been
constructed as early as the days of the Twelfth Dynasty. It was about
fifteen yards in width and sixteen to seventeen and a half feet in
depth, and ran eastward from the Nile Delta through the Wady Tumilat
into the Crocodile Lake. According to Pliny, it was sixty-three miles
in length. It is paralleled to-day throughout most of its course by
the fresh-water canal, which irrigates this region and supplies the
towns on the Suez Canal with drinking water. The ancient canal was
constructed primarily for navigation, but it was also essential in
reclaiming the land on either side.
=Building the Store-Cities of Ramses and Pithom.= To effect the
transformation of this region, Ramses II built two important cities.
One of them bore his name and became the designation of the
surrounding territory, which was known as the country of Ramses. It
probably stood at the western end of the Wady Tumilat. The other, the
Pithom^{(65)} of the biblical records, has been proved in the light of
modern excavation to have been the ancient P-atum, that is, the House
of the God Atum. This city was situated near the eastern end of the
Wady Tumilat, at the present Tell el-Maskhutah, ten or twelve miles
west of Lake Timsah. This was probably also the site of the older
fortress known as the "Wall of the Prince." Several inscriptions have
been found here containing the name P-atum. In later Egyptian
geographical lists this was also the name of a local province. Here
Naville discovered what appear to have been great store chambers with
walls two or three yards in thickness, made of crude, sun-dried
bricks. These chambers were not connected and the grain was put into
them through openings in the top. Here, apparently, Ramses II gathered
the vast supplies of grain necessary for his Palestinian campaigns,
for these cities were built during the earlier, warlike period of his
reign.
=Condition of the Hebrew Serfs.= In the light of the well-established
facts of Egyptian history and of the geographical background, it is
easy to appreciate the condition of the nomadic Israelites. Their
pasture lands were transformed into cultivated fields and occupied by
Egyptian colonists. The sons of the desert, ever restive under the
restraints of civil authority, were put at forced labor and compelled
to build the border fortresses which made their bondage the more
hopeless. Palestine was in the control of their royal Egyptian
task-master. The wilderness that stretched almost from their doors far
out into the wild, rocky desert, offered the one possible place of
escape; but under the iron rule of Ramses II and his successor,
Merneptah, the escape of large bodies of fugitives was practically
impossible.
=Training of Moses.= The one Hebrew, however, who dared raise his hand
against the oppression of the Pharaoh, succeeded in escaping beyond
the border fortresses and found a home among the nomadic kinsmen of
his race in the rugged mountains that lie between southern Judah and
the Sinaitic peninsula. Here, amidst the dangers and solitudes of the
desert, Moses, the great prophet, leader, and founder of the Hebrew
nation, received his training. Here he learned to trust the Power that
guides the destinies of men and nations, and to despise the boasted
strength of Egypt. In guiding the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law,
through the trackless wilderness filled with wild beasts and hostile
Bedouin, he had also become skilled in leading men.
=The Historical Facts Underlying the Plague Stories.= Moses' work in
leading the Hebrews from Egypt is a familiar chapter in biblical
history. In the break-down of the Egyptian government and in the
period of anarchy which followed the fall of the Nineteenth Dynasty, a
supremely favorable opportunity was offered for the escape of the
serfs. An Egyptian writer states that at this time "the Egyptians had
no chief ruler for many years. The land of Egypt was in the hands of
the nobles and rulers of towns; each slew his neighbor, great and
small." A certain Syrian also proclaimed himself king and made the
entire land tributary to him, plundering the people. To these evils
were added the horrors of foreign invasion. Even under a good
government the sanitary conditions in Egypt are far from satisfactory.
In the time of anarchy and bloodshed the hot valley of the Nile is
ravaged by disease and plagues. The seven plagues described in the
oldest biblical narrative were not miracles, but the natural
catastrophes which, from time to time, have afflicted the land of
Egypt. Most of them are characteristic of the Nile Valley and can only
be fully understood in the light of its physical and climatic
peculiarities. Certain of these plagues also stand in a close casual
relation to each other, as well as to the historical events recorded
by the contemporary Egyptian historians. Foreign invasion and civil
war, with the attendant slaughter, would inevitably lead to the
contamination of the waters of the Nile. Upon this one river depended
the health and life of the inhabitants of Egypt. Unsanitary conditions
and the defilement of the waters would breed frogs and flies. The
flies would in turn spread abroad the germs of the disease which
attacked the flocks. Hail and swarms of locusts are exceedingly rare
in Egypt, but they are not unknown, as careful observers have
attested, and their rarity would make their appearance all the more
impressive. The identification of these remarkable plagues with the
anger of the god or gods was accepted by the Egyptian as well as by
the biblical writers.