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In the desert also Jehovah had taken care of his people; he had not allowed them to perish there; he had sent quails and given them manna. Even now long lines of quails pass over the Syrian steppes and the wilderness of Sinai, and in the neighbourhood of Firan, manna, i.e. the juice running from the branches and leaves of the tamarisk, is still gathered.⁶⁵⁵ Nor had Jehovah allowed water to fail in the midst of the desert. Moses changed a bitter spring into sweet water. The story rests, no doubt, on the name of the spring. Marah means bitter. At another spring of the name of Meribah, i. e. strife (here Jehovah bade the rocks give water), the rebellion of Moses and Aaron is said to have taken place. The well of Beer, which the princes dug, cannot be any other than the well of Beer Elim, i. e. the well of the strong,⁶⁵⁶ and the song which tradition connects with this place (p. 473) is certainly very old, if not contemporary.

The law made known to Moses on Sinai forms the main portion of the second, third, and fourth books of the Pentateuch. It not only contains the fundamental moral rules, the ordinances of the law of family and blood-feud, and the rubrics for the national worship; it is rather a law for the priesthood, given in systematic detail, which fixes their position, rights, and honours, the dress of their office, and the fees for the sacrifice – a wide collection of regulations for the ritual of sacrifice, descending into the smallest minutiæ, the place of worship, the instruments of sacrifice, the celebration of festivals, and the arrangement of life in the future dwellings of the tribes. Could tribes wandering in the desert have made rules for the celebration of the festivals of sowing, of harvest, and of the vintage? Could they have settled what part of the produce of the field should be given to the priests, and how they should deal with the fallow time of the seventh year of rest, and the reversion of the alienated land in the year of Jubilee? Could dwellers in tents make regulations about receiving the stranger in their gates, about cities of refuge and cities of the Levites? And even if this had really taken place, how are we to explain the fact that whole groups of arrangements for worship and life which these laws prescribe were demonstrably not in existence among the Hebrews in the centuries following their wandering? Laws are never created except in connection with definite circumstances; no lawgiver can anticipate the relations which the future will bring into existence, and answer, à priori, the questions which will then arise.

It is therefore beyond doubt that views and tendencies of later development and the results of a long course of growth have been transferred to early times, the times of the exodus from Egypt. Those early days had been an era of original piety, and the time of the exodus had been a period in which the God of the fathers had guided and led them with a mighty hand, in which he had announced to them his will directly and without deception. The condition of religious service and life, therefore, which was held to be the true and proper kind must have been prescribed in those early days and have existed then; the ideal after which men were to strive, and in the pursuit of which every hindrance was to be removed, must have already existed in those days of direct divine guidance. Thus ordinances and usages which arose successively after the settlement in Canaan, were amalgamated with older customs and rules, and united into one system, which seemed to the priests the necessary system, appointed by God and pleasing to him. The position which the first text ascribes to Aaron, and which the laws attached to that text, give to the priests and Levites the prominence of a centralised, rich, and even splendid ritual, and of a single place for the worship of Jehovah, display the tendency which was active in the priesthood, to concentrate the worship of Jehovah on a single spot, and to obtain power in the state for the chief priests. The gorgeous tabernacle erected near Mount Sinai with the portable altars for burnt sacrifice and incense, the implements of sacrifice and the candlestick of seven branches, can only have been taken from the tabernacle erected by David, and afterwards from the temple of Solomon and its glory, the sacred pattern of which ought to be recognised in the movable sanctuary already erected by Moses on Mount Sinai. At the same time the rich adornment of this pattern by the voluntary offerings of the Israelites proved how ready the nation was at that time to honour their God and dedicate their property to him. For these descriptions there was a historical foundation in the fact that the Israelites had carried their national sanctuary, the sacred ark, the Ark of the Covenant, into the desert, that it had been placed under a movable tent, and before the tent the heads of the tribes and the nation had gathered for sacrifice and counsel. In the position of Aaron and his family we have a pattern which brings clearly into light the attributes and advantages, the rights and honours, which belonged to the chief priests and priests in contrast to the Levites or servants of the temple. The fearful punishments which awaited offences against ritual and neglect of the priestly rules were strongly marked. Even two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, die because they approach Jehovah with unconsecrated fire; and when the Levite Korah, and Dathan and Abiram of the tribe of Reuben, rebel against Moses and Aaron, they were swallowed up by the earth, and Jehovah smites the people who follow them.⁶⁵⁷ It is the ideal picture of the priesthood, and arrangement of the Church, which those laws exhibit, and transfer to that mighty time when Jehovah spoke to the Israelites through Moses.

The intention of the Israelites in the exodus from Egypt could not at first go further than the attempt to escape from the dominion of Egypt, and resume the old free life in the desert. That the line of march at first attempted to pass along the western shore of the reed-sea, and reach the south of the peninsula of Sinai, in order to get as far as possible from Egypt, place the whole length of the protecting arm of the sea between the emigrants and Egypt, and reach the pasture lands of the apparently friendly Midianites, corresponds to the situation. Nor can it in any way surprise us that the Amalekites, as the Ephraimitic text states, opposed the Hebrews, i. e. contested the possession of the pasture-lands and oases of the wildernesses of Shur and Paran, with the new-comers. The Israelites obtained the victory. So they arrived at Sinai, the sacred mountain of the wilderness of Sin. Between the two bays with which the sea encloses this peninsula, that mountain rises, a naked granite ridge, with five steep peaks, united into a mighty crown, above the plateau of sandstone which occupies the whole peninsula. The height is 8,000 feet, and the wild and rugged mass overlooks in sublime solitude the broad and desert flats in the north, and the waves of the sea in the south. The beautiful oasis at the foot of the mountain (Wadi Firan) affords nourishment for a large number of men and beasts.⁶⁵⁸ On the old and sacred mountain the Israelites might believe that they approached nearer to their deity; that here thanksgiving and sacrifice for their happy deliverance could best be offered to him. Then the Israelites would pasture their flocks on the slopes and glades of the peninsula. But they may have found but scanty food beside the flocks of the Midianites, and the security from Egypt would be greater, if they removed to a greater distance from that country. On the southern borders of Canaan, at Kadesh and Hormah, they sought better pastures. Yet they were driven back, and pursued as far as Hormah. After this misadventure, the Israelites, according to the Ephraimitic text, besought the king of Edom to allow them a peaceful passage through Edom, "on the road of the king, they would not turn either to the right or the left." Hence the defeat must have been a serious one.⁶⁵⁹ The object of this march through Edom can only have been to find new pasture-lands in the Syrian steppes beyond Mount Seir on the east. The wide extent of the Syrian desert would certainly supply sufficient pastures, and the distance from the Nile was a good protection from Egypt. As the Edomites refused the demand, and showed themselves prepared to resist the march by force of arms, the Israelites did not venture to give battle; they preferred to retire to the south, and make a long circuit round the territory of the Edomites, by marching through the whole length of the valley of Arabah southward to Elath, as far as the north-east point of the reed-sea. From this point they passed to the other side of Mount Seir, past Punon and Oboth, towards the Arnon, which falls into the Dead Sea. If they could at first maintain themselves on the east, in the desert, the uplands on the left bank of the Jordan were far better than the steppes of the desert. The arms of the Israelites were here more fortunate than on the other side of the Dead Sea. The Amorites of Heshbon, eastward of the Dead Sea, were defeated at Jahaz, and their cities taken. The song which celebrates this victory (p. 473) is old, and above suspicion. From this point, out of the newly-conquered land, from the top of Pisgah – a mountain near Heshbon – Moses is said to have seen the promised land. A second victory over the Amorites lying to the north beyond the Jabbok, the people of Edrei and Ashtaroth Karnaim, opened ample pasture-lands to the Israelites, and also some well-watered valleys on the wide plateau to the east of the Jordan. Their territory now reached from the Arnon northwards to the Jarmuk. Here the nation remained; the greater part tended their flocks as hitherto, the lesser part applied themselves to agriculture in exceptionally fruitful valleys.

Though a peaceful race of shepherds and unused to arms, the Hebrews had bidden defiance to the strong arm of Pharaoh; with bold resolution they had successfully delivered themselves from a cruel slavery; and had preserved their freedom, their national character, and their religion. Beyond the borders of Egypt and the reed-sea, the lively perception of their liberation, and the recovery of their ancient mode of life, and of the visible protection of their God, must have aroused a mighty impulse, especially in their great leader. It was a moment of great elevation. Together with the valley of the Nile, they had left behind the gods of Egypt; and they returned to the worship of their old deity with strengthened and deepened feelings. Thus on Sinai Moses could inculcate the exclusive worship of Jehovah – a worship without images – and the consecration of the seventh day.⁶⁶⁰ These were commands consciously and diametrically opposed to the multitude of Egyptian gods, the variety of their forms and modes of worship, and the times of their festivals. In connection with these commands, and the customs of sacrifice in use among the Israelites, regulations were given for purification, and rules, telling how to proceed at the erection of altars, at purifications and expiations, at burnt-offerings, thank-offerings, and offerings of corn and meal; rules which were preserved and developed in the family of Aaron.⁶⁶¹ Even for the establishment of this ritual the contrast to the Egyptian was not without influence. This contrast was in fact so strong that what was best in the Egyptian religion – the belief in the existence of the soul after death, and in its awaking from death to a new life, was not adopted by the Israelites. Of the care shown to the corpses of the dead in Egypt, we find no trace.

We saw what a long series of moral rules were set up in Egypt. For his people Moses collected the foundations of moral and religious law into a simpler, purer, deeper, and more earnest form, in the Ten Commandments.⁶⁶² In connecting the moral law with the worship of Jehovah, its inseparable foundation, and setting it up with passionate earnestness as the immediate command of the God of Israel, Moses imparted to his people that character of religious earnestness, and ethical struggling, which distinguishes their history from that of every other nation. With the decalogue were connected the regulations for peace in the nation, the law of the family, and the avenging of blood. One who curses father or mother must be put to death. One who strikes father or mother must be put to death. One who strikes a man so that he dies must be put to death. One who has slain a man without intention, by misadventure, must flee to the altar. But if anyone sins against another so as to slay him by craft, thou shalt take him from the altar that he may die. If men strive with one another, and one is injured, thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, foot for foot, burn for burn, bruise for bruise. If any man strike his man-servant or his maid-servant with his staff, and they die under his hand, vengeance must be taken. If thou buyest a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go free. The long service in Egypt was still held in lively remembrance.⁶⁶³

Just as the ordinances of Moses for religious worship again brought into prominence the ancient customs of the Hebrews, purified and developed them, so his regulations for peace, for revenge, and expiation, for injury to the person, and theft, were connected with ancient customs of the children of Jacob, which could hardly have been entirely forgotten in Egypt. As Moses attached his law to the old customs, permeating them with the depth of his own ethical point of view, a certain stock of sayings must have been formed, which were preserved and further developed by the decisions of the heads of the tribes, the leaders of families, and the elders and the priests. The code in Exodus is taken from an old document, though apparently first inserted by the revision.⁶⁶⁴

The Israelites had risen from a tribe into a nation, which stood in need of organisation when it was no longer under Egyptian dominion. This arrangement must be founded upon the connection of families and races, on respect for the tie of blood, and reverence for age. No other political division was known but community of family and descent. Affinities and races were in existence which carried back their origin to one patriarch, they followed the head of the oldest family, from whom the rest were derived, or thought that they were derived, and usually obeyed his decision. Some of these races carried their pedigree back to Jacob and his sons. After the pattern of these connections, and by adopting and adding to them, the whole nation was brought into ties of relationship. Strangers and families without a name must have here been in part allotted to the affinities already in existence, and partly formed into new corporations, and new affinities, so that in the total there were some seventy groups of families. Those derived from the old stocks, who carried their origin back to the same son of Jacob, formed together a large community, or tribe, and were accustomed to obey the nearest descendant of the patriarch, the son of his oldest son, from first-born to first-born, and thus the head of the oldest family in the whole community, as their tribal prince and leader by birth. In the same manner, also, the new groups of families became amalgamated into tribes, and older families were put at their head as chiefs of the tribe, in such a manner that from three to ten groups of families formed a tribe.⁶⁶⁵ Thus twelve tribes were formed. Even the nations most closely allied to the Hebrews, the Nahorites, and Ishmaelites, were divided into twelve tribes; the Edomites were apparently divided into sixteen. The tribes already in existence were derived from definite progenitors, the sons of Jacob; and also for the new tribes one of the sons of Jacob, the number of whom has thus been fixed, was allotted as a patriarch. Reuben, Simeon, and Judah, were Jacob's eldest sons, borne by Leah his first wife in lawful marriage. From these three the oldest groups were derived. With the tribes of Issachar and Zebulon families were connected, whose antiquity did not go so far back, and thus Issachar and Zebulon were held to be younger sons of Jacob by the same wife. The tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, were not considered equally pure; perhaps because additional families had been incorporated in them: hence, as we saw, their progenitors are said to be the sons of Jacob by his handmaids. The tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, are marked as of later origin by the fact that they are carried back to Jacob and Rachel; and if Joseph begot his sons Ephraim and Manasseh with the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis, this leads to the conclusion that the families incorporated into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh had grown up in Egypt, and had Egyptian blood in their veins. But Ephraim was at the same time the strongest tribe, which in numbers and bravery outstripped the rest, and the later origin is compensated by the importance of Rachel and Joseph. The Egyptian element which Ephraim and Manasseh introduced among the Hebrews cannot have been of any importance, for neither the language nor the ideas of the Hebrews incorporated elements from Egypt. Only a few external touches in the dress of the priests can be carried back with certainty to Egyptian influence. Of the two sons of Joseph, Manasseh is the elder, Ephraim the younger. Hence the groups of families incorporated into the first, must have been considered the older, or the tribe of Manasseh must at one time have had precedence of Ephraim, which may have been the case about the time of Gideon.

If in the place of Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob, two grandsons are adopted into the number of the patriarchs, room is made by excluding Levi, a son of Jacob's first marriage, from the series of the tribes. Tradition places him among the oldest sons, between Simeon and Judah. But the tribes deduced from this ancestor won no territory like the rest: they were scattered among the other tribes. We may assume that the priestly families, who from antiquity had discharged the sacred duty at the main seats of worship, the race of Kohath (to which belonged the sons of Aaron), with the priestly families of the other altars (the races of Gershom and Merari), and the families of the temple-servants connected with them, were not combined into a tribe till a late period. The name "Levi" may mean "bound," i. e. bound to a shrine, and hence a temple-servant. The separation of this tribe from the rest, and its dedication to the sacred service, is brought forward with great emphasis in the first text, which was composed from the point of view of the priests. Jehovah takes the Levites in the place of the first-born of Israel, and this same text allots to the Levites forty-eight cities of Canaan which they never possessed, and never inhabited either exclusively or in preponderant numbers.⁶⁶⁶ But while in this text the adoption of the Levites by Jehovah, and their "possession of the sacrifice" in the place of a territory, is regarded and extolled as a privilege of this tribe, we found above (p. 439) that an old poem spoke of the "division of the Levites in Jacob and their scattering in Israel" as the punishment of the sin which their progenitor had once committed. Hence we must assume that the groups of races, to which the foremost families of the priests belonged, once formed a connected tribe like the rest, and the breaking up of this tribe was brought about after the settlement in Canaan by causes unknown to us.

CHAPTER XI.
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.