The History of Antiquity (Vol. 1-6). Duncker Max

      CHAPTER XI.

      THE HEBREW INVASION OF CANAAN.

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      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