Page 359 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

- ✓ -i----wits pleasant
and courteous enough in speech, but behind his words could
always be sensed an inflexible purpose. Everything he said and
did appeared to have one single aim, to persuade his fraternity

of tribes of their own corporate identity, of their difference—as

much in quality as in race—from all the peoples around, and of
their destiny to carve out for themselves a kingdom in the agri­

cultural lands to the north. The Canaanite visitors found this
calm assumption that the Israelis were a master race, destined

to rule over lesser peoples (among whom they were themselves
included), an ominous sign. For there was no doubt that the

children of Israel were a force to be reckoned with.

Still, the years passed without serious disturbances on the
southern frontier. Not until the generation that we are follow­

ing had passed the age of fifty, with grown sons who had taken

over the more active side of the family firms, did the first signs
come that the Israelis were on the move. The news arrived from

the other side of Jordan, beyond the Amorites of the mountains
and the easternmost Canaanites who possessed farmlands along

the river.
Beyond the coastal plain inland from Ascalon rose the white

limestone mountains of the hill country, green with olives and

with vines. Scattered among these mountains were the small
walled cities of the Amorite princes, each controlling and protect­

ing its surrounding farmlands and villages. Farther to the east the

land fell steeply below sea level, descending by precipitous
gorges of brown sandstone to the sweltering plain of Jordan, with

its well-watered gardens, and to the deep blue waters of the Dead
Sea. The cities and villages lying on the edge of this escarpment,

to the east of the venerable city of Jerusalem, saw, in the
course of two or three weeks, column after column of black smoke

rising on the other side of Jordan, the easily recognizable smoke

of burning towns. And as the refugees began to come in, it be­
came possible to piece together what had happened.

The Israelites had appeared in force from the southeast, in a
full-scale migration, bringing with them their women and chil-