and organization, so as more
successfully to contend with the people they were commanded to expel from
Canaan. In this wilderness they had few enemies, and some friends, and
these were wandering Arab tribes.

(M105) We can not point out all the details of the wanderings under the
leadership of Moses, guided by the pillar of fire and the cloud. After
forty years, they reached the broad valley which runs from the eastern
gulf of the Red Sea, along the foot of Mount Seir, to the valley of the
Dead Sea. Diverted from a direct entrance into Canaan by hostile Edomites,
they marched to the hilly country to the east of Jordan, inhabited by the
Amorites. In a conflict with this nation, they gained possession of their
whole territory, from Mount Hermon to the river Anton, which runs into the
Dead Sea. The hills south of this river were inhabited by pastoral
Moabites--descendants of Lot, and beyond them to the Great Desert were the
Ammonites, also descendants of Lot. That nation formed an alliance with
the Midianites, hoping to expel the invaders then encamped on the plains
of Moab. Here Moses delivered his farewell instructions, appointed his
successor, and passed away on Mount Pisgah, from which he could see the
promised land, but which he was not permitted to conquer. That task was
reserved for Joshua, but the complete conquest of the Canaanites did not
take place till the reign of David.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF DAVID.

The only survivors of the generation that had escaped from Egypt were
Caleb and Joshua. All the rest had offended God by murmurings, rebellion,
idolatries, and sundry offenses, by which they were not deemed worthy to
enter the promised land. Even Moses and Aaron had sinned against the Lord.

(M106) So after forty years' wanderings, and the children of Israel were
encamped on the plains of Moab, Moses finally addressed them, forbidding
all intercourse with Jews with other nations, enjoining obedience to God,
requiring the utter extirpation of idolatry, and rehearsing in general,
the laws which he had previously given them, and which form the substance
of the Jewish code, all of which he also committed to writing, and then
ascended to the top of Pisgah, over against Jericho, from which he
surveyed, all the land of Judah and Napthali, and Manasseh and Gilead unto
Dan--the greater part of the land promised unto Abraham.