they [the Hebrew chroniclers] were pleased to imagine.
They did not gain possession of the land all at once, but established
themselves in it gradually by detachments, some settling at the fords
of Jericho,** others more to the north, and in the central valley of the
Jordan as far up as She-chem.***

* The lot given to each tribe is described in Josh, xiii.-
xxi. It has been maintained by some critics that there is a
double role assigned to one and the same person, only that
some maintain that the Jabin of Josh. xi. has been
transferred to the time of the Judges, while others make out
that the Jabin of Deborah was carried back to the time of
the conquest.

** Renan thinks that the principal crossing must have taken
place opposite Jericho, as is apparent from the account in
Josh, ii., iii.

*** Carl Niebuhr believes that he has discovered the exact
spot at the ford of Admah, near Succoth.

[Illustration: 265.jpg ONE OF THE WELLS OF BEERSHEBA]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lortet.

The latter at once came into contact with a population having a
higher civilization than themselves, and well equipped for a vigorous
resistance; the walled towns which had defied the veterans of the
Pharaohs had not much to fear from the bands of undisciplined Israelites
wandering in their neighbourhood. Properly speaking, there were no
pitched battles between them, but rather a succession of raids or
skirmishes, in which several citadels would successively fall into the
hands of the invaders. Many of these strongholds, harassed by repeated
attacks, would prefer to come to terms with the enemy, and would cede or
sell them some portion of their territory; others would open their gates
freely to the strangers, and their inhabitants would ally themselves by
intermarriage with the Hebrews. Judah and the remaining descendants of
Simeon and Levi established themselves in the south; Levi comprised but
a small number of families, and made no important settlements; whereas
Judah took possession of nearly the whole of the mountain district
separating the Shephelah from the western shores of the Dead Sea, while
Simeon made its abode close by on the borders of the desert around the
wells of Beersheba.*

* Wellhausen has remarked that the lot of Levi must not be
separated from that of Simeon, and, as the remnant of Simeon
allied themselves with Judah, that of