o bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey,
to the place of the Canaanites.... Come now therefore and I will send
thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children
of Israel, out of Egypt."[41] The Israelites under the guidance of
Moses fled from Egypt (the Exodus); they journeyed to the foot of
Mount Sinai, where they received the law of God, and for an entire
generation wandered in the deserts to the south of Syria.

=Israel in the Desert.=--Often the Israelites wished to turn back. "We
remember," said they, "the fish which we ate in Egypt, the cucumbers,
melons, leeks, and onions. Let us appoint a chief who will lead us
back to Egypt." Moses, however, held them to obedience. At last they
reached the land promised by God to their race.

=The Promised Land.=--It was called the land of Canaan or Palestine;
the Jews named it the land of Israel, later Judea. Christians have
termed it =the= Holy Land. It is an arid country, burning with heat in
the summer, but a country of mountains. The Bible describes it thus:
"Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of
water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a
land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and
pomegranates; a land of oil olive and honey, wherein thou shalt eat
bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it." The
Israelites according to their estimate were then 601,700 men capable
of bearing arms, divided among twelve tribes, ten descended from
Jacob, two from Joseph; this enumeration does not include the Levites
or priests to the number of 23,000. The land was occupied by several
small peoples who were called Canaanites. The Israelites exterminated
them and at last occupied their territory.

THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL

=One God.=--The other ancient peoples adored many gods; the Israelites
believed in but one God, immaterial, who made the world and governs
it. "In the beginning," says the book of Genesis, "God created the
heavens and the earth." He created plants and animals, he "created man
in his own image." All men are the handiwork of God.

=The People of God.=--But among all mankind God has chosen the
children of Israel to make of them "his people." He called Abraham and
said to him, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy
seed after me ... to be a God unto thee and to thy seed." He appeared
to Jacob: "I am God," said he to him, "the God of thy