desert for many long
years, preparing themselves for the part they were afterwards to play in
the history of mankind. But from the moment of their departure from
Egypt their goal had been Canaan. They were not mere Bedawin; they
belonged to that portion of the Semitic race which had made settlements
and founded kingdoms in Moab and Ammon and Edom, and their residence in
the cultured land of the Nile had made it impossible for them ever to
degenerate into the lawless robbers of the wilderness. They were settled
Bedawin, not Bedawin proper; not Bedawin by blood and descent, but
Semites who had adopted the wandering and pastoral habits of the Bedawin
tribes. They were like their brethren of Edom, who, though they came to
Egypt seeking pasturage for their cattle, had nevertheless founded at
home an elective monarchy. The true Bedawin of the Old Testament are the
Amalekites, and between the Israelite and the Amalekite there was the
difference that there is between the peasant and the gypsy. The fact is
important, and the forgetfulness of it has led more than one historian
astray.

The first attempt to invade Canaan failed. It was made from the south,
from the shelter of the block of mountains within which stood the
sanctuary of Kadesh-barnea. The Israelitish forces were disastrously
defeated at Zephath, the Hormah of later days, and the invasion of the
Promised Land was postponed. The desert life had still to continue for a
while. In the fastness of 'Ain Qadis the forces of Israel grew and
matured, and a long series of legislative enactments organised it into a
homogeneous whole. At length the time came when the Israelites felt
strong enough once more to face an enemy and to win by the sword a
country of their own. It was from the east that they made their second
attack. Aaron the high-priest was dead, but his brother Moses was still
their leader. The Edomites refused them a passage along the high-road of
trade which led northward from the Gulf of Aqaba; skirting Edom
accordingly, they marched through a waterless desert to the green wadis
of Moab, and there pitched their camp. The Amorite kingdoms of Sihon and
Og fell before their assault. The northern part of Moab, which Sihon had
conquered, was occupied by the invaders, and the plateau of Bashan, over
which Og had ruled, fell into Israelitish hands. The invaders now
prepared to cross the Jordan and advance into the highlands of Canaan.
Moses died on the summit of a Moabit