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Chapter Four - The Rise And Fall Of Israel

A Phoenician Warship

A. The Early Hebrews, The Philistines And The Phoenicians

From what we have just been reading, we gather that between the years 1200 and 1150 B.C. the Hittite

Empire vanished, and the Egyptian Empire, though it escaped disaster, had exhausted itself. We also find

that during this period the long Kassite rule at Babylon (p. 48) came to an end and was followed by

anarchy, while what was left of Cretan civilisation after the disaster of 1400 (p. 58) died out completely.

We might therefore expect that the smaller nations that lay between the old empires should rise into

greater prominence during this period. And that is just what happened.

First of all let us talk about the Hebrews. You probably know something of their early history already

from your reading of the Old Testament. You remember how Abraham left Ur, a Sumerian city (p. 42),

and crossed the desert to the land of Canaan, which later came to be known as Palestine.

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Chapter Four - The Rise And Fall Of Israel

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Chapter Four - The Rise And Fall Of Israel

Map - Syria and Palestine

He and his descendants prospered there and their flocks and herds multiplied, for the ancestors of the

Hebrews were wandering shepherds. From time to time they visited Egypt, and in the story of Joseph we

read how one of them rose to a high position there. Then we next hear that the Hebrews or Israelites were

slaves in Egypt and how Moses won their freedom, gave them a sacred code of laws and led them across

the Sinai peninsula back to the land of Canaan which God had promised Abraham that his descendants

should occupy. Moses died just before they entered the land, but they found a new leader in Joshua.

Round the south end of the Dead Sea they went, and up the east shore so that they had to cross the Jordan

to enter Palestine. Then they attacked and conquered first Jericho, and later other cities.

The Bible story tells us in a simple and dramatic fashion what was probably a very long and complicated

business. It is a strange thing that no Egyptian records tell us anything of these events. We know that an

Egyptian governor of Syria complained to Pharaoh of the raids of "the Habiru," but it is very doubtful

whether these were the same as the Hebrews. Other Semitic tribes from the desert were constantly trying

to establish themselves in Palestine and Syria, but they never got beyond the eastern fringe. The Israelites

reached the heart of the land, but their position for a long time was insecure. First the previous

inhabitants of Canaan in their walled cities resisted stubbornly for a long time. Then the envious Semites

who had been stopped on the eastern boundaries, the Edomites, Moabites, Midianites and others, made

serious raids. To the north-east of the Israelites there grew up later the rival city-kingdoms of Syria, the

strongest of which was Damascus. To the north the Phoenicians occupied the two best ports, Tyre and

Sidon, and were building up a trading empire. On the south-west they were shut off from the sea again by

the Philistines (p. 74) in their city strongholds.

Against the latter there was a bitter and, for long, unsuccessful struggle. Out of it rose the earliest kings

of the Israelites, first Saul, and then his bold and clever captain and son-in-law, David, who began to

reign about 1000 B.C. Under David and his son Solomon, the Hebrew kingdom enjoyed its short spell of

power and prosperity. It included two distinct districts, the southern, more mountainous and poorer half,

inhabited mainly by shepherds, and the more prosperous northern area, in which there were more cities,

which shared the civilisation of their neighbours, and too often their religion also.

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Chapter Four - The Rise And Fall Of Israel

Phoenician Ivory Comb

But the Hebrews, in spite of their numerous backslidings, were developing a new idea of God. Even

when He was looked upon simply as the jealous tribal God of the Hebrews, He was their One and Only

God, and an invisible spirit who had no images, a great advance this upon any previous religions. The

southern and more lonely area, where life was simpler, tended to hold purer religious ideas. The north

was inclined to be more tolerant of its neighbours' gods.

But David and Solomon welded the two provinces for a time into unity, and David selected the

stronghold of the Jebusites, a defeated tribe, to be the capital, Jerusalem. In it his son built the first

permanent temple to the invisible God, Jehovah, from the proceeds of a prosperity which resulted from a

united kingdom, some sort of control over the Syrians, friendship with Egypt and a close alliance with

Phoenicia. The Phoenicians were finding their way right across to the other end of the Mediterranean and

even into the Atlantic, the Cretans and the Egyptians being no longer able to check them.

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Chapter Four - The Rise And Fall Of Israel

War-standard of the Assyrians.

They were bringing the products and arts of the East to the backward West, and though they thought

simply of profits, they were spreading civilisation. Possibly the Phoenicians also wanted to link up with

sea traffic from the Far East via the Red Sea, and it would therefore be to their interest to keep on good

terms with the well-organised realm of the Hebrews, which lay across the route to the south. But the

glory of Solomon, such as it was, was a short-lived thing of no great importance. His temple, judging by

the measurements given in the Old Testament, was a small chapel compared with the mighty edifices of

Thebes and Babylon. Solomon himself was not faithful to the God whose temple he built. On his death

the kingdom split up into two hostile realms, the southern, known as Judah, keeping Jerusalem as its

capital, while the north came to be known as Israel, with a capital at Samaria. They were both trodden

underfoot in turn by two strong empires which were growing up to the east. It was the religious ideas

which the Jews developed in suffering and exile which give them their important place in History. We

shall deal with these in due course.

Exercises

1. Why are there no ancient Hebrew monuments or inscriptions?

2. What incidents can you remember in the Old Testament connected with the struggles of the Hebrews

against (a) the cities of Canaan (b) the Philistines, (c) the Semite tribes across the Jordan (e) the Syrians?

B. Assyria, New Babylon, And The Fall Of Jerusalem

By far the strongest of the states that rose to prominence when the old empires declined was Assyria, a

name that roused terror and hatred among all surrounding nations in the days of its might. It had grown

up from the city of Ashur, high up the Tigris. It was founded about 3000 B.C., and copied the civilisation

of the Sumerian cities. For centuries the Assyrians were subject, first to Babylon then to the Hittites. But

steadily they improved their armies till they were strong enough to drive the Hittites from the Tigris and

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