one only survived, and only by the accession of foreign elements did the tribe regain its vigour,—­by the fresh blood which the Kenites of the Negeb brought.  For Zarah and Pharez, which took the place of Er and Onan after these had disappeared, belonged originally, not to Israel, but to Hezron or the Kenites; under this designation are included families like those of Othniel, Jerachmeel, and Caleb, and, as has been already remarked, even in David’s time these were not reckoned as strictly belonging to Judah.  Thus the depletion which the tribe had to suffer in the struggle with the Canaanites at the beginning of the period of the judges was the remote cause of the prominence which, according to 1Chronicles ii., the Bne Hezron afterwards attained in Judah.  The survivors of Simeon also appear to have been forced back upon these Hezronites in the Negeb; the cities assigned to them in the Book of Joshua all belong to that region. *******

Even after the united resistance of the Canaanites had been broken, each individual community had still enough to do before it could take firm hold of the spot which it had searched out for itself or to which it had been assigned.  The business of effecting permanent settlement was just a continuation of the former struggle, only on a diminished scale; every tribe and every family now fought for its own land after the preliminary work had been accomplished by a united effort.  Naturally, therefore, the conquest was at first but an incomplete one.  The plain which fringed the coast was hardly touched; so also the valley of Jezreel with its girdle of fortified cities stretching from Acco to Bethshean.  All that was subdued in the strict sense of that word was the mountainous land, particularly the southern hill country of “Mount Ephraim;” yet, even here the Canaanites retained possession of not a few cities, such as Jebus, Shechem, Thebez.  It was only after the lapse of centuries that all the lacunae were filled up, and the Canaanite enclaves made tributary.

The Israelites had the extraordinarily disintegrated state of the enemy to thank for the ease with which they had achieved success.  The first storm subsided comparatively soon, and conquerors and conquered alike learned to accommodate themselves to the new circumstances.  Then the Canaanites once more collected all their energies to strike a blow for freedom.  Under the hegemony of Sisera a great league was formed, and the plain of Jezreel became the centre of the reorganised power which made itself felt by its attacks both northwards and southwards.  The Israelites were strangely helpless; it was as if neither shield nor spear could be found among their 40,000 fighting men.  But at last there came an impulse from above, and brought life and soul to the unorganised mass; Deborah sent out the summons to the tribes, Barak came forward as their leader against the kings of Canaan who had assembled under Sisera’s command by the brook of Kishon.  The cavalry of the enemy was unable to withstand the impetuous rush of the army of Jehovah, and Sisera himself perished in the flight.  From that day the Canaanites, although many strong towns continued to be held by them, never again raised their heads.