II. ISRAEL AND THE CANAANITES

The Israelites having made this successful inroad into the land of Canaan, divided it amongst the Tribes. But the Canaanites, though panic-struck at their first approach, soon began to take heart, and the covetous policy of Israel (a policy which dictated attention to present pecuniary profits, no matter at what eventual cost to the great moral interests of the Commonwealth) had satisfied itself with making them tributaries, contrary to the command of God, that they should be driven out [Exod. 23:31.] ; and, accordingly, they were suffered, as it was promised, to become thorns in Israel’s side, always vexing, often resisting, and sometimes oppressing them for many years together. Meanwhile the Tribe of Dan had its lot cast near the Amorites. It struggled to work out for itself a settlement; but its fierce and warlike neighbours drove in its outposts, and succeeded in confining it to the mountains [Judges 1:34.] . The children of Dan became straitened in their borders, and, unable to extend them at home, “they sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, to spy out the land and to search it.” So these five men departed, and, directing their steps northwards, to the nearest parts of the country which held out any prospect to settlers, “they came,” we are told, “to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure, and there was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.” [Judges 18:7.] Thus the circumstances of the place and the people were tempting to the views of the strangers. They return to their brethren, and advise an attempt upon the town. Accordingly, they march against it, take it, and, rebuilding the city, which was destroyed in the assault, change its name from Laish to Dan, and colonise it. From this it should appear that Laish, though far from Sidon, was in early times a town belonging to Sidon, and probably inhabited by Sidonians, for it was after their manner that the people lived.

Such is the information furnished us in the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Judges.

I now turn to the third chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, and I there find the following passage: “We took at that time,” says Moses, “out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto Mount Hermon—which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Shenir.” [Deut. 3:8, 9.] But why this mention of the Sidonian name of this famous mountain? It was not near to Sidon—it does not appear to have belonged to Sidon, but to the king of Bashan [Josh. 12:4, 5.] . The reason, though not obvious, is nevertheless discoverable, and a very curious geographical coincidence it affords between the former passage in Judges and this in Deuteronomy.

For Hermon, we know, was close to Cæsarea Philippi. But Cæsarea Philippi, we are again informed, was the modern name of Paneas, the seat of Jordan’s flood: and Paneas, we further learn, was the same as the still more ancient Dan or Laish [“Dan Phœnices oppidum, quod nunc Paneas dicitur. Dan autem unus e fontibus est Jordanis.”—Hieronym, in Quæstionibus in Genesin i.p. 382. It was also Cæsarea Philippi.—Euseb. Eccl. Hist. vii. c. xvii. ‘The Hierusalem Targum, Num. 35. writes thus, “The mountain of Snow at Cæsarea (Philippi)—this was Hermon.” ’—Lightfoot, Vol. ii. p. 62, fol. See also Psalm 42:8.] . Now Laish, we have seen, was probably at first a settlement of the Sidonians, after whose manner the people of Laish lived. Accordingly, it appears,—but how distant and unconnected are the passages from which such a conclusion is drawn!—that although this Hermon was far from Sidon itself, still at its foot there was dwelling a Sidonian colony, a race speaking the Sidonian language; and, therefore, nothing could be more natural than that the mountain which overhung the town should have a Sidonian name, by which it was commonly known in those parts, and that this should suggest itself, as well as its Hebrew name, to Moses.