lated 'dead'] know not anything; neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten."

But while it is plain that no doctrine of immortality in the modern sense was cherished in Israel, it is equally clear that the Israelites, in common with other primitive people, had some positive, as well as negative, ideas about the ghost world. The references to the underworld, quoted above, do not imply the idea that the "refaim," or shades, were thought to be absolutely dead, like stocks. and stones. They were thought to lead a shadowy, colorless existence, deprived of all that makes life worth living. It was believed that they could be called back for a few minutes by spiritual mediums, or necromancers. The story of king Saul consulting the witch of Endor, found in 1 Samuel 28, illustrates this:

"Said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night and he said, Divine unto me, I pray thee, by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto thee Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice. And the woman said unto Saul, I see a god coming up out of the earth.* And he said unto her, What

.

*This is probably reminiscent of the fact that the gods were developed originally from the heroic dead. The same term is applied to the mighty dead, to the divinities worshiped by the living, and also to living great men like judges, as in Exodus 21: 6 and 22: 8. In these Exodus passages the seventeenth century English version translates the Hebrew word "elohim" by the term "judges," without explanation. The Revised Version, however, in both cases, translates the term with the word "God," and places the word "judges" in the margin. Compare Psalm 82:1, where the old version translates the word "elohim" with

form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a robe. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?"

Of course, we do not necessarily have to take this account as wholly, or even partly, historical in order to use it for the illustration of our point. Many of these Bible stories are no truer in the literal sense than corresponding tales among the Greeks, Romans, and Indians. The story may have grown out of an actual interview between king Saul and a witch, or it may have been a myth originating after the death of Saul. In either case it illustrates the primitive idea that the shades are not wholly devoid of life. To the same effect is the reference in 2 Kings 21:6 which states that king Manasseh used enchantments, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards. The many well known passages regarding spiritual mediums, all through the Old Testament, prove that the shades were thought to retain some power of life. A wholesale revival of the shades is depicted in Isaiah 14:9-12, where we read: "Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the refaim [shades] All they shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?"

It becomes evident by this hasty and inadequate sketch that the primitive religious ideas of the Israelites were on a level with ideas prevailing everywhere throughout the primitive world at a corresponding stage of culture (45). To some readers, the above observations and citations will be novel. To the scholar, if he care to read them, they will serve only as a hasty review. In any case they are a necessary introduction to the sociological and historical treatment now to follow.

the phrase "the mighty," and the new version translates with "God." Also Genesis 6: 2, 4, where "the sons of elohim," translated "the sons of God," are spoken of as coming in unto "the daughters of men."

$60. The political condition of the land of Canaan at the time of the attack by Israel was confused, and could not well have been otherwise. In the centuries immediately preceding the Israelite Conquest, the land had been ruled and fought over by at least three great oriental powers. The Canaanites, as we have seen, had acknowledged the overlordship of the old Babylonians for so long that the language of the dominant race had been adopted as a common medium of written communication among the upper classes. In the fifteenth century B. C., however, Babylonia was disturbed by an irresistible combination of circumstances. She was troubled at home by the rising military power of Assyria in the north; while in Canaan she was replaced by the northeastward advance of Egypt. Governors from Egypt were placed in such Canaanite cities as Jerusalem, Tyre, Askelon, Gezer, and Hazor. But the rule of the Egyptians did not long extend over this region. In fact, before a century has passed, we find the governors of these cities writing home for help, declaring their inability to hold the country. Presently the land was relinquished, partly to local Canaanitish tribes, and partly to the Hittite kingdom whose seat was in Asia Minor. It was between these moves on the great checkerboard of oriental politics that the barbarian Israelites, with their primitive Yahwism, broke from the wilderness into the land flowing with milk and honey (46).

§ 61. The Conquest was not a well organized campaign with a speedy issue. Beginning about 1,300 B. C., it was carried forward by the different Israelitish tribes in an irregular way over a long period of years. The Canaanites were neither driven out nor annihilated, as uncritical Bible readers are prone to imagine; although many were of course killed in battle. A suggestive account is given in the first chapter of Judges. Commencing at verse 27, we read:

"And [the tribe of] Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and her towns, nor of Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns,

nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. And it came to pass, when Israel was waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to taskwork, and did not utterly drive them out. And [the tribe of] Ephraim drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. [The tribe of] Zebulun drave not out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributary. [The tribe of] Asher drave not out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob: but the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out. [The tribe of] Naphtali drave not out the inhabitants of Bethanath; but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became tributary unto them. And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill country; yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became tributary."

The Conquest, as we have said, was not an affair of a day nor a year. It was a long and tedious process. The adjustment of the newer and older inhabitants was not complete until the age of the Judges had passed away. We learn from 2 Samuel 5:6-10 that the Canaanitish Jebusites were still in possession of Jerusalem in the early days of king David, at least 150 years after the beginning of the Conquest. "And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David saying, Thou shalt not come in hither but the blind and the lame shall turn thee away. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David."

$62. In connection with these passages it becomes plain that the history of Israel in Canaan illustrates, at the very outset, the great and overshadowing fact of cleav

age into upper and lower classes. Cleavage, however, was not originated by the Conquest. It existed among the barbarian tribes of Israel in the desert, as in the case of the nomadic Abraham with his many slaves, and as it does among nomadic tribes now in that region. But the passage of Israel from nomadism to settled life in Canaan brought them into a more extensive relation with the institution of cleavage than ever before. Nor was cleavage unknown to the Canaanites before the conquest by Israel, for the "inhabitants of the land," like all oriental peoples then and now, were not a free, democratic race. They were stratified into upper and lower classes before the Israelites appeared.

A brilliant sidelight on class relations in Israel is afforded by a late passage in Leviticus 25:39-47, as follows:

"If thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee, thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant. As an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee unto the year of jubilee. Then shall he go out from thee. And as for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen, and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you; and they shall be your possession. And ye shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold them for a possession. Of them shall ye take your bondmen forever."

An interesting bit of evidence in this connection is furnished by the so-called "tenth commandment," recorded in Exodus 20: 17. It is an injunction against covetousness; and in its innocent modern translation it reads: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." The words rendered "manservant" and "maidservant" would better have been