Israelites-ofSemites?

The Israelites belong to the group of ancient peoples who are designated under the general name ofSemites, and whose countries extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the other side of the Euphrates and Tigris, and from the mountains of Armenia to the southern coast of Arabia. According to the Biblicalclassification of the descendants of Noah (Genesis 10), it is clear that the semitic group included theArabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, Arameans, and Hebrews, to which peoples modern ethnographers add, chiefly on linguistic grounds, the Phoenicians and Chanaaneans. It thus appears that the Israelites of old claimed actual kinship with some of the most powerful nations of the East, although the nearness or remoteness of this kinship cannot be determined at the present day. As might be expected, their ethnic relation to the Semitic tribes who, together with the Israelites, make up the sub-group of the Terabites, is more definitely known.

The Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, and the Israelites were tribes of kindred origin, a fact which is readily acknowledged by contemporary scholars. It shows no less plainly that the children ofIsrael were also conscious of a close relationship with both the Arameans (Syrians) to the north-east and the Sinaitic nomads to the south of Palestine; and there is no doubt that, despite the rejection of Israel's kinship with Aram by some recent critics, both the Aramean and the Arabian relationships ofIsrael should be admitted. In the abstract, these relationships are not exclusive of each other, for there is no reason to suppose that ancient Israel was more homogeneous than any other migratory and conquering people; and in the concrete, both the relationships in question are equally borne witness to in the earliest historical records (cf. Genesis 24:4, 10; 27:43; 29:4, etc., in favour of Israel'srelationship with Aram).

Early migration

The history of the Israelites begins with the migration of the kindred tribes mentioned in the above table, in the person of their ancestor, Thare, from Babylonia. The starting-point of this memorablemigration was, according to Genesis 11:28-31, "Ur of the Chaldees", which has recently been identified with Mugheir (Muqayyar; Accadian Uriwa, an important city in ancient days, some six miles (distant from the right bank of the Euphrates, and about 125 miles northwest of the Persian Gulf. Its actualgoal, according to Genesis 11:31, was "the land of Chanaan". The movement thus generally described is in distinct harmony with the well-ascertained fact that at an early date Babylonian enterprise had penetrated to Palestine and thereby opened up to the Semitic element of Chaldea a track towards the region which at the present day is often regarded as the original centre of the dispersion of theSemites, viz. Northern Arabia. The course taken was by way of Haran (in Aram), a city some 600 miles northwest of Ur, and its rival in the worship of the Moon-god, Sin. Not in worship alone, but also in culture, laws and customs, Haran closely resembled Ur, and the call of Abraham — God's command bidding him to seek a new country (Genesis 12:50) — was doubtless welcome to one whose purer conception of the Deity made him dissatisfied with his heathen surroundings (cf. Joshua 24:2 sq.). There is also reason to think that at this time Northern Babylonia was greatly disturbed by invadingKassites, a mountain race related to the Elamites. While, then, Thare's second son, Nachor, remained in Haran, where he originated the Aramaic settlement, Abraham and Lot went forth, passed Damascus, and reached the goal of their journey. The settlements which Holy Writ connects with Abraham and Lotneed only to be mentioned here. The tribes directly related to Lot were those of Moab and Ammon, of which the former established itself east of the Dead Sea, and the latter settled on the eastern side of the Amorrhite kingdom which extended between the Arnom and the Jeboc. Of the tribes more immediately related to Abraham, the Ismaelites and the Madianites seem to have lived in thePeninsula of Sinai; the Edomites took possession of Mount Seir, the hilly tract of land lying south of theDead Sea and east of the Arabah; and the Israelites settled in the country west of the Jordan, the districts with which they are more particularly connected in the Book of Genesis being those of Sichem,Bethel, Hebron, and Bersabee. The history of the Israelites in these early times is chiefly associated with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel), all of whom kept a distinct remembrance of their close kinship with the Semitic settlement in Aram (cf. Genesis 24; 28), and the first of whom appears to have reached Chanaan about 2300 B.C., when he came into passing contact with Egypt(Genesis 12) and Elam (Genesis 14) (see BABYLONIA).