about God is drawn from farm life in Isaiah
5. 1-7?

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| [Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN REAPING] |
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| [Illustration: CANAANITE HOES] |
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| [Illustration: CANAANITE SICKLE] |
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| [Illustration: CANAANITE OR HEBREW PLOWSHARES] |
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| Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |
| Fund. |
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CHAPTER VIII

VILLAGE LIFE IN CANAAN

The farmers of ancient Canaan all lived in villages. No farmer would
have dreamed of building an isolated house for his family on his own
field out of sight of his nearest neighbor as our American farmers do.
The danger from robbers would have been too great. Instead of that,
the Hebrew farmer lived in the nearest village or town. Early in the
morning he went out to his field, and in the evening returned to his
home inside the protecting village walls.

These ancient villages would have seemed to us most unattractive
places. The houses were crowded close together. The streets were only
narrow crooked lanes between the houses. In the rear room of each
house were the stalls of the family ox and ass. The brays of the ass
were the alarm clock in the early morning. There was no drainage.
Garbage was thrown into the street. There were smells of all
varieties. One is not surprised by the frequent stories of pestilences
in the Old-Testament history.

=Compensations of village life.=--It seems strange that people who
were accustomed to life in the open desert should have ever brought
themselves to settle down in these dirty, ill-smelling places. Surely,
at first they must often have been homesick for the clean, pure air of
the plains. On the other hand, probably most of them were willing to
put up with the disagreeable odors and the dirty streets for the sake
of being near other people. The desert was lonesome. In the village
there was always something going on, something to hear and see,