awaiting the messenger who should bring the news of his
victory; "through the window she looked forth and cried--the mother
of Sisera cried through the lattice--'Why is his chariot so long in
coming?--Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?'--Her wise ladies answered
her,--yea, she returned answer to herself,--'Have they not found, have
they not divided the spoil?--A damsel, two damsels to every man;--to
Sisera a spoil of divers colours,--a spoil of divers colours of
embroidery on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?--So let all Thine
enemies perish, O Lord:--but let them that love Him be as the sun when
he goeth forth in his might.'"

It was the first time, as far as we know, that several of the Israelite
tribes combined together for common action after their sojourn in the
desert of Kadesh-barnea, and the success which followed from their
united efforts ought, one would think, to have encouraged them to
maintain such a union, but it fell out otherwise; the desire for freedom
of action and independence was too strong among them to permit of the
continuance of the coalition.

[Illustration: 278.jpg MOUNT TABOR]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. C. Alluaud
of Limoges.

Manasseh, restricted in its development by the neighbouring Canaanite
tribes, was forced to seek a more congenial neighbourhood to the east of
the Jordan--not close to Gad, in the land of Gilead, but to the north
of the Yarmuk and its northern affluents in the vast region extending
to the mountains of the Hauran. The families of Machir and Jair migrated
one after the other to the east of the Lake of Gennesaret, while that
of Nobah proceeded as far as the brook of Kanah, and thus formed in this
direction the extreme outpost of the children of Israel: these families
did not form themselves into new tribes, for they were mindful of
their affiliation to Manasseh, and continued beyond the river to
regard themselves still as his children.* The prosperity of Ephraim and
Manasseh, and the daring nature of their exploits, could not fail
to draw upon them the antagonism and jealousy of the people on their
borders. The Midianites were accustomed almost every year to pass
through the region beyond the Jordan which the house of Joseph had
recently colonised. Assembling in the springtime at the junction of the
Yarmuk with the Jordan, they crossed the latter river, and, spreading
over the plains of Mount Tabor, destroyed the growing crops, rai