sseh for Moses
(Judges xviii. 30), but the correction was not generally
accepted. [The R.V. reads "Moses" where the authorised text
has "Manasseh."--Tr.]

It bore out well its character--"Dan is a lion's whelp that leapeth
forth from Bashan" on the Hermon;* "a serpent in the way, an adder
in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider falleth
backward."** The new position they had taken up enabled them to protect
Galilee for centuries against the incursions of the Aramaeans.

* See the Blessing of Moses (Dent, xxxiii. 22).

** These are the words used in the Blessing of Jacob (Gen.
xlix. 17).

[Illustration: 304.jpg THE HILL OF SHILOH, SEEN FROM THE NORTH-EAST]

Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 100 of the _Palestine
Exploration Fund._

Their departure, however, left the descendants of Joseph unprotected,
with Benjamin as their only bulwark. Benjamin, like Dan, was one of
the tribes which contained scarcely more than two or three clans, but
compensated for the smallness of their numbers by their energy and
tenacity of character: lying to the south of Ephraim, they had developed
into a breed of hardy adventurers, skilled in handling the bow and
sling, accustomed from childhood to use both hands indifferently,
and always ready to set out on any expedition, not only against the
Canaanites, but, if need be, against their own kinsfolk.* They had
consequently aroused the hatred of both friend and foe, and we read that
the remaining tribes at length decreed their destruction; a massacre
ensued, from which six hundred Benjamites only escaped to continue the
race.** Their territory adjoined on the south that of Jerusalem, the
fortress of the Jebusites, and on the west the powerful confederation of
which Gibeon was the head. It comprised some half-dozen towns--Ramah,
Anathoth, Michmash, and Nob, and thus commanded both sides of the passes
leading from the Shephelah into the valley of the Jordan. The Benjamites
were in the habit of descending suddenly upon merchants who were making
their way to or returning from Gilead, and of robbing them of their
wares; sometimes they would make a raid upon the environs of Ekron and
Gath, "like a wolf that ravineth:" realising the prediction of Jacob,
"in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at even he shall divide
the spoil."***

* Benjamin signifies, properly speaking, "the Southern."

** Story of the Levite of