provided with thick mud walls, behind which the inhabitants felt
secure from attack. Over each city ruled a petty king, whose
authority, however, did not extend far beyond the surrounding
fields that belonged to the inhabitants of the town. Generally
these city states were independent. In many cases they were
hostile to each other; and the long rule of Egypt had tended to
intensify this hostility, for Egypt had depended upon this local
jealousy to maintain its control. The diversified physical contour
of Palestine likewise strengthened this tendency toward separation
rather than unity.

This type of political organization favored the growth of
polytheism rather than the worship of one god. Each city had its
local god or baal, which was worshipped at a high place either
within the city or on some adjacent height, while in the larger
cities elaborate altars and temples were reared to them. These
local deities were regarded as the gods of fertility which gave to
their worshippers ample harvests and numerous offspring both of the
family and of the nock. The principle of generation occupied such
a prominent place in the Canaanite cults that in time they became
exceedingly immoral and debasing. To secure the favor of their
gods the Canaanites brought rich sacrifices to their altars and
observed certain great annual festivals with ceremonies very
similar to those later adopted by the Hebrews.

While the Canaanites were on a much higher plane of material
civilization than the Hebrews, they ultimately fell a prey to those
hardy invaders of the desert: (1) Because they were incapable of
strong united action, and (2) because their civilization was
corrupt and enervating. Courage and real patriotism were almost
unknown to them even as early as the seventeenth century B.C., when
the Egyptian king Thutmose III invaded the land of Palestine.
Their strong walls and their superior military equipment, however,
made their immediate conquest by the Hebrews impossible. This
explains why the earliest account of the initial conquest, now
found in Judges 1, is chiefly devoted to recounting the strong
Canaanite cities which the Hebrews failed to conquer.

III.

THE CAPTURE OF THE OUTPOSTS OF PALESTINE.

In the light of our present knowledge of the Canaanite civilization
it becomes evident why most of the early Hebrew conquests were in
the south. The only large Canaanite city which they could conquer
in the early days was