ssible to reconstruct the
battle scene. Through the broad valleys that lead into the Plain
of Esdraelon from the north came the sinewy, unkempt, roughly clad
and poorly equipped Hebrew tribesmen, each clan led by its local
chief. They had "come up to the help of Jehovah against the
mighty." Tribal patriotism, the memory of past grievances, the
desire for plunder, and zeal for Jehovah the God who had led their
forefathers through the wilderness into the land of Canaan, stirred
their courage and fired them to deeds of valor. Well they chose
their battlefield, out on the plain on the northern side of the
muddy, sluggish river Kishon. On the slightly rising ground they
faced the Canaanite warriors who came out across the plain from the
city of Megiddo, six miles away. The Canaanites were armed with
chariots and the best weapons that the early Semitic civilization
could produce, but one thing they lacked,--courage, fired by
religious zeal.

Again a striking natural phenomenon appears suddenly to have turned
the tide of Israel's fortune. On the eve of battle a drenching
thunderstorm seems to have swept across the alluvial plain
transforming it into a morass and the sluggish Kishon into a
rushing, unfordable river. In the words of the ancient triumphal
ode:

From heaven fought the stars,
From their courses fought against Sisera.
The river Kishon swept them away,
The ancient river, the river Kishon.
O my soul, march on with strength!
Then did the horse-hoofs resound
With the galloping, galloping of their steeds.

The Hebrew even brings out the sound of the sucking of the horses'
hoofs in the soft mud. The storm not only gave to the Hebrews, who
were on foot, a vast advantage, but it meant to them that Jehovah,
whose chariot was the clouds, his weapons, the lightning, and who
spoke through the thunders, was fighting in their behalf.

The victory was overwhelming. Sisera, the Canaanite leader, fled,
but only to fall later, ignominiously slain by a woman. Henceforth
the Canaanite cities of central Palestine were occupied by the
Hebrews. The vanquished were either enslaved or absorbed in
intermarriage. From them, however, the Hebrews learned skill in
agriculture and received a heritage of art, ideas and customs that
had been developed by the Canaanites for many centuries. How far
was this heritage beneficial to the Hebrews? What temptations did
it bring to them? Did it mark a step forward in t