a considerable nation.  Its component elements were not, however, firmly welded together; they consisted of an indefinite number of clans, which were again subdivided into several families.  Each of these families had its chief or “ruler,” to whom it rendered absolute obedience, while the united chiefs formed an assembly of elders who administered justice when required, and settled any differences which arose among their respective followers.  The clans in their turn were grouped into tribes,* according to certain affinities which they mutually recognised, or which may have been fostered by daily intercourse on a common soil, but the ties which bound them together at this period were of the most slender character.  It needed some special event, such as a projected migration in search of fresh pasturage, or an expedition against a turbulent neighbour, or a threatened invasion by some stranger, to rouse the whole tribe to corporate action; at such times they would elect a “nasi,” or ruler, the duration of whose functions ceased with the emergency which had called him into office.**

     * The tribe was designated by two words signifying “staff” or
     “branch.”

** The word nasi, first applied to the chiefs of the tribes (Exod. xxxiv. 31; Lev. iv. 22; Numb. ii. 3), became, after the captivity, the title of the chiefs of Israel, who could not be called kings owing to the foreign suzerainty (Esdras i. 8).

Both clans and tribes were designated by the name of some ancestor from whom they claimed to be descended, and who appears in some cases to have been a god for whom they had a special devotion; some writers have believed that this was also the origin of the names given to several of the tribes, such as Gad, “Good Fortune,” or of the totems of the hyena and the dog, in Arabic and Hebrew, “Simeon” and “Caleb."* Gad, Simeon, and Caleb were severally the ancestors of the families who ranged themselves under their respective names, and the eponymous heroes of all the tribes were held to have been brethren, sons of one father, and under the protection of one God.  He was known as the Jahveh with whom Abraham of old had made a solemn covenant; His dwelling-place was Mount Sinai or Mount Seir, and He revealed Himself in the storm;** His voice was as the thunder “which shaketh the wilderness,” His breath was as “a consuming fire,” and He was decked with light “as with a garment.”  When His anger was aroused, He withheld the dew and rain from watering the earth; but when His wrath was appeased, the heavens again poured their fruitful showers upon the fields.***

* Simeon is derived by some from a word which at times denotes a hyena, at others a cross between a dog and a hyena, according to Arab lexicography.  With regard to Caleb, Renan prefers a different interpretation; it is supposed to be a shortened form of Kalbel, and “Dog of El” is a strong expression to denote the devotion of a tribe to its patron god.

     ** Cf. the graphic description of the signs which
     accompanied the manifestations of Jahveh in the Song of
     Deborah (Judges v. 4, 5), and also in 1 Kings xix. 11-13.