* The history of the conquest is to be found in the Book of
     Joshua.

The walls of the city fell of themselves at the blowing of the brazen trumpets,* and its capture entailed that of three neighbouring towns, Ai, Bethel, and Shechem.  Shechem served as a rallying-place for the conquerors; Joshua took up his residence there, and built on the summit of Mount Ebal an altar of stone, on which he engraved the principal tenets of the divine Law.**

     * Josh, i.-vi.

     ** Josh, vii., viii.  Mount Ebal is the present Gebel
     Sulemiyeh.

[Illustration:  263.jpg ONE OF THE MOUNDS OF AIN ES-SULTAN, THE ANCIENT JERICHO]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph brought back by Lortet.

The sudden intrusion of a new element naturally alarmed the worshippers of the surrounding local deities; they at once put a truce to their petty discords, and united in arms against the strangers.  At the instigation of Adoni-zedeck, King of Jerusalem, the Canaanites collected their forces in the south; but they were routed not far from Gibeon, and their chiefs killed or mutilated.* The Amorites in the north, who had assembled round Jabin, King of Hazor, met with no better success; they were defeated at the waters of Merom, Hazor was burnt, and Galilee delivered to fire and sword.**

     * Josh. x.  The same war is given rather differently in
     Judges i. 1-9, where the king is called Adoni-bezek.

     ** Josh. xi.  As another Jabin appears in the history of
     Deborah, it has

[Illustration:  264.jpg THE JORDAN IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF JERICHO]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lortet.

The country having been thus to a certain extent cleared, Joshua set about dividing the spoil, and assigned to each tribe his allotted portion of territory.* Such, in its main outlines, is the account given by the Hebrew chroniclers; but, if closely examined, it would appear that the Israelites did not act throughout with that unity of purpose and energy which they [the Hebrew chroniclers] were pleased to imagine.  They did not gain possession of the land all at once, but established themselves in it gradually by detachments, some settling at the fords of Jericho,** others more to the north, and in the central valley of the Jordan as far up as She-chem.***

* The lot given to each tribe is described in Josh, xiii.- xxi.  It has been maintained by some critics that there is a double role assigned to one and the same person, only that some maintain that the Jabin of Josh. xi. has been transferred to the time of the Judges, while others make out that the Jabin of Deborah was carried back to the time of the conquest.

     ** Renan thinks that the principal crossing must have taken
     place opposite Jericho, as is apparent from the account in
     Josh, ii., iii.

     *** Carl Niebuhr believes that he has discovered the exact
     spot at the ford of Admah, near Succoth.