Edomites, Arabs, and Midianites were associated with this semi-Canaanite stock—­for example, Kain, Caleb, Othniel, Kenaz, Shobal, Ephah, and Jerahmeel, but the Kenites took the first place among them, and played an important part in the history of the conquest of Canaan.  It is related how one of their subdivisions, of which Caleb was the eponymous hero, had driven from Hebron the three sons of Anak—­Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai—­and had then promised his daughter Achsah in marriage to him who should capture Debir; this turned out to be his youngest brother Othniel, who captured the city, and at the same time obtained a wife.  Hobab, another Kenite, who is represented to have been the brother-in-law of Moses, occupied a position to the south of Arad, in Idumsean territory.* These heterogeneous elements existed alongside each other for a long time without intermingling; they combined, however, now and again to act against a common foe, for we know that the people of Judah aided the tribe of Simeon in the reduction of the city of Zephath;** but they followed an independent course for the most part, and their isolation prevented their obtaining, for a lengthened period, any extension of territory.

     * The father-in-law of Moses is called Jethro in Exod. iii.
     1, iv. 19, but Raguel in Exod. ii. 18-22.  Hobab is the son
     of Raguel, Numb. x. 29.

     ** Judges i. 17, where Zephath is the better reading, and
     not Arad, as has been suggested.

They failed, as at first, in their attempts to subjugate the province of Arad, and in their efforts to capture the fortresses which guarded the caravan routes between Ashdod and the mouth of the Jordan.  It is related, however, that they overthrew Adoni-bezek, King of the Jebusites, and that they had dealt with him as he was accustomed to deal with his prisoners.  “And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table:  as I have done, so God hath requited me.”  Although Adoni-bezek had been overthrown, Jerusalem still remained independent, as did also Gibeon.  Beeroth, Kirjath-Jearim, Ajalon, Gezer, and the cities of the plain, for the Israelites could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron, with which the Hebrew foot-soldiers found it difficult to deal.* This independent and isolated group was not at first, however, a subject of anxiety to the masters of the coast, and there is but a bare reference to the exploits of a certain Shamgar, son of Anath, who “smote of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad."**

     * See Josh. ix. 3-27 for an explanation of how these people
     were allowed afterwards to remain in a subordinate capacity
     among the children of Israel.

     ** Judges iii. 31; cf. also Judges v. 6, in which Shamgar is
     mentioned in the song of Deborah.

[Illustration:  301.jpg TELL ES-SAFIEH, THE GATH OF THE PHILISTINES]