Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/32

 t6 a History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. purchase of the field with the cave of Machpelah (Gen. xxili. 3-18 ; XXV. 9). Again, after the death of Moses, the Lord spake to Joshua to assure Him of the fulfilment of His promise, saying: " From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river [Euphrates] all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea [Mediterranean] towards the going down of the sun, shall be yours" (i. 4). When the spies sent to reconnoitre the land return to Moses, they describe the Hittites, together with the Amorites and the Jebusites, as '' dwelling in the mountains " [Numb. xiii. 29, 30). A little later, when the Hebrews had crossed Jordan, they figure among the Canaanite tribes banded together to oppose the invaders (Josh. ix. i).^ About this time, the growing power of Egypt, under the Theban dynasty, obliged the Hittites to fall back northwards ; but under the degenerated Pharaohs of this race, Upper Egypt fell, whilst Lower Egypt rose in wealth and in im- portance with the new kings of Tanis and Bubastis. The rival parties were too busy at home striving for mastery to think of foreign conquests. During these years the Hebrews had gradually defeated the Canaanites, and gained possession of a large part of the country. Under David and Solomon they made their power felt from the Great River to the Nile, and such of the Hittites as had remained in the country were reduced to a servile condition, for we find them among the press-gangs employed in the building of the temple, together with the Amorites, the Jebusites, the Hivites, and the Perizzites, whom the Israelites had failed to destroy.^ After that time, no more reference is made in Hebrew writers to Hittites lingering in the Land of Promise. On the other hand, there are allusions to independent tribes occupying the country east and west of the Orontes, which can have been no other than Hittites. Evidence of their friendly relations with the Jewish empire may still be traced ; some of their princes owned allegiance and were among David's vassals.^ Solomon numbered among his ^ Under the early Judges the Hittites are enumerated with the other Canaanite tribes amidst which the Israelites found a footing {Judg. iii. 5). ^ Reference to these tribes is indeed found in Ezek. xvi. 3, where the prophet rebukes Jerusalem for her pride : "Thus says the Lord unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan ; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite." But all the passage proves is that the names of Amorite and Hittite were still used as terms of reproach, synonymous with heathen in general parlance. ^ This is deducible from a passage in 2 Sam. xxiv. 5-7, relating to the mission entrusted to Joab and his staff to number the people of Israel. " And when they