The Israelite Conquest of Ephraim

Abstract

letters so exactly parallels the Old Testament account of the Israelite of Jericho and the invasion of the highlands of Ephraim under Joshua that the two must manifestly have reference to the same episode. The name of Joshua as a leader appears in both accounts, if we accept Yashuya as the cuneiform equivalent of Joshua,2 but there is no ground for identifying the two men, as Olmstead has ventured to do. Both accounts reflect the same political situation in Palestine: petty kings intriguing and warring against one another. Both represent some of the native princes as allying themselves with the invaders; for the actions of Labaya, Milkili, Tagi, and others, reported in the Amarna letters as allying themselves with the Habiru, are quite like Gibeon's alliance with the Hebrews, as recorded in Josh. 9: 3 ff. The Old Testament says explicitly that the Hebrews did not conquer Bethshean and its dependencies, nor Taanach and its dependencies, nor the highlands of Dor and its dependencies, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its dependencies (Judges 1: 27), nor did they the Canaanites who lived in Gezer (Judges 1: 29), nor did they evict the inhabitants of Akko, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor those of Ahlab, nor those of Achzib, nor those of Aphik, nor those of Rehob (Judges 1: 31), nor did they the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-anath (Judges 1: 33) ; 4 and this is precisely the evidence of the Amarna letters. The Hebrews at first were able to conquer only the Jordan valley and the eastern highlands of Ephraim,5 and only gradually did they extend their occupation westward. The so-called was neither complete nor immediate. The Old Testament picture here, as so frequently elsewhere, is very much foreshortened.6 The conquest was rather a gradual infiltration of the Hebrews into the country and must have continued over a period of a century or more before they had made any considerable portion of the land their own. Investigations in Trans-Jordan show that this region probably fell into their hands before 1400 B. C., at