EARLY ISRAEL
AND THE
SURROUNDING NATIONS

BY THE
REV. A.H. SAYCE
PROFESSOR OF ASSYRIOLOGY AT OXFORD

AUTHOR OF
"THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE HEBREWS," &c

London
SERVICE & PATON
5 HENRIETTA STREET
COVENT GARDEN
1899




INTRODUCTION


One of the first facts which strike the traveller in Palestine is the
smallness of a country which has nevertheless occupied so large a space
in the history of civilised mankind. It is scarcely larger than an
English county, and a considerable portion of it is occupied by rocky
mountains and barren defiles where cultivation is impossible. Its
population could never have been great, and though cities and villages
were crowded together on the plains and in the valleys, and perched at