V. EGYPT

VI. BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

VII. CONCLUSION

APPENDICES




CHAPTER I

THE ISRAELITES


Israel traced its origin to Babylonia. It was from "Ur of the Chaldees"
that Abraham "the Hebrew" had come, the rock out of which it was hewn.
Here on the western bank of the Euphrates was the earliest home of the
Hebrews, of whom the Israelites claimed to be a part.

But they were not the only nation of the ancient Oriental world which
derived its ancestry from Abraham. He was the father not only of the
Israelites, but of the inhabitants of northern and central Arabia as
well. The Ishmaelites who were settled in the north of the Arabian
peninsula, the descendants of Keturah who colonised Midian and the
western coast, were also his children. Moab and Ammon, moreover, traced
their pedigree to his nephew, while Edom was the elder brother of
Israel. Israel, in fact, was united by the closest ties of blood to all
the populations which in the historic age dwelt between the borders of