Palestine and the mountain-ranges of south-eastern Arabia. They formed a
single family which claimed descent from a common ancestor.

Israel was the latest of them to appear on the scene of history. Moab
and Ammon had subjugated or absorbed the old Amorite population on the
eastern side of the Jordan, Ishmael and the Keturites had made
themselves a home in Arabia, Edom had possessed itself of the
mountain-fastnesses of the Horite and the Amalekite, long before the
Israelites had escaped from their bondage in Egypt, or formed themselves
into a nation in the desert. They were the youngest member of the Hebrew
family, though but for them the names of their brethren would have
remained forgotten and unknown. Israel needed the discipline of a long
preparation for the part it was destined to play in the future history
of the world.

The Hebrews belonged to the Semitic race. The race is distinguished by
certain common characteristics, but more especially by the possession of
a common type of language, which is markedly different from the other
languages of mankind. Its words are built on what is termed the
principle of triliteralism; the skeleton, as it were, of each of them
consisting of three consonants, while the vowels, which give flesh and
life to the skeleton, vary according to the grammatical signification of
the word. The relations of grammar are thus expressed for the most part
by changes of vocalic sound, just as in English the plural of "man" is
denoted by a change in the vowel. The verb is but imperfectly developed;
it is, in fact, rather a noun than a verb, expressing relation rather
than time. Compound words, moreover, are rare, the compounds of our
European languages being replaced in the Semitic dialects by separate
words.