The Negeb, or desert of the south, was then, what it still is, the haunt
of robbers and marauders. The Beduin of to-day are the Amalekites of Old
Testament history; and then, as now, they infested the southern frontier
of Judah, wasting and robbing the fields of the husbandman, and allying
themselves with every invader who came from the south, Saul, indeed,
punished them, as Romans and Turks have punished them since; but the
lesson is remembered only for a short while: when the strong hand is
removed, the "sons of the desert" return again like the locusts to their
prey.

It is true that the Beduin now range over the loamy plains and encamp
among the marshes of Lake Hûleh, where in happier times their presence
was unknown. But this is the result of a weak and corrupt government,
added to the depopulation of the lowlands. There are traces even in the
Old Testament that in periods of anarchy and confusion the Amalekites
penetrated far into the country in a similar fashion. In the Song of
Deborah and Barak Ephraim is said to have contended against them, and
accordingly "Pirathon in the land of Ephraim" is described as being "in
the mount of the Amalekites" (Judges xii. 15). In the cuneiform tablets
of Tel el-Amarna, too, there is frequent mention of the "Plunderers" by
whom the Beduin, the Shasu of the Egyptian texts, must be meant, and who
seem to have been generally ready at hand to assist a rebellious vassal
or take part in a civil feud.

Lebanon, the "white" mountain, took its name from its cliffs of
glistening limestone. In the early days of Canaan it was believed to be
the habitation of the gods, and Phoenician inscriptions exist dedicated
to Baal-Lebanon, "the Baal of Lebanon." He was the special form of the
Sun-god whose seat was in the mountain-ranges that shut in Phoenicia on
the east, and whose spirit was supposed to dwell in some mysterious way