=Effect of the Settlement Upon the Hebrews.= Apparently the Hebrew settlement of Canaan occupied fully a century. With the exception of two or three important engagements, the process was one of peaceful settlement rather than of conquest. It was a process to which there are many analogies, especially in the history of Babylonia and Syria. A stronger, more virile race pressed in from the desert and gradually conquered and absorbed the more highly civilized but less energetic peoples resident in the land. It was only in exceptional cases that the earlier Canaanite population was completely destroyed. Shechem, and later Jerusalem, are familiar examples of the way in which the conquerors and the conquered lived side by side, freely intermarrying and in time completely fusing with each other. This process was especially natural and easy in Palestine, because the older population simply represented earlier waves of invasion from the desert. The conquerors and the conquered shared in common many traditions and institutions. Inevitably the invaders gave up their nomadic habits and adopted the agricultural pursuits, the civil institutions, the sacred places, and many of the religious rites of the Canaanites. The marvel is that during this transitional period of settlement they preserved their loyalty to Jehovah, the God who had guided their fathers in their wilderness wanderings. XV THE FORCES THAT LED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HEBREW KINGDOM =The Lack of Unity Among the Hebrew Tribes.= The powerful influence of the peculiar physical contour of Palestine on its inhabitants was clearly illustrated during the latter part of the period of settlement. Although masters of Canaan, there was apparently no political unity between the different Hebrew tribes. Like the petty Canaanite kingdoms, which they had conquered, they were all intent upon their own problems and fought their battles independently. The story of Jephthah reveals the same conditions in the east-Jordan country. The result was that the Hebrews soon fell an easy prey to the invaders who pressed them on every side. The Ammonites on the east were ever eager to push their borders to the Jordan. It was only the energetic leadership of Jephthah, a local champion of the tribe of Manasseh, that delivered the Hebrews for a time from these invaders. The land of Tob, where Jephthah took refuge, was probably in northern Gilead. The name may be represented by that of the village and wady of Taiyibeh, across the Jordan east of Bethshean. Jephthah's success only aroused the enmity of the powerful tribe of Ephraim, west of the Jordan, and the story in Judges 12 reveals a state of inter-tribal warfare rather than of united action against their common foes.