[9] The story of Joseph has distinctive internal features of its own, and appears to be from an independent cycle, which has been used to form a connecting link between the Settlement and the Exodus; see also Ed. Meyer, _Die Israeliten u. ihre Nachbarstämme_ (1906), pp. 228, 433; B. Luther, ibid. pp. 108 seq., 142 sqq. Neither of the poems in Deut. xxxii. seq. alludes to an escape from Egypt; Israel is merely a desert tribe inspired to settle in Palestine. Apparently even the older accounts of the exodus are not of very great antiquity; according to Jeremiah ii. 2, 7 (cf. Hos. ii. 15) some traditions of the wilderness must have represented Israel in a very favourable light; for the "canonical" view, see Ezekiel xvi., xx., xxiii. [10] The capture of central Palestine itself is not recorded; according to its own traditions the district had been seized by Jacob (Gen. xlviii. 22; cf. the late form of the tradition in Jubilees xxxiv.). This conception of a conquering hero is entirely distinct from the narratives of the descent of Jacob into Egypt, &c. (see Meyer and Luther, _op. cit._ pp. 110, 227 seq., 415, 433). [11] This is especially true of the various ingenious attempts to combine the invasion of the Israelites with the movements of the Habiru in the Amarna period (§ 3). [12] Cf. Winckler, _Keil. u. das Alte Test._ p. 212 seq.; also his "Der alte Orient und die Geschichtsforschung" in _Mitteilungen der Vorderasiat. Gesellschaft_ (Berlin, 1906) and _Religionsgeschichtlicher u. gesch. Orient_ (Leipzig, 1906); A. Jeremias, _Alte Test._ (p. 464 seq.); B. Baentsch, _Altorient. u. Israel. Monotheismus_ (pp. 53, 79, 105, &c.); also _Theolog. Lit. Blatt_ (1907) No. 19. On the reconstructions of the tribal history, see especially T. K. Cheyne, _Ency. Bib._ art. "Tribes." The most suggestive study of the pre-monarchical narratives is that of E. Meyer and B. Luther (above; see the former's criticisms on the reconstructions, pp. 50, 251 sqq., 422, n. 1 and _passim_). [13] 2 Chron. xii. 8, which is independent of the chronicler's artificial treatment of his material, apparently points to some tradition of Egyptian suzerainty. [14] See for chronology, BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA, §§ v. and viii. [15] See _Jew. Quart. Rev._ (1908), pp. 597-630. The independent Israelite traditions which here become more numerous have points of contact with those of Saul in 1 Samuel, and the relation is highly suggestive for the study of their growth, as also for the perspective of the various writers.