The
cavalry of the enemy was unable to withstand the impetuous rush
of the army of Jehovah, and Sisera himself perished in the
flight. From that day the Canaanites, although many strong
towns continued to be held by them, never again raised their
heads.
After these occurrences some further changes of a fundamental
character took place in the relations of the tribes. The Danites
proved unable to hold against the forward pressure of the
Philistines their territory on the coast to the west of Benjamin
and Ephraim; they accordingly sought a new settlement, which was
found in the north at the foot of Hermon. In this way all the
secondary tribes westward of Jordan (Asher, Naphtali, Dan) came
to have their seats beside each other in the northern division
of the land. Eastward of Jordan, Reuben rapidly fell from his
old prominence, sharing the fate of his next eldest brethren
Simeon and Levi. When Eglon of Moab took Jericho, and laid
Benjamin under tribute, it is obvious that he must previously
have made himself master of Reuben's territory. This territory
became thenceforward a subject of constant dispute between Moab
and Israel; the efforts to recover it, however, did not proceed
from Reuben himself, but from Gad, a tribe which knew how to
assert itself with vigour against the enemies by which it was
surrounded.
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