The Canaanites, driving before them the ancient
inhabitants of Palestine, the Pelestes or Philistines,
massed themselves upon the Syrian coast around Arvad



The Semitic World. 205

and Tyros ; these were the names of their ancient cities
of the Persian Gulf. Finally, under the name of
Hebrews, people of the other shore, the clan of a
certain Terah and of a certain Nahor, decided to quit
Ur in Clialdea, bearing away their gods like Anchises,
eagerly pursued by the Elamite chieftains or kings ;
among others by Chedorlaomer. The leaders of the
fugitives, Abraham and his nephew Lot, underwent
some misfortunes in the neighbourhood of the Jordan,
of Sodom and Gomorrah ; others whose names have
come down to us, of doubtful wisdom and uncertain
morality, Isaac, the dishonest Laban, Esau the simple,
and the astute Jacob, continued to live with difficulty,
surrounded by other nomads, until famine or their
vagabond habits drove the Hebrews to the confines of
Egypt, into the land of Goshen, beside the Hyksos.
