![]() Their leader is a wily, resourceful man from Bethlehem, who decides that his people are meant for more than lightning raids and mercenary stints. ![]() They terrorize the Philistines, and then, in a sudden turnaround, offer their services to a Philistine king in exchange for shelter. They collect protection money and pillage the locals, making off with their women and their cattle. These rebel gangs-viewed by the neighboring Egyptians as both a nuisance and a threat-maraud the nearby villages. Bands of fugitives, landless laborers, and tax evaders rove the Judean wilderness. There are no public buildings, no ornate furnishings in the shrines. Homes are made of unworked stone sheep and goats are quartered indoors. Cut off from these coastal plains, life in the hill country is severe. To the west-teasingly close-are the lush lowlands of the Philistine city-states, with their seaside trade routes and their princely homes. To the east lies the desert, hushed and empty. The landscape is rugged, veined with ravines and thicketed with oaks. Human settlement in the Judean highlands is sparse: five thousand people, spread out in hamlets of about fifty families each. Jerusalem, in the tenth century B.C., is an inhospitable place for farmers but a strategic location for men on the run.
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