6o
HEBREW LIFE AND CUSTOM
Ahab rides in a chariot driven by a charioteer {rakkabh),1
but if we may trust the pointing of the Hebrew the same
word elsewhere is used of a rider on horseback.2
Besides the rakkɑbh of a chariot we hear of a warrior
called shâlîsh. This word apparently means ‘ a third man
and it may originally have denoted the third man in a
chariot. The connexion in which we find the word, how-
ever, scarcely favours such an etymology, and it has
evidently come to be the title of an officer.3 The shâlîshîm
of Pharaoh* belonged apparently to the cavalry, since there
is no mention of infantry,5 but not, it would seem, to the
rank and file. Cavalry (in our sense of the term) evidently
existed,6 and the numerous references to infantry 7 make
it clear that, at all events when the narratives took shape,
cavalry formed an important part of an army.
Of military organization we have a few hints. The King
was, of course, the war-lord. But under him there was a
chief of the army (ʃar hassabha)8 together with a number
of subordinate officers, having under them respectively a
thousand,9 a hundred,10 fifty men,11 &c.
We read also of cavalry officers.12
The favourite tactics in attacking seem to have been to
divide the attacking force into three, and to make the
attack at three points simultaneously.13 The siege opera-
' I Kings xxii. 34.
2 2 Kings ix. 17, 19. The verb, however, Connectedwiththenoun
Takkcibh is also used of the rider of the ass behind which apparently
the Shunammite lady rode pillion (2 Kings iv. 24). It is to be noted
that there is a word pârâsh, meaning ‘ horse ’, which the Massoretes
always understood in the sense of ‘ horsemen ’. In Jer. xlvi. 4, Isa.
xxviii. 28, for example, horses, not horsemen, are indicated.
3 See 2 Kings vii. 2, 17, 19, ix. 25.
4 Exod. xv. 4. 5 See Exod. xiv. 23.
6 Isa. xxx. 16, xxxvi. 8 ; Jer. xlvi. 4.
7 Exod. xii. 37 ; Num. xi. 2i ; Judges xx. 2 ; ɪ Sam. iv. 10, xv. 4 ;
2 Sam. x. 6 ; I Kings xx. 29 ; 2 Kings xiii. 7 ; Jer. xii. 5.
8 I Sam. xvii. 55; ɪ Kings i. 19. 9 Exod. xviii. 21, 25.
“ ɪ Sam. xxii. 7. 'x 2 Kings i. 9. 12 ɪ Kings xxii. 32.
ɪ3 Judges vii. ι6 ; ɪ Sam. xi. ɪɪ, xiii. 17 ; cf∙ Gen. xiv. 15.
TACTICS : FLOCKS AND HERDS 6ι
tions of which we read are for the most part directed
against Israel by foreigners, and therefore need not be dis-
cussed here. Of the sieges carried out by Israelites ɪ we
have no precise information.
OWNERS OF FLOCKS AND HERDS
Among those elements of the population of Palestine
who could trace their lineage back to the people whom
Moses had led out of Egypt, the most common source of
livelihood and, socially, the next in importance to the life of
a warrior, was the possession of sheep and goats and cattle.
Camels were a source of wealth to those who continued to
lead a nomadic life, and the possession of them would be
almost a necessity to those who lived on the edge of the
desert, but otherwise it is unlikely that they were in general
use. Shepherding is regarded in that document of the
Pentateuch known as J as one of the earliest occupations,
as is instanced by Abel52Jabal,3 Abraham,4 Isaac,5 Laban,6
Jacob and his sons;7 and, in later times, Jesse,8 Nabal,9 &c.,
are large sheep-owners. Although the owner might, like
Abraham, employ slaves to oversee his flocks and herds,
there was nothing derogatory to his rank in tending the
animals himself with the help of his family. In fact,
the possession and care of flocks and herds seems to have
been regarded as altogether superior to agriculture as a
livelihood.10 This must not be understood as meaning that
those who led the life of Bedouin never cultivated land,11
but merely that such agriculture as they undertook was
not their main source of wealth.
ɪ E.g. Judges ix. 51 ff. ; 2 Sam. xi. ɪ ff. ; 2 Kingsiii. 25 ff. ; cf. Isa.
xxii. 9-11.
2 Gen. iv. 2. 3 Gen. iv. 20. 4 Gen. xiii. 2.
5 Gen. xxvi. 14. 6 Gen. xxx. ɜɪ ff.
7 Gen. xxx. 43, xlv. ɪo, xlvi. 32.
8 I Sam. xvi. ιι. 9 ɪ Sam. xxv. 2.
'o See, for example, 2 Kings xxv. 12. We may be pretty certain
that flocks and herds had been seized by the Chaldeans.
ɪɪ Gen. xxxvii. 7.