The tribes as finally settled in the conquered land were distributed as follows. according to the biblical narrative: East of the Jordan between the Arnon and the Jabbok the Reubenites and the Gadites had their homes. The Reuhenites, who occupied the northern half of the original Moabite domain, appear to have soon lost their identity, either because they were gradually absorbed by the Gadites, who finally occupied this territory, or because they gradually drifted eastward and became absorbed among the Ammonites and other tribes nearer the desert. The western highland from Jerusalem south to the 'Negeb' was the home of Judah. Southwest of Judah lay the ter ritory of Simeon. Between .Judah and the Plain of Esdraelon the country was occupied mainly by the House of Joseph, i.e. the tribes of Benjamin (northeast of Judah), Ephraim (the central por tion), and Manasseh (the northern part). A small district between .Judah and Ephraim on the northwest was allotted to the tribe of Dan, but this was so small that soon after the con quest a large section of this tribe (600 families) migrated to more roomy quarters in the extreme north near the sources of the Jordan. In the valley of Jezreel and the fertile Plain of Esdrae lon lay the territory of the tribes of Issachar the eastern portion) and Zebulon (the western part). Part of Southern and all of Northern Galilee was occupied by Naphtali (on the east) and Asher (on the west behind the Phoenician territory of Sidon and Tyre). After the conquest of the west-Jordan territory men of Manasseh (and possibly of Ephraim also) passed over the Jordan and conquered North Gilead, between the Jabbok and the Yarmuk, and probably part of Golan and Basilan, north of the Yarmuk. The coast north of Carmel remained in possession of the l'hcenicians. South of Carmel the Philistines controlled it. Israel was never a seafaring people.
About B.C. 1050 the divided Hebrew tribe, were united into a kingdom ender Saul. of the tribe of Benjamin. His successor, David, completed the work of firmly establishing Israelite supremacy in Palestine. Under David and Solomon, for the first and only time in its history, Palestine was the home of a united people all under one central government. About B.C. 937 this unity was disturbed by the formation of two kingdoms, a northern (1 srael) and a southern (Juali). One result of this division. coupled with the growing power of the Aramean kingdom of Da mascus, was that Israelitic control of the east Jordan territory became weakened, without, how ever, resulting in any essential changes in the population. The northern kingdom fell before the power of Assyria in B.C. 722. The annals of Sargon, the Assyrian King, state that he deported 27,290 people, and, according to Assyrian custom, transported thither a number of Arameans from Baylonia. Seventy-five years later Assurhani pal (n.c. 647) added another contingent, made up of various Eastern nationalities. These united with the remnant of the old Israelitic stock, and thus a mixed population, but still essentially Semitic, came to oeenpy the old territory. Galilee seems to have gradually filled with a mongrel Phomician Syrian population, which was not seriously dis turbed till near B.C. 100, save by the Iturean oc
cupation. (See PTt'RE.A.) The southern kingdom came to an end when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem in n.c. 556. The best ele ments of Judah were carried to Babylon and the whole country left desolate. For the next half century Palestine seems to have been left. largely to itself. The most important movement during this period was the influx of Naliatean Arabs, who pressed in from the deserts east and south east. occupied much of the old Amin/mile and Moabite territory, and, forcing the Edomites out of their abode, pushed them northward into Southern Judah, which now became '1dumean' territory. The colony of exiles who returned from Babylonia by permission of Cyrus in 536 occupied only the northern part of the old king dom of .Tudah. For further detail; of the of Palestine during this period, Si'' JEWS.
After the reorganization of the Persian Empire by- Darius 1., Palestine was a part of the Prov ince or• Satrapy of Syria (i.e. of the region, west of the Euphrates). The details of its adminis tration are somewhat uncertain. The satrapy was subdivided into a number of district;, of which Judah. Samaria, and Phomicia certainly were administered by separate Governors. What the exact arrangement was of the coast region, Galilee, the East •Jordan territory, and Idumea is obscure. Through the labors of Ezra and Nehemiah (qq.v.) the Judean community was thoroughly consolidated, Jerusalem fortified, and foreigners expelled. The Jews constant ly encroached on Samaritan territory and gradually enlarged their border toward the north west. The samaritans also became more closely united through the founding of the Samari tan religion, based on the Pentateuch alone, by a priest who was expelled from Jerusa lem by Nehemiah, and, at a date now not known, by the building of a temple on Alount Gerizim. (See SAMARITANS.) During the Persian period the language of the Jewish CI numunity assimi lated itself to the Aramaie spoken throughout the region and the old Hebrew gradually ceased to be the tongue of the common people.
The chief result for Palestine of Alexander's conquest of the East was the introduction of a large Greek element. Samaria was destroyed and rebuilt as a 'Macedonian' city. It is pos sible that Pella and Nun, east of the .Tordan, were built by Alexander's veterans. Other Greek cities followed, especially in the east-Jordan land (see DECAPOLIS ) , while many of the old sites became practically Greek cities. Alexander followed the Persian example and attached Pales tine to Syria for administrative purposes. In the struggles of his successors it came into the hands of Ptolemy I. of Egypt. and until n.c. 197 was under Egyptian control. Then it passed to Antioehus Ill. (the Groat) of Syria. In the attempt of Antiochus 1V. to destroy the Jewish religion led to the great War of Inde (See .MAccAnEEs-, .TEws.) When the struggle was over. Judea, now under the As moncan priest-prinees, was in control of all Southern Palestine from the Jordan to the coast.