In the book of Genesis one has
a glimpse of this nomad life.
=The Patriarchs.=--The tribe was like a great family; it was composed
of the chief, his wives, his children, and his servants. The chief had
absolute authority over all; for the tribe he was father, priest,
judge, and king. We call these tribal chiefs patriarchs. The principal
ones were Abraham and Jacob; the former the father of the Hebrews, the
latter of the Israelites. The Bible represents both of them as
designed by God to be the scions of a sacred people. Abraham made a
covenant with God that he and his descendants would obey him; God
promised to Abraham a posterity more numerous than the stars of
heaven. Jacob received from God the assurance that a great nation
should issue from himself.
=The Israelites.=--Moved by a vision Jacob took the name of Israel
(contender with God). His tribe was called Beni-Israel (sons of
Israel) or Israelites. The Bible records that, driven by famine, Jacob
abandoned the Jordan country to settle with all his house on the
eastern frontier of Egypt, to which Joseph, one of his sons who had
become minister of a Pharaoh, invited him.
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