The Nomadic Alternative – Page 105

The Hebrews, whose literature sparkled in their mouths, took an oblique view of the same situation and sided with Abel. Abel represents the living world of animals and creeping things. And Jehovah, as God with a bias towards wandering shepherds, had "respect unto Abel and unto his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect." Genesis 4:4-5. Cain is the harbinger of death which the Hebrews once associated with agriculture. To atone for the typical crime of settlement, that of killing one's own kin, Cain shall leave the settled places and wander on a penitential pilgrimage, "a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth". But even before the murder the compilers of Genesis covered themselves. While they insist Abel's offering was superior in the eyes of the Lord, nevertheless Cain shall be more powerful. "Unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule him." For Cain bare Enoch, and built a city which he named after his son. The birth of the city follows the line of agricultural settlement. It is a power complex, but cursed with the mark of Cain.

IX

The Children of Israel are a determined people who came out of the wilderness into the places of habitation. Their moral order was forged in the desert and they refused, as Mohammed later refused, to make concessions to the sins of settlement. They have continued, with good reason and in common with most tribal peoples, to imagine themselves inferior to none. But the land Jehovah promised to his Chosen People was squashed between the two great centres of ancient civilization and combined desert, mountain, forest, sea-coast, plain, river valley and lake. This complicated piece of geography perplexed its new tenants. They were unsure if God intended them to use it as a series of interlocking migration paths or as fenced land for cultivation.