How were the Hebrew people able to establish the kingdom of Israel after having spent many years as nomadic people?

Answer 1

1) During the era of the Judges, which lasted nearly four centuries, the Israelites were not nomadic. Each Tribe had its allotted area in Israel.

2) Before the beginning of the Monarchy, the Israelites were no strangers to leadership. They had officers of tens, fifties, hundreds and thousands (Exodus ch.18); judges and courts of law (Deuteronomy ch.16), Prophets (Deuteronomy ch.18), and tribal princes (Numbers ch.1).

See also:

Choosing a king

Archaeology

Debunking the JEPD Documentary Hypothesis

Answer 2

The Bible says that after having spent many years as nomadic people wandering in the wilderness with their every need catered for by God, the Israelites swept in and conquered the fortified cities of Canaan. Only after almost another four hundred years did the Israelites establish a kingdom under Saul. Carol A. Redmount (The Oxford History of the Biblical World, Bitter lives) says the story of the period of the judges does not ring true to anthropologists because it is much too long and it also coincided with a long period during which we know the Egyptians had firm control of Palestine.

Societies move from a segmentary tribal organisation to a hereditary permanent, centralised monarchy, often passing through an intermediate stage known as 'chiefdom', all within a relatively concentrated period of time. Kings Saul, David and Solomon are thought of more as chieftains than hereditary kings like those who followed. Just as the biblical Exodus from Egypt is now recognised as not reflecting actual history, so also the period of the judges must be regarded as improbably long.

Archaeologists support the anthropological view, saying that there was no military conquest of Canaan, and that small settlements only began to appear in the hitherto sparsely populated Canaanite hinterland a little before 1200 BCE. These Hebrew settlements reflect a Canaanite heritage, and the Israelites are now considered to have been Canaanite peasants who migrated peacefully from the region of the rich coastal cities of Canaan. The establishment of a monarchy followed a normal pattern for an emerging civilisation. Centuries after they carved out their own nation, and long after they had forgotten their real heritage, the Hebrews developed traditions of a glorious past in which they overcame great hardships as slaves in Egypt and went on to conquer Canaanite cities that did not even exist at the time.