ISRAEL

longer ascribe to him either the Book of Proverbs or the Book of Ecclesiastes, his reputation for wisdom was no doubt deserved.

Solomon's reign is said to have continued forty years (1 K 11«). If this be so. b.c. 977-937 is probably the period covered. Towards the close of Solomon's reign the tribe of Ephraim. which in the time of the Judges could hardly bear to allow another tribe to take pre-cedence of it. became restless. Its leader was Jeroboam, a young Ephraimlte officer to whom Solomon had entrusted the administration of the affairs of the Joseph tribes (1 K H^s). His plans for rebelling involved the fortifica-tion of his native city Zeredah, which called Solomon's attention to his plot, and he fled accordingly to Egypt, where he found refuge. In the latter country the 21st dynasty, with which Solomonhad intermarried, had passed away, and the Libyan Shishak (Sheshonk), the founder of the 22nd dynasty, had ascended the throne in B.C. 945. He ruled a united Egypt, and entertained ambitions to renew Egypt's Asiatic empire. Shishak accordingly welcomed Jeroboam and offered him asylum, but was not prepared while Solomon lived to give him an army with which to attack his master.

16. Division of the kingdom. — Upon the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam seems to have been pro-claimed king in Judah without opposition, but as some doubt concerning the loyalty of the other tribes, of which Ephraim was leader, seems to have existed, Rehoboam went to Shechem to be anointed as king at their ancient shrine (1 K 12i^). Jeroboam, having been informed in his Egyptian retreat of the progress of affairs, returned to Shechem and prompted the elders of the tribes assembled there to exact from Rehoboam a promise that in case they accepted him as monarch he would relieve them of the heavy taxation which his father had imposed upon them. After considering the matter three days, Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older and wiser counsellors, and gave such an answer as one bred to the doctrine of the Divine right of kings would naturally give. The substance of his reply was: ' My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins.' As the result of this answer all the tribes except Judah and a portion of Benjamin refused to acknowledge the descendant of David, and made Jeroboam their king. Judah remained faithful to the heir of her old hero, and, because Jerusalem was on the border of Benjamin, the Judeean kings were able to retain a strip of the land of that tribe varying from time to time in width from four to eight miles. All else was lost to the Davidic dynasty.

The chief forces which produced this disruption were economic, but they were not the only forces. Religious conservatism also did its share. Solomon had in many ways contravened the religious customs of his nation. His brazen altar and brazen utensils for the Temple were not orthodox. Although he made no attempt to centralize the worship at his Temple (which was in reality his royal chapel), his disregard of sacred ritual had its effect, and Jeroboam made an appeal to religious conservatism when he said, ' Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.' Since we know the history only through the work of a propagandist of a later type of religion, the attitude of Jeroboam has long been misunderstood. He was not a religious innovator, but a religious con-servative.

When the kingdom was divided, the tributary States of course gained their independence, and Israel's empire was at an end. The days of her political glory had been less than a century, and her empire passed away never to return. The nation, divided and its parts often warring with one another, could not easily become again a power of importance.

16. From Jeroboam to Ahab (937-875). — After the division of the kingdom, the southern portion, consisting chiefly of the tribe of Judah, was known as the kingdom

ISRAEL

of Judah, while the northern division was known as the kingdom of Israel. Judah remained loyal to the Davidic dynasty as long as she maintained her in-dependence, but in Israel frequent changes of dynasty occurred. Only one family furnished more than four monarchs, some only two, while several failed to transmit the throne at all. The kings during the first period were:

IbrA-el. Judah.

Jeroboami. 937-915. Rehoboam . 937-920.

Nadab . . 915-913. Abijam . . 920-917.

Baasha . . 913-889. Asa . . . 917-876.

Elah . . 889-887. Jehoshaphat 876-

Zimri . . days.

Omri . . 887-875. Few of the details of the reign of Jeroboam have come down to us. He fortified Shechem (1 K 12»), but Tirzah (which Klostermann regards as the same as Zeredah) was also a residence (1 K 14"). Jeroboam extended his royal patronage to two sanctuaries, Dan and Bethel, the one at the northern and the other at the southern extremity of his territory. Naturally there were hostile relations between him and Judah as long as Jeroboam lived. No details of this hostility have come down to us. If we had only the Biblical records before us, we should suppose that Jeroboam was aided in this war by Shishak of Egypt, for we are told how he invaded Judah (1 K 14») and com-pelled Rehoboam to pay a tribute which stripped the Temple of much of its golden treasure and ornamenta-tion. It appears from the Egyptian inscriptions, however, that Shishak's campaign was directed against both the Hebrew kingdoms alike. His army marched northward to the latitude of the Sea of Galilee, captured the towns of Megiddo, Taanach, and Shunem in the plain of Jezreel, the town of Bethsheau at the junction of Jezreel with the Jordan valley, and Invaded the East-Jordanic country as far as Mahanaim. Many towns in Judah were captured also. (Cf. Breasted's Hist, of Egypt, 530.) How deep the enmity between Israel and Judah had become may be inferred from the fact that this attack of the Egyptian monarch did not drive them to peace.

Shishak's campaign seems to have been a mere plunder-ing raid. It established no permanent Asiatic empire for Egypt. After this attack, Rehoboam, according to the Chronicler, strengthened the fortifications of his kingdom (2 Ch ll^-u). According to this passage, his territory extended to Mareshah (Tell Sandehannah) and Gath (.Tell es-Safl?) in the Shephglah, and south-ward as far as Hebron. No mention is made of any town north of Jerusalem or in the Jordan valley.

The hostile relations between the two kingdoms were perpetuated after the death of Rehoboam, during the short reign of Abijam. In the early part of the reign of Asa, while Nadab was on the throne of Israel, active hostilities ceased sufficiently to allow the king of Israel to besiege the Philistine city of Gibbethon, a town in the northern part of the Maritime Plain opposite the middle portion of the Israelitish territory. The Israelitish monarch felt strong enough to endeavour to extend his dominions by compelUng these ancient enemies of his race to submit once more. During the siege of this town, Baasha, an ambitious man of the tribe of Issachar, conspired against Nadab, accom-plished his assassination, and had himself proclaimed king in his stead (1 K 15"-2»). Thus the dynasty of Jeroboam came to an end in the second generation.

Baasha upon his accession determined to push more vigorously the war with Judah. Entering into an alliance with Benhadad i. of Damascus, he proceeded to fortify Ramah, five miles north of Jerusalem, as a base of operations against Judah. Asa in this crisis collected all the treasure that he could, sent it to Ben-hadad, and bought him off, persuading him to break his alUance with Israel and to enter into one with Judah. Benhadad thereupon attacked some of the towns in

399