her. The
inscription appears to give the name of a goddess, Agana-
Zaphon, the second part of which recalls the name of Baal-
Zephon.

The Amorites were everywhere victorious, but our information is confined
to this bare fact; soon after their victory, however, we find the
territory they had invaded divided into two kingdoms: in the north that
of Bashan, which comprised, besides the Hauran, the plain watered by the
Yarrnuk; and to the south that of Heshbon, containing the district lying
around the Arnon, and the Jabbok to the east of the Dead Sea.* They seem
to have made the same rapid progress in the country between the Jordan
and the Mediterranean as elsewhere. They had subdued some of the small
Canaanite states, entered into friendly relation with others, and
penetrated gradually as far south as the borders of Sinai, while we find
them establishing petty kings among the hill-country of Shechem around
Hebron, on the confines of the Negeb, and the Shephelah.** When the
Hebrew tribes ventured to push forward in a direct line northwards, they
came into collision with the advance posts of the Amorite population,
and suffered a severe defeat under the walls of Hormah.*** The check
thus received, however, did not discourage them. As a direct course
was closed to them, they turned to the right, and followed, first the
southern and then the eastern shores of the Red Sea, till they reached
the frontier of Gilead.****

* The extension of the Amorite power in this direction is
proved by the facts relating to the kingdoms of Sihon and Og
Gent. i. 4, ii. 24-37, iii. 1-1.7.

** For the Amorite occupation of the Negeb and the hill-
country of Judah, cf. Numb. xiii. 29; Bent. i. 7, 19-46;
Josh. x. 5, 6, 12, xi. 3; for their presence in the
Shephelah, cf. Judges i. 34-36.

*** See the long account in Numb, xiii., xiv., which
terminates with the mention of the defeat of the Israelites
at Hormah; and cf. Bent. i. 19-46.

**** The itinerary given in Numb. xx. 22-29, xxxi., xxxiii.
37-49, and repeated in Bent, ii., brings the Israelites as
far as Ezion-geber, in such a manner as to avoid the
Midianites and the Moabites. The friendly welcome accorded
to them in the regions situated to the east of the Dead Sea,
has been accounted for either by an alliance made with Moab
and Ammon against their common enemy, the Amorites, or by
th