srael, he spared no labour to accomplish the task which the Divine
favour had assigned to him. He attacked one after the other the peoples
who had encroached upon his domain, Moab being the first to feel the
force of his arm. He extended his possessions at the expense of Gilead,
and the fertile provinces opposite Jericho fell to his sword. These
territories were in dangerous proximity to Jerusalem, and David
doubtless realised the peril of their independence. The struggle for
their possession must have continued for some time, but the details are
not given, and we have only the record of a few incidental exploits: we
know, for instance, that the captain of David's guard, Benaiah, slew two
Moabite notables in a battle.* Moabite captives were treated with all
the severity sanctioned by the laws of war. They were laid on the ground
in a line, and two-thirds of the length of the row being measured off,
all within it were pitilessly massacred, the rest having their lives
spared. Moab acknowledged its defeat, and agreed to pay tribute: it had
suffered so much that it required several generations to recover.**

* 2 Sam. xxiii. 20-23: cf. 1 Chron. xi. 22-25. "Ariel," who
is made the father of the two slain by Benaiah, may possibly
be the term in 11. 12, 17, 18 of the Inscription of Mesha
(Moabite Stone); but its meaning is obscure, and has
hitherto baffled all attempts to explain it.

** 2 Sam. viii. 2.

Gilead had become detached from David's domain on the south, while
the Ammonites were pressing it on the east, and the Ararnaeans making
encroachments upon its pasture-lands on the north. Nahash, King of the
Ammonites, being dead, David, who had received help from him in his
struggle with Saul, sent messengers to offer congratulations to his son
Hanun on his accession. Hanun, supposing the messengers to be spies
sent to examine the defences of the city, "shaved off one-half of
their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to
their buttocks, and sent them away." This was the signal for war. The
Ammonites, foreseeing that David would endeavour to take a terrible
vengeance for this insult to his people, came to an understanding with
their neighbours. The overthrow of the Amorite chiefs had favoured the
expansion of the Aramaeans towards the south. They had invaded all that
region hitherto unconquered by Israel in the valley of the Litany to
the east of Jordan, and some half-dozen of t