ade thinks that Judah was not exempt, and that the
original document must have given thirteen districts.

In order to facilitate the collection of the taxes, Solomon divided the
kingdom into twelve districts, each of which was placed in charge of
a collector; these regions did not coincide with the existing tribal
boundaries, but the extent of each was determined by the wealth of the
lands contained within it. While one district included the whole of
Mount Ephraim, another was limited to the stronghold of Mahanaim and its
suburbs. Mahanaim was at one time the capital of Israel, and had played
an important part in the life of David: it held the key to the regions
beyond Jordan, and its ruler was a person of such influence that it was
not considered prudent to leave him too well provided with funds. By
thus obliterating the old tribal boundaries, Solomon doubtless hoped
to destroy, or at any rate greatly weaken, that clannish spirit which
showed itself with such alarming violence at the time of the revolt of
Sheba, and to weld into a single homogeneous mass the various Hebrew and
Canaanitish elements of which the people of Israel were composed.*

* 1 Kings iv. 7-19, where a list of the districts is given;
the fact that two of Solomon's sons-in-law appear in it,
show that the document from which it is taken gave the staff
of collectors in office at the close of his reign.

Each of these provinces was obliged, during one month in each year,
to provide for the wants of "the king and his household," or, in other
words, the requirements of the central government. A large part of these
contributions went to supply the king's table; the daily consumption at
the court was--thirty measures of fine flour, sixty measures of meal,
ten fat oxen, twenty oxen out of the pastures, a hundred sheep, besides
all kinds of game and fatted fowl: nor need we be surprised at these
figures, for in a country where, and at a time when money was unknown,
the king was obliged to supply food to all his dependents, the greater
part of their emoluments consisting of these payments in kind. The
tax-collectors had also to provide fodder for the horses reserved
for military purposes: there were forty thousand of these, and twelve
thousand charioteers, and barley and straw had to be forthcoming either
in Jerusalem itself or in one or other of the garrison towns amongst
which they were distributed.* The levying of tolls on caravans