maller
tribes of Asher, Naphtali, Issachar, Zebulon, and Dan, hemmed in between
the Phoenicians and the Aramaeans of Zoba and Damascus. Each group had
its own traditions, its own interests often opposed to those of its
neighbours, and its own peculiar mode of life, which it had no intention
of renouncing for any one else's benefit. The difficulty of keeping
these groups together became at once apparent. Shechem had been the
first to revolt against Rehoboam; it was a large and populous town,
situated almost in the centre of the newly formed state, and the seat of
an ancient oracle, both of which advantages seemed to single it out as
the future capital. But its very importance, and the memories of its
former greatness under Jeruhhaal and Abimelech, were against it. Built
in the western territory belonging to Manasseh, the eastern and northern
clans would at once object to its being chosen, on the ground that it
would humiliate them before the House of Joseph, in the same manner as
the selection of Jerusalem had tended to make them subservient to Judah.
Jeroboam would have endangered his cause by fixing on it as his capital,
and he therefore soon quitted it to establish himself at Tirzah. It is
true that the latter town was also situated in the mountains of Ephraim,
but it was so obscure and insignificant a place that it disarmed all
jealousy; the new king therefore took up his residence in it, since he
was forced to fix on some royal abode, but it never became for him what
Jerusalem was to his rival, a capital at once religious and military. He
had his own sanctuary and priests at Tirzah, as was but natural, but
had he attempted to found a temple which would have attracted the whole
population to a common worship, he would have excited jealousies which
would have been fatal to his authority. On the other hand, Solomon's
temple had in its short period of existence not yet acquired such a
prestige as to prevent Jeroboam's drawing his people away from it:
which he determined to do from a fear that contact with Jerusalem would
endanger the allegiance of his subjects to his person and family. Such
concourses of worshippers, assembling at periodic intervals from all
parts of the country, soon degenerated into a kind of fair, in which
commercial as well as religious motives had their part.

[Illustration: 391.jpg THE MOUND AND PLAIN OF BETHEL.]

Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph published by the Duc
de Luynes.