erhaps triumphed
over the more skilled but fewer warriors which the Amorite and Aramaean
cities could throw into the field against them. The pacific reign
of Solomon, the schism among the tribes, and the Egyptian invasion
furnished evidence enough that they also were not destined to realise
that solidarity which alone could secure them against the great Oriental
empires when the day of attack came.

The two kingdoms were then enjoying an independent existence. Judah, in
spite of its smaller numbers and its recent disaster, was not far
behind the more extensive Israel in its resources. David, and afterwards
Solomon, had so kneaded together the various elements of which it was
composed--Caleb, Cain, Jerahmeel and the Judsean clans--that they had
become a homogeneous mass, grouped around the capital and its splendid
sanctuary, and actuated with feelings of profound admiration and strong
fidelity for the family which had made them what they were. Misfortune
had not chilled their zeal: they rallied round Rehoboam and his race
with such a persistency that they were enabled to maintain their ground
when their richer rivals had squandered their energies and fallen
away before their eyes. Jeroboam, indeed, and his successors had never
obtained from their people more than a precarious support and a lukewarm
devotion: their authority was continually coming into conflict with
a tendency to disintegration among the tribes, and they could only
maintain their rule by the constant employment of force. Jeroboam had
collected together from the garrisons scattered throughout the country
the nucleus of an army, and had stationed the strongest of these
troops in his residence at Tirzah when he did not require them for some
expedition against Judah or the Philistines. His successors followed
his example in this respect, but this military resource was only an
ineffectual protection against the dangers which beset them. The kings
were literally at the mercy of their guard, and their reign was entirely
dependent on its loyalty or caprice: any unscrupulous upstart might
succeed in suborning his comrades, and the stroke of a dagger might
at any moment send the sovereign to join his ancestors, while the
successful rebel reigned in his stead.* The Egyptian troops had no
sooner set out on their homeward march, than the two kingdoms began to
display their respective characteristics. An implacable and truceless
war broke out between them. The frontier