le treasures,
including the shields of gold which Solomon had made for his body-guard,
and plundered the royal palace (2 Chron, xii. 9). The city generally
does not appear to have been sacked: nor was there any massacre.
Rehoboam's submission was accepted; he was maintained in his kingdom;
but he had to become Sheshonk's "servant" (2 Chron. xii. 8), _i.e.,_ he
had to accept the position of a tributary prince, owing fealty and
obedience to the Egyptian monarch.

The objects of Sheshonk's expedition were-not yet half accomplished. By
the long inscription which he set up on his return to Egypt, we find
that, after having made Judea subject to him, he proceeded with his army
into the kingdom of Israel, and there also took a number of towns which
were peculiarly circumstanced. The Levites of the northern kingdom had
from the first disapproved of the religious changes effected by
Jeroboam; and the Levitical cities within his dominions were regarded
with an unfriendly eye by the Israelite monarch, who saw in them hotbeds
of rebellion. He had not ventured to make a direct attack upon them
himself, since he would thereby have lighted the torch of civil war
within his own borders; but, having now an Egyptian army at his beck
and call, he used the foreigners as an instrument at once to free him
from a danger and to execute his vengeance upon those whom he looked
upon as traitors. Sheshonk was directed or encouraged to attack and take
the Levitical cities of Rehob, Gibeon, Mahanaim, Beth-horon, Kedemoth,
Bileam or Ibleam, Alemoth, Taanach, Golan, and Anem, to plunder them and
carry off their inhabitants as slaves; while he was also persuaded to
reduce a certain number of Canaanite towns, which did not yield Jeroboam
a very willing obedience. We may trace the march of Sheshonk by Megiddo,
Taanach, and Shunem, to Beth-shan, and thence across the Jordan to
Mahanaim and Aroer; after which, having satisfied his vassal, Jeroboam,
he proceeded to make war on his own account with the Arab tribes
adjoining on Trans-Jordanic Israel, and subdued the Temanites, the
Edomites, and various tribes of the Hagarenes. His dominion was thus
established from the borders of Egypt to Galilee, and from the
Mediterranean to the Great Syrian Desert.

On his return to Egypt from Asia, with his prisoners and his treasures,
it seemed to the victorious monarch that he might fitly follow the
example of the old Pharaohs who had made expeditions into Palestine an