in the hands of a tribe which could be barely said to have existed before the time of David, and was to a considerable extent of barbarous origin.  Taxes, homage, the keeping up and recruiting of garrisons, were all equally odious to this, as well as to the other clans descended from Joseph; meanwhile their burdens did not decrease.  A new fortress had to be built at Jerusalem by order of the aged king.  One of the overseers appointed for this work—­Jeroboam, the son of Nebat—­appears to have stirred up the popular discontent, and to have hatched a revolutionary plot.  Solomon, hearing of the conspiracy, attempted to suppress it; Jeroboam was forewarned, and fled to Egypt, where Pharaoh Sheshonq received him with honour, and gave him his wife’s sister in marriage.* The peace of the nation had not been ostensibly troubled, but the very fact that a pretender should have risen up in opposition to the legitimate king augured ill for the future of the dynasty.  In reality, the edifice which David had raised with such difficulty tottered on its foundations before the death of his successor; the foreign vassals were either in a restless state or ready to throw off their allegiance; money was scarce, and twenty Galilaean towns had been perforce ceded to Hiram to pay the debts due to him for the building of the temple;** murmurings were heard among the people, who desired an easier life.

     * 1 Kings xi. 23-40, where the LXX. is fuller than the A. V.

     ** 1 Kings ix. 10-13; cf. 2 Cliron. viii. 1, 2, where the
     fact seems to have been reversed, and Hiram is made the
     donor of the twenty towns.

In a future age, when priestly and prophetic influences had gained the ascendant, amid the perils which assailed Jerusalem, and the miseries of the exile, the Israelites, contrasting their humiliation with the glory of the past, forgot the reproaches which their forefathers had addressed to the house of David, and surrounded its memory with a halo of romance.  David again became the hero, and Solomon the saint and sage of his race; the latter “spake three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five.  And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall:  he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.”  We are told that God favoured him with a special predilection, and appeared to him on three separate occasions:  once immediately after the death of David, to encourage him by the promise of a prosperous reign, and the gift of wisdom in governing; again after the dedication of the temple, to confirm him in his pious intentions; and lastly to upbraid him for his idolatry, and to predict the downfall of his house.  Solomon is supposed to have had continuous dealings with all the sovereigns of the Oriental world,* and a Queen of Sheba is recorded as having come to bring him gifts from the furthest corner of Arabia.