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.

These gatherings formed a source of revenue to the prince in whose capital they were held, and financial as well as political considerations required that periodical assemblies should be established in Israel similar to those which attracted Judah to Jerusalem.  Jeroboam adopted a plan which while safeguarding the interests of his treasury, prevented his becoming unpopular with his own subjects; as he was unable to have a temple for himself alone, he chose two out of the most venerated ancient sanctuaries, that of Dan for the northern tribes, and that of Bethel, on the Judaean frontier, for the tribes of the east and centre.  He made two calves of gold, one for each place, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”  He granted the sanctuaries certain appanages, and established a priesthood answering to that which officiated in the rival kingdom:  “whosoever would he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places."* While Jeroboam thus endeavoured