* 1 Kings xiv. 25-28; cf. 2 Chron. xii. 1-10, where an episode, not in the Book of Kings, is introduced.  The prophet Shemaiah played an important part in the transaction.

This expedition of the Pharaoh was neither dangerous nor protracted, but it was more than two hundred years since so much riches from countries beyond the isthmus had been brought into Egypt, and the king was consequently regarded by the whole people of the Nile valley as a great hero.  Auputi took upon himself the task of recording the exploit on the south wall of the temple of Amon at Karnak, not far from the spot where Ramses II. had had engraved the incidents of his Syrian campaigns.  His architect was sent to Silsilis to procure the necessary sandstone to repair the monument.  He depicted upon it his father receiving at the hands of Amon processions of Jewish prisoners, each one representing a captured city.  The list makes a brave show, and is remarkable for the number of the names composing it:  in comparison with those of Thutmosis III., it is disappointing, and one sees at a glance how inferior, even in its triumph, the Egypt of the XXIInd dynasty was to that of the XVIIIth.

[Illustration:  419.jpg AMON PRESENTING TO SHESHONQ THE LIST OF THE CITIES CAPTURED IN ISRAEL AND JUDAH]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.

It is no longer a question of Carchemish, or Qodshu, or Mitanni, or Naharaim:  Megiddo is the most northern point mentioned, and the localities enumerated bring us more and more to the south—­Eabbat, Taanach, Hapharaim, Mahanaim,* Gibeon, Beth-horon, Ajalon, Jud-hammelek, Migdol, Jerza, Shoko, and the villages of the Negeb.  Each locality, in consequence of the cataloguing of obscure towns, furnished enough material to cover two, or even three of the crenellated cartouches in which the names of the conquered peoples are enclosed, and Sheshonq had thus the puerile satisfaction of parading before the eyes of his subjects a longer cortege of defeated chiefs than that of his predecessor.  His victorious career did not last long:  he died shortly after, and his son Osorkon was content to assume at a distance authority over the Kharu.**

* The existence of the names of certain Israelite towns on the list of.  Sheshonq has somewhat astonished the majority of the historians of Israel.  Renan declared that the list must “put aside the conjecture that Jeroboam had been the instigator of the expedition, which would certainly have been readily admissible, especially if any force were attached to the Greek text of 1 Kings xii. 24, which makes Jeroboam to have been a son-in-law of the King of Egypt;” the same view had been already expressed by Stade; others have thought that Sheshonq had conquered the country for his ally Jeroboam.  Sheshonq, in fact, was following the Egyptian custom by which all countries and towns which paid tribute to the Pharaoh, or who recognised his suzerainty, were made