over the possessions of the kings of Zoba in the valleys of the Litany and the Orontes.** The rupture between the houses of Israel and Judah removed the only dangerous rival from his path, and Damascus became the paramount power in Southern and Central Palestine.  While Judah and Israel wasted their strength in fratricidal struggles, Tabrimmon, and after him Benhadad I., gradually extended their territory in Coele-Syria;*** they conquered Hamath, and the desert valleys which extend north-eastward in the direction of the Euphrates, and forced a number of the Hittite kings to render them homage.

     * Cf. what is said in regard to these events on pp. 351,
     352, supra.

     ** 1 Kings xi. 23-25.  The reading “Esron” in the Septuagint
     (1 Kings xi. 23) indicates a form “Khezron,” by which it was
     sought to replace the traditional reading “Rezon.”

*** Hezion, whom the Jewish writer intercalates before Tabrimmon (1 Kings xv. 18), is probably a corruption of Rezon; Winckler, relying on the Septuagint variants Azin or Azael (1 Kings xv. 18), proposes to alter Hezion into Hazael, and inserts a certain Hazael I. in this place.  Tabrimmon is only mentioned in 1 Kings xv. 18, where he is said to have been the father of Benhadad.

They had concluded an alliance with Jeroboam as soon as he established his separate kingdom, and maintained the treaty with his successors, Nadab and Baasha.  Asa collected all the gold and silver which was left in the temple of Jerusalem and in his own palace, and sent it to Benhadad, saying, “There is a league between me and thee, between thy father and my father:  behold, I have sent unto thee a present of silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha, King of Israel, that he may depart from me.”  It would seem that Baasha, in his eagerness to complete the fortifications of Ramah, had left his northern frontier undefended.  Benhadad accepted the proposal and presents of the King of Judah, invaded Galilee, seized the cities of Ijon, Dan, and Abel-beth-Maacah, which defended the upper reaches of the Jordan and the Litany, the lowlands of Genesareth, and all the land of Naphtali.  Baasha hastily withdrew from Judah, made terms with Benhadad, and settled down in Tirzah for the remainder of his reign;* Asa demolished Eamah, and built the strongholds of Gebah and Mizpah from its ruins.** Benhadad retained the territory he had acquired, and exercised a nominal sovereignty over the two Hebrew kingdoms.  Baasha, like Jeroboam, failed to found a lasting dynasty; his son Blah met with the same fate at the hands of Zimri which he himself had meted out to Nadab.  As on the former occasion, the army was encamped before Gibbethon, in the country of the Philistines, when the tragedy took place.

     * 1 Kings xv. 21, xvi. 6.

     ** 1 Kings xv. 18-22; of. 2 Ghron. xvi. 2-6.