from thy wisdom and with thine understanding hast thou gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:  by thy great wisdom and by thy traffick thou hast increased thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches"[14196]; and again, “O thou that are situated at the entry of the sea, which art the merchant of the peoples unto many isles, thus saith the Lord God, Thou, O Tyre, hast said, I am perfect in beauty.  Thy borders are in the heart of the sea; thy builders have perfected thy beauty.  They have made all thy planks of fir-trees from Senir; they have taken from Lebanon cedars to make masts for thee; of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; they have made thy benches of ivory, inlaid in boxwood, from the isles of Kittim . . .  The ships of Tarshish were thy caravans for thy merchandise; and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the sea."[14197]

The first to strike of the two great antagonists was Egypt.  Psamatik I., who was advanced in years at the time of Assyria’s downfall,[14198] died about B.C. 610, and was succeeded by a son still in the full vigour of life, the brave and enterprising Neco.  Neco, in B.C. 608, having made all due preparations, led a great expedition into Palestine,[14199] with the object of bringing under his dominion the entire tract between the River of Egypt (Wady el Arish) and the Middle Euphrates.  Already possessed of Ashdod[14200] and perhaps also of Gaza[14201] and Askelon,[14202] he held the keys of Syria, and could have no difficulty in penetrating along the coast route, through the rich plain of Sharon, to the first of the mountain barriers which are interposed between the Nile and the Mesopotamian region.  His famous fleet[14203] would support him along the shore, at any rate as far Carmel; and Dor and Accho would probably be seized, and made into depots for his stores and provisions.  The powerful Egyptian monarch marching northward with his numerous and well-disciplined army, partly composed of native troops, partly of mercenaries from Asia Minor, Greeks and Carians, probably did not look to meet with any opposition, till, somewhere in Northern Syria, he should encounter the forces of Babylonia, which would of course be moved westward to meet him.  What then must have been his surprise when he found the ridge connecting Carmel with the highland of Samaria occupied by a strong body of troops, and his further progress barred by a foe who had appeared to him too insignificant to be taken into account?  Josiah, the Jewish monarch of the time, grandson of Manasseh and great-grandson of Hezekiah, who, in the unsettled state of Western Asia, had united under his dominion the entire country of the twelve tribes,[14204] had quitted Jerusalem, and thrown himself across the would-be conqueror’s path in the strong and well-known position of Megiddo.  Here, in remote times, had the great Thothmes met and defeated the whole force of Syria and Mesopotamia under the king