* The kaftan met with in these parts seems to correspond to
     the meil (R.V. “ephod “) of the biblical texts (1 Sam. ii.
     19; xviii. 4, etc.).

** Isa. iii. 16-24 describes in detail the whole equipment of jewels, paint, and garments required by the fashionable women of Jerusalem during the last thirty years of the eighth century B.C.

Illustration:  191.jpg WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF JUDAEA

     Drawn by Boudier, from Layard.

The king himself set them an evil example, and did not hesitate to assassinate one of his subjects in order that he might seize a vineyard which he coveted;* it was not to be wondered at, therefore, that the nobles of Ephraim “sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;"** that they demanded gifts of wheat, and “turned the needy from their right” when they sat as a jury “at the gate."*** From top to bottom of the social ladder the stronger and wealthier oppressed those who were weaker or poorer than themselves, leaving them with no hope of redress except at the hands of the king.****

     * Cf. the well-known episode of Naboth and Ahab in 1 Kings
     xxi.

     ** Amos ii. 6.

     *** Amos v. 11, 12.

     **** 2 Kings vi. 26-30; viii. 3-8, where, in both instances,
     it is a woman who appeals to the king.  Cf. for the period of
     David and Solomon, 2 Sam. xiv. 1-20, and 1 Kings iii. 16-27.

Unfortunately, the king, when he did not himself set the example of oppression, seldom possessed the resources necessary to make his decisions effective.  True, he was chief of the most influential family in either Judah or Israel, a chief by divine appointment, consecrated by the priests and prophets of Jahveh, a priest of the Lord,* and he was master in his own city of Jerusalem or Samaria, but his authority did not extend far beyond the walls.

* Cf. the anointing of Saul (1 Sam. ix. 16; x. 1; and xiv. 1), of David (1 Sam. xvi. 1-3, 12, 13), of Solomon (1 Kings i. 34, 39, 45), of Jehu (2 Kings ix. 1-10), and compare it with the unction received by the priests on their admission to the priesthood (Exod. xxix. 7; xxx. 22, 23; cf.  Lev. viii. 12, 30; x. 7).

It was not the old tribal organisation that embarrassed him, for the secondary tribes had almost entirely given up their claims to political independence.  The division of the country into provinces, a consequence of the establishment of financial districts by Solomon, had broken them up, and they gradually gave way before the two houses of Ephraim and Judah; but the great landed proprietors, especially those who held royal fiefs, enjoyed almost unlimited power within their own domains.  They were, indeed, called on to render military service, to furnish forced labour, and to pay certain trifling dues into the royal treasury;* but, otherwise, they were absolute masters in their