its rivals, menaced from afar by Assyria and hard pressed at their own doors by Hadrach, may have resorted to one of those propitiatory overtures which eastern monarchs are only too ready to recognise as acts of submission.  The lesser southern states, such as Ammon, the Bedawin tribes of Hauran, and, at the opposite extremity of the kingdom, the Philistines,*** who had bowed themselves before Hazael in the days of his prosperity, now transferred their homage to Israel.

     * 2 Kings xiv. 19, 20; cf. 2 Ghron. xxv. 27, 28.

** The Hebrew texts make no mention of this subjection of Judah to Jeroboam II.; that it actually took place must, however, be admitted, at any rate in so far as the first half of the reign of Azariah is concerned, as a necessary outcome of the events of the preceding reigns.

*** The conquests of Jeroboam II. are indicated very briefly in 2 Kings xiv. 25-28:  cf.  Amos vi. 14, where the expressions employed by the prophet imply that at the time at which he wrote the whole of the ancient kingdom of David, Judah included, was in the possession of Israel.

Moab alone offered any serious resistance.  It had preserved its independence ever since the reign of Mesha, having escaped from being drawn into the wars which had laid waste the rest of Syria.  It was now suddenly forced to pay the penalty of its long prosperity.  Jeroboam made a furious onslaught upon its cities—­Ar of Moab, Kir of Moab, Dibon, Medeba, Heshbon, Elealeh—­and destroyed them all in succession.  The Moabite forces carried a part of the population with them in their flight, and all escaped together across the deserts which enclose the southern basin of the Dead Sea.  On the frontier of Edom they begged for sanctuary, but the King of Judah, to whom the Edomite valleys belonged, did not dare to shelter the vanquished enemies of his suzerain, and one of his prophets, forgetting his hatred of Israel in delight at being able to gratify his grudge against Moab, greeted them in their distress with a hymn of joy—­“I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon Elealeh:  for upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest the battle shout is fallen.  And gladness is taken away and joy out of the fruitful fields; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise; no treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the vintage shout to cease.  Wherefore my bowels sound like an harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir-Heres.  And it shall come to pass, when Moab presenteth himself, when he wearieth himself upon the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, he shall not prevail!"*