* Isa. xv. 1-9; xvi. 1-12.  This prophecy, which had been pronounced against Moab “in the old days,” and which is appropriated by Isaiah (xvi. 13, 14), has been attributed to Jonah, son of Amittai, of Gath-Hepher, who actually lived in the time of Jeroboam II. (2 Kings xiv. 25).  It is now generally recognised as the production of an anonymous Judsean prophet, and the earliest authentic fragment of prophetic literature which has come down to us.

This revival, like the former greatness of David and Solomon, was due not so much to any inherent energy on the part of Israel, as to the weakness of the nations on its frontiers.  Egypt was not in the habit of intervening in the quarrels of Asia, and Assyria was suffering from a temporary eclipse.  Damascus had suddenly collapsed, and Hadrach or Mansuati, the cities which sought to take its place, found themselves fully employed in repelling the intermittent attacks of the Assyrian; the Hebrews, for a quarter of a century, therefore, had the stage to themselves, there being no other actors to dispute their possession of it.  During the three hundred years of their existence as a monarchy they had adopted nearly all the laws and customs of the races over whom they held sway, and by whom they were completely surrounded.  The bulk of the people devoted themselves to the pasturing and rearing of cattle, and, during the better part of the year, preferred to live in tents, unless war rendered such a practice impossible.* They had few industries save those of the potter** and the smith,*** and their trade was almost entirely in the hands of foreigners.

* Cf. the passage in 2 Kings xiii. 5, “And the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as beforetime.”  Although the word ohel had by that time acquired the more general meaning of habitation, the context here seems to require us to translate it by its original meaning tent.

     ** Pottery is mentioned in 2 Sam. xvii. 28; numerous
     fragments dating from the monarchical period have been found
     at Jerusalem and Lachish.

*** The story of Tubal-Cain (Gen. iv. 22) shows the antiquity of the ironworker’s art among the Israelites; the smith is practically the only artisan to be found amongst nomadic tribes.

We find, however, Hebrew merchants in Egypt,* at Tyre, and in Coele-Syria, and they were so numerous at Damascus that they requested that a special bazaar might be allotted to them, similar to that occupied by the merchants of Damascus in Samaria from time immemorial.**

* The accurate ideas on the subject of Egypt possessed by the earliest compilers of the traditions contained in Genesis and Exodus, prove that Hebrew merchants must have been in constant communication with that country about the time with which we are now concerned.

     ** 1 Kings xx. 34; cf. what has been said on this point in
     vol. vi. pp. 432, 441.