and
Adini--accepted their position as subjects, and any trouble arising
in that quarter was treated as merely an ebullition of local
dissatisfaction, and was promptly crushed. The Khati were exhausted by
the systematic destruction of their towns and their harvests. Lastly,
of the principalities of the Amanos, Gurgum, Samalla, and the Patina, if
some had occasionally taken part in the struggles for independence, the
others had always remained faithful in the performance of their duties
as vassals. Damascus alone held out, and the valour with which she had
endured all the attacks made on her showed no signs of abatement; unless
any internal disturbance arose to diminish her strength, she was likely
to be able to resist the growing power of Assyria for a long time to
come. It was at the very time when her supremacy appeared to be thus
firmly established that a revolution broke out, the effects of
which soon undid the work of the preceding two or three generations.
Ben-hadad, disembarrassed of Shalmaneser, desired to profit by the
respite thus gained to make a final reckoning with the Israelites. It
would appear that their fortune had been on the wane ever since the
heroic death of Ahab. Immediately after the disaster at Eamoth, the
Moabites had risen against Ahaziah,* and their king, Mesha, son of
Kamoshgad, had seized the territory north of the Arnon which belonged
to the tribe of Gad; he had either killed or carried away the Jewish
population in order to colonise the district with Moabites, and he had
then fortified most of the towns, beginning with Dhibon, his capital.
Owing to the shortness of his reign, Ahaziah had been unable to take
measures to hinder him; but Joram, as soon as he was firmly seated on
the throne, made every effort to regain possession of his province, and
claimed the help of his ally or vassal Jehoshaphat.**

* 2 Kings iii. 5. The text does not name Ahaziah, and it
might be concluded that the revolt took place under Joram;
the expression employed by the Hebrew writer, however,
"when Ahab was dead... the King of Moab rebelled against the
King of Israel," does not permit of it being placed
otherwise than at the opening of Ahaziah's reign.

** 2 Kings iii. 6, 7, where Jehoshaphat replies to Joram in
the same terms which he had used to Ahab. The chronological
difficulties induced Ed. Meyer to replace the name of
Jehoshaphat in this passage by that of