n His servant, and persuades himself that the faithlessness of which
he is a victim is but a feeble type of that which Jahveh had suffered at
the hands of His people. Israel had gone a-whoring after strange gods,
and the day of retribution for its crimes was not far distant: "The
children of Israel shall abide many days without king and without
prince, and without sacrifice and without pillar, and without ephod or
teraphim; afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the
Lord their God, and David their king; and shall come with fear unto the
Lord and to His goodness in the latter days."**

* Hos. i. 4, 5.

**Hos. i.-iii. Is the story of Hosea and his wife an
allegory, or does it rest on a basis of actual fact? Most
critics now seem to incline to the view that the prophet has
here set down an authentic episode from his own career, and
uses it to point the moral of his work.

Whether the decadence of the Hebrews was or was not due to the purely
moral and religious causes indicated by the prophets, it was only too
real, and even the least observant among their contemporaries must
have suspected that the two kingdoms were quite unfitted, as to their
numbers, their military organisation, and monetary reserves, to resist
successfully any determined attack that might be made upon them by
surrounding nations. An armed force entering Syria by way of the
Euphrates could hardly fail to overcome any opposition that might be
offered to it, if not at the first onset, at any rate after a very
brief struggle; none of the minor states to be met upon its way, such
as Damascus or Israel, much less those of Hamath or Hadrach, were any
longer capable of barring its progress, as Ben-hadad and Hazael had
arrested that of the Assyrians in the time of Shalmaneser III. The
efforts then made by the Syrian kings to secure their independence had
exhausted their resources and worn out the spirit of their peoples;
civil war had prevented them from making good their losses during the
breathing-space afforded by the decadence of Assyria, and now that
Nature herself had afflicted them with the crowning misfortunes of
famine and pestilence, they were reduced to a mere shadow of what they
had been during the previous century. If, therefore, Sharduris, after
making himself master of the countries of the Taurus and Amanos, had
turned his steps towards the valley of the Orontes, he might have
secured possession of