as pointed out where they had been born. Ammon occupied
the country to the north which in earlier days had been the home of the
aboriginal Zuzini or Zamzummim. But they had been treated as the
Canaanites were treated by the Israelites in later days; their cities
were captured by the invading Ammonites, and they themselves massacred
or absorbed into the conquerors.

To the north the territory of Ammon was bounded by the plateau of Bashan
and the Aramaic kingdoms of Gilead. Southward it extended towards the
frontier of Moab, if indeed the borders of the two nations did not at
one time coincide. When the Israelitish invasion, however, took place,
the Amorites under Sihon had thrust themselves between, and had carved
for themselves a kingdom out of the northern half of Moab. The land
north of the Arnon became Amorite; but the Ammonite frontier was too
well defended to be broken through.

The kingdom of Ammon maintained itself down to the time of David. At one
time, in the days of the Judges, the Ammonites had made the Israelitish
tribes on the eastern side of the Jordan tributary to them, and had even
crossed the river and raided the highlands of Ephraim. Under Saul, Ammon
and Israel were at constant feud. Saul had begun his reign by rescuing
Jabesh in Gilead from the Ammonite king Nahash, who had threatened to
treat its inhabitants with innate Semitic barbarity. When civil war
broke out in Israel, Nahash naturally befriended David, and the alliance
continued after David's accession to the throne. Common interests
brought them together. Esh-Baal, the successor of Saul in Gilead, was
the enemy of both: his frontier adjoined that of Ammon, while between
him and the King of Judah there was perpetual war. David had
strengthened himself by marrying the daughter of the king of the Aramaic
district of Geshur, which bounded Gilead on the north, and Ammonites and
Aramaeans were in close alliance with each other.

As long as Nahash lived, there was peace between him and David. But with
the accession of his son Hanun came a change. The King of Judah had
become King of Israel, and his general, Joab, had subdued the
neighbouring kingdom of Moab, and was looking out for a fresh field of
fame. Hanun determined to forestall the war which he believed to be
inevitable, and, in alliance with the Aramaeans, to crush the rising
power of David. Family quarrels also probably conspired to bring about
this resolution. In the after days of Absalom