Nineveh was the centre of a highly developed civilization. Among the ruins of the great cities thousands of clay tablets have been exhumed which bear witness to an organized and cultured society. These contain not only the records of land surveys, legal contracts, and private accounts, but also long poems, histories, and prayers, which deserve to rank as literature. The art of the eighth century, though it had not attained the splendour of the age of Asshurbanipal, might well challenge comparison with Egypt. The huge palaces and temples, whose avenues were lined with gigantic winged bulls, and their walls covered with sculptured representations of battles and lion-hunts, must have been among the most impressive buildings that the world has ever seen. From the height of all this wealth and power and magnificence the kings of Nineveh must have looked down upon the petty princes of Palestine much as Louis XIV looked down upon the little German states, which his armies devastated with an almost Assyrian ferocity.

Between the two great rival empires lay a comparatively small area which each of them was inclined to claim as its 'sphere of influence'. Syria was divided into at least a dozen small states, all of which, except Philistia, were allied by similarity of race, language, and institutions. Northernmost of these was the monarchy of Hamath. Occupying a fertile plain, completely surrounded by mountains, it had little to do with Syrian politics until self-defence obliged it to make common cause with its neighbours. Southward on the Mediterranean coast lay Tyre and Sidon, the twin Phoenician cities whose commerce was famous throughout the world. Not desiring to make conquests by land, they were content with a strip of coast which reached nearly to Mount Carmel. South of Mount Carmel the coast was in the hands of the Philistines, a league of five cities, each with its own king. Though they had long ceased to invade or harass Israel, they commanded considerable resources, and their fortified cities

were reckoned almost impregnable. To the south and southeast of Philistia the Edomites occupied the whole range of Mount Seir, which runs from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, together with a wide space of barren land to the west of it. The fertile valleys on the eastern side of Mount Seir, and Elath, the port for trade with Arabia and India, had been taken from them by Uzziah in the early part of his reign. East of the Red Sea lay a wilderness over which the nomad Arabs wandered with their flocks. North of them and east of Judah the kingdoms of Moab and Ammon occupied the fertile country and pastures which lay between the Jordan and the desert. North of the Jabbok the province of Gilead was claimed alternately by Israel and Damascus. In the ninth century the territory of Damascus had stretched from the Jordan almost to the Euphrates: but in 750 Gilead and Bashan had been reclaimed by Israel, and the eastern provinces had been annexed by Assyria. The power of Damascus was so broken that Isaiah could describe it in 734 as the tail of a smoking firebrand.

Girt in by this curious belt of kindred peoples, with which they had so much in common, but marked off from them by their mountainous country, were the twin monarchies of Israel and Judah. As has already been said, their joint area was normally about the same as that of Yorkshire. But during the first half of the eighth century both had extended their borders. Uzziah had conquered parts of Edom and Moab, while Jeroboam II had carried his arms to the gates of Damascus. In race, in religion, in language, industries, and form of government, there was little to distinguish the two states. Even the corruptions of their religion were almost identical. Nothing kept them from uniting but the tribal jealousies which had divided them after the death of Solomon. The northern state was the larger, the richer, and the more progressive: and it always took the lead. When they quarrelled, Israel was usually victorious; when they were allied, Israel ordered the cam

paign; when a new fashion, social or religious, was introduced, Israel set the example. The worship of the Phoenician Baal, for example, began at Samaria, and then passed to Jerusalem. It was in Samaria that the two great developments of prophecy originated in the persons of Elijah and Amos. One reason for the predominance of the northern kingdom was geographical. Its situation laid it open to external influences. The great trade route between Egypt and Assyria passed right through the plain of Esdraelon, which was almost the heart of Israel. Tyre on the west, and Damascus on the east, came close to its borders. The Assyrian armies often advanced to the foot of Lebanon. So we find that while Judah remained a simple agricultural state among its native hills, Israel was already in the ninth century importing the art and religion of Tyre, fighting for existence against Syria, and enrolling itself among the tributaries of Nineveh.

Till about 850 B.C. the little brotherhood of Syrian states lived almost as if there were no outside world. Egypt had withdrawn from all enterprise in that direction, and Assyria had not yet come. So they made wars and treaties among themselves, and held grand courts, quite in the style of the German princes of the eighteenth century. The great danger to their equilibrium was the size and activity of Damascus, which seemed at one time likely to absorb northern Israel. But just then Shalmaneser II began to invade Syria, and Damascus bore the brunt of his attack. Weakened by Shalmaneser, and almost ruined by his grandson Rammannirari (811-783), Damascus ceased to be a danger to its neighbours, and ere long fell a prey to the revived power of Israel. Jeroboam II, the last of the vigorous dynasty of Jehu, conquered a large part of Syria, and even established a residency in Damascus. The forty years of his reign (782742) were the most prosperous period in the history of the northern kingdom. Conquest brought rich tribute and increased commerce and the whole people advanced in wealth, luxury,

and self-confidence. The kingdom of Judah shared the same movement. Uzziah, who reigned from 792 to 740, was in close alliance with Jeroboam. Secure on his northern frontier, he turned his arms against Moab and Edom. The spoils gained from them, and the trade of which the port of Elath made him master, brought much wealth into the country: and long security from invasion developed its natural resources.

To those who did not see very far, both Israel and Judah in Isaiah's childhood must have appeared richer, stronger, and more prosperous than ever before. To us, who can read the annual register of the Assyrian kings, with its boastful yet businesslike record of battles and prisoners, of countries reduced to ruin, of thousands of men and women butchered in cold blood, and can trace on our maps the gradual extension of the empire's boundaries, it may seem strange that the politicians of Jerusalem and Samaria were blind to their real danger. No doubt the attacks of Armenia greatly weakened Assyria all through Jeroboam's reign. But no one who knew the intense energy of the Assyrian race could doubt that a revival was at hand. The prophet Amos, who understood the real conditions, uttered a deep note of warning. But priests and people alike laughed him to scorn, and drove him back from Samaria to his native hills. They were confident that all was well. Jehovah, pleased with their rich sacrifices, was sure to continue his favour and with his aid they expected to make fresh conquests and to gain still greater wealth.

CHAPTER V

THE YOUNG REFORMER

THE external prosperity, which Israel and Judah enjoyed during the first half of the eighth century, could not but produce great internal changes. Conquest is always a searching test of national character: for the sudden wealth which it bestows tends to upset the existing social order. In the case of an agricultural people, accustomed to an unchanging routine of life, and to fixed relations between classes, the consequences are likely to be very serious. Old standards of living are discredited or challenged; individuals acquire an importance which is independent of their birth and status; above all, the opportunity of borrowing money ruins the more improvident among the small farmers. Roman history supplies us with the most familiar example of this truth. In the second century before Christ the wealth of Asia, suddenly poured into Italy, proved the destruction of the yeomanry. Rich men lent them money, and soon got possession of their farms: a new system of large holdings, worked by slave labour, excluded them from employment: homeless and desperate, they drifted to Rome, there to form a class of discontented idlers, dangerous to the state. So the old social order was broken up, and the traditional morality was undermined. A hundred years of revolution was the price which Rome paid for her conquests. The people of Israel were even less able to endure the test of sudden wealth. They had not the energy of character which conquest usually implies: for their successes were the fruit, not of their own martial vigour, but of Assyrian policy. Surrounded by nations whose sensual religions had always a dangerous attraction for them, when the protection of