File:Palestine under David and Solomon (Smith, 1915).jpg

English: David, at first King of Judah only, succeeded on the death of Ish-ba'al ( = bosheth), Saul's son, to the allegiance of N. Israel, and to these territories—Benjamin, Ephraim, Jezreel (the Plain of), and all Israel to the N., with Gilead and the Geshurites (?Heb. text, Ashurites; 2 Sam. ii. 8fF.; v. 1-4). He gradually drove the Philistines off the Judsean highlands, and broke their power by the capture of Gath (v. 17 ff., viii. 1); during this time he took Jerusalem (v. 6 ff.) and made it his capital (for the motives to this, see Jerus., ii. 32 ff.), and concluded an alliance with Hiram of Tyre (v. 11). He conquered Moab to the Arnon (viii. 2), overthrew the Ammonites with their capital (x. 1-14, xi. 16-25, xii. 26-31), defeating also their Aramaean allies—Aram Beth-Rehob, probably the district round the present Rihab (Map 26, F 2), Aram Sobah, probably in the Lebanon region, and Maacah in Golan, with the men of Tob (x. 6-13); and crushed a subsequent Aramaean (Syrian) confederacy at Helam (unknown), E. of Jordan (x. 15-17). The phrase Aramceans beyond the River (cp. viii. 3) implies that all the Aramaeans S. of the Euphrates were engaged against him, but it is a phrase from the Persian period, and due to a late editor (see notes on Map 37). It is also said that he put garrisons in Damascus (viii. 6), and received tribute from Hamath (not H. on the Orontes, but H. Sobah, 2 Chron. viii. 3) and other cities. In the S. he subdued the Amalekites and smote Edom (not Syria =Ara7n as in Heb. text) in W. el Milh, near Beersheba, and made Edom tributary (viii. 12-14). From Jerusalem, he, no doubt, began that absorption of Canaanite enclaves in Israel's territory which was completed by Solomon. Ch. xxiv. gives the extent of his kingdom as from Aroer, N. of Arnon and its suburb or toll-town below it in the midst of the valley (see on Deut. xi. 36, in Camb. Bible for Schools), across Gilead to the Yarmuk, with an extension, perhaps, into Bashan, but exclusive of Geshur in Aram (to be distinguished from the other Geshur, to which Absalom fled, xiii. 37 f., XV. 8, where delete in Aram, as a gloss, and which is given in Josh. xiii. 2, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8, as in the S.W. of Palestine on the way to Egypt) and Maacah, both of which remained independent. From the Yarmuk the list crosses Jordan up to what the text gives as the land of Tahtim-hodshi, to be read either as. the land under Hermon or, less probably, land of the Hittites towards Kadesh (an ideal boundary), to Dan and Ijon (lyon), which read for Dan-jaan, and thence turns towards Sidon and the fortress of Tyre (i.e. the domains of his ally Hiram), and so S. by the absorbed cities of Canaanites and Hivites (with the doubtful inclusion of Carmel) to Beersheba in the extreme S., but excluding the Canaanite Gezer and the bulk of Philistia, then, or soon after, under Egyptian sovereignty.

These were the domains which David left to Solomon, with a strong capital, a settled administration, a partially organised trade (2 Sam. xiv. 26), a strong mercenary army, and the enrolment, both in civil and military life, of many foreigners. Solomon embellished the capital, extended the administration, dividing the kingdom into twelve provinces (1 Kings iv. 7), and by fortifying the main avenues to, and lines of trafiic through, his kingdom more firmly controlled and vastly extended his trade. In Hasor in Galilee he commanded the N. entrance to the land; in Megiddo the pass from Esdraelon to Sharon; in Beth-horon, Gezer (and perhaps Baalath?) the roads from Sharon to Jerusalem; and in Thamar the road S. from Hebron (ix. 15-18). Suppressing a revolt in Edom (xi. 14-22), he kept this road open as far as Ezion-geber (Map 8, L 4), beside Elath, from which he sent ships to Ophir (ix. 26 ff.). He thus controlled all the trade between Damascus (with Mesopotamia beyond) and Egypt, and between Arabia and Gaza. Probably for his services in regard to this, Egypt ceded Gezer to hfm, and he completed the absorption and servitude of the Canaanite and Amorite enclaves in Israel (ix. 16, 20). The ascription of power to him up to the Euphrates (iv. 21, 24) is doubtful; it includes the post-exilic phrase across the river. The only probability is that his commercial influence extended so far. He imported horses, not froTn Egypt, as the Heb. text reads (x. 28), but from the northern Musri and Kue or Cilicia, as the Greek version enables us to emend it (see Map 2). He lost little of the territories left him—the district of Kabul (ix. 10-14), Damascus, if David had actually occupied it, and perhaps parts of the Negeb and Edom. But his severe levies upon Israel, for the enrichment of his capital, roused the discontent which led to the disruption of the kingdom under his successor; and the establishment, in spite of him, of a new and vigorous Aramaean power in Damascus, prepared for Israel the most fatal opposition the people had yet encountered.

For the topography of Jerusalem and neighbourhod, see Jerusalem, ii. 39-46, and Nos. 1 and 2 on Maps 47, 48 in this volume.

On this map delete the name Idumaeans in the extreme south.

AUTHORITIES—Ancient: the Second Book of Samuel; 1 Kings i.-xi. (cp. 1 Chronicles x. to 2 Chronicles ix.); Pharaoh Shoshenk's list of towns taken by him in Palestine. Modern: the works given in previous list, with I. Benzinger, Die Bilcher der Kdnige (1899); C. F. Burney, Notes on Heb. Text of the Books of Kings (1903); W. M. Muller, Asien u. Europa (1893); G. A. Smith, "Trade and Commerce" in E.B., and Jerusalem, ii., chs. ii., iii., with authorities cited there.