=David East of the Jordan.= In fleeing from Jerusalem, David did not follow the line of the modern carriage-road down to the Jordan, but went farther north, over the Mount of Olives, avoiding the barren wilderness of Judea, which lay immediately to the east. According to the Targums, Bahurim, the home of the Benjamite Shimei, is to be identified with Almon, the present Almit, one mile beyond Anathoth. By continuing a little farther north it was possible to reach the direct highway from Michmash to the Jordan by way of Jericho. David probably crossed the Jordan at the upper of the two southern fords. From this point many roads led northeastward into Gilead (_cf._ p. 81). At Ishbaal's capital, Mahanaim, somewhere north of the Jabbok, he made his head-quarters. The forest of Ephraim was doubtless either immediately north or south of the Jabbok, not far from the Jordan, among the wild hills and deep ravines still clad with great groves of oaks,^{(97)} whose spreading branches often reach down to only a few feet from the ground. The traveller through that region to-day has little difficulty in picking out in imagination the great oak whose extended branches he can picture catching and holding the head of the fleeing Absalom. =Rebellion of the Northern Tribes.= The wild and sudden rebellion which sprang up among the northern tribes because David in his hour of triumph had shown favor to the tribes of the south spread far up the Jordan valley. Its leader was a certain Sheba, of the hill country of Ephraim. The rebellion was quickly put down in central Israel, but the rebels took their final stand far in the north, in the city of Abel-beth-maacah, at the northwestern end of the Jordan valley. It is to-day an imposing mound, standing out in the midst of the valley, overlooking miles of verdant meadow land, with a lofty and easily defended acropolis. Ruins on the southeast are indicative of its strength and importance. Through the intercession of a brave woman, the people of the city turned over the rebel to Joab, and thus the rebellion was put down. The contrast, however, between the level, unbroken fields about Abel-beth-maacah and the gray limestone hills that encircled Hebron is significant of the wide breach between the north and the south, which the tact of a David could only temporarily heal.