* The war with the Aramaeans, described in 2 Sam. viii. 3- 12, is similar to the account of the conflict with the Ammonites in 2 Sam. x.-xii., but with more details. Both documents are reproduced in 1 Chron. xviii. 3-11, and xix., xx. 1-3. [Illustration: 353.jpg THE HEBREW KINGDOM] This success brought others in its train. The Idumæans had taken advantage of the employment of the Israelite army against the Aramæans to make raids into Judah. Joab and Abishaî, despatched in haste to check them, met them in the Valley of Salt to the south of the Dead Sea, and gave them battle: their king perished in the fight, and his son Hadad with some of his followers took flight into Egypt. Joab put to the sword all the able-bodied combatants, and established garrisons at Petra, Elath, and Eziongeber* on the Red Sea. David dedicated the spoils to the Lord, “who gave victory to David wherever he went.” Neither Elath nor Eziongeber are here mentioned, but 1 Kings ix. 25-28 and 2 Chron. viii. 17, 18 prove that these places had been occupied by David. For all that concerns Hadad, see 1 Kings xi. 15-20. Southern Syria had found its master: were the Hebrews going to pursue their success, and undertake in the central and northern regions a work of conquest which had baffled the efforts of all their predecessors--Canaanites, Amorites, and Hittites? The Assyrians, thrown back on the Tigris, were at this time leading a sort of vegetative existence in obscurity; and, as for Egypt, it would seem to have forgotten that it ever had possessions in Asia. There was, therefore, nothing to be feared from foreign intervention should the Hebrew be inclined to weld into a single state the nations lying between the Euphrates and the Red Sea. [Illustration: 354.jpg THE SITE OF RABBATH-AMON, SEEN FROM THE WEST] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 377 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund._