ruling instead of one--that no breach had ever taken place, or that the wounds once inflicted had been healed. Jeroboam and Uzziah appear to have lived on terms of perfect peace with one another. Israelites were permitted to make pilgrimages to Beersheba. No doubt some of them also visited the Temple in Jerusalem. But it was only the last glimmer of a politically happy period. The corruption which prosperity helped to develop in the kingdom of Judah, and still more conspicuously in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, soon put an end to these happy days, and hastened the decadence of both states. In the latter, the bull-worship was not only continued in Bethel and Dan, but even assumed greater proportions, when additional images of the bull were erected in Samaria and in Gilgal. Jeroboam appears to have elevated Bethel to the rank of a capital. Here the chief sanctuary was established. A sort of high priest, named Amaziah, ministered there, and appears to have been very jealous of his office. Unlike the Aaronites in Judah, he enjoyed a rich prebend in the possession of fields around Bethel. Either this perverted form of worship was not yet low enough to satisfy the cravings of its devotees, or the voluptuousness consequent upon the accession of wealth may have demanded new departures; at all events, the hideous worship of Baal and the immoral cult of Astarte were again introduced. It is extraordinary that this idolatry, which had been extirpated with so much energy by Jehu, was again promoted, and received fresh encouragement under his grandson. The idolatry thus newly re-introduced brought in its train every species of wickedness and corruption. In order to gratify the senses, all thoughts were bent on acquiring riches. The wealthy made usury their business, and pursued their debtors with such severity as to make slaves of their impoverished debtors or their children. Usurious trade in corn was especially prevalent. In years of famine the rich opened their granaries, and sold the necessaries of life on credit, not always without employing false weights and measures; and when the poor were unable to return what had been lent to them, they heartlessly took their clothes or even their persons in pledge. When these unfortunates uttered their complaint against such injustice in the national assemblies they found no ear to listen; for the judges were either themselves among the evil-doers, or had been bribed and made deaf to the voice of justice. The treasures thus extorted were wasted by their owners in daily revelry. The contemporary prophet Amos pictures in gloomy colours the debauched life of the rich and noble Israelites residing in the capitals in Jeroboam's time.[20] The wives of the nobles followed the bad examples of their husbands, and urged them to be hard-hearted to the poor, demanding of them, "Bring, bring, and let us drink."