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in mind the long-established and great municipal fights and liberties which made every
city with its district, under its Elders, almost an independent state within the state.
Accordingly, we find it chronicled as a note worthy fact (1 Kings 12:17), that King
Rehoboam reigned over those Israelites who were settled in Judean towns - either
wholly inhabiting, or forming the majority in them; while it is marked as a wise
measure on the part of Rehoboam, that he distributed "his children throughout all the
countries (districts) of Judah and Benjamin unto every fenced city" no doubt, with the
view of making sure of their allegiance. It seems to have been otherwise within the
domains of Jeroboam. From 2 Chronicles 11:13-16 we learn that, on the substitution by
Jeroboam and his successors of the worship of the golden calves for the service of
Jehovah, the old religion was disestablished, and the Levites deprived of their
ecclesiastical revenues, the new priesthood which took their place being probably
supported by the dues of their office, and, if we may judge from the history of Ahab (1
Kings 18:19), by direct assistance from the royal treasury. In consequence of these
changes, many of the Levites seem to have settled in Judaea, followed perhaps by more
or less extensive migrations of the pious laity, varying according to the difficulties put
in the way of resorting to the great festivals in Jerusalem. It would, however, be a
mistake to infer the entire exodus of the pious laity or of the Levites.^186 But even if
such had been the case, the feeling in the ancient Levitical cities would for some time
have continued sufficiently strong to refuse allegiance to Jeroboam.
And here a remarkable document throws unexpected light upon our history. On the
wall of the great Egyptian Temple of Karnak, Shishak has left a record of his victorious
expedition against Judah. Among the conquests there named 133 have been deciphered
- although only partially identified - while 14 are now illegible. The names ascertained
have been arranged into three groups^187 - those of Judean cities (the smallness of their
number being accounted for by the erasures just mentioned); those of Arab tribes,
south of Palestine; and those of Levitical and Canaanite cities within the territory of the
new kingdom of Israel. It is the latter which here alone claim our attention.
Any conquest of cities within the territory of Jeroboam might surprise us, since the
expedition of Shishak was against Judah, and not against Israel - indeed, rather in
alliance with Jeroboam and in support of his new kingdom. Another remarkable
circumstance is, that these Israelitish conquests of Shishak are all of Levitical or else of
ancient Canaanite cities, and that they are of towns in all parts of the territory of the ten
tribes, and at considerable distances from one another, there being, however, no
mention of the taking of the intervening cities. All these facts point to the conclusion,
to which we have already been directed on quite independent grounds, that the
Levitical and ancient Canaanite cities within the territory of Jeroboam did not
acknowledge his rule. This is why they were attacked and conquered by Shishak on his
expedition against Judah, as virtually subject to the house of David, and hence
constituting an element not only of rebellion but of danger within the new kingdom of
(^)