Edomites, and various tribes of the Hagarenes. His dominion was thus
established from the borders of Egypt to Galilee, and from the
Mediterranean to the Great Syrian Desert.

On his return to Egypt from Asia, with his prisoners and his treasures,
it seemed to the victorious monarch that he might fitly follow the
example of the old Pharaohs who had made expeditions into Palestine and
Syria, and commemorate his achievements by a sculptured record. So would
he best impress the mass of the people with his merits, and induce them
to put him on a par with the Thothmeses and the Amenhoteps of former
ages. On the southern external wall of the great temple of Karnak, he
caused himself to be represented twice--once as holding by the hair of
their heads thirty-eight captive Asiatics, and threatening them with
uplifted mace; and a second time as leading captive one hundred and
thirty-three cities or tribes, each specified by name and personified in
an individual form, the form, however, being incomplete. Among these
representations is one which bears the inscription "Yuteh Malek," and
which must be regarded as figuring the captive Judæan kingdom.

[Illustration: FIGURE RECORDING THE CONQUEST OF JUDÆA BY SHISHAK.]

Thus, after nearly a century and a half of repose, Egypt appeared once
more in Western Asia as a conquering power, desirious of establishing an
empire. The political edifice raised with so much trouble by David, and
watched over with such care by Solomon, had been shaken to its base by
the rebellion of Jeroboam; it was shattered beyond all hope of recovery
by Shishak. Never more would the fair fabric of an Israelite empire rear
itself up before the eyes of men; never more would Jerusalem be the
capital of a State as extensive as Assyria or Babylonia, and as populous
as Egypt. After seventy years, or so, of union, Syria was broken up--the