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122 Army

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

xiv. 52). But the changing fortunes of the war and the king's mental troubles precluded any further

development. Thus, while a standing force was recognized as necessary, the soldier was still any

122

age to the court, a small body of chosen troops who wore strictly professionals, were equipped with a regular commissariat, and received fixed wages (compare I Kings iv. 27). These were not chosen, like the old levies, by tribal representation, but were

Reign of

recruited

from

sources.

Some had doubtless been

available

best

the

of David's former band of while others were Philisfrom the latter that the whole

members

David.

outlaws,

tines; and it was body derived its name, 'rfeni 'man (" Cherethites and Pelethites "). At the same time, the general militia was still maintained and extended (II Sam. Upon the death xviii. 1; II Kings i. 9; xi. 4, 19).

David's

of

old

general Joab, the captain of the

guard Benaiah became commander of the whole Army and it may be assumed that thenceforth the two positions were usually vested in the same officer. All hopes that Israel would continue to be a great military nation came to an end through the misgovernment in the later years of Solomon, and the schism which it occasioned nor had the Army under David attained to an equality with the reDecline spective military forces of other leadTTnder ing Eastern nations of the period. In Solomon; David's time, cavalry formed no part Cavalry, of the service. Introduced by Solomon, it had to be abandoned by the Both horses immediate successors of that ruler. and chariots, however, were employed during and after the Syrian wars. According to the report of Shalmaneser II. of Assyria, who fought against him in 854 B.C., Ahab had 2,000 chariots; andtiie decline



of the military power of northern Israel was marked by the reduction to which the successors of the latter

Thus, to submit (II Kings vii. 13, xiii. 7). Hezekiah of Judah was ridiculed by an Assyrian legate because of his lack of war-horses and riders (II Kings xviii. 23). All branches of the service were most fully developed in the military era of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah (Azariah). It is certain that the permanent maintenance of a large cavalry

had

was made

force

difficult for Israel

by reason

of the

rugged nature of the ground. Moreover, the Prophets opposed cavalry as a foreign innovation, and as tending to encourage relations with Egypt, the country from which most of the war-horses were furnished (Isa. xxxi. 1); and the service was further condemned as fostering a reliance upon mere human force (compare Ps. xx. 7, xxxiii. 7, cxlvii. 10). Bibliography Apart from the data furnished by the Bible itself, some casual information is given in Jos'ephus (Ant.). The inscriptional accounts of Assyrian wars in Syria and Palestine afford a few details. For the army operations of antiquity in the Orient, the Egyptian and the Assyrian monu:

mental sculptures

—

—

especially the latter are of high value. Special treatises are Gleichgross, De Re Militarl Hebrmornm, lf>90: Zachariae, under the same title, 1735, and the articles in the Bible dictionaries, among the best of which is that of Bennett in the Encyc. Bihlica. See also Spitzer, Das Heer- unci Wehr-Geseta der Alien Israeliten, 2d ed., 1879; Nowack, Hehrtlixclte Archtlologie, i. 359 et seq.; F.

Schwally,

Semitische KrleaxaUerthtimer,

vol.

i.,

Leipsic,

1901. .7.

one capable of bearing arms. Such a militia, naturally, provided its own supplies (compare I Sam. xvii. 17), and received no pay. The decisive advance made by David consisted in his having at the capital, and indeed as an append-

JR.

J.

F.

McC.

Ancient and Medieval Of peaceful disposithe Jews at all times have shown bravery in war. As the terms for virtue among the Greeks and Ro:

tion,

aperr/ and virtus respectively, are derived from military prowess, so the nobleman among the He-

mans,