descended from Ruth, a Moabitish woman. The sacred writings shed but
little light on this war, or on its causes; but it was carried on with
unusual severity, only a third part of the people being spared alive,
and they reduced to slavery. A more important contest took place with
the kingdom of Ammon on the north, on the confines of Syria, caused by
the insults heaped on the ambassadors of David, whom he sent on a
friendly message to Hanun the King. The campaign was conducted by Joab,
who gained brilliant victories, without however crushing the Ammonites,
who again rallied with a vast array of mercenaries gathered in their
support. David himself took the field with the whole force of his
kingdom, and achieved a series of splendid successes by which he
extended his empire to the Euphrates, including Damascus, besides
securing invaluable spoils from the cities of Syria,--among them
chariots and horses, for which Syria was celebrated. Among these spoils
also were a thousand shields overlaid with gold, and great quantities of
brass afterward used by Solomon in the construction of the Temple. Yet
even these conquests, which now made David the most powerful monarch of
western Asia, did not secure peace. The Edomites, south of the Dead Sea,
alarmed in view of the increasing greatness of Israel, rose against
David, but were routed by Abishai, who penetrated to Petra and became
master of the country, the inhabitants of which were put to the sword
with unrelenting vengeance. This war of the Edomites took place
simultaneously with that of the Ammonites, who, deprived of their
allies, retreated with desperation to their strong capital,--Rabbah
Ammon, twenty-eight hundred feet above the sea, and twenty miles east of
the Jordan,--where they made a memorable but unsuccessful resistance.

It was during the siege of this stronghold, which lasted a year, that
David, no longer young, oppressed with cares, and unable personally to
bear the fatigues of war, forgot his duties as a king and as a man. For