kings. One of them, Baasha, the son of Rehob, was, like Ahab of Samaria,
an ally of Damascus against the Assyrian invader, and we hear of two
others, one of whom bears the same name as "Shinab, King of Admah." The
storm of Babylonian conquest which overwhelmed Judah spared Ammon; after
the destruction of Jerusalem Baalis was still king of the Ammonites, and
ready to extend his power over the desolated fields of Judah.[7]

The language of Ammon, if we may argue from the proper names, was, like
that of Moab, a mere dialectal variety of that of Israel. The "language
of Canaan" must have been adopted by the Ammonites and Moabites just as
it was by the Israelitish tribes. The Moabite Stone has proved this
conclusively. Moabite and Ammonite, Phoenician and Hebrew, were all
alike dialects of one language, which differed from one another merely
as one English dialect differs from another. Hebrew had retained a few
"Arabisms," a few traces of its ancient contact with Arabic-speaking
tribes; that was all. In other respects it was the same as "the language
of Canaan" on either side of the Jordan.

The Ammonites believed themselves to be the children of the national god
Ammi. But Ammi was usually worshipped under the title of Malcham or
Milcom, "the King." It was to Milcom that Solomon erected an altar at
Jerusalem, in honour of that Ammonite wife whose son Rehoboam succeeded
him on the throne, and it was from the head of his image at Kabbah that
his crown of gold and precious stones, 131 pounds in weight, was removed
to grace the triumph of David.[8]

Moab was more exposed to the inroads of its nomadic neighbours from the
wilderness than its sister-kingdom of Ammon. It lay along the eastern
shores of the Dead Sea, and was a land of lofty mountains and fertile
river-plains. Its wadis were coveted by the tribes of the desert; the