plains and through busy cities, shouting, while there was breath in
their bodies:

"Damascus has fallen!"

Many of the messengers fell exhausted on the way, but others took up
the wonderful news from the front and carried it on, until the whole
northern part of the kingdom knew of the king's victory.

Little by little the whole story was told to the eager Samarians--how
the king, Jeroboam II, himself led the hosts of Israel; how attack
followed attack upon the fortified Syrian capital; how the first
breach was made in the outer wall; how the valiant Israelites rushed
upon the enemy, and how the final victory was won for Israel's
standard.

What a celebration was there in Samaria that long-to-be-remembered
day!

Not since the days when the first Jeroboam led the rebellion of the
ten tribes against King Solomon's weak son, Rehoboam, and established
the independent kingdom of the Ten Tribes, with Samaria as the
capital, was there such rejoicing in that city.

We can picture the celebration in our mind's eye; we cannot describe
it in words.

Parents who had sent their sons to the war now laughed happily through
their tears, because there would be an end to war.