i. The quarter, whence danger first threatened, was on the south,

in the land of Edom. When Joab invaded that country during the late reign, and for six months directed an indiscriminate massacre of the male population, HADAD, who was of the blood royal, and at that time a little child, was carried off into Egypt, where he was hospitably received by the reigning Pharaoh, and rapidly rising in the royal esteem, obtained the hand of Tahpenes, the sister of the Egyptian queen. On the death of David and of Joab, he returned from Egypt, and thirsting to break off the hard yoke of Jacob from the neck of Esau, organized a revolt in his native land, and began to threaten Solomon’s communication with the Elanitic Gulf (1 K. xi. 15–22).