These were very circumscribed. In 2 Ch 11:5-12 there is a list of the cities--chiefly those on the frontier--which Rehoboam fortified. On the East were Bethlehem, Etam and Tekoa; and on the West and Southwest were Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron. The sites of the great majority of these are known, and they are all upon the borders of the Shephelah or the hill country. It will be seen too that the military preparation then made was against an attack from the West. In the 5th year of the reign of Rehoboam the expected attack came, and Shishak (Sheshenq I) of Egypt swept over the land and not only conquered all Judah and Jerusalem, but, according to the reading of some authorities in the account of this campaign given in the great temple of Karnak, he handed over to Jeroboam of Israel certain strongholds of Judah.
The usual northern frontier between the two Hebrew kingdoms appears to have been the southernmost of the three natural lines described in I above, namely by the Valley of Ajalon on the West and the Gorge of Michmash (Wady SuweiniT) on the East. Along the central plateau the frontier varied. Bethel (1Ki 12:29; 2Ki 10:29; Am 3:14; 4:4; 7:10,13; Ho 10:15) belonged to Israel, though once it fell to Judah when Abijah took it and with it Jeshanah (`Ain Sinia) and Ephron (probably et Taiyibeh) (2Ch 13:19). Geba (Jeba`), just to the South of the Wady Suweinit, was on the northern frontier of Judah, hence, instead of the old term "from Dan to Beer-sheba" we read now of "from Geba to Beersheba" (2Ki 23:8). Baasha, king of Israel, went South and fortified Ramah (er Ram, but 4 miles from Jerusalem) against Judah (1Ki 15:17), but Asa stopped his work, removed the fortifications and with the materials strengthened his own frontier at Geba and Mizpah (1Ki 15:21-22). In the Jordan valley Jericho was held by Israel (1Ki 16:34; 2Ki 2:4).
After the Northern Kingdom fell, the frontier of Judah appears to have extended a little farther North, and Bethel (2Ki 23:15-19) and Jericho (to judge from Ezr 2:34; Ne 3:2; 7:36) also became part of the kingdom of Judah. For the further history of this district see JUDAEA.
LITERATURE.
See especially H G H L , chapters viii-xv;P E F ,III , and Saunders, Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.
E. W. G. Masterman