ALLIANCES (al-li'An-sez). From a dread lest the example of foreign nations should draw the Israelites into the worship of idols, they were made a peculiar and separate people, and inter course and alliance with such nations were strongly interdicted (Lev. xviii :3, 4; XX :22, 23).
(1) Mosaic Interdiction. The tendency to idolatry was in those times so strong that the safety of the Israelites lay in the most complete isolation that could be realized, and it was to assist this object that a country more than usu ally separated from others by its natural boun daries was assigned to them. It was shut in by the sea on the west, by deserts on the south and cast, and by mountains and forests on the north. Among a people so situated we should not expect to hear much of alliances with other nations.
(2) Solomon and Hiram. By far the most remarkable alliance in the political history of the Hebrews is that between Solomon and Hiram, king of Tyre. It is in a great degree connected with considerations which belong to another head. (See COM MERCE.) (3) Time of David. But it may primarily be referred to a partial change of feeling which origi nated in the time of David, and which continued to operate among his descendants. During his wanderings he was brought into contact with several of the neighboring princes, from some of whom he received sympathy and support, which. after he ascended the throne, he gratefully re membered (2 Sam. x :2).
There was probably more of this friendly inter course than the Scripture has had occasion to re cord. Such timely aid, combined with the respect which his subsequently victorious career drew from foreign nations, must have gone far to modify in him and those about him that aversion to strang ers which the Hebrews generally had been led to entertain. He married the daughter of a heathen king, and had by her his favorite son (2 Sam. iii :3) ; the king of Moah protected his family ( Sam. xxii :3, 4) ; the king of Ammon showed kindness to him (2 Sam, x :2); the king of Gath showered favors upon him (I Sam. xxvii ; xxviii ; I, 2) ; the king of Hamath sent his own con to congratulate him on his victories (2 Sam. viii :i5) In short, the rare power which David possessed of attaching to himself the good opinion and favor of other men, extended even to the neigh boring nations, and it would have been difficult for a person of his disposition to repel the ad vances of kindness and consideration which they made.
Among those who made such advances was Hiram, king of Tyre ; for it eventually transpires that 'Hiram was ever a lover of David' (1 Kings v :2), and it is probable that other intercourse had preceded that relating to the palace which Hiram's artificers built for David (2 Sam. v I). The king of Tyre was not disposed to neglect the cultivation of the friendly intercourse with the Hebrew nation which had thus been opened. He sent an embassy to condole with Solomon on the death of Isis father, and to congratulate him on his accession (r Kings v :1).
(4) League with Hiram. The plans of the young king rendered the friendship of Hiram a matter of importance, and accordingly 'a league' was formed ( r Kings v :r2) between them, and that this league had a reference not merely to the special matter then in view, but was a general league of amity, is evinced by the fact that more than 25o years after a prophet denounces the Lord's vengeance upon Tyre, because she 'remem bered not the brotherly covenant' (Amos i Under this league large bodies of Jews and Phoe nicians were associated, first in preparing the materials for the temple (1 Kings v :6-18), and afterwards in navigating the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean (r Kings ix :26-28), and this in creasing intercourse with the heathen appears to have considerably weakened the sentiment of sep aration, which, in the case of the Hebrews, it was of the utmost importance to maintain.
(5) Results. The disastrous consequences of even the seemingly least objectionable alliances may be seen in the long train of evils, both to the kingdom of Israel and of Judah, which en sued from the marriage of Ahab with Jezebel, the king of Tyre's daughter. (See AHAB ; JEZEBEL.) Thee consequences had been manifested even in the time of Solomon, for he formed matrimonial alliances with most of the neighboring kingdoms, and to the influence of his idolatrous wives are ascribed the abominations which darkened the latter days of the wise king (r Kings xi :1-8).