Shiblom succeeded his father, Com. During his reign prophets arose, who foretold a time of trouble and destruction—an indication of the Godless character of his administration. Disaster began when his brother rebelled and plunged the country into the throes of civil war. This conflict was at first confined to one country, probably to Moron, but it spread to “all the land,” and the consequences were famine, pestilence and destruction everywhere. The bones of the dead were figuratively speaking, “as heaps of earth upon the face of the land.” A striking simile, suggested, we believe, by the shell heaps and earth mounds, which have been a familiar sight to the people of some localities.
The destruction had the effect intended. The transgressors repented, and the Lord had mercy on them. Shiblom, the chief offender, was slain. 1