And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah,.... Which Rehoboam had lately built, and placed his sons in them, Ch2 11:5, these he took without any opposition: and came to Jerusalem; there being no army to oppose him; and so Sesostris took many countries without fighting, and among the rest Phoenicia, as Manetho (o) relates, in which Judea may be included. (o) Apud Joseph. contr. Apion. l. 1. c. 15.