World English Bible · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 10
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Now the fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the , and fell down slain on . The followed hard after and after his sons; and the killed , , and , the sons of . The battle went hard against , and the archers overtook him; and he was distressed by reason of the archers. Then said to his armor bearer, "Draw your , and thrust me through with it, lest these come and abuse me." But his armor bearer would not, for he was terrified. Therefore took his and fell on it. 5When his armor bearer saw that was , he likewise fell on his and . So with his three sons; and all his house together. When all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they fled, and that and his sons were , they abandoned their cities, and fled; and the came and lived in them. On the next day, when the came to strip the slain, they found and his sons fallen on . They stripped him and took his head and his armor, then sent into the land of the all around to carry the news to their idols and to the people. They put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the house of . When all heard all that the had done to , all the valiant men arose and took away the body of and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to , and buried their bones under the oak in , and seven days. So for his trespass which he committed against , because of word, which he didn't keep, and also because he asked of one who had a familiar , to inquire, and didn't inquire of . Therefore he killed him, and turned over to the son of .
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The world at this moment · The united kingdom, 1050 BC to 931 BC ›
Saul, David, and Solomon. A rare window when both Egypt and Mesopotamia are weak, which is how a small kingdom in the corridor between them could briefly become a regional power.
- The power vacuum
- This is the whole political explanation for the united kingdom. Egypt is fragmented, Assyria is recovering but still local, the Hittites are gone, and nobody is in a position to object to a strong state in the corridor. It lasts about a century, and Israel's golden age fits exactly inside it.
- Phoenicia
- Tyre under Hiram is the commercial power of the coast, and supplies the cedar, the craftsmen, and the shipping for Solomon's building programme. The alliance is trade, not charity: Israel had grain and a land route, Tyre had timber and ships.
- Egypt
- Weak enough that a pharaoh gives a daughter in marriage to an Israelite king, which is the opposite of Egyptian practice in stronger centuries. Late in the era it recovers under a new house, and Shishak will invade within five years of Solomon's death.
- Further afield
- Greece is still in its dark age but beginning to recover, and will adopt the Phoenician alphabet within a century or two. Carthage is founded by settlers from Tyre by tradition in 814 BC. In the Americas the Olmec centre shifts to La Venta.