King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 11
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Then all Israel gathered themselves to unto , saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy . And moreover in time past, even when was king, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and thy said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel. Therefore came all the to the king to ; and made a with them in before ; and they king over Israel, according to the word of by . And and all Israel went to , which is ; where the were, the inhabitants of the land. And the inhabitants of said to , Thou shalt not come hither. Nevertheless took the castle of , which is . And said, Whosoever smiteth the first shall be chief and captain. So the son of went first up, and was chief. And dwelt in the castle; therefore they called it . And he built the city round about, even from round about: and repaired the rest of the city. So waxed greater and greater: for of hosts was with him. These also are the chief of the whom had, who strengthened themselves with him in , and with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of concerning Israel. And this is the number of the whom had; , an Hachmonite, the chief of the captains: he lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time. And after him was the son of , the , who was one of the three mighties. He was with at Pas–dammim, and there the were gathered together to battle, where was a parcel of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the . And they set themselves in the midst of that parcel, and it, and slew the ; and them by a great . Now three of captains went down to to , into the cave of ; and the host of the encamped in the valley of . And was then in the hold, and the ’ garrison was then at Beth–lehem. And longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth–lehem, that is at the ! And the three brake through the host of the , and drew water out of the well of Beth–lehem, that was by the , and took it, and brought it to : but would not drink of it, but poured it out to , And said, My forbid it me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest. And the brother of , he was chief of the three: for lifting up his spear against three hundred, he slew them, and had a name among the three. Of the three, he was more honourable than the two; for he was their captain: howbeit he attained not to the first three. the son of , the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of : also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day. And he slew an , a man of great stature, five high; and in the ’s hand was a spear like a weaver’s beam; and he went down to him with a , and plucked the spear out of the ’s hand, and slew him with his own spear. 24These things did the son of , and had the name among the three mighties. Behold, he was honourable among , but attained not to the first three: and set him over his guard. Also the valiant men of the armies were, the brother of , the son of of Beth–lehem, the Harorite, the , the son of the , Abi–ezer the Antothite, the , Ilai the , the , the son of the , the son of Ribai of , that pertained to the children of , the , of the brooks of Gaash, the , 33 the Baharumite, the , The sons of the , the son of Shage the , the son of Sacar the , Eliphal the son of , 36 the Mecherathite, the , the , the son of Ezbai, the brother of , Mibhar the son of Haggeri, 39 the , the , the armourbearer of the son of , the , the , the , the son of , 42 the son of Shiza the , a captain of the , and thirty with him, 43 the son of Maachah, and the , 44 the , and the sons of Hothan the , 45 the son of Shimri, and his brother, the , 46 the , and , and , the sons of Elnaam, and the , 47, and , and Jasiel the Mesobaite.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
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.