King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 17
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Now it came to pass, as sat in his house, that said to the , Lo, I in an house of cedars, but the of remaineth under curtains. Then said unto , Do all that is in thine ; for is with thee. And it came to pass the same night, that the word of came to , saying, Go and tell my servant, Thus saith , Thou shalt not build me an house to in: For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one to another. Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars? Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant , Thus saith of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel: And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have all thine from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth. Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning, And since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. Moreover I will all thine . Furthermore I tell thee that will build thee an house. And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish . He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his for ever. I will be his , and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee: But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his shall be established for evermore. According to all these words, and according to all this , so did speak unto . And the king came and sat before , and said, Who am I, O , and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O ; for thou hast also spoken of thy servant’s house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O . What can speak more to thee for the of thy servant? for thou knowest thy servant. O , for thy servant’s sake, and according to thine own , hast thou done all this greatness, in making known all these great things. O , there is none like thee, neither is there any beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom went to to be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast out of ? For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever; and thou, , becamest their . Therefore now, , let the thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house be established for ever, and do as thou hast said. Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever, saying, of hosts is the of Israel, even a to Israel: and let the house of thy servant be established before thee. For thou, O my , hast told thy servant that thou wilt build him an house: therefore thy servant hath found in to before thee. And now, , thou art , and hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: Now therefore let it please thee to the house of thy servant, that it may be before thee for ever: for thou blessest, O , and it shall be for ever.
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.