King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 18
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Now after this it came to pass, that smote the , and subdued them, and took and her towns out of the hand of the . And he smote ; and the became ’s servants, and brought gifts. And smote Hadarezer king of unto , as he went to stablish his by the river . And took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: also houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them an hundred chariots. And when of came to help Hadarezer king of , slew of two and twenty thousand men. Then put garrisons in –damascus; and became ’s servants, and brought gifts. Thus preserved whithersoever he went. And took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadarezer, and brought them to . Likewise from Tibhath, and from Chun, cities of Hadarezer, brought very much brass, wherewith made the brasen sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass. Now when king of heard how had smitten of Hadarezer king of ; He sent his son to king , to enquire of his welfare, and to congratulate him, because he had fought against Hadarezer, and smitten him; (for Hadarezer had war with ;) and with him all manner of vessels of gold and silver and brass. Them also king dedicated unto , with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations; from , and from , and from , and from the , and from . Moreover the son of slew of the in the valley of salt eighteen thousand. And he put garrisons in ; and all the became ’s servants. Thus preserved whithersoever he went. So reigned over all Israel, and executed and justice among all his people. And the son of was over the host; and Jehoshaphat the son of , recorder. And the son of , and Abimelech the son of , were the priests; and Shavsha was ; And the son of was over the and the ; and the sons of were chief about the king.
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.