World English Bible · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 19
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After this, the king of , and his son reigned in his place. said, "I will show kindness to Hanun the son of , because his showed kindness to me." So sent to comfort him concerning his . servants came into the land of to Hanun to comfort him. But the princes of said to Hanun, "Do you think that honors your , in that he has sent comforters to you? Haven't his servants come to you to search, to overthrow, and to spy out the land?" So Hanun took servants, shaved them, and their garments in the middle at their buttocks, and sent them away. Then some people went and told how the men were treated. He sent to meet them; for the men were greatly humiliated. The king said, "Stay at until your beards have grown, and then return." When saw that they had made themselves odious to , Hanun and sent one thousand of silver to hire chariots and horsemen out of , out of -maacah, and out of . So they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots, and the king of with his people, who came and encamped near . gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle. When heard of it, he sent with of the . came out, and put the battle in array at the ; and the kings who had come were by themselves in the field. Now when saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose some of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against . The rest of the people he committed into the hand of his brother; and they put themselves in array against . He said, "If are too strong for me, then you are to help me; but if are too strong for you, then I will help you. Be courageous, and let's be strong for our people and for the cities of our . May do that which seems good to him." So and the people who were with him came near to the front of to the battle; and they fled before him. When saw that had fled, they likewise fled before his brother, and entered into the city. Then came to . When saw that they were defeated by Israel, they sent and called out who were beyond , with Shophach the captain of the army of leading them. was told that, so he gathered all Israel together, passed over , came to them, and set the battle in array against them. So when had put the battle in array against , they fought with him. fled before Israel; and killed of the men seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand footmen, and also killed Shophach the captain of the army. When the servants of saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with and him. would not help any more.
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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.