King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 19
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Now it came to pass after this, that the king of , and his son reigned in his stead. And said, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of , because his shewed kindness to me. And sent to comfort him concerning his . So the servants of came into the land of to Hanun, to comfort him. But the princes of said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that doth thy , that he hath sent comforters unto thee? are not his servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land? Wherefore Hanun took ’s servants, and shaved them, and their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away. Then there went certain, and told how the men were . And he sent to meet them: for the men were greatly . And the king said, Tarry at until your beards be grown, and then return. And when saw that they had made themselves odious to , Hanun and sent a thousand of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of , and out of –maachah, and out of . So they hired thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maachah and his people; who came and pitched before . And gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle. And when heard of it, he sent , and of the . And came out, and put the battle in array before the : and the kings that were come were by themselves in the field. Now when saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose out of all the choice of Israel, and put them in array against . And the rest of the people he unto the hand of his brother, and they set themselves in array against . And he said, If be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me: but if be too strong for thee, then I will help thee. Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our : and let do that which is good in his sight. So and the people that were with him drew nigh before unto the battle; and they fled before him. And when saw that were fled, they likewise fled before his brother, and entered into the city. Then came to . And when saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they sent , and drew forth that were beyond the river: and Shophach the captain of the host of Hadarezer went before them. And it was told ; and he gathered all Israel, and passed over Jordan, and came upon them, and set the battle in array against them. So when had put the battle in array against , they fought with him. But fled before Israel; and slew of seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host. And when the servants of Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with , and became his servants: neither would help any more.
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.