World English Bible · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 20
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At the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, led out the army and wasted the country of , and came and besieged . But stayed at . struck , and overthrew it. took the of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a of gold, and there were precious stones in it. It was set on head, and he brought very much plunder out of the city. He brought out the people who were in it, and had them cut with saws, with iron picks, and with axes. did so to all the cities of . Then and all the people returned to . After this, war arose at with the . Then the killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued. Again there was war with the ; and the son of killed Lahmi the brother of the , the of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. There was again war at , where there was a man of great stature, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant. When he defied Israel, the son of Shimea, brother, killed him. These were born to the giant in ; and they fell by the hand of and by the hand of his servants.
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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.