King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 23
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So when was old and full of days, he made his son king over Israel. And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the . Now the were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand. Of which, twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the ; and six thousand were officers and judges: Moreover four thousand were porters; and four thousand praised with the instruments which I made, said , to therewith. And divided them into courses among the , namely, , , and . Of the were, Laadan, and . The sons of Laadan; the chief was , and Zetham, and , three. 9The sons of ; Shelomith, and Haziel, and , three. These were the chief of the fathers of Laadan. 10And the sons of were, Jahath, Zina, and , and . These four were the sons of . 11And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second: but and had not many sons; therefore they were in one reckoning, according to their ’s house. The sons of ; , , , and , four. The sons of ; and : and was separated, that he should the most things, he and his sons for ever, to before , to minister unto him, and to in his name for ever. Now concerning the , his sons were named of the tribe of . The sons of were, , and . Of the sons of , Shebuel was the chief. And the sons of were, the chief. And had none other sons; but the sons of were very many. Of the sons of ; Shelomith the chief. Of the sons of ; Jeriah the first, the second, the third, and Jekameam the fourth. 20Of the sons of ; Michah the first, and Jesiah the second. The sons of ; , and . The sons of ; , and . And , and had no sons, but daughters: and their brethren the sons of took them. The sons of ; , and , and , three. These were the after the house of their fathers; even the chief of the fathers, as they were counted by number of names by their polls, that did the work for the of the , from the age of twenty years and upward. For said, of Israel hath given rest unto his people, that they may in for ever: And also unto the ; they shall no more carry the , nor any vessels of it for the thereof. For by the last words of the were numbered from twenty years old and above: Because their office was to wait on the sons of for the of the , in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all things, and the work of the of the house of ; Both for the , and for the for meat , and for the cakes, and for that which is baked in the pan, and for that which is fried, and for all manner of measure and size; And to stand every morning to thank and , and likewise at even; And to offer all burnt unto in the , in the new moons, and on the set feasts, by number, according to the order commanded unto them, continually before : And that they should keep the charge of the of , and the charge of the place, and the charge of the sons of their brethren, in the of the .
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.