King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Chronicles 29
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Furthermore the king said unto all , my son, whom alone hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for . Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my , I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my , over and above all that I have prepared for the house, Even three thousand of gold, of the gold of , and seven thousand of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses withal: The gold for things of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers. And who then is willing to his this day unto ? Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the of the king’s work, offered willingly, And gave for the of the house of of gold five thousand and ten thousand drams, and of silver ten thousand , and of brass eighteen thousand , and one hundred thousand of iron. And they with whom precious stones were found gave them to the of the , by the hand of the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect they offered willingly to : and the king also rejoiced with great joy. Wherefore before all : and said, be thou, of Israel , . Thine, O , is the greatness, and the , and the , and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the and in the earth is thine; thine is , O , and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our , we thank thee, and thy name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and , as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. O our , all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine name cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own. I know also, my , that thou triest , and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee. O of , , and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the of of thy people, and prepare their unto thee: And give unto my son a perfect , to keep thy , thy testimonies, and thy , and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for the which I have made provision. And said to all , Now your . And all of their fathers, and their heads, and , and the king. And they unto , and offered burnt offerings unto , on the morrow after that day, even a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their drink , and in abundance for all Israel: And did eat and drink before on that day with great gladness. And they made king the second time, and him unto to be the chief governor, and to be priest. Then sat on of as king instead of his , and prospered; and all Israel him. And all the princes, and the , and all the sons likewise of king , submitted themselves unto the king. And magnified exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. Thus the son of reigned over all Israel. And the time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; seven years reigned he in , and thirty and three years reigned he in . And he in a good old age, full of days, riches, and : and his son reigned in his stead. Now the acts of the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the seer, and in the book of the , and in the book of Gad the seer, With all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.
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.