King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Kings 11
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But king loved many strange women, together with the daughter of , women of the , , , , and ; Of the nations concerning which said unto the , Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away after their gods: clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred : and his wives turned away . For it came to pass, when was old, that his wives turned away after other gods: and was not perfect with his , as was of his . For went after the goddess of the , and after the of . And did evil in the sight of , and went not fully after , as did his . Then did build an for , the of , in the hill that is before , and for , the of . And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt and unto their gods. And was angry with , because was turned from of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which commanded. Wherefore said unto , Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my and , which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for thy ’s sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all ; but will give one tribe to thy son for my servant’s sake, and for ’s sake which I have chosen. And stirred up an adversary unto , the : he was of the king’s in . For it came to pass, when was in , and the captain of the host was gone up to bury the slain, after he had smitten every male in ; 16(For six months did there with all Israel, until he had every male in :) That fled, he and certain of his ’s servants with him, to go into ; being yet a little child. And they arose out of , and came to : and they took men with them out of , and they came to , unto king of ; which gave him an house, and appointed him victuals, and gave him land. And found great in the sight of , so that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen. And the sister of Tahpenes him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in ’s house: and Genubath was in ’s household among the sons of . And when heard in that slept with his fathers, and that the captain of the host was , said to , Let me depart, that I may go to mine own country. Then said unto him, But what hast thou lacked with me, that, behold, thou seekest to go to thine own country? And he answered, Nothing: howbeit let me go in any . And stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliadah, which fled from his king of : And he gathered men unto him, and became captain over a band, when slew them of : and they went to , and dwelt therein, and reigned in . And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of , beside the mischief that did: and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over . And the son of , an Ephrathite of Zereda, ’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a woman, even he lifted up his hand against the king. And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: built , and repaired the breaches of his . And the man was a : and seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the . And it came to pass at that time when went out of , that the the Shilonite found him in ; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field: And caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces: And he said to , Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith , the of Israel, Behold, I will rend out of the hand of , and will give ten tribes to thee: (But he shall have one tribe for my servant ’s sake, and for ’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:) Because that they have forsaken me, and have the goddess of the , the of the , and the of , and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep and my judgments, as did his . Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make him prince all the days of his life for my servant’s sake, whom I chose, because he kept my and : But I will take out of his son’s hand, and will give it unto thee, even ten tribes. And unto his son will I give one tribe, that my servant may have a alway before me in , the city which I have chosen me to put my name there. And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy desireth, and shalt be king over Israel. And it shall be, if thou wilt unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep and my , as my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for , and will give Israel unto thee. And I will for this afflict the of , but not for ever. sought therefore to kill . And arose, and fled into , unto king of , and was in until the of . And the rest of the acts of , and all that he did, and his , are they not written in the book of the acts of ? And the time that reigned in over all Israel was forty years. And slept with his fathers, and was buried in his : and his son reigned in his stead.
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.