World English Bible · The divided kingdom
1 Kings 12
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went to , for all Israel had come to to make him king. When the son of heard of it (for he was yet in , where he had fled from the of King , and lived in ; 3and they sent and called him), and all of Israel came, and spoke to , saying, "Your made our difficult. Now therefore make the hard of your , and his heavy which he put on us, lighter, and we will you." He said to them, "Depart for three days, then come back to me." So the people departed. King with the old men who had stood before his while he yet lived, saying, "What do you give me to answer these people?" They replied, "If you will be a servant to this people today, and will them, and answer them with good words, then they will be your servants ." But he abandoned the of the old men which they had given him, and with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. He said to them, "What do you give, that we may answer these people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Make the that your put on us lighter'?" The young men who had grown up with him said to him, "Tell these people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your made our heavy, but make it lighter to us'—tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than waist. Now burdened you with a heavy , but I will add to your . chastised you with whips, but I will you with scorpions.'" So and all the people came to the third day, as the king asked, saying, "Come to me again the third day." The king answered the people roughly, and abandoned the of the old men which they had given him, and spoke to them according to the of the young men, saying, " made your heavy, but I will add to your . chastised you with whips, but I will you with scorpions." So the king didn't listen to the people; for it was a thing brought about from , that he might establish his word, which spoke by the Shilonite to the son of . When all Israel saw that the king didn't listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "What have we in ? We don't have an in the son of . To your tents, Israel! Now see to your own house, ." So Israel departed to their tents. But as for the who lived in the cities of Judah, reigned over them. Then King sent , who was over the men subject to forced labor; and all Israel stoned him to with stones. King hurried to get himself up to his chariot, to flee to . So Israel rebelled against house to this day. When all Israel heard that had returned, they sent and called him to , and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed house, except for the tribe of Judah only. When had come to , he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of , a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the , to bring again to the son of . But the word of came to the , saying, "Speak to the son of , king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and , and to the rest of the people, saying, ' says, "You shall not go up or fight against your brothers, the . Everyone return to his house; for this thing is from me."'" So they listened to word, and returned and went their way, according to word. Then built in the hill country of , and lived in it; and he went out from there and built . said in , "Now will return to house. If this people goes up to offer in house at , then of this people will turn again to their , even to king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to king of Judah." So the king , and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to . Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of !" He set the one in , and the other he put in Dan. This thing became a , for the people went even as far as Dan to before the one there. He made houses of , and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the . ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the . He did so in , sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in the priests of the that he had made. He went up to the which he had made in on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own ; and he ordained a feast for the , and went up to the to .
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The world at this moment · The divided kingdom, 931 BC to 745 BC ›
Israel in the north and Judah in the south, often at odds, with Aram of Damascus as the immediate threat and Assyria growing in the distance.
- Aram of Damascus
- The immediate enemy for most of two centuries, close enough to raid every campaigning season and strong enough to take territory. Most of the wars in Kings that read like national emergencies are border wars with Damascus.
- Assyria
- Growing steadily in the distance. Shalmaneser III fights a coalition at Qarqar in 853 BC and his own inscription lists King Ahab of Israel among his opponents with two thousand chariots, the earliest Assyrian mention of an Israelite king. A later monument shows Jehu bowing and paying tribute. Assyria is not yet the destroyer, but it is already taking notes.
- Egypt
- Divided and unreliable, capable of the occasional raid, such as Shishak stripping the temple in Rehoboam's fifth year, but no longer an empire that governs the Levant.
- Further afield
- The Greeks adopt the alphabet, hold the first Olympiad by tradition in 776 BC, and begin to compose the Homeric poems. Rome is founded by tradition in 753 BC, a village of huts at this point. This is the century in which the classical world begins.