King James Version · The divided kingdom
1 Kings 13
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And, behold, there came a out of Judah by the word of unto Beth–el: and stood by the to . And he cried against the in the word of , and said, O , , thus saith ; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of , by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the that upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which hath spoken; Behold, the shall be rent, and the that are upon it shall be poured out. And it came to pass, when king heard the saying of the , which had cried against the in Beth–el, that he put forth his hand from the , saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. The also was rent, and the poured out from the , according to the sign which the had given by the word of . And the king answered and said unto the , Intreat now thy , and for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the besought , and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. And the king said unto the , Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of , saying, Eat , nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. 10So he went another way, and returned not by that he came to Beth–el. Now there dwelt an old in Beth–el; and his sons came and told him all the works that the had done that day in Beth–el: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their . 12And their said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon, And went after the , and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. 15Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: For it was said to me by the word of , Thou shalt eat nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by that thou camest. He said unto him, I am a also as thou art; and spake unto me by the word of , saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. And it came to pass, as they sat , that unto the that brought him back: And he cried unto the that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith , Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed , and hast not kept the which thy commanded thee, But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which did say to thee, Eat , and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the of thy fathers. 23And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by , and slew him: and his carcase was cast in , and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase. And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in , and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old dwelt. And when the that brought him back from heard thereof, he said, It is the , who was unto the word of : therefore hath him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of , which he spake unto him. 27And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him. And he went and found his carcase cast in , and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass. 29And the took up the carcase of the , and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old came to the city, to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcase in his own ; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! And it came to pass, after he had , that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am , then bury me in the wherein the is buried; lay my bones beside his bones: For the saying which he cried by the word of against the in Beth–el, and against all the houses of the which are in the cities of , shall surely come to pass. After this thing returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the : whosoever would, he him, and he became one of the priests of the . And this thing became unto the house of , even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the of the earth.
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 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.