World English Bible · The divided kingdom
1 Kings 14
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At that time the son of became sick. said to his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself, so that you won't be recognized as wife. Go to . Behold, the is there, who said that I would be king over this people. Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child." wife did so, and arose and went to , and came to house. Now could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of his age. said to , "Behold, wife is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. Tell her such and such; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman." So when heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, "Come in, wife! Why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news. Go, tell , ', the of Israel, says: "Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel, and tore away from house, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as my servant , who kept my , and who followed me with all , to do that only which was right in my eyes, but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods, , to provoke me to , and have cast me behind your back, therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of , and will everyone who urinates on a wall, he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of , as a man sweeps away dung until it is all gone. The dogs will eat he who belongs to who dies in the city; and the birds of will eat he who dies in the field, for has spoken it."' Arise therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child will . All Israel will mourn for him and bury him; for he only of will come to the , because in him there is found some good thing toward , the of Israel, in the house of . Moreover will raise up a king for himself over Israel who will the house of . This is the day! What? Even now. For will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond , because they have made their , provoking to . He will give Israel up because of the of , which he has , and with which he has made Israel to ." wife arose and departed, and came to . As she came to the threshold of the house, the child . All Israel and mourned for him, according to word, which he spoke by his servant the . The rest of the acts of , how he fought and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. The days which reigned were twenty two years; then he slept with his fathers, and his son reigned in his place. the son of reigned in Judah. was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in , the city which had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother's name was the Ammonitess. Judah did that which was evil in sight, and they provoked him to with their which they committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves , sacred pillars, and on every high hill and . There were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the of the nations which drove out before the . In the fifth year of King , king of came up against ; and he took away the of house and the of the king's house. He even took away all of it, including all the gold shields which had made. King made shields of bronze in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house. It was so, that as often as the king went into house, the guard bore them, and brought them back into the guard room. Now the rest of the acts of , and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? There was war between and continually. slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in city. His mother's name was the Ammonitess. his son reigned in his place.
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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.