King James Version · The divided kingdom
1 Kings 15
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Now in the eighteenth year of king the son of reigned over Judah. Three years reigned he in . And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the of his , which he had done before him: and was not perfect with his , as of his . Nevertheless for ’s sake did his give him a lamp in , to set up his son after him, and to establish : Because did that which was right in the eyes of , and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, only in the matter of the . And there was war between and all the days of his life. Now the rest of the acts of , and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between and . And slept with his fathers; and they in : and his son reigned in his stead. 9And in the twentieth year of king of Israel reigned over Judah. And forty and one years reigned he in . And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. And did that which was right in the eyes of , as did his . And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook . But the were not removed: nevertheless ’s was perfect with all his days. And he brought in the things which his had dedicated, and the things which himself had dedicated, into the , silver, and gold, and vessels. And there was war between and king of Israel all their days. And king of Israel went up against Judah, and built , that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to king of Judah. Then took all the silver and the gold that were left in the of the , and the of the king’s house, and them into the hand of his servants: and king sent them to Ben–hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of , that dwelt at , saying, There is a league between me and thee, and between and thy : behold, I have sent unto thee a present of silver and gold; come and break thy league with king of Israel, that he may depart from me. So Ben–hadad hearkened unto king , and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote , and Dan, and –beth–maachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of . And it came to pass, when heard thereof, that he left off building of , and dwelt in . Then king made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of , and the timber thereof, wherewith had builded; and king built with them of , and . The rest of all the acts of , and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Nevertheless in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. And slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in his : and his son reigned in his stead. And the son of began to reign over Israel in the second year of king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years. And he did evil in the sight of , and walked in of his , and in his wherewith he made Israel to . And the son of , of the house of , conspired against him; and smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the ; for and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. Even in the third year of king of Judah did him, and reigned in his stead. And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house of ; he left not to any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according unto the saying of , which he spake by his servant the Shilonite: Because of the of which he , and which he made Israel , by his provocation wherewith he provoked of Israel to . Now the rest of the acts of , and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And there was war between and king of Israel all their days. In the third year of king of Judah began the son of to reign over all Israel in , twenty and four years. And he did evil in the sight of , and walked in of , and in his wherewith he made Israel to .
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.