King James Version · The divided kingdom
1 Kings 16
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Then to the son of against , saying, Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of , and made thee prince over my people Israel; and thou hast walked in of , and hast made my people Israel to , to provoke me to with their ; Behold, I will take away the posterity of , and the posterity of his house; and will make thy house like the house of the son of . Him that dieth of in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat. Now the rest of the acts of , and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So slept with his fathers, and was buried in : and his son reigned in his stead. And also by the hand of the the son of came the word of against , and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of , in provoking him to with the work of his hands, in being like the house of ; and because he killed him. 8In the twenty and sixth year of king of Judah began the son of to reign over Israel in , two years. And his servant , captain of half his chariots, conspired against him, as he was in , drinking himself drunk in the house of steward of his house in . And went in and smote him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of king of Judah, and reigned in his stead. And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his , that he slew all the house of : he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends. Thus did destroy all the house of , according to the word of , which he spake against by the , For all the of , and the of his son, by which they , and by which they made Israel to , in provoking of Israel to with their . 14Now 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? In the twenty and seventh year of king of Judah did reign seven days in . And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the . And the people that were encamped heard say, hath conspired, and hath also slain the king: wherefore all Israel made , the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp. And went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged . And it came to pass, when saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king’s house, and burnt the king’s house over him with , and , For his which he in doing evil in the sight of , in walking in of , and in his which he did, to make Israel to . Now the rest of the acts of , and his treason that he wrought, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the people followed the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed . 22But the people that followed prevailed against the people that followed the son of Ginath: so , and reigned. In and first year of king of Judah began to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in . And he bought the hill of for two of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of , owner of the hill, . But wrought evil in the eyes of , and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in all of the son of , and in his wherewith he made Israel to , to provoke of Israel to with their . Now the rest of the acts of which he did, and his might that he shewed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 28So slept with his fathers, and was buried in : and his son reigned in his stead. 29And in and eighth year of king of Judah began the son of to reign over Israel: and the son of reigned over Israel in twenty and two years. And the son of did evil in the sight of above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a thing for him to walk in the of the son of , that he took to wife the daughter of Ethbaal king of the , and went and , and him. And he reared up an for in the house of , which he had built in . And made a grove; and did more to provoke of Israel to than all the kings of Israel that were before him. In his days did Hiel the Beth–elite build : he laid the foundation thereof in his , and set up the thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of , which he spake by the son of .
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.