King James Version · The divided kingdom
1 Kings 19
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And told all that had done, and withal how he had slain all with . Then sent a unto , saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer–sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into , and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might ; and said, It is enough; now, O , take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. 7And came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto the mount of . And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, ? And he said, I have been very of hosts: for the have forsaken thy , thrown down thine , and slain thy with ; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before . And, behold, passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before ; but was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a ; but was not in the : and after the a still small voice. And it was so, when heard it, that he wrapped in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, ? And he said, I have been very of hosts: because the have forsaken thy , thrown down thine , and slain thy with ; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And said unto him, Go, return on thy way to of : and when thou comest, anoint to be king over : And the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and the son of Shaphat of shalt thou anoint to be in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth of shall : and him that escapeth from of shall . Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto , and every which hath not kissed him. So he departed thence, and found the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after , and said, Let me, I thee, kiss and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after , and ministered unto him.
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.