King James Version · The divided kingdom
1 Kings 22
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And they continued three years without war between and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year, that the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that in is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of ? And he said unto , Wilt thou go with me to battle to ? And said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I thee, at the word of to day. Then the king of Israel gathered together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for shall it into the hand of the king. And said, Is there not here a of besides, that we might enquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto , There is yet one man, the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of : but I hate him; for he doth not good concerning me, but evil. And said, Let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and the king of Judah sat each on his , having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the of ; and all prophesied before them. And made him of iron: and he said, Thus saith , With these shalt thou push , until thou have consumed them. And all prophesied so, saying, Go up to , and prosper: for shall it into the king’s hand. And that was gone to call spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of declare good unto the king with one : let thy word, I thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. And said, As liveth, what saith unto me, that will I speak. So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, , shall we go against to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for shall it into the hand of the king. And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of ? And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a : and said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said unto , Did I not tell thee that he would no good concerning me, but evil? And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of : I saw sitting on his , and of standing by him hand and on his left. And said, Who shall persuade , that he may go up and fall at ? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a , and stood before , and said, I will persuade him. And said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying in the of all his . And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, hath put a lying in the of all these thy , and hath spoken evil concerning thee. But went near, and smote on the cheek, and said, Which way went of from me to speak unto thee? And said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. 26And the king of Israel said, Take , and carry him back unto the governor of the city, and to the king’s son; And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. And said, If thou return at all in peace, hath not spoken by me. And he said, , O people, every one of you. So the king of Israel and the king of Judah went up to . And the king of Israel said unto , I will disguise myself, and enter into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle. But the king of commanded his thirty and two captains that had his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, only with the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw , that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him: and cried out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against , and at even: and ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country. 37So the king , and was brought to ; and they buried the king in . And one washed the chariot in the pool of ; and the dogs licked up his ; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of which he spake. Now the rest of the acts of , and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So slept with his fathers; and his son reigned in his stead. And the son of began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of king of Israel. was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in . And his mother’s name was the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in all the ways of his ; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of : nevertheless the were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt yet in the . And made peace with the king of Israel. Now the rest of the acts of , and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his , he took out of the land. There was then no king in : a deputy was king. made ships of Tharshish to go to for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at –geber. 49Then said the son of unto , Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But would not. And slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in his : and his son reigned in his stead. the son of began to reign over Israel in the seventeenth year of king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. And he did evil in the sight of , and walked in of his , and in of his mother, and in of the son of , who made Israel to : For he , and him, and provoked to of Israel, according to all that his had done.
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.