World English Bible · The united kingdom
1 Kings 3
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made a marriage alliance with king of . He took daughter and brought her into city until he had finished building his own house, house, and the wall around . However, the people in the , because there was not yet a house built for name. loved , walking in the of his , except that he and in the . The king went to to there, for that was the great . offered a thousand burnt offerings on that . In , appeared to in a by night; and said, "Ask for what I should give you." said, "You have shown to great , because he walked before you in truth, in , and in uprightness of with you. You have kept for him this great , that you have given him a son to sit on his , as it is today. Now, my , you have made king instead of . I am a little child. I don't know how to go out or come in. is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can't be numbered or counted for multitude. Give therefore an understanding to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people of yours?" This request pleased , that had asked this thing. said to him, "Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your , but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a and understanding , so that there has been no one like you before you, and after you none will arise like you. I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and , so that there will not be any among the kings like you for all your days. If you will walk in my ways, to keep and my , as your walked, then I will lengthen your days." awoke; and behold, it was a . Then he came to and stood before the , and offered up burnt offerings, offered , and made a feast for all his servants. Then two women who were came to the king, and stood before him. 17The one woman said, "Oh, my , I and this woman in one house. I a child with her in the house. 18The third day after I , this woman also. We were together. There was no with us in the house, us two in the house. 19This woman's child in the night, because she lay on it. She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me while slept, and laid it in her , and laid her child in my . When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was ; but when I had looked at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore." 22The other woman said, "No! But the living one is my son, and one is your son." The first one said, "No! But one is your son, and the living one is my son." They argued like this before the king. 23Then the king said, "One says, 'This is my son who lives, and your son is one;' and the other says, 'No! But your son is one, and my son is the living one.'" 24The king said, "Get me a ." So they brought a before the king. The king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other." Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her yearned over her son, and she said, "Oh, my , give her the living child, and in no way kill him!" But the other said, "He shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide him." 27Then the king answered, "Give the first woman the living child, and definitely do not kill him. She is his mother." All Israel heard of the which the king had judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the of was in him to do justice.
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The world at this moment · The united kingdom, 1050 BC to 931 BC ›
Saul, David, and Solomon. A rare window when both Egypt and Mesopotamia are weak, which is how a small kingdom in the corridor between them could briefly become a regional power.
- The power vacuum
- This is the whole political explanation for the united kingdom. Egypt is fragmented, Assyria is recovering but still local, the Hittites are gone, and nobody is in a position to object to a strong state in the corridor. It lasts about a century, and Israel's golden age fits exactly inside it.
- Phoenicia
- Tyre under Hiram is the commercial power of the coast, and supplies the cedar, the craftsmen, and the shipping for Solomon's building programme. The alliance is trade, not charity: Israel had grain and a land route, Tyre had timber and ships.
- Egypt
- Weak enough that a pharaoh gives a daughter in marriage to an Israelite king, which is the opposite of Egyptian practice in stronger centuries. Late in the era it recovers under a new house, and Shishak will invade within five years of Solomon's death.
- Further afield
- Greece is still in its dark age but beginning to recover, and will adopt the Phoenician alphabet within a century or two. Carthage is founded by settlers from Tyre by tradition in 814 BC. In the Americas the Olmec centre shifts to La Venta.