King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Kings 5
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And king of sent his servants unto ; for he had heard that they had him king in the room of his : for was ever a lover of . And sent to , saying, Thou knowest how that could not build an house unto the name of his for the wars which were about him on every side, until put them under the soles of his feet. But now my hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent. And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of my , as spake unto , saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name. Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of ; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the . And it came to pass, when heard the words of , that he rejoiced greatly, and said, be this day, which hath given unto a son over this great people. And sent to , saying, I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for: and I will do all thy concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down from unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my , in giving food for my household. 10So gave cedar trees and fir trees according to all his . And gave twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave to year by year. And gave , as he promised him: and there was peace between and ; and they two made a league together. And king a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to , ten thousand a month by courses: a month they were in , and two months at home: and was over the levy. And had threescore and ten thousand that burdens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains; Beside the chief of ’s officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work. And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house. And ’s builders and ’s builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.
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 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.