King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Samuel 10
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Then took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because hath thee to be captain over his ? When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by ’s in the border of at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found: and, lo, thy hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do for my son? Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of , and there shall meet thee three men going up to to Beth–el, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of : And they will salute thee, and give thee two loaves of bread; which thou shalt receive of their hands. After that thou shalt come to the hill of , where is the garrison of the : and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of coming down from the with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall : And of will come upon thee, and thou shalt with them, and shalt be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion thee; for is with thee. And thou shalt go down before me to ; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer , and to of : seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come to thee, and shew thee what thou shalt do. And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from , gave him another : and all those signs came to pass that day. And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of met him; and of came upon him, and he prophesied among them. And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among , then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of ? Is also among ? And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their ? Therefore it became a , Is also among ? 13And when he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the . And ’s uncle said unto him and to his servant, Whither went ye? And he said, To seek the asses: and when we saw that they were no where, we came to . 15And ’s uncle said, Tell me, I thee, what said unto you. And said unto his uncle, He told us plainly that the asses were found. But of the matter of , whereof spake, he told him not. And called the people together unto to ; And said unto the , Thus saith of Israel, I brought up Israel out of , and you out of the hand of the , and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you: And ye have this day rejected your , who himself you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before by your tribes, and by your thousands. And when had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of was taken. 21When he had caused the tribe of to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and the son of was taken: and when they sought him, he could not be found. Therefore they enquired of further, if the man should yet come thither. And answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff. And they ran and fetched him thence: and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. And said to all the people, See ye him whom hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, the king. Then told the people the manner of , and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before . And sent all the people away, every man to his house. And also went home to ; and there went with him a band of men, whose had touched. But the children of Belial said, How shall this man us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace.
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.