King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Samuel 12
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And said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am: against me before , and before his : whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand. And he said unto them, is against you, and his is this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is . And said unto the people, It is that advanced and , and that brought your fathers up out of the land of . Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before of all acts of , which he did to you and to your fathers. When was come into , and your fathers cried unto , then sent and , which brought forth your fathers out of , and made them in this place. And when they forgat their , he sold them into the hand of , captain of the host of , and into the hand of the , and into the hand of the king of , and they fought against them. And they cried unto , and said, We have , because we have forsaken , and have and : but now us out of the hand of our , and we will thee. And sent , and Bedan, and , and , and you out of the hand of your on every side, and ye dwelled safe. And when ye saw that the king of came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when your was your king. Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have ! and, behold, hath set a king over you. If ye will , and him, and his voice, and not rebel against the of , then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following your : But if ye will not , but rebel against the of , then shall the hand of be against you, as it was against your fathers. Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto , and he shall send thunder and ; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of , in asking you a king. So called unto ; and sent thunder and that day: and all the people greatly feared and . And all the people said unto , for thy servants unto thy , that we not: for we have added unto all our this evil, to ask us a king. And said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following , but with all ; And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after things, which cannot profit nor ; for they are . For will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased to make you his people. Moreover as for me, forbid that I should against in ceasing to for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: Only , and him in truth with all : for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.
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.