King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Samuel 15
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also said unto , sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore thou unto the voice of the words of . Thus saith of hosts, I remember that which did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in , when he came up from . Now go and smite , and all that they have, and spare them not; but both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. And gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5And came to a city of , and laid wait in the valley. And said unto the , Go, depart, get you down from among , lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the , when they came up out of . So the departed from among . And smote from until thou comest to , that is over against . And he took the king of alive, and all the people with the edge of . But and the people spared , and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. 10Then came the word of unto , saying, It repenteth me that I have set up to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my . And it grieved ; and he cried unto all night. And when rose early to meet in the morning, it was told , saying, came to , and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to . And came to : and said unto him, be thou of : I have performed the of . And said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And said, They have brought them from : for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to unto thy ; and the rest we have . Then said unto , Stay, and I will tell thee what hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and thee king over Israel? And sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and the , and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not , but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of ? And said unto , Yea, I have , and have gone which sent me, and have brought the king of , and have . But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been , to unto thy in . And said, Hath as great delight in and , as in obeying ? Behold, to is better than , and to than rams. For rebellion is as the of , and stubbornness is as and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of , he hath also rejected thee from being king. And said unto , I have : for I have transgressed the of , and thy words: because I feared the people, and their voice. Now therefore, I thee, pardon my , and turn again with me, that I may . And said unto , I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of , and hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the of his mantle, and it rent. And said unto him, hath rent of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor : for he is not a man, that he should . Then he said, I have : yet me now, I thee, before the of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may thy . 31So turned again after ; and . Then said , Bring ye hither to me the king of . And came unto him delicately. And said, Surely the bitterness of is past. And said, As thy hath made women , so shall thy mother be among women. And hewed in pieces before in . Then went to ; and went up to his house to of . And came no more to see until the day of his : nevertheless mourned for : and that he had made king over Israel.
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.