King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Samuel 22
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therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave : and when his brethren and all his ’s house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. And went thence to of : and he said unto the king of , Let and my mother, I thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what will do for me. And he brought them before the king of : and they dwelt with him all the while that was in the hold. And the Gad said unto , not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then departed, and came into the forest of Hareth. When heard that was discovered, and the men that were with him, (now abode in under a tree in , having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him;) Then said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye ; will the son of give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds; That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of , and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? Then answered the , which was set over the servants of , and said, I saw the son of coming to , to the son of . And he enquired of for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him of the . Then the king sent to call the priest, the son of , and all his ’s house, the priests that were in : and they came all of them to the king. And said, Hear now, thou son of . And he answered, Here I am, my . And said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of , in that thou hast given him bread, and a , and hast enquired of for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? Then answered the king, and said, And who is so among all thy servants as , which is the king’s son in law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honourable in thine house? Did I then begin to enquire of for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of : for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. And the king said, Thou shalt surely , , thou, and all thy ’s house. And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and the priests of ; because their hand also is with , and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of . And the king said to , Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And the turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen . And , the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of , both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of . And one of the sons of the son of , named , escaped, and fled after . 21And shewed that had slain ’s priests. And said unto , I knew it that day, when the was there, that he would surely tell : I have occasioned the of all the persons of thy ’s house. thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard.
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.