King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Samuel 3
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And the child ministered unto before . And the word of was precious in those days; there was no open . And it came to pass at that time, when was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; And ere the lamp of went out in of , where the was, and was laid down to sleep; That called : and he answered, Here am I. 5And he ran unto , and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. And called yet again, . And arose and went to , and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. Now did not yet know , neither was the word of yet unto him. And called again the third time. And he arose and went to , and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And perceived that had called the child. Therefore said unto , Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, ; for thy servant heareth. So went and lay down in his place. And came, and stood, and called as at other times, , . Then answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. And said to , Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have unto the house of , that the of ’s house shall not be purged with nor for ever. And lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the . And feared to shew the . 16Then called , and said, , my son. And he answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that hath said unto thee? I thee hide it not from me: do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide any thing from me of all the things that he said unto thee. And told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is : let him do what seemeth him good. And grew, and was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beer–sheba knew that was established to be a of . And appeared again in : for himself to in by the word of .
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.