World English Bible · The united kingdom
1 Samuel 7
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The men of came and took ark, and brought it into house on the hill, and Eleazar his son to keep ark. From the day that the ark stayed in , the time was long—for it was twenty years; and all the after . spoke to all the , saying, "If you are returning to with all , then the foreign gods and the from among you, and direct your to , and him only; and he will you out of the hand of the ." Then the removed and the , and only. said, "Gather all Israel to , and I will to for you." They gathered together to , and drew water, and poured it out before , and on that day, and said there, "We have against ." judged the in . When the heard that the were gathered together at , the lords of the went up against Israel. When the heard it, they were afraid of the . The said to , "Don't stop crying to our for us, that he will us out of the hand of the ." took a suckling lamb, and offered it for a whole to . cried to for Israel, and answered him. As was up the , the came near to battle against Israel; but thundered with a great thunder on that day on the and confused them; and they were struck down before Israel. 11The men of Israel went out of and pursued the , and struck them until they came under Beth Kar. Then took a stone and set it between and Shen, and called its name , saying, " helped us until now." So the were subdued, and they stopped coming within the border of Israel. hand was against the all the days of . The cities which the had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from even to ; and Israel recovered its border out of the hand of the . There was peace between Israel and the . judged Israel all the days of his life. He went from year to year in a circuit to , , and ; and he judged Israel in all those places. His return was to , for his house was there, and he judged Israel there; and he built an to there.
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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.