King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Samuel 7
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And the men of Kirjath–jearim came, and fetched up the , and brought it into the house of in the hill, and Eleazar his son to keep the . And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath–jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the after . And spake unto all the , saying, If ye do return unto with all your , then the strange gods and from among you, and prepare your unto , and him only: and he will you out of the hand of the . Then the did and , and only. And said, Gather all Israel to , and I will for you unto . And they gathered together to , and drew water, and poured it out before , and on that day, and said there, We have against . And judged the in . And when the heard that the were gathered together to , the lords of the went up against Israel. And when the heard it, they were afraid of the . And the said to , Cease not to cry unto our for us, that he will us out of the hand of the . And took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a wholly unto : and cried unto for Israel; and heard him. And as was up the , the drew near to battle against Israel: but thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the , and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel. 11And the men of Israel went out of , and pursued the , and smote them, until they came under Beth–car. Then took a stone, and set it between and Shen, and called the name of it Eben–ezer, saying, Hitherto hath helped us. So the were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel: and the hand of was against the all the days of . And the cities which the had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from even unto ; and the coasts thereof did Israel out of the hands of the . And there was peace between Israel and the . And judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Beth–el, and , and , and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to ; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an unto .
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.