King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Chronicles 11
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And when was come to , he gathered of the house of Judah and an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against Israel, that he might bring again to . But to the , saying, Speak unto the son of , king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and , saying, Thus saith , Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren: return every man to his house: for this thing is done of me. And they the words of , and returned from going against Jeroboam. And dwelt in , and built cities for defence in Judah. He built even Beth–lehem, and Etam, and Tekoa, And , and Shoco, and , And , and , and , And Adoraim, and , and , And , and , and , which are in Judah and in fenced cities. And he fortified the strong holds, and put captains in them, and store of victual, and of oil and . And in every several city he put shields and spears, and made them exceeding strong, having Judah and on his side. 13And the priests and the that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts. For the left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and : for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto : And he ordained him priests for the , and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made. And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their to seek of Israel came to , to unto of their fathers. So they strengthened of Judah, and made the son of strong, three years: for three years they walked in of and . And took him Mahalath the daughter of to wife, and the daughter of Eliab the son of ; 19Which him children; , and Shamariah, and Zaham. And after her he took Maachah the daughter of ; which him , and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith. And loved Maachah the daughter of above all his wives and his : (for he took eighteen wives, and threescore ; and begat twenty and eight sons, and threescore daughters.) And made the son of Maachah the chief, to be ruler among his brethren: for he thought to make him king. And he dealt wisely, and dispersed of all his children throughout all the countries of Judah and , unto every fenced city: and he gave them victual in abundance. And he many wives.
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 divided kingdom, 931 BC to 745 BC ›
Israel in the north and Judah in the south, often at odds, with Aram of Damascus as the immediate threat and Assyria growing in the distance.
- Aram of Damascus
- The immediate enemy for most of two centuries, close enough to raid every campaigning season and strong enough to take territory. Most of the wars in Kings that read like national emergencies are border wars with Damascus.
- Assyria
- Growing steadily in the distance. Shalmaneser III fights a coalition at Qarqar in 853 BC and his own inscription lists King Ahab of Israel among his opponents with two thousand chariots, the earliest Assyrian mention of an Israelite king. A later monument shows Jehu bowing and paying tribute. Assyria is not yet the destroyer, but it is already taking notes.
- Egypt
- Divided and unreliable, capable of the occasional raid, such as Shishak stripping the temple in Rehoboam's fifth year, but no longer an empire that governs the Levant.
- Further afield
- The Greeks adopt the alphabet, hold the first Olympiad by tradition in 776 BC, and begin to compose the Homeric poems. Rome is founded by tradition in 753 BC, a village of huts at this point. This is the century in which the classical world begins.