King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Chronicles 23
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And in the seventh year strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, the son of , and the son of , and the son of Obed, and the son of , and Elishaphat the son of , into with him. And they went about in Judah, and gathered the out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to . And all made a with the king in the house of . And he said unto them, Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as hath said of the sons of . This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you entering on the , of the priests and of the , shall be porters of the doors; And a third part shall be at the king’s house; and a third part at the of the foundation: and all the people shall be in the courts of the . But let none come into the , the priests, and they that minister of the ; they shall go in, for they are : but all the people shall keep the watch of . And the shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and whosoever else cometh into the house, he shall be put to : but be ye with the king when he cometh in, and when he goeth out. So the and all Judah did according to all things that the priest had commanded, and took every man his men that were to come in on the , with them that were to go out on the : for the priest dismissed not the courses. Moreover the priest to the captains of hundreds spears, and bucklers, and shields, that had been king ’s, which were in the house of . And he set all the people, every man having his weapon in his hand, from the right side of to the left side of , along by the and , by the king round about. Then they brought out the king’s son, and put upon him the , and gave him the , and made him king. And and his sons him, and said, the king. Now when heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the : And she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the by the king: and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with , also the singers with instruments of musick, and such as taught to sing . Then rent her clothes, and said, Treason, Treason. Then the priest brought out the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth of the ranges: and whoso followeth her, let him be slain with . For the priest said, her not in the . So they laid hands on her; and when she was come to the entering of the horse gate by the king’s house, they slew her there. And made a between him, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be ’s people. Then all the people went to the house of , and brake it down, and brake his and his in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of before the . Also appointed the offices of the by the hand of the priests the , whom had distributed in the , to offer the burnt offerings of , as in of , with rejoicing and with singing, as it was ordained by . And he set the porters at the of the , that none which was in any thing should enter in. And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought down the king from the : and they came through the high into the king’s house, and set the king upon of . And all the people of the land rejoiced: and the city was quiet, after that they had slain with .
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.