King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Chronicles 24
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was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in . His mother’s name also was Zibiah of Beer–sheba. And did that which was right in the sight of all the days of the priest. And took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters. 4And it came to pass after this, that was minded to repair the . And he gathered together the priests and the , and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the hastened it not. And the king called for the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the to bring in out of Judah and out of the collection, according to the of the , and of of Israel, for the of ? For the sons of , that woman, had broken up the house of ; and also all the dedicated things of the did they bestow upon . And at the king’s they made a chest, and set it without at the of the . And they made a proclamation through Judah and , to bring in to the collection that the laid upon Israel in . And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end. Now it came to pass, that at what time the chest was brought unto the king’s office by the hand of the , and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s and the ’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to his place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. And the king and gave it to such as did the work of the of the , and hired masons and carpenters to repair the , and also such as wrought iron and brass to mend the . So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of in his state, and strengthened it. And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king and , whereof were made vessels for the , even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the continually all the days of . But waxed old, and was full of days when he ; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he . And they in among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward , and toward his house. Now after the of came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they left the of their fathers, and groves and idols: and came upon Judah and for this their trespass. Yet he sent to them, to bring them again unto ; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear. And of came upon the son of the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith , Why transgress ye of , that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken , he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the of the king in the court of the . Thus the king remembered not the kindness which his had done to him, but slew his son. And when he , he said, look upon it, and require it. And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of came up against him: and they came to Judah and , and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of . For the army of came with a small company of men, and a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken of their fathers. So they executed against . And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for of the sons of the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he : and they in , but they not in the sepulchres of the kings. And these are they that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and the son of Shimrith a Moabitess. Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the repairing of the house of , behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And his son reigned in his stead.
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.