World English Bible · The united kingdom
2 Chronicles 4
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Then he made an of bronze, twenty long, twenty wide, and ten high. Also he made the molten sea of ten from brim to brim. It was round, five high, and thirty in circumference. Under it was the of oxen, which encircled it, for ten , encircling the sea. The oxen were in two rows, cast when it was cast. It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set on them above, and all their hindquarters were inward. It was a thick. Its brim was made like the brim of a , like the flower of a lily. It received and held three thousand baths. He also made ten basins, and put five on and five on the left, to wash in them. The things that belonged to the burnt offering were washed in them, but the sea was for the priests to wash in. He made the ten lamp stands of gold according to the concerning them; and he set them in , five on and five on the left. He made also ten tables, and placed them in , five on the right side and five on the left. He made one hundred basins of gold. Furthermore he made the court of the priests, the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid their doors with bronze. He set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south. Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Huram finished doing the work that he did for King in house: the two pillars, the bowls, the two capitals which were on the top of the pillars, the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars, and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks—two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars. He also made the bases, and he made the basins on the bases— 15one sea, and the twelve oxen under it. Huram-abi also made the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all its vessels for King , for house, of bright bronze. The king cast them in the plain of , in the ground between and Zeredah. Thus made all these vessels in great abundance, so that the weight of the bronze could not be determined. made all the vessels that were in house: the golden , the tables with the show bread on them, and the lamp stands with their lamps to burn according to the before the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold that was purest gold; and the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the pans of pure gold. As for the entry of the house, its inner doors for the most place and the doors of the main hall of were of gold.
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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.