World English Bible · The united kingdom
2 Chronicles 5
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Thus all the work that did for house was finished. brought in the things that his had dedicated, even the silver, the gold, and all the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of house. Then assembled the and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' households of the , to , to bring up the out of city, which is . So all the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at the feast, which was in the seventh month. All the came. The took up the ark. They brought up the ark, the , and all the vessels that were in the Tent. The priests brought these up. King and all of Israel who were assembled to him were before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. The priests brought in the to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most place, even under the of the . For the spread out their over the place of the ark, and the covered the ark and its poles above. The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the ark in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and it is there to this day. There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which put there at , when made a with the , when they came out of . When the priests had come out of the place (for all the priests who were present had themselves, and didn't keep their divisions; also the who were the singers, all of them, even , , Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps, stood at the east end of the , and with them one hundred twenty priests sounding with ); when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking ; and when they lifted up their voice with the and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised , saying, "For he is good, for his endures !" then the house was filled with a cloud, even house, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for filled house.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.