King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 11
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And when the mother of saw that her son was , she arose and destroyed all the royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king , sister of , took the son of , and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from , so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the six years. And did reign over the land. And the seventh year sent and fetched the over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the , and made a with them, and took an of them in the , and shewed them the king’s son. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house; And a third part shall be at the of Sur; and a third part at the behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. And two parts of all you that go forth on the , even they shall keep the watch of the about the king. And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the , with them that should go out on the , and came to the priest. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king ’s spears and shields, that were in of . And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of to the left corner of , along by the and . And he brought forth the king’s son, and put the upon him, and gave him the ; and they made him king, and him; and they clapped their hands, and said, the king. And when heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into of . And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with : and rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason. But the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with . For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the . And they laid hands on her; and she went by by the which the horses came into the king’s house: and there was she slain. And made a between and the king and the people, that they should be ’s people; between the king also and the people. And all the people of the land went into the house of , and brake it down; his and his brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of before the . And the priest appointed officers over the . And he took the over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the , and came by of the of the guard to the king’s house. And he sat on of the kings. And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew with beside the king’s house. Seven years old was when he began to reign.
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.