King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 14
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In the second year of son of king of Israel reigned the son of king of Judah. 2He was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and reigned twenty and nine years in . And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of . And he did that which was right in the sight of , yet not like his : he did according to all things as his did. Howbeit the were not taken away: as yet the people did and burnt on the . And it came to pass, as soon as was confirmed in his hand, that he slew his servants which had slain the king his . But the children of the he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of of , wherein commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to for the children, nor the children be put to for the fathers; but every man shall be put to for his own . He slew of in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day. Then sent to , the son of son of , king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the . And the king of Israel sent to king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in sent to the cedar that was in , saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in , and trode down the thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten , and thine hath lifted thee up: of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee? But would not hear. Therefore king of Israel went up; and he and king of Judah looked one another in the at , which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to their tents. And king of Israel took king of Judah, the son of the son of , at , and came to , and brake down the wall of from the of unto the corner , four hundred . And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the , and in the of the king’s house, and hostages, and returned to . Now the rest of the acts of which he did, and his might, and how he fought with king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And slept with his fathers, and was buried in with the kings of Israel; and his son reigned in his stead. And the son of king of Judah lived after the of son of king of Israel fifteen years. And the rest of the acts of , are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Now they made a conspiracy against him in : and he fled to ; but they sent after him to , and slew him there. And they brought him on horses: and he was buried at with his fathers in . And all the people of Judah took , which was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his . He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. In the fifteenth year of the son of king of Judah the son of king of Israel began to reign in , and reigned forty and one years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of : he departed not from all the of the son of , who made Israel to . He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant , the son of , the , which was of . For saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under : but he them by the hand of the son of . Now the rest of the acts of , and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered , and , which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah 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.