King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 1
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Then rebelled against Israel after the of . And fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in , and was sick: and he sent , and said unto them, Go, enquire of the of whether I shall recover of this disease. But said to the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the of the king of , and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a in Israel, that ye go to enquire of the of ? Now therefore thus saith , Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely . And departed. 5And when the turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back? And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith , Is it not because there is not a in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of the of ? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely . And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words? And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is the Tishbite. Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou , the king hath said, Come down. And answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a , then let come down from , and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down from , and consumed him and his fifty. Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O , thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. And answered and said unto them, If I be a , let come down from , and consume thee and thy fifty. And the of came down from , and consumed him and his fifty. And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before , and besought him, and said unto him, O , I thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came down from , and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. And said unto , Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king. And he said unto him, Thus saith , Forasmuch as thou hast sent to enquire of the of , is it not because there is no in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely . So he according to the word of which had spoken. And reigned in his stead in the second year of the son of king of Judah; because he had no son. Now the rest of the acts of which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
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.