World English Bible · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 2
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When was about to take up by a whirlwind into , went with from . said to , "Please wait here, for has sent me as far as ." said, "As lives, and as your lives, I will not leave you." So they went down to . The sons of who were at came out to , and said to him, "Do you know that will take away your master from over you today?" He said, "Yes, I know it. Hold your peace." said to him, ", please wait here, for has sent me to ." He said, "As lives, and as your lives, I will not leave you." So they came to . The sons of who were at came near to , and said to him, "Do you know that will take away your master from over you today?" He answered, "Yes, I know it. Hold your peace." said to him, "Please wait here, for has sent me to ." He said, "As lives, and as your lives, I will not leave you." Then they both went on. Fifty men of the sons of went and stood opposite them at a distance; and they both stood by . took his mantle, and rolled it up, and struck the waters; and they were divided here and there, so that they both went over on dry ground. When they had gone over, said to , "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." said, "Please let a double of your be on me." He said, "You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be so for you; but if not, it will not be so." As they continued on and talked, behold, a chariot of and horses of separated them; and went up by a whirlwind into . saw it, and he cried, ", , the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" He saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. He also took up mantle that fell from him, and went back and stood by the bank of . He took mantle that fell from him, and struck the waters, and said, "Where is , the of ?" When he also had struck the waters, they were divided apart, and went over. When the sons of who were at facing him saw him, they said, " of rests on ." They came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. They said to him, "See now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. Perhaps has taken him up, and put him on some mountain or into some valley." He said, "Don't send them." When they urged him until he was , he said, "Send them." Therefore they sent fifty men; and they searched for three days, but didn't find him. 18They came back to him while he stayed at ; and he said to them, "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't go'?" The men of the city said to , "Behold, please, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my sees; but the water is bad, and the land is ." He said, "Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it." Then they brought it to him. He went out to the spring of the waters, and threw salt into it, and said, " says, 'I have healed these waters. There shall not be from there any more or wasteland.'" 22So the waters were healed to this day, according to word which he spoke. He went up from there to . As he was going up by , some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, "Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!" He looked behind him and saw them, and them in name. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of those youths. He went from there to , and from there he returned to .
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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.