King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 6
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
And the sons of said unto , Behold now, the place where we with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may . And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. And the said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it. Then the king of warred against Israel, and with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither are come down. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the told him and warned him of, and himself there, not once nor twice. Therefore of the king of was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my , O king: but , the that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in . Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the the was early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And , and said, , I thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of round about . And when they came down to him, unto , and said, Smite this people, I thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of . And said unto them, This is not , neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to . And it came to pass, when they were come into , that said, , open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of . And the king of Israel said unto , when he saw them, , shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken with thy and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of came no more into the land of Israel. And it came to pass after this, that Ben–hadad king of gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged . And there was a great in : and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of ’s dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my , O king. And he said, If do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had within upon his . Then he said, do so and more also to me, if the head of the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day. But sat in his house, and the sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere came to him, he said to the , See ye how this son of a hath sent to take away mine head? look, when cometh, shut the door, and hold him at the door: is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him? And while he yet talked with them, behold, came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of ; what should I any longer?
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.