World English Bible · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 6
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The sons of said to , "See now, the place where we live and meet with you is too small for us. Please let us go to , and each man take a beam from there, and let's make us a place there, where we may live." He answered, "Go!" One said, "Please be pleased to go with your servants." He answered, "I will go." So he went with them. When they came to , they cut down wood. But as one was cutting down a tree, the ax head fell into the water. Then he cried out and said, "Alas, my master! For it was borrowed." The asked, "Where did it fall?" He showed him the place. He cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. He said, "Take it." So he put out his hand and took it. Now the king of was at war against Israel; and he with his servants, saying, "My camp will be in such and such a place." The sent to the king of Israel, saying, "Beware that you not pass this place, for are coming down there." The king of Israel sent to the place which the told him and warned him of; and he himself there, not once or twice. The king of was very troubled about this. He called his servants, and said to them, "Won't you show me which of us is for the king of Israel?" One of his servants said, "No, my , O king; but , the who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom." He said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him." He was told, "Behold, he is in ." Therefore he sent horses, chariots, and a great army there. They came by night and surrounded the city. When the the had early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was around the city. His servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" He answered, "Don't be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." , and said, ", please open his eyes, that he may see." opened the young man's eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of around . When they came down to him, to , and said, "Please strike this people with blindness." He struck them with blindness according to word. said to them, "This is not , neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek." He led them to . When they had come into , said, ", open these men's eyes, that they may see." opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in the middle of . The king of Israel said to , when he saw them, ", shall I strike them? Shall I strike them?" He answered, "You shall not strike them. Would you strike those whom you have taken with your and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, then go to their master." He prepared a great feast for them. After they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of stopped raiding the land of Israel. After this, king of gathered all his army, and went up and besieged . There was a great in . Behold, they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dung for five pieces of silver. As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying, "Help, my , O king!" He said, "If doesn't help you, where could I get help for you? From the , or from the press?" Then the king asked her, "What is your problem?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, 'Give up your son, that we may eat him;' and she has hidden her son." When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had underneath on his body. Then he said, " do so to me, and more also, if the head of the son of Shaphat stays on him today." But was sitting in his house, and the were sitting with him. Then the king sent a man from before him; but before came to him, he said to the , "Do you see how this son of a has sent to take away my head? Behold, when comes, shut the door, and hold the door shut against him. Isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?" While he was still talking with them, behold, came down to him. Then he said, "Behold, this evil is from . Why should I any longer?"
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.