World English Bible · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 9
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the called one of the sons of , and said to him, "Put your belt on your waist, take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to . When you come there, find the son of the son of Nimshi, and go in and make him rise up from among his brothers, and take him to an inner room. Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, ' says, "I have you king over Israel."' Then open the door, flee, and don't wait." 4So the young man, the young , went to . When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, "I have a message for you, captain." said, "To which one of us?" He said, "To you, O captain." He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, ", the of Israel, says, 'I have you king over the people of , even over Israel. You must strike your master house, that I may of my servants , and of all the servants of , at the hand of . For the whole house of will . I will everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. I will make house like the house of the son of , and like the house of the son of . The dogs will eat on the plot of ground of , and there shall be no one to bury her.'" Then he opened the door and fled. When came out to the servants of his and one said to him, "Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?" He said to them, "You know the man and how he talks." 12They said, "That is a lie. Tell us now." He said, "He said to me, ' says, I have you king over Israel.'" Then they hurried, and each man took his cloak, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the , saying, " is king." So the son of the son of Nimshi conspired against . (Now was defending , he and all Israel, because of king of ; but King had returned to be healed in of the wounds which had given him when he fought with king of .) said, "If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city to go to tell it in ." So rode in a chariot and went to , for lay there. king of Judah had come down to see . Now the watchman was standing on the tower in , and he spied the company of as he came, and said, "I see a company." said, "Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, 'Is it peace?'" So one went on horseback to meet him, and said, "the king says, 'Is it peace?'" said, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!" The watchman said, " came to them, but he isn't coming back." 19Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them and said, "The king says, 'Is it peace?'" answered, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!" The watchman said, "He came to them, and isn't coming back. The driving is like the driving of the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously." said, "Get ready!" They got his chariot ready. Then king of Israel and king of Judah went out, each in his chariot; and they went out to meet , and found him on the Jezreelite's land. When saw , he said, "Is it peace, ?" He answered, "What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother and her abound?" turned his hands and fled, and said to , "This is treason, !" drew his bow with his full strength, and struck between his arms; and the arrow went out at , and he sunk down in his chariot. Then said to Bidkar his captain, "Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after his , laid this burden on him: 'Surely I have seen yesterday of , and of his sons,' ; 'and I will repay you in this plot of ground,' . Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to word." But when the king of Judah saw this, he fled by of the garden house. followed after him, and said, "Strike him also in the chariot!" They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by . He fled to , and there. His servants carried him in a chariot to , and in his with his fathers in city. In the eleventh year of the son of , began to reign over Judah. When had come to , heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out at the window. As entered in at the , she said, "Do you come in peace, , you of your master?" He lifted up to the window, and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three looked out at him. He said, "Throw her down!" So they threw her down; and some of her was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot. When he had come in, he ate and drank. Then he said, "See now to this woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter." They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, "This is word, which he spoke by his servant the Tishbite, saying, 'The dogs will eat of on the plot of , and the body of will be as dung on the surface of the field on land, so that they won't say, "This is ."'"
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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.