King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 9
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And the called one of the children of , and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to : And when thou comest thither, look out there the son of the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber; Then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith , I have thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not. 4So the young man, even the young man the , went to . And when he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain. And said, Unto which of all us? And he said, To thee, O captain. And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus saith of Israel, I have thee king over the people of , even over Israel. And thou shalt smite the house of thy master, that I may of my servants , and of all the servants of , at the hand of . For the whole house of shall : and I will him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel: And I will make the house of like the house of the son of , and like the house of the son of : And the dogs shall eat in the of , and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door, and fled. Then came forth to the servants of his : and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication. 12And they said, It is false; tell us now. And he said, Thus and thus spake he to me, saying, Thus saith , I have thee king over Israel. Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew with , saying, is king. So the son of the son of Nimshi conspired against . (Now had kept , he and all Israel, because of king of . But king was returned to be healed in of the wounds which had given him, when he fought with king of .) And said, If it be your , then let none go forth nor escape out of the city to go to tell it in . So rode in a chariot, and went to ; for lay there. And king of Judah was come down to see . And there stood a watchman on the tower in , and he spied the company of as he came, and said, I see a company. And said, Take an horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying, came to them, but he cometh not again. 19Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And answered, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving is like the driving of the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously. And said, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And king of Israel and king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out against , and met him in the of the Jezreelite. And it came to pass, when saw , that he said, Is it peace, ? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother and her witchcrafts are so many? And turned his hands, and fled, and said to , There is treachery, O . And drew a bow with his full strength, and smote between his arms, and the arrow went out at , and he sunk down in his chariot. Then said to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the of the field of the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after his , laid this burden upon him; Surely I have seen yesterday of , and of his sons, saith ; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith . Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of . But when the king of Judah saw this, he fled by of the garden house. And followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Gur, which is by . And he fled to , and there. And his servants carried him in a chariot to , and in his with his fathers in . And in the eleventh year of the son of began to reign over Judah. And when was come to , heard of it; and she painted her , and tired her head, and looked out at a window. And as entered in at the , she said, Had peace, who slew his master? And he lifted up to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three . And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of , which he spake by his servant the Tishbite, saying, In the of shall dogs eat of : And the carcase of shall be as dung upon the of the field in the of ; so that they shall not say, This is .
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.