King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 10
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And it came to pass after this, that the king of , and Hanun his son reigned in his stead. Then said , I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of , as his shewed kindness unto me. And sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his . And ’s servants came into the land of . And the princes of said unto Hanun their , Thinkest thou that doth thy , that he hath sent comforters unto thee? hath not rather sent his servants unto thee, to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it? Wherefore Hanun took ’s servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. When they told it unto , he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly : and the king said, Tarry at until your beards be grown, and then return. And when saw that they stank before , sent and hired of Beth–rehob, and of Zoba, twenty thousand footmen, and of king a thousand men, and of Ish–tob twelve thousand men. And when heard of it, he sent , and of the . And came out, and put the battle in array at the entering in of the : and of Zoba, and of , and Ish–tob, and , were by themselves in the field. When saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against : 10And the rest of the people he into the hand of his brother, that he might put them in array against . And he said, If be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me: but if be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee. Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our : and do that which seemeth him good. And drew nigh, and the people that were with him, unto the battle against : and they fled before him. 14And when saw that were fled, then fled they also before , and entered into the city. So returned from , and came to . And when saw that they were smitten before Israel, they gathered themselves together. And Hadarezer sent, and brought out that were beyond the river: and they came to Helam; and Shobach the captain of the host of Hadarezer went before them. And when it was told , he gathered all Israel together, and passed over Jordan, and came to Helam. And set themselves in array against , and fought with him. And fled before Israel; and slew the men of seven hundred chariots of , and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who there. And when all the kings that were servants to Hadarezer saw that they were smitten before Israel, they made peace with Israel, and them. So feared to help any more.
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 united kingdom, 1050 BC to 931 BC ›
Saul, David, and Solomon. A rare window when both Egypt and Mesopotamia are weak, which is how a small kingdom in the corridor between them could briefly become a regional power.
- The power vacuum
- This is the whole political explanation for the united kingdom. Egypt is fragmented, Assyria is recovering but still local, the Hittites are gone, and nobody is in a position to object to a strong state in the corridor. It lasts about a century, and Israel's golden age fits exactly inside it.
- Phoenicia
- Tyre under Hiram is the commercial power of the coast, and supplies the cedar, the craftsmen, and the shipping for Solomon's building programme. The alliance is trade, not charity: Israel had grain and a land route, Tyre had timber and ships.
- Egypt
- Weak enough that a pharaoh gives a daughter in marriage to an Israelite king, which is the opposite of Egyptian practice in stronger centuries. Late in the era it recovers under a new house, and Shishak will invade within five years of Solomon's death.
- Further afield
- Greece is still in its dark age but beginning to recover, and will adopt the Phoenician alphabet within a century or two. Carthage is founded by settlers from Tyre by tradition in 814 BC. In the Americas the Olmec centre shifts to La Venta.