King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 12
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And sent unto . And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other . The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But man had nothing, one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own , and lay , and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And ’s was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to , As liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely : And he shall restore fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no . And said to , Thou art the man. Thus saith of Israel, I thee king over Israel, and I thee out of the hand of ; And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy , and gave thee the and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the of , to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed the with , and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with of . Now therefore shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of the to be thy wife. Thus saith , Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. And said unto , I have against . And said unto , also hath thy ; thou shalt not . Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the of to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely . And departed unto his house. And struck the child that ’s wife unto , and it was very sick. therefore besought for the child; and , and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child . And the servants of feared to tell him that the child was : for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is ? 19But when saw that his servants whispered, perceived that the child was : therefore said unto his servants, Is the child ? And they said, He is . Then arose from the earth, and washed, and himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the , and : then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was , thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether will be to me, that the child may live? But now he is , wherefore should I ? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. And comforted Bath–sheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she a son, and he called his name : and loved him. And he sent by the hand of the ; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of . And fought against of , and took the royal city. And sent to , and said, I have fought against , and have taken the city of waters. Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my name. 29And gathered all the people together, and went to , and fought against it, and took it. And he took their king’s from off his head, the weight whereof was a of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on ’s head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance. And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of . So and all the people returned unto .
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.