World English Bible · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 14
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Now the son of perceived that the king's was toward . sent to Tekoa and brought a woman from there, and said to her, "Please act like a mourner, and put on clothing, please, and don't anoint yourself with oil; but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for . Go in to the king and speak like this to him." So put the words in her . When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her to the ground, showed respect, and said, "Help, O king!" The king said to her, "What ails you?" She answered, "Truly I am a , and my husband is . had two sons; and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other and killed him. Behold, the whole family has against , and they say, ' him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the also.' Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth." The king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you." The woman of Tekoa said to the king, "My , O king, may the be on me, and on house; and may the king and his be guiltless." 10The king said, "Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will not bother you any more." Then she said, "Please let the king remember your , that the destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son." He said, "As lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the earth." Then the woman said, "Please let speak a word to my the king." He said, "Say on." The woman said, "Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of ? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one. For we must , and are like water spilled on the ground, which can't be gathered up again; neither does take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him. 15Now therefore, seeing that I have come to speak this word to my the king, it is because the people have made me afraid. said, 'I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.' For the king will hear, to his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the of . Then said, 'Please let the word of my the king bring rest; for as of , so is my the king to discern good and bad. May , your , be with you.'" Then the king answered the woman, "Please don't hide anything from me that I ask you." The woman said, "Let my the king now speak." The king said, "Is the hand of with you in all this?" The woman answered, "As your lives, my the king, no one can turn to or to the left from anything that my the king has spoken; for urged me, and he put all these words in the of . has done this thing to change the of the matter. My is , according to the of of , to know all things that are in the earth." The king said to , "Behold now, I have granted this thing. Go therefore, and bring the young man back." fell to the ground on , showed respect, and the king. said, "Today knows that I have in your sight, my , O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant." So arose and went to Geshur, and brought to . The king said, "Let him return to his own house, but let him not see ." So returned to his own house, and didn't see the king's . Now in all Israel there was no one to be so much praised as for his beauty. From the sole of his foot even to the of his head there was in him. When he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year's end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred , after the king's weight. Three sons were born to , and one daughter, whose name was . She was a woman with a beautiful . 28 lived two full years in , and he didn't see the king's . Then sent for , to send him to the king, but he would not come to him. Then he sent again a second time, but he would not come. Therefore he said to his servants, "Behold, field is near mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on ." So servants set the field on . 31Then arose and came to to his house, and said to him, "Why have your servants set my field on ?" answered , "Behold, I sent to you, saying, 'Come here, that I may send you to the king, to say, "Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still. Now therefore, let me see the king's ; and if there is in me, let him kill me."'" So came to the king and told him; and when he had called for , he came to the king and bowed himself on to the ground before the king; and the king kissed .
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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.