King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 14
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Now the son of perceived that the king’s was toward . And sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a woman, and said unto her, I thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for : And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So put the words in her . And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell on her to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king. And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a woman, and mine husband is . And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him. And, behold, the whole family is against thine handmaid, and they said, him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth. And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee. And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My , O king, the be on me, and on ’s house: and the king and his be guiltless. 10And the king said, Whosoever saith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more. Then said she, I thee, let the king remember thy , that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I thee, speak one word unto my the king. And he said, Say on. And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of ? for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished. For we must needs , and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him. 15Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid. For the king will hear, to his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the of . Then thine handmaid said, The word of my the king shall now be comfortable: for as of , so is my the king to discern good and bad: therefore thy will be with thee. Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my the king now speak. And the king said, Is not the hand of with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy liveth, my the king, none can turn to or to the left from ought that my the king hath spoken: for thy servant , he bade me, and he put all these words in the of thine handmaid: To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant done this thing: and my is , according to the of of , to know all things that are in the earth. And the king said unto , Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man again. And fell to the ground on , and bowed himself, and thanked the king: and said, To day thy servant knoweth that I have found in thy sight, my , O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant. So arose and went to Geshur, and brought to . And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see . So returned to his own house, and saw not the king’s . But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the of his head there was no in him. And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred after the king’s weight. And unto there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was : she was a woman of a fair countenance. 28So dwelt two full years in , and saw not the king’s . Therefore sent for , to have sent him to the king; but he would not come to him: and when he sent again the second time, he would not come. Therefore he said unto his servants, See, ’s field is near mine, and he hath barley there; go and set it on . And ’s servants set the field on . 31Then arose, and came to unto his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on ? And answered , Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? it had been good for me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king’s ; and if there be any 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 .
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.