King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 16
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And when was a little past the top of the hill, behold, the met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of . And the king said unto , What meanest thou by these? And said, The asses be for the king’s household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the , that such as be faint in may drink. And the king said, And where is thy master’s son? And said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at : for he said, To day shall the restore me of . Then said the king to , Behold, thine are all that pertained unto . And said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find in thy sight, my , O king. And when king came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of , whose name was , the son of : he came forth, and still as he came. 6And he cast stones at , and at all the servants of king : and all the people and all the were hand and on his left. And thus said when he , Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial: hath returned upon thee all of the house of , in whose stead thou hast reigned; and hath into the hand of thy son: and, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man. Then said the son of unto the king, Why should this dog my the king? let me go over, I thee, and take off his head. And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of ? so let him , because hath said unto him, . Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so? And said to , and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now may this do it? let him alone, and let him ; for hath bidden him. It may be that will look on mine affliction, and that will requite me good for his this day. And as and his men went by , went along on the hill’s side over against him, and as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast . 14And the king, and all the people that were with him, came weary, and refreshed themselves there. And , and all the people the men of Israel, came to , and with him. And it came to pass, when the , ’s friend, was come unto , that said unto , the king, the king. And said to , Is this thy kindness to thy friend? why wentest thou not with thy friend? And said unto , Nay; but whom , and this people, and all the men of Israel, choose, his will I be, and with him will I . And again, whom should I ? should I not in the of his son? as I have in thy ’s , so will I be in thy . Then said to , Give among you what we shall do. And said unto , Go in unto thy ’s , which he hath left to keep the house; and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy : then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong. So they spread a tent upon the top of the house; and went in unto his ’s in the sight of all Israel. And the of , which he counselled in those days, was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of : so was all the of both with and with .
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.