World English Bible · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 20
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There happened to be there a fellow, whose name was the son of , a ; and he blew the , and said, "We have no in , neither have we in the son of . Every man to his tents, Israel!" So all the men of Israel went up from following , and followed the son of ; but the men of Judah joined with their king, from even to . came to his house at ; and the king took the ten women his , whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody and provided them with sustenance, but didn't go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their , living in widowhood. Then the king said to , "Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present." So went to call the men of Judah together, but he stayed longer than the which had been appointed to him. said to , "Now the son of will do us more harm than did. Take your servants and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight." men went out after him with the , the , and all the ; and they went out of to pursue the son of . When they were at the great stone which is in , came to meet them. was clothed in his apparel of war that he had put on, and on it was a sash with a fastened on his waist in its sheath; and as he went along it fell out. said to , "Is it well with you, my brother?" took by the beard with his to kiss him. But took no heed to that was in hand. So he struck him with it in the body and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn't strike him again; and he . and his brother pursued the son of . One of young men stood by him, and said, "He who favors , and he who is for , let him follow !" lay wallowing in his in the middle of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still. When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after to pursue the son of . He went through all the tribes of Israel to , to Beth , and all the Berites. They were gathered together, and went also after him. They came and besieged him in of Beth , and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with battered the wall to throw it down. Then a woman cried out of the city, "Hear, hear! Please say to , 'Come near here, that I may speak with you.'" He came near to her; and the woman said, "Are you ?" He answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Hear the words of ." He answered, "I'm listening." Then she spoke, saying, "They used to say in old times, 'They shall surely ask at ,' and so they settled a matter. I am among those who are peaceable and in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up ?" answered, "Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. The matter is not so. But a man of the hill country of , the son of by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against . him, and I will depart from the city." The woman said to , "Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall." Then the woman went to all the people in her . They the head of the son of , and threw it out to . He blew the , and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Then returned to to the king. Now was over of Israel, the son of was over the and over the , was over the men subject to forced labor, the son of was the recorder, Sheva was , and were priests, and the Jairite was chief minister to .
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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.