King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 23
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Now these be the last words of . the son of said, and the man who was up on high, of the of , and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, of spake by me, and his word was in my . The of Israel said, of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be , ruling in . And he shall be as of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after . Although my house be not so with ; yet he hath made with me an , ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my , and all my , although he make it not to grow. But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands: But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with in the same place. These be the names of the whom had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time. And after him was the son of the , one of the three with , when they defied the that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away: He arose, and smote the until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto : and wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil. And after him was the son of Agee the . And the were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentiles: and the people fled from the . But he stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the : and wrought a great victory. And three of chief went down, and came to in the harvest time unto the cave of : and the troop of the pitched in the valley of . And was then in an hold, and the garrison of the was then in Beth–lehem. And longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth–lehem, which is by the ! And the three brake through the host of the , and drew water out of the well of Beth–lehem, that was by the , and took it, and brought it to : nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto . And he said, Be it far from me, O , that I should do this: is not this of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three . And , the brother of , the son of , was chief among three. And he lifted up his spear against three hundred, and slew them, and had the name among three. Was he not most honourable of three? therefore he was their captain: howbeit he attained not unto the first three. And the son of , the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of : he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow: And he slew an , a goodly man: and the had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a , and plucked the spear out of the ’s hand, and slew him with his own spear. 22These things did the son of , and had the name among three . He was more honourable than , but he attained not to the first three. And set him over his guard. the brother of was one of ; the son of of Beth–lehem, the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, the Paltite, the son of the , the Anethothite, the , the , the , Heleb the son of , a , the son of Ribai out of of the children of , the , of the brooks of Gaash, Abi–albon the , the , the , of the sons of , , the , the son of the , the son of , the son of the Maachathite, Eliam the son of the , Hezrai the , the Arbite, the son of of , the , the , the Beerothite, armourbearer to the son of , an , an , the : thirty and seven in all.
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.