World English Bible · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 24
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Again burned against Israel, and he moved against them, saying, "Go, count Israel and Judah." The king said to the captain of the army, who was with him, "Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to , and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people." said to the king, "Now may your add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my the king see it. But why does my the king delight in this thing?" Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against and against the captains of the army. and the captains of the army went out from the of the king to count the people of Israel. They passed over and encamped in , on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to ; then they came to and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan and around to , and came to the of , and to all the cities of the and of ; and they went out to the south of Judah, at . 8So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to at the end of nine months and twenty days. gave up the sum of the counting of the people to the king; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew , and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. struck him after he had counted the people. said to , "I have greatly in that which I have done. But now, , , I beg you, the of ; for I have done very foolishly." When rose up in the morning, word came to the Gad, , saying, "Go and speak to , ' says, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'" So Gad came to , and told him, saying, "Shall seven years of come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me." said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let us fall now into hand, for his are great. Let me not fall into man's hand." So sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the ; and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan even to . When stretched out his hand toward to destroy it, relented of the disaster, and said to who destroyed the people, "It is enough. Now withdraw your hand." was by the of the . spoke to when he saw who struck the people, and said, "Behold, I have , and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against house." Gad came that day to and said to him, "Go up, build an to on the of the ." went up according to the saying of Gad, as commanded. looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then went out and bowed himself before the king with to the ground. said, "Why has my the king come to his servant?" said, "To buy your , to build an to , that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people." said to , "Let my the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the , and the sledges and the of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, does give to the king." said to the king, "May your accept you." The king said to , "No, but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer to my which cost me nothing." So bought the and the oxen for fifty of silver. built an to there, and offered and . So was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.
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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.