King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 5
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Then came all the tribes of Israel to unto , and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy . Also in time past, when was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. So all the came to the king to ; and king made a league with them in before : and they king over Israel. was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah. And the king and his men went to unto the , the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto , saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, cannot come in hither. Nevertheless took the strong hold of : the same is . And said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the , and the lame and the blind, that are hated of ’s , he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. So dwelt in the fort, and called it . And built round about from and inward. And went on, and grew great, and of hosts was with him. And king of sent to , and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built an house. And perceived that had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted for his people Israel’s sake. And took him more and wives out of , after he was come from : and there were yet sons and daughters born to . And these be the names of those that were born unto him in ; , and , and , and , Ibhar also, and Elishua, and , and Japhia, And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet. But when the heard that they had king over Israel, all the came up to seek ; and heard of it, and went down to the hold. The also came and spread themselves in the valley of . And enquired of , saying, Shall I go up to the ? wilt thou them into mine hand? And said unto , Go up: for I will doubtless the into thine hand. And came to –perazim, and smote them there, and said, hath broken forth upon mine before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place –perazim. And there they left their , and and his men burned them. And the came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of . And when enquired of , he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall go out before thee, to smite the host of the . And did so, as had commanded him; and smote the from until thou come to Gazer.
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.