King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 7
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And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and had given him rest round about from all his ; That the king said unto the , See now, I in an house of cedar, but the dwelleth within curtains. And said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine ; for is with thee. And it came to pass that night, that unto , saying, Go and tell my servant , Thus saith , Shalt thou build me an house for me to in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the out of , even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a . In all the places wherein I have walked with all the spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar? Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant , Thus saith of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have all thine out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine . Also telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish . He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish of for ever. I will be his , and he shall be my son. If he commit , I will him with the of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from , whom I before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy shall be established for ever. According to all these words, and according to all this , so did speak unto . Then went king in, and sat before , and he said, Who am I, O ? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O ; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O ? And what can say more unto thee? for thou, , knowest thy servant. For thy word’s sake, and according to thine own , hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them. Wherefore thou art great, O : for there is none like thee, neither is there any beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom went to for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from , from the nations and their gods? For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, , art become their . And now, O , the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said. And let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, of hosts is the over Israel: and let the house of thy servant be established before thee. For thou, O , of Israel, hast to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in to this unto thee. And now, O , thou art that , and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: Therefore now let it please thee to the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O , hast spoken it: and with thy let the house of thy servant be for ever.
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.