King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 8
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And after this it came to pass, that smote the , and subdued them: and took Metheg–ammah out of the hand of the . And he smote , and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to , and with one full line to keep alive. And so the became ’s servants, and brought gifts. smote also , the son of , king of , as he went to recover his border at the river . And took from him a thousand chariots, and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: and houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for an hundred chariots. And when of came to succour king of , slew of two and twenty thousand men. Then put garrisons in of : and became servants to , and brought gifts. And preserved whithersoever he went. And took the shields of gold that were on the servants of , and brought them to . And from Betah, and from Berothai, cities of , king took exceeding much brass. When king of heard that had smitten of , Then sent his son unto king , to salute him, and to him, because he had fought against , and smitten him: for had wars with . And brought with him vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of brass: Which also king did dedicate unto , with the silver and gold that he had dedicated of all nations which he subdued; Of , and of , and of , and of the , and of , and of the spoil of , son of , king of . And gat him a name when he returned from smiting of in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men. And he put garrisons in ; throughout all put he garrisons, and all they of became ’s servants. And preserved whithersoever he went. And reigned over all Israel; and executed and justice unto all his people. And the son of was over the host; and the son of was recorder; And the son of , and the son of , were the priests; and was the ; And the son of was over both the and the ; and ’s sons were chief .
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.