King James Version · The united kingdom
2 Samuel 9
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And said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of , that I may shew him kindness for ’s sake? And there was of the house of a servant whose name was . And when they had called him unto , the king said unto him, Art thou ? And he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of , that I may shew the kindness of unto him? And said unto the king, hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. And the king said unto him, Where is he? And said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of , the son of , in Lo–debar. 5Then king sent, and fetched him out of the house of , the son of , from Lo–debar. Now when , the son of , the son of , was come unto , he fell on , and did reverence. And said, . And he answered, Behold thy servant! And said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for thy ’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of thy ; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dog as I am? Then the king called to , ’s servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master’s son all that pertained to and to all his house. Thou therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master’s son may have food to eat: but thy master’s son shall eat bread alway at my table. Now had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then said unto the king, According to all that my the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for , said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons. And had a young son, whose name was Micha. And all that dwelt in the house of were servants unto . So dwelt in : for he did eat continually at the king’s table; and was lame on both his feet.
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.