King James Version · The united kingdom
Proverbs 17
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Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of with strife. A servant shall have a son that causeth , and shall have part of the among the brethren. The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but trieth the . A doer giveth heed to false ; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty . Whoso mocketh reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. Children’s children are the of old men; and the of children are their fathers. Excellent speech becometh not a fool: much less do a prince. A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth. He that covereth a seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends. A entereth more into a man than an hundred stripes into a fool. An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel shall be sent against him. Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly. Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with. He that justifieth , and he that condemneth the , even they both are to . Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get , seeing he hath no to it? A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. A man void of striketh hands, and becometh surety in the of his friend. He loveth that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his seeketh . He that hath a froward findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse falleth into mischief. He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and of a fool hath no joy. A merry doeth good like a medicine: but a broken drieth the bones. A man taketh a gift out of the to pervert the ways of . is before him that hath ; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. A foolish son is a grief to his , and bitterness to her that him. Also to punish the is not good, nor to strike princes for equity. He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of is of an excellent . Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted : and he that shutteth his is esteemed a man of .
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.