King James Version · The united kingdom
Proverbs 20
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is a mocker, is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not . The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to sinneth against his own . It is an for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. in of man is like deep water; but a man of will draw it out. Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a man who can find? The man walketh in his integrity: his children are after him. A king that sitteth in of scattereth away all evil with his eyes. Who can say, I have made clean, I am pure from my ? Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike to . Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, hath made even both of them. Love not sleep, lest thou come to ; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth. There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but of knowledge are a precious jewel. Take his garment that is surety for a : and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his shall be filled with gravel. Every purpose is established by : and with good make war. He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his . Whoso curseth his or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure . An may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be . Say not thou, I will evil; but wait on , and he shall thee. Divers weights are an unto ; and a false balance is not good. Man’s goings are of ; how can a man then understand his own way? It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is , and after to make enquiry. A king scattereth , and bringeth the wheel over them. of man is the candle of , searching all the inward parts of the belly. preserve the king: and his is upholden by mercy. The of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head. The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.
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.