World English Bible · The united kingdom
Proverbs 26
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Like snow in summer, and as in harvest, so is not fitting for a fool. Like a fluttering sparrow, like a darting swallow, so the undeserved doesn't come to rest. A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a for the back of fools! Don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be in his own eyes. One who sends a message by the hand of a fool is cutting off feet and drinking . Like the legs of the lame that hang loose, so is in the of fools. As one who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives to a fool. Like a bush that goes into the hand of a drunkard, so is in the of fools. As an archer who wounds all, so is he who hires a fool or he who hires those who pass by. As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly. Do you see a man in his own eyes? There is more for a fool than for him. The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion roams the streets!" As the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is too lazy to bring it back to his . The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer with discretion. Like one who grabs a dog's ears is one who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own. Like a madman who shoots torches, arrows, and , is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "Am I not joking?" For lack of wood a goes out. Without gossip, a quarrel dies down. As coals are to hot embers, and wood to , so is a contentious man to kindling strife. The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, they go down into the innermost parts. Like silver dross on an are of a fervent one with an evil . A malicious man disguises himself with his , but he harbors evil in . When his speech is charming, don't him, for there are seven in . His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in . Whoever digs a pit shall fall into it. Whoever rolls a stone, it will come back on him. A lying hates those it hurts; and a flattering works .
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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.