King James Version · The united kingdom
Proverbs 30
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The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the : the man spake unto , even unto and Ucal, Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the of a man. I neither learned , nor have the knowledge of the . Who hath ascended up into , or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell? Every word of is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I : Remove far from me and lies: give me neither nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is ? or lest I be , and steal, and take the name of my in . Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he thee, and thou be found guilty. There is a generation that curseth their , and doth not their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation, whose teeth are as , and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour from off the earth, and from among men. The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The ; and the ; the earth that is not filled with water; and the that saith not, It is enough. The eye that mocketh at his , and despiseth to his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it. There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: 19 of an eagle in the air; of a upon a ; of a ship in the midst of the sea; and of a man with a maid. Such is of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her , and saith, I have done no wickedness. 21For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat; For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is to her mistress. There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding : The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; The have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; 28The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces. 29There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among , and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up. If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy . Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth : so the forcing of bringeth forth strife.
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.