King James Version · The united kingdom
Proverbs 3
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My son, forget not ; but let thine keep my : For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine : So shalt thou find and good in the sight of and man. in with all thine ; and lean not unto thine own . In all thy ways him, and he shall direct thy . Be not in thine own eyes: , and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. with thy substance, and with the of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with . My son, despise not the chastening of ; neither be weary of his : For whom loveth he correcteth; even as a the son in whom he delighteth. Happy is the man that findeth , and the man that getteth . For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her ; and in her left hand riches and . Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her are peace. She is a to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. by hath founded the earth; by hath he established . By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the . My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy , and to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of , when it cometh. For shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. For the froward is to : but his secret is with . The of is in the house of : but he blesseth the habitation of the . Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth unto the lowly. shall : but shall be the promotion of fools.
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.