King James Version · The united kingdom
Proverbs 4
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Hear, ye children, the of a , and attend to know . For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not . For I was ’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine retain my words: keep my , and live. Get , get : forget it not; neither decline from the words of my . Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. is the principal thing; therefore get : and with all thy getting get . Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to , when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of : a of shall she to thee. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in of ; I have led thee in right . When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take hold of ; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life. Enter not into of , and go not in of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the of . But of the is as the shining , that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. of is as : they know not at what they stumble. My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine . For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their . Keep thy with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. from thee a froward , and perverse put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
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.