World English Bible · The united kingdom
Proverbs 5
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My son, pay attention to my . Turn your ear to my , that you may maintain discretion, that your may preserve knowledge. For of an drip honey. Her is smoother than oil, but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged . Her feet go down to . Her steps lead straight to . She gives no thought to of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don't depart from the words of my . Remove your way far from her. Don't come near the door of her house, lest you give your to others, and your years to the cruel one; lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man's house. You will groan at your latter end, when your and your body are consumed, and say, "How I have hated , and despised . I haven't the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me! I have come to the brink of utter , among the gathered ." Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? 17Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you. Let your spring be . Rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love. For why should you, my son, be captivated with an ? Why embrace the of another? For the ways of man are before eyes. He examines all his . The evil deeds of ensnare him. The cords of his hold him firmly. He will for lack of . In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
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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.