World English Bible · The united kingdom
Proverbs 6
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My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a , you are trapped by the words of your ; you are ensnared with the words of your . Do this now, my son, and yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be ; which having no chief, overseer, or ruler, provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep— so your will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man. A worthless person, a man of , is he who walks with a perverse , who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers, in whose is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy. There are six things which hates; yes, seven which are an to him: arrogant eyes, a lying , hands that , a that devises schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief, a false who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers. My son, keep your , and don't forsake your mother's teaching. Bind them continually on . Tie them around your neck. When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you. For the is a lamp, and is . Reproofs of are of life, to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife's . Don't after her beauty in , neither let her captivate you with her eyelids. For a reduces you to a piece of bread. The hunts for your precious life. Can a man scoop into his lap, and his clothes not be burned? 28Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished. 30Men don't despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry, but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house. He who commits with a woman is void of . He who does it destroys his own . He will get wounds and dishonor. His will not be wiped away. For arouses the fury of the husband. He won't spare in the day of . He won't regard any , neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.
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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.