King James Version · The united kingdom
Psalms 142
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Maschil of ; A when he was in the cave. I cried unto with my voice; with my voice unto did I make my . I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. When was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. I looked on my , and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for . I cried unto thee, O : I said, Thou art my refuge and my in the land of the living. Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. Bring out of prison, that I may thy name: shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
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.
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