King James Version · The united kingdom
Psalms 17
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A of . Hear the right, O , attend unto my cry, give ear unto my , that goeth not out of feigned . Let my sentence come forth from thy ; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. Thou hast proved mine ; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my shall not transgress. Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy I have kept me from the of . Hold up my goings in thy , that my footsteps slip not. I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O : incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. Shew thy marvellous , O thou that savest by thy them which put their in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy , From that oppress me, from my deadly , who compass me about. They are inclosed in their own fat: with their they speak proudly. They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, O , disappoint him, cast him down: from , which is thy : From men which are thy hand, O , from men of the world, which have their in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid : they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy in : I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy .
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.
All of Psalms
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