World English Bible · The united kingdom
Psalms 21
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. A Psalm by . The king rejoices in your strength, ! How greatly he rejoices in your ! You have given him , and have not withheld the request of his . . For you meet him with the of goodness. You set a of fine gold on his head. He asked life of you and you gave it to him, even length of days and ever. His is great in your . You lay and majesty on him. For you make him most . You make him glad with joy in your . For the king trusts in . Through the of , he shall not be moved. Your hand will find out all of your . Your will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a furnace in the time of your . will swallow them up in his . The shall devour them. You will destroy their from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men. For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed. For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their . Be exalted, , in your strength, so we will sing and your .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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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