World English Bible · The united kingdom
Psalms 39
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. For . A Psalm by . I said, "I will watch my ways, so that I don't with my . I will keep my with a bridle while is before me." I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred. was hot within me. While I meditated, the burned. I spoke with my : ", show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am. Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath." . "Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in . He heaps up, and doesn't know who shall gather. Now, , what do I wait for? My is in you. me from all my . Don't make me the of the foolish. I was mute. I didn't open my , because you did it. Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. When you rebuke and correct man for , you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath." . "Hear my , , and give ear to my cry. Don't be silent at my tears. For I am a with you, a , as all my fathers were. Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more."
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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