World English Bible · The united kingdom
Psalms 42
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. A contemplation by the sons of . As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants after you, . thirsts for , for the living . When shall I come and appear before ? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, "Where is your ?" These things I remember, and pour out within me, how I used to go with the , and led them to house, with the voice of joy and , a multitude keeping a day. Why are you in despair, ? Why are you disturbed within me? in ! For I shall still him for the saving help of his . My , is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of , the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me. will command his in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a to the of my life. I will ask , , "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go because of the of ?" As with a in my bones, my me, while they continually ask me, "Where is your ?" Why are you in despair, ? Why are you disturbed within me? in ! For I shall still him, the saving help of my countenance, and my .
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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