King James Version · The united kingdom
Psalms 45
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To the upon , for the sons of , Maschil, A Song of loves. is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men: is poured into thy : therefore hath thee for ever. Gird thy upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and ; and thy shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in of the king’s ; whereby the people fall under thee. Thy , O , is : the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest , and hatest wickedness: therefore , thy , hath thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy did stand the queen in gold of . , O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy ’s house; So shall the king greatly thy beauty: for he is thy ; and thou him. And the daughter of shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy . The king’s daughter is all within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people thee .
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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