King James Version · The united kingdom
Psalms 73
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A Psalm of . Truly is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean . But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of . For there are no bands in their : but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning : they speak loftily. They set their against , and their walketh through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth know? and is there knowledge in ? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed in , and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into of ; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into . How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a when one awaketh; so, O , when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their . Thus was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my . Thou shalt guide me with thy , and afterward receive me to . Whom have I in but thee? and there is none upon earth that I beside thee. My and faileth: but is the strength of , and my for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall : thou hast destroyed all them that go a from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to : I have put my in , that I may declare all thy works.
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.
Christians read this chapter differently
Every view at its strongest, with who holds it and what it has to answer for.
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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