World English Bible · The united kingdom
Psalms 74
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A contemplation by . , why have you rejected us ? Why does your smolder against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your , which you purchased of old, which you have to be the tribe of your : Mount , in which you have lived. Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that has done in . Your have roared in the middle of your . They have set up their standards as signs. They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees. Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers. They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the of your Name. They said in their , "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where was . We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any , neither is there among us anyone who knows how long. How long, , shall the adversary ? Shall blaspheme your name ? Why do you draw back your hand, even your ? Take it from your chest and consume them! Yet is my King of old, working throughout the earth. You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and creatures. You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers. The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared and the sun. You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter. Remember this, that has mocked you, . Foolish people have blasphemed your name. Don't the of your to wild . Don't forget the life of your . your , for haunts of fill the dark places of the earth. Don't let the oppressed return . Let and needy your name. Arise, ! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day. Don't forget the voice of your . The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
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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