World English Bible · The united kingdom
Psalms 78
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A contemplation by . Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my . I will open my in . I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the of , his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done. For he established a in , and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children, that they might set their in , and not forget deeds, but keep his , and might not be as their fathers— a and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their loyal, whose was not steadfast with . The children of , being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They didn't keep , and refused to walk in . They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them. He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of , in the field of . He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap. In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a of . He split rocks in , and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths. He brought streams also out of , and caused waters to run down like rivers. Yet they still went on to against him, to rebel against in . They in their by asking food according to their . Yes, they spoke against . They said, "Can prepare a table in ? Behold, he struck , so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?" Therefore heard, and was angry. A was kindled against , also went up against Israel, because they didn't in , and didn't in his . Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of . He rained down on them to eat, and gave them food from . Man ate the bread of . He sent them food to the full. He caused the east wind to blow in . By his he guided the south wind. He also rained meat on them as , winged birds as the sand of the seas. 28He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations. So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own . They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths, 31when the of went up against them, killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel. For all this they still , and didn't in his wondrous works. Therefore he consumed their days in , and their years in terror. When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought earnestly. They remembered that was their , , their redeemer. But they flattered him with their , and lied to him with their . For their was not right with him, neither were they in his . But he, being merciful, forgave , and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his away, and didn't stir up all his . He remembered that they were but , a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again. How often they rebelled against him in , and grieved him in ! They turned again and , and provoked the One of Israel. They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he them from the adversary; how he set his signs in , his wonders in the field of , he turned their rivers into , and their streams, so that they could not drink. He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the . He destroyed their with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost. He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He threw on them the fierceness of his , , , and trouble, and a band of of evil. He made a path for his . He didn't spare their from , but gave their life over to the pestilence, and struck all in , the chief of their strength in the tents of . But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in like a flock. He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their . He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his had taken. He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an by line, and made the tribes of Israel to in their tents. Yet they and rebelled against , and didn't keep his testimonies, but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to with their , and moved him to with their engraved . When heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel, so that he abandoned the tent of , the tent which he placed among men, and his strength into , his into the adversary's hand. He also gave his people over to , and was angry with his . devoured their young men. Their virgins had no song. Their priests fell , and their couldn't weep. Then awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of . He struck his backward. He put them to a perpetual . Moreover he rejected the tent of , and didn't choose the tribe of , But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount which he loved. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established . He also chose his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the of , his people, and Israel, his . So he was their according to the integrity of , and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
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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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