World English Bible · The united kingdom
Psalms 79
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A Psalm by . , the nations have come into your . They have defiled your temple. They have laid in heaps. They have given bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of , of your to the animals of the earth. They have shed their like water around . There was no one to bury them. We have become a to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us. How long, ? Will you be angry ? Will your burn like ? Pour out your on the nations that don't know you, on the kingdoms that don't call on your name, for they have devoured , and destroyed his homeland. Don't hold the of our forefathers against us. Let your speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, of our , for the of your name. us, and forgive our , for your name's sake. Why should the nations say, "Where is their ?" Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that for your servants' is being poured out. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your , preserve those who are sentenced to . Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their their with which they have reproached you, . So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks . We will you , .
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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