World English Bible · The united kingdom
Psalms 81
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. On an instrument of . By . Sing aloud to , our strength! Make a joyful shout to the of ! Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant lyre with the harp. Blow the at the , at the full moon, on our feast day. 4For it is a for Israel, an of the of . He appointed it in for a , when he went out over the land of , I heard a language that I didn't know. "I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket. You called in trouble, and I you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I you at the waters of ." . "Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me! There shall be no strange in you, neither shall you any foreign . I am , your , who brought you up out of the land of . Open your wide, and I will fill it. But my people didn't listen to my voice. Israel none of me. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their , that they might walk in their own counsels. Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon their , and turn my hand against their . The haters of would cringe before him, and their punishment would last . But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of ."
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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