King James Version · The united kingdom
Psalms 85
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To the , A Psalm for the sons of . , thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back of . Thou hast forgiven the of thy people, thou hast covered all their . . Thou hast taken away all thy : thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine . Turn us, O of our , and cause thine toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine ? Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O , and grant us thy . I will hear what will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his : but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his is nigh them that fear him; that may in our land. are met together; and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and shall look down from . Yea, shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. shall go before him; and shall set us in of his steps.
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.
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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