King James Version · The united kingdom
Psalms 88
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A Song or Psalm for the sons of , to the upon Leannoth, Maschil of the Ezrahite. O of my , I have cried day and night before thee: Let my come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry; For is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the . I am counted with them that go down into : I am as a man that hath no strength: Free among , like the slain that lie in the , whom thou rememberest no more: and they are thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, , in the deeps. Thy lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. . Thou hast mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: , I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee. Wilt thou shew wonders to ? shall arise and thee? . Shall thy be declared in the ? or thy in ? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy in the land of forgetfulness? But unto thee have I cried, O ; and in the morning shall my prevent thee. , why castest thou off ? why hidest thou thy from me? I am afflicted and ready to from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together. Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into .
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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