King James Version · The united kingdom
Psalms 96
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O sing unto a new song: sing unto , all the earth. Sing unto , his name; shew forth his from day to day. Declare his among the heathen, his wonders among all people. For is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but made . and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto , O ye kindreds of the people, give unto and strength. Give unto the due unto his name: bring an , and come into his courts. O in the beauty of : fear before him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously. Let rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice Before : for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with , and the people with his truth.
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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