World English Bible · The united kingdom
Song of Songs 3
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
By night on my bed, I sought him whom loves. I sought him, but I didn't find him. I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom loves. I sought him, but I didn't find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me; "Have you seen him whom loves?" I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, into the room of her who conceived me. I adjure you, daughters of , by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love, until it so . Who is this who comes up from like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and , with all spices of the merchant? Behold, it is carriage! Sixty are around it, of the of Israel. They all handle , and are expert in war. Every man has his on his thigh, because of fear in the night. King made himself a carriage of the wood of . He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it being paved with love, from the daughters of . Go out, you daughters of , and see King , with the with which his mother has him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness 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.