#Middle_Kingdom_of_Egypt

[whencyclopedia]

Ancient Egyptian Government

The government of ancient Egypt was a theocratic monarchy as the king ruled by a mandate from the gods, initially was seen as an intermediary between human beings and the divine, and was supposed to represent the gods' will through the laws passed and policies approved. A central government in Eg...

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Day 116 / Apr 25

2 Kings 15-17

15: In the 27th year of Jer II's reign, Amaziah's son Azariah began his rule He was a good king, but didn't tear down the high places God struck him with leprosy and he lived in a separate house, with his son acting as Acting Monarch Azariah reigned for 52 years He eventually dies and his son Jotham takes his place

Back in Israel, in Azariah's 38th year, Jer II's son Zecheriah was king and he was bad Shallum conspired against him, became king for a while and then was conspired against Menahem came and killed him and took his place Then Menahem commited numerous war crimes, like cutting open pregnant women It was in Menahem's reign that Assyria first came aknockin' Pul threatened to invade, so Menahem gave a shit ton of money Menahem dies and his son Pekahiah succeeds him In Azariah's 50th year, Pekahiah began to reign and was conspired against by Pekah In Azariah's 52nd year, Pekah becomes king In his days, Tiglath Pileser of Assyria comes and takes a lot of northern territories Hoshea conspired against Pekah and killed him

Back in Judah, Jotham reigns, dies, gets replaced by his son Ahaz

16: Ahaz is a shit king, just like the ones in Israel He sacrifices his son to Moloch, worships in the high places and so on So God raises up Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria against him Ahaz asks Tiglath Pileser for help and sends him all the gold in the Temple Tig listens and invades Syria, taking its inhabitants captive When Ahaz goes up to meet Tig in Damascus, he is so impressed by their altar that he makes modifications to the altar of Yahweh in the Temple He sacrifices on the new altar and uses the old one for his personal uses He also makes a bunch of modification to the physical structure of the temple, liking closing a few doors He dies and his son Hezekiah takes his place

Israel gets wrecked: In the 12th year of Ahaz, Hoshea starts in Israel He continues being bad, but not as bad as some He reigns for only nine, in which Israel became a vassal state to Assyria In his 9th year, Hoshea tries to rebel by not paying tribute and then trying to forge an alliance between Egypt and Israel against Assyria The king of Assyria is outraged at this, so he imprisons Hoshea and then takes over Samaria, deporting its people to the wide reaches of the the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Here the narrator interupts the narrative by giving a lengthly, theological explanation that reinterprets the empirical aspirations of Assyria into a divine punishment sent by God specifically to punish Israel

The king of Assyria populates Samaria with non-Israelites who don't worship Yahweh For this, Yahweh sends a few lions In response, the king sends a priest of Yahweh to Samaria to teach the people Despite this, they still continue to worship their pagan gods

Tiglath-Pileser III

Did you know that this was actually the third Assyrian Empire? The first and second ones were back during the Bronze Age, contemporary with the Old and Middle Kingdoms in Egypt. This Neo-Assyrian Empire would eventually conquer Media and Egypt, only to get conquered by the Medes, only to get conquered by the Achaemenids. The first Persian emperor, Cyrus would be the only non-Jewish person to ever have been called "Messiah."

i'm sorry that the post for apr 25 will be posted on the 26th, but I had homework to do... i will be more careful next time

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them." Matthew 18:20 WEB