Continuing with The Bible Atlas: A pictorial guide to the Holy Lands
Pages 24-25: Israel and the Philistines
I am very impressed with the opening shortened history of
the dealings of Israel and the Philistines. Very neat!
So the Philistines came from the Aegean Sea by ships as
illustrated; surely a quicker way than the track taken by the Israelites in
their 40-year wanderings, much of which was in desert.
No doubt each journey had its perils.
I have used that word “perils.” Not one I might use every day,
I must say. It reminds me of Paul. He has given a list of perils in II
Corinthians 11. Here he speaks at length of his experience in spreading the
Word:
...in labours more abundant,
in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
Of the Jews five times
received I forty stripes save one./Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I
stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
In journeyings often, in
perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in
perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in
perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
In weariness and painfulness,
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and
nakedness.
Beside those things that are
without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” (II
Cor. 11:23-28)
Pages 26-27: David’s kingdom
Page 26 gives us the 23rd Psalm. It lacks the
King James Version’s last two verses. Must look into that.
Ah! Maybe verses 1-3 are the “Shepherd” ones and that is
what the heading promises: The Lord is my shepherd. Or was it perhaps
that the space only allowed 3 verses?
By the way. AI goes on at length about the Psalm.
Page 27. So, I am grateful to read that David “lived at the
beginning of the Iron Age (1000-500 BCE), so his metalworkers were able to make
the latest iron weapons for his army. Absalom’s rebellion (drawing and
text at the lower right-hand of the page) shows David’s men using weapons that
would therefore have iron “business ends.” A gory story. It hadn’t ever
impressed me enough to know what happened to Absalom.
Joyce Voysey
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