As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
As I have been inquiring about Biblical things, I was delighted when I came across this article on the colour purple in the time of King David.
To actually behold the colour, and to actually understand more than the experts by God's Inspiration what the colour purple meant.
The archaeologists discovered this cloth in the Negev Desert. The site would be King Solomon's copper mines.......not the gold, but in this settlement they discovered affluence in meals and clothing. You must understand though that people wearing purple were not digging in the dirt, as David and Solomon, as much of the world then, operated on indentured servants for 7 years in Hebrews, and there was forced labor for other peoples they conquered or in fact people did work for their daily bread. That saying is not just about eating as if you look in the Bible in construction by the Kings, people were given a diet to work, and this is how the system operated. You did a days worth of work for a days worth of bread and oil.
The purple is interesting as this may have been a member of the royal family, who of course got a nice job as overseeing the mining of copper. The reality is King David brought in a great deal of wealth by conquering other kingdoms. This was placed into the coming Temple treasury. In fact, David left instructions that everything was paid for, for Solomon to build the Temple, and this came from the spoils of war.
Solomon was a different kingdom. His was one which was based upon conscription and taxes. Taxes appear when people are producing food and merchandise, meaning Israel was a productive kingdom. Solomon also had mines for gold, mines for copper and ships which were sailing all through the region like Yankee Clippers bringing in all that wealth. Gold was as common as copper was then. When the Queen of Sheba appeared, she almost fainted when she saw the wealth of Israel and the parting gifts Solomon provided would have made a thousand people immensely rich.
God stated that Solomon was the richest man ever, and this finding of purple in the desert, means Jerusalem overflowed in riches.
The mere process to make this purple cloth was an entire industry. It required sailing ships. It required the expert knowledge to gain the snails from where the dye was processed, processing is again another industry, then the dying of the cloth, which again, would be linen from flax, another several industries in farming to beating and weaving the fibers, and then the literal making of the garments on looms.
Purple cloth just did not happen. It was a complex economic system which created it and proves how affluent the Hebrews were under King Solomon as Israel was a mining and shipping empire, which was at peace.
You have to think of the beautiful people attired in splendor. Bathsheba was home bathing, while her husband was out making war. That kind of picture of peace and prosperity, grew a thousand if not a hundred thousand times under Solomon. The entire country was being built and rebuilt from waterways to forts. There was such power under Solomon that a Negev settlement which was very wealthy, did not need guards, because the kingdom was so strong, there was nothing to fear.
With Solomon's son gaining control in Rehaboam, civil war broke out because he would not cut taxes or conscription, in fact he raised taxes due to his arrogant young advisers. It was this which would shater the kingdom and why the Negev settlements disappeared, as no forts meant no security and people fled when the first wars began, and so did the copper wealth flowing into the kingdom.
This is once again, another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Nuff Said
agtG
