World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 12
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These are the and the which you shall observe to do in the land which , the of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and . You shall break down their , dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their with . You shall cut down the engraved of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place. You shall not do so to your . But to the place which your shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there. You shall bring your burnt offerings, your , your , the wave of your hand, your , your free will , and of your herd and of your flock there. There you shall eat before your , and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which your has you. You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; for you haven't yet come to the rest and to the which your gives you. But when you go over and in the land which your causes you to , and he gives you rest from all your around you, so that you in safety, then it shall happen that to the place which your shall choose, to cause his name to there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your , your , the wave of your hand, and all your choice which you to . You shall rejoice before your —you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the who is within your , because he has no nor with you. Be careful that you don't offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; but in the place which chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your , after all the of your , according to your which he has given you. The and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer. Only you shall not eat . You shall pour it out on the earth like water. You may not eat within your the of your grain, or of your , or of your oil, or of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your which you , nor your free will , nor the wave of your hand; but you shall eat them before your in the place which your shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the who is within your . You shall rejoice before your in all that you put your hand to. Be careful that you don't forsake the as long as you live in your land. When your enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, "I want to eat meat," because your to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the of your . If the place which your shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your , after all the of your . Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The and the clean may eat of it alike. Only be sure that you don't eat ; for is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat. You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in eyes. Only your things which you have, and your , you shall take and go to the place which shall choose. You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and , on your . of your shall be poured out on your , and you shall eat the meat. Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you , when you do that which is good and right in your eyes. When your cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and in their land, be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, "How do these nations their gods? I will do likewise." You shall not do so to your ; for every to , which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the to their gods. Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Egypt and Sinai, 1450 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel in and then out of Egypt, at a period when Egypt was an imperial power that also controlled Canaan. The nation is formed as a people with a law before it has any land.
- Egypt
- The New Kingdom at its imperial peak, with a professional army, a chariot corps, and control reaching up through Canaan. Ramesses II reigns for sixty-six years and covers the country in monuments to himself. Egyptian power in this period is the reason Canaan is garrisoned rather than free.
- The Hittites
- The other superpower, in what is now Turkey, and Egypt's rival for the Levant. The two fight the largest chariot battle of the ancient world at Kadesh, then sign a treaty whose text survives from both sides. Hittite treaty form, with its historical prologue, stipulations, witnesses, blessings, and curses, is the shape the Sinai covenant takes, which is one of the stronger arguments for the antiquity of that material.
- The Aegean
- Mycenaean Greece: warrior kings in stone citadels at Mycenae and Pylos, keeping palace accounts in Linear B. The world of the Trojan War stories, whatever lies behind them.
- Further afield
- The Shang dynasty in China is casting extraordinary bronzes and writing questions to its ancestors on ox bones. In Mesoamerica the Olmec are beginning the first civilisation of the Americas.