King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 12
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
These are the and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and : And ye shall overthrow their , and break their pillars, and burn their groves with ; and ye shall hew down the graven of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto your . But unto the place which your shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your , and your , and heave of your hand, and your , and your freewill , and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: And there ye shall eat before your , and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein thy hath thee. Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the , which your giveth you. But when ye go over Jordan, and in the land which your giveth you to , and when he giveth you rest from all your round about, so that ye in safety; Then there shall be a place which your shall choose to cause his name to there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your , your , and the heave of your hand, and all your choice which ye unto : And ye shall rejoice before your , ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the that is within your ; forasmuch as he hath no part nor with you. Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: But in the place which shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee. Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat in all thy , whatsoever thy lusteth after, according to the of thy which he hath given thee: the and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart. Only ye shall not eat ; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water. Thou mayest not eat within thy the of thy corn, or of thy , or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy which thou vowest, nor thy freewill , or heave of thine hand: But thou must eat them before thy in the place which thy shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the that is within thy : and thou shalt rejoice before thy in all that thou puttest thine hands unto. Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the as long as thou livest upon the earth. When thy shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat , because thy longeth to eat ; thou mayest eat , whatsoever thy lusteth after. If the place which thy hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy whatsoever thy lusteth after. Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the and the clean shall eat of them alike. Only be sure that thou eat not : for is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with . Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of . Only thy things which thou hast, and thy , thou shalt take, and go unto the place which shall choose: And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and , upon the of thy : and of thy shall be poured out upon the of thy , and thou shalt eat . Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of thy . When thy shall the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto thy : for every to , which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.