King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 1
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These be the words which spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in , in the plain over against , between , and Tophel, and Laban, and , and Dizahab. (There are eleven days’ journey from by of mount unto .) And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that spake unto the , according unto all that had given him in unto them; After he had slain the king of the , which dwelt in , and the king of , which dwelt at Astaroth in : On this side Jordan, in the land of , began to declare this law, saying, our spake unto us in , saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the , and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of , and unto , unto the great river, the river . Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which sware unto your fathers, , , and , to give unto them and to their after them. And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: your hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of for multitude. ( of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and you, as he hath promised you!) How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? Take you men, and , and known among your tribes, and I will make them over you. 14And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in ; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the of man; for the is ’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do. And when we departed from , we went through all that great and terrible , which ye saw by of the mountain of the , as our commanded us; and we came to . And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the , which our doth give unto us. Behold, thy hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of , and searched it out. 25And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which our doth give us. Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the of your : And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of , to us into the hand of the , to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our , saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to ; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. 29Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. your which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in before your eyes; And in , where thou hast seen how that thy thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not your , Who went in before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a . And heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, the son of ; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed . Also was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. But the son of , which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to it. Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into by of . Then ye answered and said unto me, We have against , we will go up and fight, according to all that our commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill. And said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your . So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the of , and went presumptuously up into the hill. And the , which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in , even unto . And ye returned and wept before ; but would not to your voice, nor give ear unto you. So ye abode in many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.
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.