World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 22
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You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother. If your brother isn't near to you, or if you don't know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him. 3So you shall do with his donkey. So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with every lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost and you have found. You may not hide yourself. You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by , and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again. A woman shall not wear men's clothing, neither shall a man put on women's clothing; for whoever does these things is an to your . If you come across a bird's nest on , in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young. You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days. When you build a new house, then you shall make a railing around your roof, so that you don't bring on your house if anyone falls from there. You shall not sow your with two kinds of , lest all the fruit be defiled, the which you have sown, and the increase of the . You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. You shall make yourselves on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself. If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her, accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, "I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find in her the tokens of virginity;" 15then the young lady's and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the in the . 16The young lady's shall tell the , "I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. 17Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, 'I didn't find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;' and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity." They shall spread the cloth before the . The of that city shall take the man and him. They shall fine him one hundred of silver, and give them to of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days. 20But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady, then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her house, and the men of her city shall stone her to with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the in her house. So you shall remove the evil from among you. If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both , the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel. If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the of that city, and you shall stone them to with stones; the lady, because she didn't cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor's wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you. But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall ; but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no worthy of ; for as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter; for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to her. If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady's fifty of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. A man shall not take his wife, and shall not uncover his .
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.