World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 23
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He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting shall not enter into . A person born of a forbidden union shall not enter into ; even to the tenth generation shall no one of his enter into . An or a shall not enter into ; even to the tenth generation shall no one belonging to them enter into , because they didn't meet you with bread and with water on when you came out of , and because they hired against you the son of from Pethor of , to you. Nevertheless your wouldn't listen to , but your turned the into a to you, because your loved you. You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days . You shall not abhor an , for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an , because you lived as a in his land. The children of the third generation who are born to them may enter into . When you go out and camp against your , then you shall keep yourselves from every evil thing. If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens to him by night, then shall he go outside of the camp. He shall not come within the camp; but it shall be, when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water. When the sun is down, he shall come within the camp. 12You shall have a place also outside of the camp where you go relieve yourself. You shall have a trowel among your weapons. It shall be, when you relieve yourself, you shall dig with it, and shall and cover your excrement; for your walks in the middle of your camp, to you, and to give up your before you. Therefore your camp shall be , that he may not see an thing in you, and turn away from you. You shall not to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you. He shall with you, among you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your , where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him. There shall be no of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the . You shall not bring the hire of a , or the wages of a male , into the your for any ; for both of these are an to your . You shall not lend on interest to your brother: interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest. You may charge a interest; but you shall not charge your brother interest, that your may you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it. When you a to your , you shall not be slack to pay it, for your will surely require it of you; and it would be in you. 22But if you refrain from making a , it shall be no in you. You shall observe and do that which has gone out of your . Whatever you have to your as a free will , which you have promised with your , you must do. When you come into your neighbor's , then you may eat your fill of grapes at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your container. When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain.
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.