World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 26
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It shall be, when you have come in to the land which your gives you for an , possess it, and in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that your gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which your shall choose to cause his name to there. You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, "I profess today to your , that I have come to the land which to our fathers to give us." The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before your . You shall answer and say before your , " was a ready to . He went down into , and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. The mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried to , the of our fathers. heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our . brought us out of with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders; and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a and honey. Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, , have given me." You shall set it down before your , and before your . You shall rejoice in all the good which your has given to you, and to your house, you, and the , and the who is among you. When you have finished tithing all the of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the , to the , to , and to the , that they may eat within your and be filled. You shall say before your , "I have the things out of my house, and also have given them to the , to the , to , and to the , according to all your which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your , neither have I forgotten them. I have not eaten of it in my , neither have I removed any of it while I was , nor given of it for . I have listened to my voice. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. Look down from your habitation, from , and your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you to our fathers, a and honey." Today your commands you to do these and . You shall therefore keep and do them with all and with all your . You have declared today that is your , and that you would walk in his ways, keep his , his , and his , and listen to his voice. has declared today that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his . He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in , in name, and in , and that you may be a people to your , as he has spoken.
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.