World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 28
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It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to your voice, to observe to do all his which I command you today, that your will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to your voice. You shall be in the city, and you shall be in the field. You shall be in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock. 5Your basket and your kneading trough shall be . You shall be when you come in, and you shall be when you go out. will cause your who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways. will command the on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will you in the land which your gives you. will establish you for a people to himself, as he has to you, if you shall keep of your , and walk in his ways. All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by name, and they will be afraid of you. will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which to your fathers to give you. will open to you his good in , to give the of your land , and to all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow. will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to of your which I command you today, to observe and to do, and shall not turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to or to the left, to go after other gods to them. But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to your voice, to observe to do all his and his which I command you today, that all these will come on you and overtake you. You will be in the city, and you will be in the field. Your basket and your kneading trough will be . The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be . You will be when you come in, and you will be when you go out. will send on you , confusion, and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land where you go in to possess it. will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with heat, with , with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you . Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron. will make the of your land powder and . It will come down on you from , until you are destroyed. will cause you to be struck before your . You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. Your bodies will be food to all birds of , and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away. will strike you with the boils of , with the tumors, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed. will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of . You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes , and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to you. You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won't in it. You will plant a , and not use its fruit. Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your , and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your , and you will have no one to you. Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look and fail with for them all day long. There will be no in your hand. A nation which you don't know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always, so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the of your head. will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will other gods of wood and stone. You will become an astonishment, a , and among all the peoples where will lead you away. You will carry much out into the field, and will gather little in, for the will consume it. You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the , nor harvest, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won't anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. You will sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into . will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground. The who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. He will lend to you, and you won't lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. All these will come on you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn't listen to your voice, to keep his and his which he commanded you. They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to . Because you didn't your with joyfulness and with gladness of , by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore you will your whom sends against you, in , in thirst, in , and in lack of all things. He will put an iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn't respect the elderly, nor show to the young. They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won't leave you grain, , oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to . They will besiege you in all your until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your throughout all your land which your has given you. You will eat the fruit of your own body, of your sons and of your daughters, whom your has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your will distress you. The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves, and toward of his children whom he has remaining, so that he will not give to any of them of of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your . The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband that she loves, toward her son, toward her daughter, toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your . If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this and fearful name, your , then will make your plagues and the plagues of fearful, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration. He will bring on you again all the diseases of , which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, will bring them on you until you are destroyed. You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of for multitude, because you didn't listen to your voice. It will happen that as rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so will rejoice over you to cause you to and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess. will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will other gods which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but will give you there a trembling , failing of eyes, and pining of . Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. In the morning you will say, "I wish it were evening!" and at evening you will say, "I wish it were morning!" for the fear of which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see. will bring you into again with ships, by of which I told you that you would never see it again. There you will offer yourselves to your for male and female , and nobody will buy you.
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.