King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 2
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Then we turned, and took our journey into by of , as spake unto me: and we compassed mount many days. 2And spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of , which in ; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore: Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount unto for a possession. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink. For thy hath thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great : these forty years thy hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing. And when we passed by from our brethren the children of , which dwelt in , through of the plain from Elath, and from –gaber, we turned and passed by of of . And said unto me, Distress not the , neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of for a possession. The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the call them Emims. The Horims also dwelt in beforetime; but the children of succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which gave unto them. Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook . And we went over the brook . And the space in which we came from , until we were come over the brook , was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as sware unto them. For indeed the hand of was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed. 16So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and from among the people, 17That spake unto me, saying, Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of , this day: And when thou comest nigh over against , distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of any possession; because I have given it unto the children of for a possession. (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and call them Zamzummims; A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead: As he did to the children of , which dwelt in , when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day: And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.) Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river : behold, I have given into thine hand the , king of , and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole , who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee. And I sent out of of Kedemoth unto king of with words of peace, saying, Let me pass through thy land: I will go along by the high way, I will neither turn unto nor to the left. Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet; (As the children of which in , and the which in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which our giveth us. But king of would not let us pass by him: for thy hardened his , and made , that he might him into thy hand, as appeareth this day. And said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest his land. Then came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at . And our him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to : Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took. From , which is by the brink of the river of , and from the city that is by the river, even unto , there was not one city too strong for us: our all unto us: Only unto the land of thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river , nor unto the cities in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever our forbad us.
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.