World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 2
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Then we turned, and took our journey into by to , as spoke to me; and we encircled Mount many days. 2 spoke to me, saying, "You have encircled this mountain long enough. Turn northward. Command the people, saying, 'You are to pass through the border of your brothers, the children of , who in ; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore be careful. Don't contend with them; for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount to for a possession. You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat. You shall also buy water from them for money, that you may drink.'" For your has you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great . These forty years, your has been with you. You have lacked nothing. So we passed by from our brothers, the children of , who in , from of the from Elath and from . We turned and passed by of of . said to me, "Don't bother , neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you any of his land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of for a possession." (The lived there before, a great and numerous people, and tall as the . These also are considered to be , as the ; but the call them . The Horites also lived in in the past, but the children of succeeded them. They destroyed them from before them, and lived in their place, as Israel did to the land of his possession, which gave to them.) "Now rise up and over the brook ." We went over the brook . The days in which we came from until we had come over the brook were thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the middle of the camp, as to them. Moreover hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed. 16So, when all the men of war were consumed and from among the people, 17 spoke to me, saying, "You are to pass over Ar, the border of , today. When you come near the border of , don't bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you any of the land of for a possession, because I have given it to the children of for a possession." (That also is considered a land of . lived there in the past, but call them , a great people, many, and tall, as the ; but destroyed them from before Israel, and they succeeded them, and lived in their place, as he did for the children of who in , when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place even to this day. Then the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as : the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.) "Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the . Behold, I have given into your hand the , king of , and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. Today I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you." I sent out of of Kedemoth to king of with words of peace, saying, "Let me pass through your land. I will go along by the highway. I will turn neither to nor to the left. You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink. let me pass through on my feet, as the children of who in , and the who in Ar, did to me, until I pass over into the land which our gives us." But king of would not let us pass by him, for your hardened his and made , that he might him into your hand, as it is today. said to me, "Behold, I have begun to up and his land before you. Begin to possess, that you may his land." Then came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at . our him up before us; and we struck him, his sons, and all his people. We took all his cities at that time, and every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. We left no one remaining. Only the livestock we took for plunder for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities which we had taken. From , which is on the edge of the valley of the , and the city that is in the valley, even to , there was not a city too high for us. our up all before us. Only to the land of you didn't come near: all the banks of the river , and the cities of the hill country, and wherever our forbade us.
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.