World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 4
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Now, Israel, listen to the and to the which I teach you, to do them, that you may live and go in and possess the land which , the of your fathers, gives you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep of your which I command you. Your eyes have seen what did because of ; for your has destroyed all the men who followed from among you. But you who were to your are all alive today. Behold, I have taught you and , even as my commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your and your in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these and say, "Surely this great nation is a and people." For what great nation is there that has a so near to them as our is whenever we call on him? What great nation is there that has and so as all this law which I set before you today? Only be careful, and keep your diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children's children— the day that you stood before your in , when said to me, "Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children." You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with to of , with , cloud, and thick . spoke to you out of the middle of the : you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. He declared to you his , which he commanded you to perform, even . He wrote them on two stone tablets. commanded me at that time to teach you and , that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it. Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that spoke to you in out of the middle of the , lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself a in the form of any figure, the of male or female, the of any animal that is on the earth, the of any winged bird that flies in , 18the of anything that creeps on the ground, the of any fish that is in the water under the earth; and lest you lift up your eyes to , and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even of , you are drawn away and them, and them, which your has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. But has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of , to be to him a people of , as it is today. Furthermore was angry with me for your sakes, and that I should not go over , and that I should not go in to that good land which your gives you for an ; but I must in this land. I must not go over , but you shall go over and possess that good land. Be careful, lest you forget of your , which he made with you, and make yourselves a in the form of anything which your has forbidden you. For your is a devouring , . When you children and children's children, and you have been long in the land, and then corrupt yourselves, and make a in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in your sight to provoke him to , I call and earth to against you today, that you will soon utterly from off the land which you go over to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where will lead you away. There you will gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you shall seek your , and you will find him when you search after him with all and with all your . When you are in , and all these things have come on you, in the you shall your and listen to his voice. For your is a merciful . He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget of your fathers which he to them. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that created man on the earth, and from the one end of to the other, whether there has been anything as great as this thing is, or has been heard like it? Did a people ever hear the voice of speaking out of the middle of the , as you have heard, and live? Or has tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by , by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that your did for you in before your eyes? It was shown to you so that you might know that is . There is no one else besides him. Out of he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great ; and you heard his words out of the middle of the . Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their after them, and brought you out with his , with his great , out of ; to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an , as it is today. Know therefore today, and take it to , that himself is in above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. You shall keep his and his which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which your gives you for all time. Then three cities beyond toward the sunrise, that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and didn't hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: in , in the plain country, for the ; and in for the ; and Golan in for the . This is which set before the . These are the testimonies, and the , and the which spoke to the when they came out of , beyond , in the valley opposite Beth , in the land of king of the , who lived at , whom and the struck when they came out of . They took possession of his land and the land of king of , the two kings of the , who were beyond toward the sunrise; from , which is on the edge of the valley of the , even to Mount Siyon (also called Hermon), and all the beyond eastward, even to the sea of the , under the slopes of .
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.