King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 12
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1And spake unto and in the land of , saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man , according to the house of their fathers, for an house: 4And if the household be too little for , let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the ; every man according to his eating shall make your count for . Your lamb shall be , a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole of of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of , and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat in that night, roast with , and ; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with ; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with . And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your on your feet, and your in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is ’s . For I will pass through the land of this night, and will smite all in the land of , both man and beast; and against all the gods of I will execute : I am . And shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see , I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of . And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an for ever. Seven days shall ye eat ; even the first day ye shall out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that from Israel. And in the first day there shall be an convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of ; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of : therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an for ever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat , until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that from of Israel, whether he be a , or born in the land. 20Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat . Then called for all the , and said unto them, Draw out and take you according to your families, and kill . And ye shall take a bunch of , and dip it in that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For will pass through to smite the ; and when he seeth upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, will pass over the door, and will not suffer to come in unto your houses to smite you. And ye shall observe this thing for an to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this . And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this ? That ye shall say, It is the of ’s , who passed over the houses of the in , when he smote the , and our houses. And the people bowed the head and . And the went away, and did as had commanded and , so did they. And it came to pass, that at midnight smote all in the land of , from of that sat on his unto of the that was in the dungeon; and all of cattle. And rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the ; and there was a great cry in ; for there was not a house where there was not one . And he called for and by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the ; and go, , as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and me also. And the were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all men. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the did according to the word of ; and they borrowed of the jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: And gave the people in the sight of the , so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the . And the journeyed from to , about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle. And they baked cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of , for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of , and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. Now the sojourning of the , who dwelt in , was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of went out from the land of . It is a night to be much observed unto for bringing them out from the land of : this is that night of to be observed of all the in their generations. And said unto and , This is the of : There shall no eat thereof: But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast him, then shall he eat thereof. A and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. All of Israel shall keep it. And when a shall sojourn with thee, and will keep to , let all his males be , and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no person shall eat thereof. One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the that sojourneth among you. Thus did all the ; as commanded and , so did they. And it came to pass the selfsame day, that did bring the out of the land of by their armies.
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.