King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 14
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1And spake unto , saying, Speak unto the , that they turn and encamp before , between and the sea, over against : before it shall ye encamp by the sea. For will say of the , They are entangled in the land, hath shut them in. And I will harden ’s , that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon , and upon all his host; that the may know that I am . And they did so. And it was told the king of that the people fled: and of and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from us? 6And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of , and captains over every one of them. And hardened of king of , and he pursued after the : and the went out with an high hand. But the pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of , and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside , before . And when drew nigh, the lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the cried out unto . And they said unto , Because there were no in , hast thou taken us away to in ? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of ? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in , saying, Let us alone, that we may the ? For it had been better for us to the , than that we should in . And said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the of , which he will shew to you to day: for the whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And said unto , Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the , that they go forward: But lift thou up thy , and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will harden the of the , and they shall follow them: and I will get me upon , and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And the shall know that I am , when I have gotten me upon , upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And , which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and of the cloud went from before their , and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and to them, but it gave by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. And stretched out his hand over the sea; and caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their , and on their left. And the pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all ’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch looked unto the host of the through of and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the , And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the said, Let us flee from the of Israel; for fighteth for them against the . And said unto , Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the , upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the fled against it; and overthrew the in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and of that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. But the walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their , and on their left. Thus Israel that day out of the hand of the ; and Israel saw the upon the sea shore. And Israel saw that great work which did upon the : and the people feared , and , and his servant .
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.