World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 15
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Then and the sang this song to , and said, "I will , for he has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea. is my strength and song. He has become my . This is my , and I will him; , and I will exalt him. is a man of war. is his name. He has cast chariots and his army into the sea. His chosen captains are sunk in . The deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone. Your , , is in . Your , , dashes in pieces. In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send out your . It consumes them as stubble. With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in of the sea. said, 'I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My will be satisfied on them. I will draw my . My hand will destroy them.' You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like you, , among the gods? Who is like you, in , fearful in , doing wonders? You stretched out your . The earth swallowed them. "You, in your , have led the people that you have . You have guided them in your strength to your habitation. The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of . Then the chiefs of were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the of . All the inhabitants of have melted away. Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone, until your people pass over, , until the people you have purchased pass over. You will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your , the place, , which you have made for yourself to in: , , which your hands have established. will reign and ever." For the horses of went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the walked on dry land in the middle of the sea. the , the sister of , took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances. answered them, ", for he has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea." led Israel onward from , and they went out into of ; and they went three days in , and found no water. When they came to , they couldn't drink from the waters of , for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called . The people murmured against , saying, "What shall we drink?" Then he cried to . showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a and an for them, and there he them. He said, "If you will diligently listen to your voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his , and keep all his , I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the ; for I am who heals you." They came to , where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. They encamped there by the waters.
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.