King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 15
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Then sang and the this song unto , and spake, saying, I will sing unto , for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. is my strength and song, and he is become my : he is my , and I will prepare him an habitation; ’s , and I will exalt him. is a man of war: is his name. ’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in . The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy , O , is become in : thy , O , hath dashed in pieces . And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy , which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in of the sea. said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my , my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O , among the gods? who is like thee, in , fearful in , doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy , the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast : thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy habitation. The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of shall be amazed; the of , trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O , till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine , in the place, O , which thou hast made for thee to in, in , O , which thy hands have established. shall reign . For the horse of went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And the , the sister of , took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And answered them, Sing ye to , for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. So brought Israel from , and they went out into of ; and they went three days in , and found no water. And when they came to , they could not drink of the waters of , for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called . And the people murmured against , saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto ; and shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a and an , and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently to thy , and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his , and keep all his , I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the : for I am that healeth thee. And they came to , where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.
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.