World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 19
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In the third month after the had gone out of the land of , on that same day they came into of Sinai. When they had departed from , and had come to of Sinai, they encamped in ; and there Israel encamped before the mountain. went up to , and called to him out of the mountain, saying, "This is what you shall tell the house of , and tell the : 'You have seen what I did to the , and how I bore you on eagles' , and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed and keep my , then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the ." came and called for the of the people, and set before them all these words which commanded him. All the people answered together, and said, "All that has spoken we will do." reported the words of the people to . said to , "Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also you ." told the words of the people to . said to , "Go to the people, and them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready for the third day; for on the third day will come down in the sight of all the people on . You shall set bounds to the people all around, saying, 'Be careful that you don't go up onto the mountain, or touch its border. Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to . No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether it is animal or man, he shall not live.' When the sounds long, they shall come up to the mountain." went down from the mountain to the people, and the people; and they washed their clothes. He said to the people, "Be ready by the third day. Don't have sexual relations with a woman." On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud ; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. led the people out of the camp to meet ; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain. All of smoked, because descended on it in ; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. When the sound of the grew louder and louder, spoke, and answered him by a voice. came down on , to the top of the mountain. called to the top of the mountain, and went up. said to , "Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to to gaze, and many of them . Let the priests also, who come near to , themselves, lest break out on them." said to , "The people can't come up to , for you warned us, saying, 'Set bounds around the mountain, and it.'" said to him, "Go down! You shall bring up with you, but don't let the priests and the people break through to come up to , lest he break out against them." 25So went down to the people, and told them.
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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.