King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 25
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1And spake unto , saying, Speak unto the , that they bring me an : of every man that giveth it willingly with ye shall take my . And this is the which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, Oil for , spices for anointing oil, and for , Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the , and in the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the , and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two and a half shall be the length thereof, and a and a half the breadth thereof, and a and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a of gold round about. And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. 14And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them. The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it. And thou shalt put into the ark the which I shall give thee. And thou shalt make a of pure gold: two and a half shall be the length thereof, and a and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the . 19And make one on the one end, and the other on the other end: even of the shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their on high, covering the with their , and their faces shall look one to another; toward the shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the , from between the two cherubims which are upon the , of all things which I will give thee in unto the . Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two shall be the length thereof, and a the breadth thereof, and a and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden to the border thereof round about. 26And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof. Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table. And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them. And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them. And thou shalt set upon the table before me alway. And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his , his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. 32And six shall come out of the sides of it; three of the candlestick out of the one side, and three of the candlestick out of the other side: Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six that come out of the candlestick. 34And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers. 35And there shall be a knop under two of the same, and a knop under two of the same, and a knop under two of the same, according to the six that proceed out of the candlestick. Their knops and their shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall the lamps thereof, that they may give over against it. And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. 39Of a of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels. And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.
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.