King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 28
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And take thou unto thee thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the , that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office, even , and , and , ’s sons. And thou shalt make garments for thy brother for and for beauty. And thou shalt speak unto all that are hearted, whom I have filled with of , that they may make ’s garments to him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an , and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make garments for thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And they shall make the of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. It shall have the two shoulderpieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the , which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and on them the names of the : Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the : thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the for stones of memorial unto the : and shall bear their names before upon his two shoulders for a memorial. 13And thou shalt make ouches of gold; And two chains of pure gold at the ends; of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches. And thou shalt make the breastplate of with cunning work; after the work of the thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, shalt thou make it. 16Foursquare it shall be being doubled; a shall be the length thereof, and a shall be the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings. And the stones shall be with the names of the , twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes. 22And thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains at the ends of wreathen work of pure gold. And thou shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate. 24And thou shalt put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate. And the other two ends of the two wreathen chains thou shalt fasten in the two ouches, and put them on the shoulderpieces of the before it. 26And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate in the border thereof, which is in the side of the inward. 27And two other rings of gold thou shalt make, and shalt put them on the two sides of the underneath, toward the forepart thereof, over against the other coupling thereof, above the curious girdle of the . And they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the with a lace of blue, that it may be above the curious girdle of the , and that the breastplate be not loosed from the . And shall bear the names of the in the breastplate of upon , when he goeth in unto the place, for a memorial before continually. And thou shalt put in the breastplate of the and the ; and they shall be upon ’s , when he goeth in before : and shall bear the of the upon before continually. And thou shalt make the robe of the all of blue. And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent. And beneath upon the of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the thereof; and bells of gold between them round about: A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the of the robe round about. And it shall be upon to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the place before , and when he cometh out, that he not. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and upon it, like the engravings of a signet, TO . And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon ’s forehead, that may bear the of the things, which the shall hallow in all their gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before . And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the mitre of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework. And for ’s sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for and for beauty. And thou shalt put them upon thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them, and them, and them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their ; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach: And they shall be upon , and upon his sons, when they come in unto the of , or when they come near unto the to minister in the place; that they bear not , and : it shall be a for ever unto him and after him.
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.