World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 3
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Now was keeping the Jethro, his -in-law, the priest of , and he led the flock to the back of , and came to mountain, to . appeared to him in a out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with , and the bush was not consumed. said, "I will go now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." When saw that he came over to see, called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, "! !" He said, "Here I am." He said, "Don't come close. Take off your , for the place you are standing on is ground." Moreover he said, "I am the of your , the of , the of , and the of ." hid because he was afraid to look at . said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in , and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I have come down to them out of the hand of the , and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a and honey; to the place of the , the , the , the , the , and the . Now, behold, the cry of the has come to me. Moreover I have seen the with which the oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to , that you may bring my people, the , out of ." said to , "Who am I, that I should go to , and that I should bring the out of ?" He said, "Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of , you shall on this mountain." said to , "Behold, when I come to the , and tell them, 'The of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what should I tell them?" said to , "I AM WHO I AM," and he said, "You shall tell the this: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" said moreover to , "You shall tell the this, ', the of your fathers, the of , the of , and the of , has sent me to you.' This is my name , and this is my memorial . Go and gather the together, and tell them, ', the of your fathers, the of , of , and of , has appeared to me, saying, "I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in . I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of to the land of the , the , the , the , the , and the , to a and honey."' They will listen to your voice. You shall come, you and the , to the king of , and you shall tell him, ', the of the , has met with us. Now please let us go three days' journey into , that we may to , our .' I know that the king of won't give you permission to go, no, not by a mighty hand. I will reach out my hand and strike with all my wonders which I will do among them, and after that he will let you go. I will give this people in the sight of the , and it will happen that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, and of her who visits her house, jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing. You shall put them on your sons, and on your daughters. You shall plunder the ."
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.