King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 33
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And said unto , Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of , unto the land which I sware unto , to , and to , saying, Unto thy will I give it: And I will send before thee; and I will drive out the , the , and the , and the , the , and the : Unto a and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a people: lest I consume thee in . And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. For had said unto , Say unto the , Ye are a people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount . And took the , and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the of . And it came to pass, that every one which sought went out unto the of , which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when went out unto the , that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after , until he was gone into the . And it came to pass, as entered into the , the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the , and talked with . And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the door: and all the people rose up and , every man in his tent door. And spake unto to , as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant , the son of , a young man, departed not out of the . And said unto , See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found in my sight. Now therefore, I thee, if I have found in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the of the earth. And said unto , I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy . And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of before thee; and will be to whom I will be , and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see : for there shall no man see me, and live. And said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a : And it shall come to pass, while my passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of , and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but shall not be seen.
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.