King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 3
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Now kept the Jethro his in law, the priest of : and he led the flock to the backside of , and came to , even to . And appeared unto him in a out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with , and the bush was not consumed. And said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when saw that he turned aside to see, called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, , . And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is ground. Moreover he said, I am the of thy , the of , the of , and the of . And hid ; for he was afraid to look upon . And said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in , and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to them out of the hand of the , and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a and honey; unto the place of , and the , and the , and the , and the , and the . Now therefore, behold, the cry of the is come unto me: and I have also seen the wherewith the oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto , that thou mayest bring forth my people the out of . And said unto , Who am I, that I should go unto , and that I should bring forth the out of ? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of , ye shall upon this mountain. And said unto , Behold, when I come unto the , and shall say unto them, The of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And said unto , I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the , I AM hath sent me unto you. And said moreover unto , Thus shalt thou say unto the , of your fathers, the of , the of , and the of , hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Go, and gather the together, and say unto them, of your fathers, the of , of , and of , appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in : And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of unto the land of , and the , and the , and the , and the , and the , unto a and honey. And they shall to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the , unto the king of , and ye shall say unto him, of the hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into , that we may to our . And I am sure that the king of will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people in the sight of the : and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the .
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.