World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 4
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answered, "But, behold, they will not me, nor ; for they will say, ' has not appeared to you.'" said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A ." He said, "Throw it on the ground." He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and ran away from it. said to , "Stretch out your hand, and take it by the tail." He stretched out his hand, and took hold of it, and it became a in his hand. "This is so that they may that , the of their fathers, the of , the of , and the of , has appeared to you." said furthermore to him, "Now put your hand inside your cloak." He put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was , as white as snow. He said, "Put your hand inside your cloak again." He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, behold, it had turned again as his other . "It will happen, if they will not you or listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will the voice of the latter sign. It will happen, if they will not even these two signs or listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become on the dry land." said to , "O , I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to ; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow ." said to him, "Who made man's ? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn't it I, ? Now therefore go, and I will be with your , and teach you what you shall speak." said, "Oh, , please send someone else." burned against , and he said, "What about , your brother, the ? I know that he can speak well. Also, behold, he is coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in . You shall speak to him, and put the words in his . I will be with your , and with his , and will teach you what you shall do. He will be your spokesman to the people. It will happen that he will be to you a , and you will be to him as . You shall take this in your hand, with which you shall do the signs." went and returned to Jethro his -in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in , and see whether they are still alive." Jethro said to , "Go in peace." said to in , "Go, return into ; for all the men who sought your life are ." took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of . took in his hand. said to , "When you go back into , see that you do before all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden and he will not let the people go. You shall tell , ' says, Israel is my son, my , and I have said to you, "Let my son go, that he may me;" and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son.'" On at a lodging place, met and wanted to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint, and the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a of to me." 26So he let him alone. Then she said, "You are a of ," because of the . said to , "Go into to meet ." He went, and met him on mountain, and kissed him. told all words with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had instructed him. and went and gathered together all the of the . spoke all the words which had spoken to , and did the signs in the sight of the people. The people , and when they heard that had visited the , and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and .
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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.