King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 7
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And said unto , See, I have made thee a to : and thy brother shall be thy . Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and thy brother shall speak unto , that he send the out of his land. And I will harden ’s , and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of . But shall not unto you, that I may lay my hand upon , and bring forth mine armies, and my people the , out of the land of by great judgments. And the shall know that I am , when I stretch forth mine hand upon , and bring out the from among them. And and did as commanded them, so did they. And was fourscore years old, and fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto . 8And spake unto and unto , saying, When shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto , Take thy , and cast it before , and it shall become a . And and went in unto , and they did so as had commanded: and cast down his before , and before his servants, and it became a . Then also called men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of , they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his , and they became : but ’s swallowed up their . And he hardened ’s , that he hearkened not unto them; as had said. And said unto , ’s is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. Get thee unto in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the which was turned to a shalt thou take in thine hand. And thou shalt say unto him, of the hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may me in : and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. Thus saith , In this thou shalt know that I am : behold, I will smite with the that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to . And the fish that is in the river shall , and the river shall stink; and the shall lothe to drink of the water of the river. And spake unto , Say unto , Take thy , and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of , upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become ; and that there may be throughout all the land of , both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. And and did so, as commanded; and he lifted up the , and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of , and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to . And the fish that was in the river ; and the river stank, and the could not drink of the water of the river; and there was throughout all the land of . And the magicians of did so with their enchantments: and ’s was hardened, neither did he unto them; as had said. And turned and went into his house, neither did he set to this also. 24And all the digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river. And seven days were fulfilled, after that had smitten the river.
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.