World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Leviticus 11
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1 spoke to and to , saying to them, "Speak to the , saying, 'These are the living things which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and chews the cud among the animals, that you may eat. 4"'Nevertheless these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those who part the hoof: the camel, because it chews the cud but doesn't have a parted hoof, is to you. The hyrax, because it chews the cud but doesn't have a parted hoof, is to you. The hare, because it chews the cud but doesn't have a parted hoof, is to you. The pig, because it has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn't chew the cud, is to you. You shall not eat their meat. You shall not touch their carcasses. They are to you. "'You may eat of all these that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, that you may eat. All that don't have fins and scales in the seas and rivers, all that move in the waters, and all the living creatures that are in the waters, they are an to you, 11and you shall detest them. You shall not eat of their meat, and you shall detest their carcasses. 12Whatever has no fins nor scales in the waters is an to you. "'You shall detest these among the birds; they shall not be eaten because they are an : the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, 14the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 17the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18the white owl, owl, the osprey, 19the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat. "'All flying insects that walk on all fours are an to you. 21Yet you may eat these: of all winged creeping things that go on all fours, which have long, jointed legs for hopping on the earth. Even of these you may eat: any kind of , any kind of katydid, any kind of , and any kind of . 23But all winged creeping things which have four feet are an to you. "'By these you will become : whoever touches their carcass shall be . Whoever carries any part of their carcass shall wash his clothes, and be . 26"'Every animal which has a split hoof that isn't completely divided, or doesn't chew the cud, is to you. Everyone who touches them shall be . Whatever goes on its paws, among all animals that go on all fours, they are to you. Whoever touches their carcass shall be . He who carries their carcass shall wash his clothes, and be . They are to you. "'These are they which are to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, 30the gecko, and the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink, and the chameleon. These are they which are to you among all that creep. Whoever touches them when they are shall be . Anything they fall on when they are shall be ; whether it is any of wood, or clothing, or skin, or sack, whatever it is, with which any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be . Then it will be clean. Every into which any of them falls and all that is in it shall be . You shall break it. All food which may be eaten which is soaked in water shall be . All drink that may be drunk in every such shall be . Everything whereupon part of their carcass falls shall be ; whether oven, or range for pots, it shall be broken in pieces. They are , and shall be to you. Nevertheless a spring or a cistern in which water is gathered shall be clean, but that which touches their carcass shall be . If part of their carcass falls on any sowing which is to be sown, it is clean. 38But if water is put on the , and part of their carcass falls on it, it is to you. "'If any animal of which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be . He who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes, and be . He also who carries its carcass shall wash his clothes, and be . "'Every creeping thing that creeps on the earth is an . It shall not be eaten. Whatever goes on its belly, and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet, even all creeping things that creep on the earth, them you shall not eat; for they are an . You shall not make yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps. You shall not make yourselves with them, that you should be defiled by them. For I am your . yourselves therefore, and be ; for I am . You shall not defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth. For I am who brought you up out of the land of , to be your . You shall therefore be , for I am . "'This is of the animal, and of the bird, and of every that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth, to make a distinction between the and the clean, and between the living thing that may be eaten and the living thing that may not be eaten.'"
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.