World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Leviticus 18
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1 said to , "Speak to the , and say to them, 'I am your . You shall not do as they do in the land of , where you lived. You shall not do as they do in the land of , where I am bringing you. You shall not follow their . You shall do my . You shall keep and walk in them. I am your . You shall therefore keep and my , which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am . "'None of you shall approach any close relatives, to uncover their : I am . "'You shall not of your , nor the your mother: she is your mother. You shall not . "'You shall not of your wife. It is your . "'You shall not of your sister, the daughter of your , or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or born abroad. 10"'You shall not of your son's daughter, or of your daughter's daughter, even their ; for theirs is your own . 11"'You shall not of your wife's daughter, conceived by your , since she is your sister. "'You shall not of your sister. She is your near kinswoman. 13"'You shall not of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's near kinswoman. "'You shall not of your brother. You shall not approach his wife. She is your aunt. "'You shall not of your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife. You shall not . "'You shall not of your brother's wife. It is your brother's . "'You shall not of a woman and her daughter. You shall not take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to . They are near kinswomen. It is wickedness. "'You shall not take a wife in addition to her sister, to be a rival, to , while her sister is still alive. "'You shall not approach a woman to , as long as she is impure by her uncleanness. "'You shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, and defile yourself with her. "'You shall not give any of your children as a to . You shall not profane the name of your . I am . "'You shall not lie with a man as with a woman. That is . "'You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it. No woman may give herself to an animal, to lie down with it: it is a perversion. "'Don't defile yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled. The land was defiled. Therefore I punished its , and the land vomited out her inhabitants. You therefore shall keep and my , and shall not do any of these ; neither the native-born, nor the who lives as a among you (for the men of the land that were before you had done all these , and the land became defiled), that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. "'For whoever shall do any of these , even the that do them from among their people. Therefore you shall keep my requirements, that you do not practice any of these customs which were practiced before you, and that you do not defile yourselves with them. I am your .'"
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.