King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Leviticus 20
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1And spake unto , saying, Again, thou shalt say to the , Whosoever he be of the , or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of unto ; he shall surely be put to : the people of the land shall stone him with stones. And I will set against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of unto , to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my name. And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of unto , and kill him not: Then I will set against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a after him, to commit whoredom with , from among their people. And the that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a after them, I will even set against that , and will cut him off from among his people. yourselves therefore, and be ye : for I am your . And ye shall keep , and do them: I am which you. For every one that curseth his or his mother shall be surely put to : he hath his or his mother; his shall be upon him. And the man that committeth with another man’s wife, even he that committeth with his neighbour’s wife, the and the shall surely be put to . And the man that lieth with his ’s wife hath uncovered his ’s : both of them shall surely be put to ; their shall be upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to : they have wrought confusion; their shall be upon them. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an : they shall surely be put to ; their shall be upon them. And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with , both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you. And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to : and ye shall . And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and : they shall surely be put to ; their shall be upon them. And if a man shall take his sister, his ’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her , and she see his ; it is a thing; and they in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister’s ; he shall bear his . And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall ; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her : and both of them from among their people. And thou shalt not of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy ’s sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their . And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife, he hath uncovered his uncle’s : they shall bear their ; they shall . And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s ; they shall be . Ye shall therefore keep all , and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to therein, spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with : I am your , which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean and , and between fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as . And ye shall be unto me: for I am , and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. A man also or woman that hath a familiar , or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to : they shall stone them with stones: their shall be upon them.
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.