World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Leviticus 21
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said to , "Speak to the priests, the sons of , and say to them, 'A priest shall not defile himself for among his people, except for his relatives that are near to him: for his mother, for his , for his son, for his daughter, for his brother, 3and for his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband; for her he may defile himself. He shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself. "'They shall not shave their heads or shave off the corners of their beards or make any cuttings in their . They shall be to their , and not profane the name of their , for they offer the of made by , the bread of their . Therefore they shall be . "'They shall not marry a woman who is a , or profane. A priest shall not marry a woman from her husband; for he is to his . Therefore you shall him, for he offers the bread of your . He shall be to you, for I , who you, am . "'The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the , she profanes her . She shall be burned with . "'He who is the among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and who is to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, or tear his clothes. He must not go in to any body, or defile himself for his or for his mother. He shall not go out of , nor profane of his ; for the of the anointing oil of his is upon him. I am . "'He shall take a wife in her virginity. He shall not marry a , or one , or a woman who has been defiled, or a . He shall take a virgin of his own people as a wife. He shall not profane his among his people, for I am who sanctifies him.'" 16 spoke to , saying, "Say to , 'None of throughout their generations who has may approach to offer the bread of his . For whatever man he is that has , he shall not draw near: a blind man, or a lame, or he who has a flat nose, or any deformity, 19or a man who has an injured foot, or an injured hand, or hunchbacked, or a dwarf, or one who has in his eye, or an itching disease, or scabs, or who has damaged testicles. No man of the of the priest who has shall come near to offer the of made by . Since he has , he shall not come near to offer the bread of his . He shall eat the bread of his , both of the most , and of the . He shall not come near to , nor come near to the , because he has ; that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am who sanctifies them.'" So spoke to , and to his sons, and to all the .
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.