World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 10
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1 spoke to , saying, "Make two of silver. You shall make them of beaten work. You shall use them for the calling of and for the journeying of the camps. When they blow them, all shall gather themselves to you at the door of the . If they blow one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. When you blow an alarm, the camps that lie on the east side shall go forward. When you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side shall go forward. They shall blow an alarm for their journeys. But when is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm. "The sons of , the priests, shall blow the . This shall be to you for a throughout your generations. When you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the . Then you will be remembered before your , and you will be from your . "Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the over your , and over the of your ; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your . I am your ." In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the of . The went forward on their journeys out of of Sinai; and the cloud stayed in of . They first went forward according to the of by . First, the standard of the camp of the children of Judah went forward according to their armies. the son of was over his army. the son of was over the army of the tribe of the children of . the son of was over the army of the tribe of the children of . The was taken down; and the sons of and the sons of , who bore the , went forward. The standard of the camp of went forward according to their armies. the son of was over his army. the son of was over the army of the tribe of the children of . the son of was over the army of the tribe of the children of Gad. The set forward, bearing . The others set up the before they arrived. The standard of the camp of the children of set forward according to their armies. the son of was over his army. the son of was over the army of the tribe of the children of . the son of was over the army of the tribe of the children of . The standard of the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rear guard of all the camps, set forward according to their armies. the son of was over his army. the son of was over the army of the tribe of the children of Asher. the son of was over the army of the tribe of the children of . Thus were the travels of the according to their armies; and they went forward. said to Hobab, the son of the , ' -in-law, "We are journeying to the place of which said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will treat you well; for has spoken good concerning Israel." He said to him, "I will not go; but I will depart to my own land, and to my relatives." said, "Don't leave us, please; because you know how we are to encamp in , and you can be our eyes. It shall be, if you go with us—yes, it shall be—that whatever good does to us, we will do the same to you." They set forward from the Mount of three days' journey. The went before them three days' journey, to seek out a for them. The cloud of was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp. When the ark went forward, said, "Rise up, , and let your be scattered! Let those who hate you flee before you!" When it rested, he said, "Return, , to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel."
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.