World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 11
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The people were complaining in the ears of . When heard it, his burned; and burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. The people cried to ; and to , and the abated. The name of that place was called , because burned among them. The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly; and the also wept again, and said, "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish, which we ate in for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this to look at." was like coriander , and it looked like bdellium. The people went around, gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil. When the fell on the camp in the night, fell on it. heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and burned greatly; and was displeased. said to , "Why have you treated so badly? Why haven't I in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, 'Carry them in your , as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you to their fathers'? Where could I get meat to give all these people? For they weep before me, saying, 'Give us meat, that we may eat.' I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have in your sight; and don't let me see my wretchedness." said to , "Gather to me seventy men of the , whom you know to be the of the people and officers over them; and bring them to the , that they may stand there with you. I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you don't bear it yourself alone. "Say to the people, ' yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, and you will eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of , saying, "Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in ." Therefore will give you meat, and you will eat. 19You will not eat one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because you have rejected who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come out of ?"'" said, "The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, 'I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month.' Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?" said to , "Has hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not." went out, and told the people words; and he gathered seventy men of the of the people, and set them around the Tent. came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of that was on him, and put it on the seventy . When rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more. But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and rested on them. They were of those who were written, but had not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp. 27A young man ran, and told , and said, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!" the son of , the , one of his chosen men, answered, "My , forbid them!" said to him, "Are you my sake? I wish that all people were , that would put his on them!" 30 went into the camp, he and the . A wind from went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two above the surface of the earth. The people rose up all that day, and all of that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails. He who gathered least gathered ten homers; and they spread them all out for themselves around the camp. While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, burned against the people, and struck the people with a very great plague. The name of that place was called , because there they buried the people who lusted. From the people traveled to ; and they stayed at .
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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.