World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 14
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All lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. All the murmured against and against . The whole said to them, "We wish that we had in the land of , or that we had in this ! Why does bring us to this land, to fall ? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn't it be better for us to return into ?" They said to one another, "Let's choose a leader, and let's return into ." Then and fell on their faces before all of of the . the son of and the son of , who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes. They spoke to all of the , saying, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us: a land which flows with . Only don't rebel against , neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us. Their defense is removed from over them, and is with us. Don't fear them." But all threatened to stone them with stones. appeared in the to all the . said to , "How long will this people despise me? How long will they not in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them? I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." said to , "Then the will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them. They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you are among this people; for you are seen to , and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a by day, and in a by night. Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying, 'Because was not able to bring this people into the land which he to them, therefore he has slain them in .' Now please let the of be great, according as you have spoken, saying, ' is , and abundant in , forgiving and ; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.' Please pardon the of this people according to the greatness of your , and as you have forgiven this people, from even until now." said, "I have pardoned according to your word; but in very deed—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with — because all those men who have seen my and my signs, which I worked in and in , yet have me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it. But my servant , because he had another with him, and has followed me fully, him I will bring into the land into which he went. His shall possess it. Since the and the in the valley, tomorrow turn and go into by to ." 26 spoke to and to , saying, "How long shall I bear with this evil that complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the , which they complain against me. Tell them, 'As I live, , surely as you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you. Your bodies shall fall in this ; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, surely you shall not come into the land concerning which I that I would make you therein, except the son of , and the son of . But I will bring in your little ones that you said should be captured or killed, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. But as for you, your bodies shall fall in this . Your children shall be wanderers in forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your bodies are consumed in . After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your , even forty years, and you will know my alienation.' I, , have spoken. I will surely do this to all this evil who are gathered together against me. In this they shall be consumed, and there they shall ." The men whom sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all to murmur against him by bringing up an evil report against the land, even those men who brought up an evil report of the land, by the plague before . But the son of and the son of remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land. told these words to all the , and the people mourned greatly. They rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which has promised; for we have ." said, "Why now do you disobey the of , since it shall not prosper? Don't go up, for isn't among you; that way you won't be struck down before your . For there the and the are before you, and you will fall because you turned back from following ; therefore will not be with you." But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. Nevertheless, the and didn't depart out of the camp. Then came down, and who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down even to .
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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.