World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 18
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said to , "You and your sons and your fathers' house with you shall bear the of ; and you and your sons with you shall bear the of your priesthood. Bring your brothers also, the tribe of , the tribe of your , near with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you; but you and your sons with you shall be before the Tent of the . They shall keep your commands and the duty of the whole Tent; only they shall not come near to the vessels of and to the , that they not , neither they nor you. They shall be joined to you and keep the responsibility of the , for all the of the Tent. A shall not come near to you. "You shall perform the duty of and the duty of the , that there be no more on the . Behold, I myself have taken your brothers the from among the . They are a gift to you, dedicated to , to do the of the . You and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood for everything of the , and for that within . You shall . I give you the of the priesthood as a gift. The who comes near shall be put to ." spoke to , "Behold, I myself have given you the command of my wave , even all the things of the . I have given them to you by reason of the anointing, and to your sons, as a . This shall be yours of the most things from the : every of theirs, even every of theirs, and every of theirs, and every of theirs, which they shall give to me, shall be most for you and for your sons. You shall eat of it like the most things. Every male shall eat of it. It shall be to you. "This is yours, too: the wave of their gift, even all the wave of the . I have given them to you, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, as a . Everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it. "I have given to you all the best of the oil, all the best of the vintage, and of the grain, the of them which they give to . The first-ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to , shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it. "Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours. Everything that opens the , of which they offer to , both of man and animal, shall be yours. Nevertheless, you shall surely of man, and you shall of animals. You shall those who are to be of them from a month old, according to your estimation, for five of money, according to the , which weighs twenty gerahs. "But you shall not of a cow, or of a sheep, or of a goat. They are . You shall sprinkle their on the , and shall burn their fat for an made by , for a pleasant aroma to . Their meat shall be yours, as the wave breast and as the right thigh, it shall be yours. All the wave of the things which the offer to , I have given you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a . It is a of salt before to you and to with you." said to , "You shall have no in their land, neither shall you have any among them. I am your and your among the . "To the children of , behold, I have given all the in Israel for an , in return for their which they , even the of the . Henceforth the shall not come near the , lest they bear , and . But the shall do the of the , and they shall bear their . It shall be a throughout your generations. Among the , they shall have no . For the of the , which they offer as a wave to , I have given to the for an . Therefore I have said to them, 'Among the they shall have no .'" 25 spoke to , saying, "Moreover you shall speak to the , and tell them, 'When you take of the the which I have given you from them for your , then you shall offer up a wave of it for , a of the . Your wave shall be credited to you, as though it were the grain of the , and as the fullness of the press. Thus you also shall offer a wave to of all your , which you receive of the ; and of it you shall give wave to the priest. 29Out of all your gifts, you shall offer every wave to , of all its best parts, even the part of it.' "Therefore you shall tell them, 'When you heave its best from it, then it shall be credited to the as the increase of the , and as the increase of the press. You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your in the . You shall bear no by reason of it, when you have heaved from it its best. You shall not profane the things of the , that you not .'"
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.