World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 20
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The , even the whole , came into of in the first month. The people stayed in . there, and was buried there. There was no water for ; and they assembled themselves together against and against . The people quarreled with , and spoke, saying, "We wish that we had when our brothers before ! Why have you brought into this , that we should there, we and our animals? Why have you made us to come up out of , to bring us in to this evil place? It is no place of , or of figs, or of , or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink." and went from the of to the door of the , and fell on their faces. appeared to them. 7 spoke to , saying, "Take the , and assemble , you, and your brother, and speak to before their eyes, that it pour out its water. You shall bring water to them out of ; so you shall give and their livestock drink." took the from before , as he commanded him. and gathered together before , and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels! Shall we bring water out of this for you?" lifted up his hand, and struck with his twice, and water came out abundantly. and their livestock drank. said to and , "Because you didn't in me, to me in the eyes of the , therefore you shall not bring this into the land which I have given them." These are the waters of ; because the strove with , and he was in them. sent from to the king of , saying: "Your brother Israel says: You know all the travail that has happened to us; how our fathers went down into , and we lived in a long time. The mistreated us and our fathers. When we cried to , he heard our voice, sent , and brought us out of . Behold, we are in , a city in the edge of your border. "Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through , neither will we drink from the water of the wells. We will go along the king's highway. We will not turn away to nor to the left, until we have passed your border." 18 said to him, "You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with against you." The said to him, "We will go up by the highway; and if we drink your water, I and my livestock, then I will give its price. Only let me, without doing anything else, pass through on my feet." He said, "You shall not pass through." came out against him with many people, and with a strong hand. Thus refused to give Israel passage through his border, so Israel turned away from him. They traveled from , and the , even the whole , came to . spoke to and in , by the border of the land of , saying, " shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the , because you rebelled against my word at the waters of . Take and his son, and bring them up to ; and strip of his garments, and put them on his son. shall be gathered, and shall there." 27 did as commanded. They went up onto in the sight of all . stripped of his garments, and put them on his son. there on the top of the mountain, and and came down from the mountain. When all saw that was , they wept for thirty days, even 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.