King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 22
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And the set forward, and pitched in on this side Jordan by . And the son of saw all that Israel had done to the . And was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and was distressed because of the . And said unto the of , Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And the son of was king of the at that time. He sent therefore unto the son of to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from : behold, they cover the of the earth, and they over against me: Come now therefore, I thee, me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is , and he whom thou cursest is . And the of and the of departed with the rewards of in their hand; and they came unto , and spake unto him the words of . And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as shall speak unto me: and the princes of abode with . And came unto , and said, What men are these with thee? 10And said unto , the son of , king of , hath sent unto me, saying, 11Behold, there is a people come out of , which covereth the of the earth: come now, me them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out. And said unto , Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not the people: for they are . And rose up in the morning, and said unto the princes of , Get you into your land: for refuseth to give me leave to go with you. And the princes of rose up, and they went unto , and said, refuseth to come with us. And sent yet again princes, more, and more honourable than they. 16And they came to , and said to him, Thus saith the son of , Let nothing, I thee, hinder thee from coming unto me: For I will promote thee unto very great , and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I thee, me this people. And answered and said unto the servants of , If would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of my , to do less or more. Now therefore, I you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what will say unto me more. And came unto at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do. And rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of . And ’s was kindled because he went: and stood in for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw standing in , and his drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of , and went into the field: and smote the ass, to turn her into . 24But stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw , she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed ’s foot against the wall: and he smote her again. And went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to or to the left. And when the ass saw , she fell down under : and ’s was kindled, and he smote the ass with a . And opened the of the ass, and she said unto , What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? And said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And the ass said unto , Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay. Then opened the eyes of , and he saw standing in , and his drawn in his hand: and he his head, and fell flat on . And said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me: And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and her alive. And said unto , I have ; for I knew not that thou stoodest in against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again. And said unto , Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So went with the princes of . And when heard that was come, he went out to meet him unto a city of , which is in the border of , which is in the utmost coast. And said unto , Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call thee? wherefore camest thou not unto me? am I not able indeed to promote thee to ? And said unto , Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any at all to say any thing? the word that putteth in my , that shall I speak. 39And went with , and they came unto Kirjath–huzoth. And offered oxen and sheep, and sent to , and to the princes that were with him. And it came to pass on the morrow, that took , and brought him up into the of , that thence he might see the utmost part of the people.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.