World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 23
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said to , "Build here seven for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me." did as had spoken; and and offered on every a bull and a ram. said to , "Stand by your , and I will go. Perhaps will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you." He went to a height. met , and he said to him, "I have prepared the seven , and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every ." put a word in , and said, "Return to , and thus you shall speak." 6He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his , he, and all the princes of . He took up his , and said, "From has brought me, the king of from the mountains of the East. Come, for me. Come, defy Israel. How shall I whom has not ? How shall I defy whom has not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and shall not be listed among the nations. Who can count of , or count the fourth part of Israel? Let me the of ! Let my last end be like his!" said to , "What have you done to me? I took you to , and behold, you have them altogether." He answered and said, "Must I not take heed to speak that which puts in my ?" said to him, "Please come with me to another place, where you may see them. You shall see part of them, and shall not see them all. them from there for me." He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of , and built seven , and offered up a bull and a ram on every . He said to , "Stand here by your , while I meet over there." met , and put a word in his , and said, "Return to , and say this." He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his , and the princes of with him. said to him, "What has spoken?" He took up his , and said, "Rise up, , and hear! Listen to me, you son of . is not a man, that he should lie, nor a , that he should . Has he said, and he won't do it? Or has he spoken, and he won't make it good? Behold, I have received a command to . He has , and I can't reverse it. He has not seen in . Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. his is with him. The shout of a king is among them. brings them out of . He has as it were the strength of the wild ox. Surely there is no enchantment with ; neither is there any with Israel. Now it shall be said of and of Israel, 'What has done!' Behold, a people rises up as a lioness. As a lion he lifts himself up. He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey, and drinks of the slain." said to , "Neither them at all, nor them at all." But answered , "Didn't I tell you, saying, 'All that speaks, that I must do'?" said to , "Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please that you may them for me from there." took to the top of , that looks down on . said to , "Build seven for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here." 30 did as had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every .
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.