World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 24
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When saw that it pleased to Israel, he didn't go, as at the other times, to use , but he set toward . lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes; and of came on him. He took up his , and said, " the son of says, the man whose eyes are open says; he says, who hears the words of , who sees the of , falling down, and having his eyes open: 5How goodly are your tents, , and your dwellings, Israel! As valleys they are spread out, as gardens by the riverside, as aloes which has planted, as cedar trees beside the waters. Water shall flow from his buckets. shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than . shall be exalted. brings him out of . He has as it were the strength of the wild ox. He shall consume the nations his , shall break their bones in pieces, and pierce them with his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion, as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? Everyone who blesses you is . Everyone who you is ." burned against , and he struck his hands together. said to , "I called you to , and, behold, you have altogether them these three times. Therefore, flee to your place, now! I thought to promote you to great ; but, behold, has kept you back from ." said to , "Didn't I also tell your whom you sent to me, saying, 'If would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can't go beyond word, to do either good or bad from my own . I will say what says'? Now, behold, I go to my people. Come, I will inform you what this people shall do to your people in the ." He took up his , and said, " the son of says, the man whose eyes are open says; he says, who hears the words of , knows the knowledge of , and who sees the of , falling down, and having his eyes open: I see him, but not now. I see him, but not near. A star will come out of . A will rise out of Israel, and shall strike through the corners of , and crush all the sons of Sheth. shall be a possession. , his enemy, also shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly. Out of shall one , and shall destroy from the city." He looked at , and took up his , and said, " was the first of the nations, but his latter end shall come to ." He looked at the , and took up his , and said, "Your is strong. Your nest is set in . Nevertheless Kain shall be wasted, until carries you away ." He took up his , and said, "Alas, who shall live when does this? But ships shall come from the coast of . They shall afflict , and shall afflict . He also shall come to ." rose up, and went and returned to his place; and also went his way.
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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.