King James Version · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 31
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1And spake unto , saying, the of : afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. And spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against , and of . Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. 5So there were out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and the son of the priest, to the war, with the instruments, and the to blow in his hand. And they warred against , as commanded ; and they slew all the males. And they slew the kings of , beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and , and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of : also the son of they slew with . And the took all the women of , and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with . And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of . And they brought the , and the prey, and the spoil, unto , and the priest, and unto of the , unto the camp at , which are by Jordan near . And , and the priest, and all the princes of , went forth to meet them without the camp. And was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And said unto them, Have ye all the women alive? Behold, these caused the , through the of , to commit trespass against in the matter of , and there was a plague among of . Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. And do ye without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your on the third day, and on the seventh day. And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood. And the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the of which commanded ; 22Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, Every thing that may the , ye shall make it go through the , and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the ye shall make go through the water. And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp. 25And spake unto , saying, 26Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and the priest, and the chief fathers of : And divide the prey into two parts; between them that took the war upon them, who went out to battle, and between all : And levy a tribute unto of the men of war which went out to battle: one of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep: Take it of their half, and give it unto the priest, for an heave of . And of the ’s half, thou shalt take one of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of , and give them unto the , which keep the charge of the of . 31And and the priest did as commanded . 32And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep, 33And threescore and twelve thousand beeves, 34And threescore and one thousand asses, 35And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him. 36And the half, which was the of them that went out to war, was in number three hundred thousand and seven and thirty thousand and five hundred sheep: 37And ’s tribute of the sheep was six hundred and threescore and fifteen. 38And the beeves were thirty and six thousand; of which ’s tribute was threescore and twelve. 39And the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred; of which ’s tribute was threescore and one. 40And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which ’s tribute was thirty and two persons. And gave the tribute, which was ’s heave , unto the priest, as commanded . 42And of the ’s half, which divided from the men that warred, 43(Now the half that pertained unto was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep, 44And thirty and six thousand beeves, 45And thirty thousand asses and five hundred, 46And sixteen thousand persons;) Even of the ’s half, took one of fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the , which kept the charge of the of ; as commanded . 48And the officers which were over thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, came near unto : And they said unto , Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us. We have therefore brought an oblation for , what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our before . And and the priest took the gold of them, even all wrought jewels. 52And all the gold of the that they offered up to , of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty . (For the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.) And and the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the of , for a memorial for the before .
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.