World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 31
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1 spoke to , saying, " the on . Afterward you shall be gathered to your people." spoke to the people, saying, "Arm men from among you for war, that they may go against , to execute on . You shall send one thousand out of every tribe, throughout all the tribes of Israel, to the war." 5So there were , out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. sent them, one thousand of every tribe, to the war with the son of the priest, to the war, with the vessels of and the for the alarm in his hand. They fought against , as commanded . They killed every male. They killed the kings of with the rest of their slain: Evi, , Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of . They also killed the son of with . The took the women of with their little ones; and all their livestock, all their flocks, and all their goods, they took as plunder. All their cities in the places in which they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with . They took all the , and all the plunder, both of man and of animal. They brought the with the prey and the plunder, to , and to the priest, and to of the , to the camp at , which are by at . and the priest, with all the princes of , went out to meet them outside of the camp. was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from the of the war. said to them, "Have you all the women alive? Behold, these caused the , through the of , to commit trespass against in the matter of , and so the plague was among of . Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. "Encamp outside of the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your . You shall purify every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood." the priest said to the men of war who went to the battle, "This is the of which has commanded . 22However the gold, and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that may withstand the , you shall make to go through the , and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for impurity. All that doesn't withstand the you shall make to go through the water. You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean. Afterward you shall come into the camp." 25 spoke to , saying, 26"Count the plunder that was taken, both of man and of animal, you, and the priest, and the heads of the fathers' households of ; and divide the plunder into two parts: between the men skilled in war, who went out to battle, and all . Levy a tribute to of the men of war who went out to battle: one of five hundred; of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys, and of the flocks. Take it from their half, and give it to the priest, for wave . Of the half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty, of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, of all the livestock, and give them to the , who perform the duty of ." 31 and the priest did as commanded . 32Now the plunder, over and above the booty which the men of war took, was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep, 33seventy-two thousand head of cattle, 34sixty-one thousand donkeys, 35and thirty-two thousand persons in all, of the women who had not known man by lying with him. 36The half, which was the of those who went out to war, was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep; 37and tribute of the sheep was six hundred seventy-five. 38The cattle were thirty-six thousand, of which tribute was seventy-two. 39The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred, of which tribute was sixty-one. 40The persons were sixteen thousand, of whom tribute was thirty-two persons. gave the tribute, which was wave , to the priest, as commanded . 42Of the half, which divided off from the men who fought 43(now half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, 44thirty-six thousand head of cattle, 45thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, 46and sixteen thousand persons), even of the half, took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of animal, and gave them to the , who performed the duty of , as commanded . 48The officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, came near to . They said to , "Your servants have taken the sum of the men of war who are under our command, and there lacks not one man of us. We have brought , what every man found: gold ornaments, armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for our before ." and the priest took their gold, even all worked jewels. 52All the gold of the wave that they offered up to , of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty . The men of war had taken booty, every man for himself. and the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the for a memorial for the before .
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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.