World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 32
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Now the children of and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. They saw the land of , and the land of . Behold, the place was a place for livestock. 2Then the children of Gad and the children of came and spoke to , and to the priest, and to the princes of , saying, ", , , , , , Sebam, , and Beon, the land which struck before of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock." They said, "If we have in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Don't bring us over ." said to the children of Gad, and to the children of , "Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here? Why do you discourage of the from going over into the land which has given them? Your fathers did so when I sent them from to see the land. For when they went up to the valley of , and saw the land, they discouraged of the , that they should not go into the land which had given them. burned in that day, and he , saying, 'Surely none of the men who came up out of , from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I to , to , and to ; because they have not wholly followed me, except the son of the Kenizzite, and the son of , because they have followed completely.' burned against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in forty years, until all the generation who had done evil in sight was consumed. "Behold, you have up in your fathers' place, an increase of men, to increase the of toward Israel. For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in ; and you will destroy all these people." They came near to him, and said, "We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones; but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the , until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones shall in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our houses until the have all received their . For we will not with them on the other side of and beyond, because our has come to us on this side of eastward." said to them: "If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before to the war, 21and every one of your armed men will pass over before until he has driven out his from before him, and the land is subdued before ; then afterward you shall return, and be clear of obligation to and to Israel. Then this land shall be your possession before . "But if you will not do so, behold, you have against ; and be sure your will find you out. Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your ." The children of Gad and the children of spoke to , saying, "Your servants will do as my commands. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock shall be there in the cities of ; but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before to battle, as my says." So commanded concerning them to the priest, and to the son of , and to the heads of the fathers' households of the tribes of the . 29 said to them, "If the children of Gad and the children of will pass with you over , every man who is armed to battle before , and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of for a possession; but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of ." 31The children of Gad and the children of answered, saying, "As has said to your servants, so will we do. 32We will pass over armed before into the land of , and the possession of our shall with us beyond ." gave to them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of , and to the half-tribe of the son of , of king of the , and of king of ; the land, according to its cities and borders, even the cities of the surrounding land. The children of Gad built , , , Atroth-shophan, , Jogbehah, , and Beth : fortified cities and folds for sheep. The children of built , , , , and , (their names being changed), and . They gave other names to the cities which they built. The children of the son of went to , took it, and dispossessed the who were therein. gave to the son of ; and he lived therein. the son of went and took its villages, and called them . Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.
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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.