Numbers 4

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¹And spake unto and unto , saying, Take the sum of the sons of from among the , after their families, by the house of their fathers, From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the of . This shall be the of the sons of in the of , about the most things: And when the camp setteth forward, shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering vail, and cover the ark of with it: And shall put thereon the covering of badgers’ skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof. And upon the table of they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and covers to cover withal: and the continual bread shall be thereon: And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put in the staves thereof. And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of , and his lamps, and his tongs, and his snuffdishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it: And they shall put it and all the vessels thereof within a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put it upon a bar. And upon the golden they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put to the staves thereof: And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in , and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put them on a bar: And they shall take away the from the , and spread a purple cloth thereon: And they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof, wherewith they minister about it, even the censers, the fleshhooks, and the shovels, and the basons, all the vessels of the ; and they shall spread upon it a covering of badgers’ skins, and put to the staves of it. And when and his sons have made an end of covering , and all the vessels of , as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any thing, lest they . These things are the burden of the sons of in the of . And to the office of the son of the priest pertaineth the oil for , and the , and the daily meat , and the anointing oil, and the oversight of all the , and of all that therein is, in , and in the vessels thereof. ¹⁷And spake unto and unto , saying, Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the from among the : But thus do unto them, that they may live, and not , when they approach unto the most things: and his sons shall go in, and appoint them every one to his and to his burden: But they shall not go in to see when the things are covered, lest they . ²¹And spake unto , saying, Take also the sum of the sons of , throughout the houses of their fathers, by their families; From thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shalt thou number them; all that enter in to perform the , to do the work in the of . This is the of the families of the , to , and for burdens: And they shall bear the curtains of the , and the of , his covering, and the covering of the badgers’ skins that is above upon it, and the hanging for the door of the of , And the hangings of the court, and the hanging for the door of the of the court, which is by the and by the round about, and their cords, and all the instruments of their , and all that is made for them: so shall they . At the appointment of and his sons shall be all the of the sons of the , in all their burdens, and in all their : and ye shall appoint unto them in charge all their burdens. This is the of the families of the sons of in the of : and their charge shall be under the hand of the son of the priest. As for the sons of , thou shalt number them after their families, by the house of their fathers; From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old shalt thou number them, every one that entereth into the , to do the work of the of . And this is the charge of their burden, according to all their in the of ; the boards of the , and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and sockets thereof, And the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, with all their instruments, and with all their : and by name ye shall reckon the instruments of the charge of their burden. This is the of the families of the sons of , according to all their , in the of , under the hand of the son of the priest. ³⁴And and and the chief of numbered the sons of the after their families, and after the house of their fathers, From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that entereth into the , for the work in the of : ³⁶And those that were numbered of them by their families were two thousand seven hundred and fifty. ³⁷These were they that were numbered of the families of the , all that might do in the of , which and did number according to the of by the hand of . ³⁸And those that were numbered of the sons of , throughout their families, and by the house of their fathers, ³⁹From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that entereth into the , for the work in the of , Even those that were numbered of them, throughout their families, by the house of their fathers, were two thousand and six hundred and thirty. ⁴¹These are they that were numbered of the families of the sons of , of all that might do in the of , whom and did number according to the of . ⁴²And those that were numbered of the families of the sons of , throughout their families, by the house of their fathers, ⁴³From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that entereth into the , for the work in the of , Even those that were numbered of them after their families, were three thousand and two hundred. These be those that were numbered of the families of the sons of , whom and numbered according to the word of by the hand of . ⁴⁶All those that were numbered of the , whom and and the chief of Israel numbered, after their families, and after the house of their fathers, From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that came to do the of the ministry, and the of the burden in the of , Even those that were numbered of them, were eight thousand and five hundred and fourscore. According to the of they were numbered by the hand of , every one according to his , and according to his burden: thus were they numbered of him, as commanded .

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.

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