World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 8
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1 spoke to , saying, "Speak to , and tell him, 'When you the lamps, the seven lamps shall give in front of the lamp stand.'" 3 did so. He lit its lamps to the area in front of the lamp stand, as commanded . This was the workmanship of the lamp stand, beaten work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was beaten work. He made the lamp stand according to the pattern which had shown . 5 spoke to , saying, "Take the from among the , and cleanse them. You shall do this to them to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of cleansing on them, let them shave their whole bodies with a razor, let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves. Then let them take a young bull and its , mixed with oil; and another young bull you shall take for a . You shall present the before the . You shall assemble the whole of the . You shall present the before . The shall lay their hands on the , and shall offer the before for a wave on the behalf of the , that it may be theirs to do the of . "The shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a and the other for a to , to make atonement for the . You shall set the before and before his sons, and offer them as a wave to . Thus you shall separate the from among the , and the shall be mine. "After that, the shall go in to do the of the . You shall cleanse them, and offer them as a wave . For they are wholly given to me from among the ; instead of all who open the , even of all the , I have taken them to me. For all among the are mine, both man and animal. On the day that I struck all in the land of , I them for myself. 18I have taken the instead of all among the . I have given the as a gift to and to his sons from among the , to do the of the in the , and to make atonement for the , so that there will be no plague among the when the come near to ." 20, and , and all of the did so to the . According to all that commanded concerning the , so the did to them. The purified themselves from , and they washed their clothes; and offered them for a wave before and made atonement for them to cleanse them. After that, the went in to do their in the before and before his sons: as had commanded concerning the , so they did to them. 23 spoke to , saying, "This is what is assigned to the : from twenty-five years old and upward they shall go in to wait on the in the work of the ; and from the age of fifty years they shall retire from doing the work, and shall no more, but shall assist their brothers in the , to perform the duty, and shall perform no . This is how you shall have the do their duties."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.