This came about because the Israelites sinned against the Lord, their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. They venerated other gods,
You worked signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and the people of his land, Because you knew of their insolence toward them; thus you made for yourself a name even to this day.
Utter fools are the princes of Zoan! the wisest of Pharaoh’s advisers give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am a descendant of wise men, of ancient kings”?
Going up by way of the Negeb, they reached Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, descendants of the Anakim, were. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
They answered him, “Your servants have come from a far-off land, because of the fame of the Lord, your God. For we have heard reports of all that he did in Egypt