All these things happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God. He had brought them out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of the king of Egypt, but the Israelites had honored other gods.
You did signs and miracles against the king of Egypt, and against all his officers and all his people, because you knew how proud they were. You became as famous as you are today.
The officers of the city of Zoan are fools; the wise men who advise the king of Egypt give wrong advice. How can you say to him, ‘I am wise’? How can you say, ‘I am from the old family of the kings’?
They went through the southern area to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak lived. (The city of Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
No other god has ever taken for himself one nation out of another. But the Lord your God did this for you in Egypt, right before your own eyes. He did it with tests, signs, miracles, war, and great sights, by his great power and strength.
The men answered, “We are your servants who have come from a far country, because we heard of the fame of the Lord your God. We heard about what he has done and everything he did in Egypt.