IV
MOSES IN EGYPT
THE BEGINNING OF THE EGYPTIAN BONDAGE
As soon as Jacob was dead, the eyes of the Israelites were
closed, as well as their hearts. They began to feel the dominion
of the stranger,[1] although real bondage did not enslave
them until some time later. While a single one of the
sons of Jacob was alive, the Egyptians did not venture to
approach the Israelites with evil intent. It was only when
Levi, the last of them, had departed this life that their
suffering
commenced.[2] A change in the relation of the Egyptians
toward the Israelites had, indeed, been noticeable
immediately after the death of Joseph, but they did not
throw off their mask completely until Levi was no more.
Then the slavery of the Israelites supervened in good
earnest.
The first hostile act on the part of the Egyptians was to
deprive the Israelites of their fields, their vineyards, and the
gifts that Joseph had sent to his brethren. Not content with
these animosities, they sought to do them harm in, other
ways.[3] The reason for the hatred of the Egyptians was envy
and fear. The Israelites had increased to a miraculous
degree. At the death of Jacob the seventy persons he had
brought down with him bad grown to the number of six
hundred thousand,[4] and their physical strength and heroism
were extraordinary and therefore alarming to the Egyptians. There
were many occasions at that time for the display
of prowess. Not long after the death of Levi occurred
that of the Egyptian king Magron, who had been bred up
by Joseph, and therefore was not wholly without grateful
recollection of what he and his family had accomplished for
the welfare of Egypt. But his son and successor Malol,
together with his whole court, knew not the sons of Jacob
and their achievements, and they did not scruple to oppress
the Hebrews.
The final breach between them and the Egyptians took
place during the wars waged by Malol against Zepho, the
grandson of Esau. In the course of it, the Israelites had
saved the Egyptians from a crushing defeat, but instead of
being grateful they sought only the undoing of their benefactors,
from fear that the giant strength of the Hebrews
might be turned against them.[5]
PHARAOH'S CUNNING
The counsellors and elders of Egypt came to Pharaoh,
and spake unto him, saying: "Behold, the people of the
children of Israel are greater and mightier than we. Thou
hast seen their strong power, which they have inherited from
their fathers, for a few of them stood up against a people
as many as the sand of the sea, and not one hath fallen.
Now, therefore, give us counsel what to do with them, until
we shall gradually destroy them from among us, lest they
become too numerous in the land, for if they multiply, and
there falleth out any war, they will also join themselves with
their great strength unto our enemies, and fight against us,
destroy us from the land, and get them up out of the land."
The king answered the elders, saying: "This is the plan
advised by me against Israel, from which we will not depart.
Behold, Pithom and Raamses are cities not fortified against
battle. It behooves us to fortify them. Now, go ye and act
cunningly against the children of Israel, and proclaim in
Egypt and in Goshen, saying: 'All ye men of Egypt, Goshen,
and Pathros! The king has commanded us to build
Pithom and Raamses and fortify them against battle. Those
amongst you in all Egypt, of the children of Israel and of
all the inhabitants of the cities, who are willing to build with
us, shall have their wages given to them daily at the king's
order.'
"Then go ye first, and begin to build Pithom and
Raamses, and cause the king's proclamation to be made
daily, and when some of the children of Israel come to build,
do ye give them their wages daily, and after they shall have
built with you for their daily wages, draw yourselves away
from them day by day, and one by one, in secret. Then you
shall rise up and become their taskmasters and their officers,
and you shall have them afterward to build without wages.
And should they refuse, then force them with all your might
to build. If you do this, it will go well with us, for we shall
cause our land to be fortified after this manner, and with
the children of Israel it will go ill, for they will decrease in
number on account of the work, because you will prevent
them from being with their wives."
The elders, the counsellors, and the whole of Egypt did
according to the word of the king. For a month the servants
of Pharaoh built with Israel, then they withdrew themselves
gradually, while the children of Israel continued to work,
receiving their daily wages, for some men of Egypt were
still carrying on the work with them. After a time all the
Egyptians had withdrawn, and they had turned to become
the officers and taskmasters of the Israelites. Then they
refrained from giving them any pay, and when some of the
Hebrews refused to work without wages, their taskmasters
smote them, and made them return by force to labor with
their brethren. And the children of Israel were greatly
afraid of the Egyptians, and they came again and worked
without pay, all except the tribe of Levi, who were not
employed in the work with their brethren. The children of
Levi knew that the proclamation of the king was made to
deceive Israel, therefore they refrained from listening to it,
and the Egyptians did not molest them later, since they had
not been with their brethren at the beginning, and though
the Egyptians embittered the lives of the other Israelites
with servile labor, they did not disturb the children of Levi.
The Israelites called Malol, the king of Egypt, Maror,
"Bitterness," because in his days the Egyptians embittered
their lives with all manner of rigorous service.[6]
But Pharaoh did not rest satisfied with his proclamation
and the affliction it imposed upon the Israelites. He suspended
a brick-press from his own neck, and himself took
part in the work at Pithom and Raamses. After this, whenever
a Hebrew refused to come and help with the building,
alleging that he was not fit for such hard service, the Egyptians
would retort, saying, "Dost thou mean to make us
believe thou art more delicate than Pharaoh?"
The king himself urged the Israelites on with gentle
words, saying, "My children, I beg you to do this work and
erect these little buildings for me. I will give you great
reward therefor." By means of such artifices and wily
words the Egyptians succeeded in overmastering the Israelites,
and once they had them in their power, they treated
them with undisguised brutality. Women were forced to
perform men's work, and men women's work.
The building of Pithom and Raamses turned out of no
advantage to the Egyptians, for scarcely were the structures
completed, when they collapsed, or they were swallowed by
the earth, and the Hebrew workmen, besides having to
suffer hardships during their erection, lost their lives by
being precipitated from enormous heights, when the buildings
fell in a heap.[7]
But the Egyptians were little concerned whether or not
they derived profit from the forced labor of the children of
Israel. Their main object was to hinder their increase, and
Pharaoh therefore issued an order, that they were not to be
permitted to sleep at their own homes, that so they might be
deprived of the opportunity of having intercourse with their
wives. The officers executed the will of the king, telling
the Hebrews that the reason was the loss of too much time
in going to and fro, which would prevent them from completing
the required tale of bricks. Thus the Hebrew husbands
were kept apart from their wives, and they were compelled
to sleep on the ground, away from their habitations.
But God spake, saying: "Unto their father Abraham I
gave the promise, that I would make his children to be as
numerous as the stars in the heavens, and you contrive plans
to prevent them from multiplying. We shall see whose
word will stand, Mine or yours." And it came to pass that
the more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multiplied,
and the more they spread abroad.[8] And they continued
to increase in spite of Pharaoh's command, that those
who did not complete the required tale of bricks were to be
immured in the buildings between the layers of bricks, and
great was the number of the Israelites that lost their lives
in this way.[9] Many of their children were, besides, slaughtered
as sacrifices to the idols of the Egyptians. For this
reason God visited retribution upon the idols at the time of
the going forth of the Israelites from Egypt. They had
caused the death of the Hebrew children, and in turn they
were shattered, and they crumbled into dust."
THE PIOUS MIDWIVES
When now, in spite of all their tribulations, the children
of Israel continued to multiply and spread abroad, so that
the land was full of them as with thick underbrush--for the
women brought forth many children at a birth[11]--the Egyptians
appeared before Pharaoh again, and urged him to devise
some other way of ridding the land of the Hebrews,
seeing that they were increasing mightily, though they were
made to toil and labor hard. Pharaoh could invent no new
design; he asked his counsellors to give him their opinion of
the thing. Then spake one of them, Job of the land of Uz,
which is in Aram-naharaim, as follows: "The plan which
the king invented, of putting a great burden of work upon
the Israelites, was good in its time, and it should be executed
henceforth, too, but to secure us against the fear that,
if a war should come to pass, they may overwhelm us by
reason of their numbers, and chase us forth out of the land,
let the king issue a decree, that every male child of the
Israelites shall be killed at his birth. Then we need not be
afraid of them if we should be overtaken by war. Now let
the king summon the Hebrew midwives, that they come
hither, and let him command them in accordance with this
plan."
Job's advice found favor in the eyes of Pharaoh and the
Egyptians." They preferred to have the midwives murder
the innocents, for they feared the punishment of God if they
laid hands upon them themselves. Pharaoh cited the two
midwives of the Hebrews before him, and commanded them
to slay all men children, but to save the daughters of the Hebrew
women alive," for the Egyptians were as much interested
in preserving the female children as in bringing about
the death of the male children. They were very sensual,
and were desirous of having as many women as possible at
their service."
However, the plan, even if it had been carried into execution,
was not wise, for though a man may marry many wives,
each woman can marry but one husband. Thus a diminished
number of men and a corresponding increase in the
number of women did not constitute so serious a menace to
the continuance of the nation of the Israelites as the reverse
case would have been.
The two Hebrew midwives were Jochebed, the mother of
Moses, and Miriam, his sister. When they appeared before
Pharaoh, Miriam exclaimed: "Woe be to this man when
God visits retribution upon him for his evil deeds." The
king would have killed her for these audacious words, had
not Jochebed allayed his wrath by saying: "Why dost thou
pay heed to her words? She is but a child, and knows not
what she speaks." Yet, although Miriam was but five years
old at the time, she nevertheless accompanied her mother,
and helped her with her offices to the Hebrew women, giving
food to the new-born babes while Jochebed washed and
bathed them.
Pharaoh's order ran as follows: "At the birth of the
child, if it be a man child, kill it; but if it be a female
child, then you need not kill it, but you may save it alive." The
midwives returned: "How are we to know whether the
child is male or female?" for the king had bidden them kill
it while it was being born. Pharaoh replied: "If the child
issues forth from the womb with its face foremost, it is a
man child, for it looks to the earth, whence man was taken;
but if its feet appear first, it is a female, for it looks up
toward the rib of the mother, and from a rib woman was
made."[15]
The king used all sorts of devices to render the midwives
amenable to his wishes. He approached them with amorous
proposals, which they both repelled, and then he threatened
them with death by fire.[16] But they said within themselves:
"Our father Abraham opened an inn, that he might
feed the wayfarers, though they were heathen, and we
should neglect the children, nay, kill them? No, we shall
have a care to keep them alive." Thus they failed to execute
what Pharaoh had commanded. Instead of murdering the
babes, they supplied all their needs. If a mother that had
given birth to a child lacked food and drink, the midwives
went to well-to-do women, and took up a collection, that the
infant might not suffer want. They did still more for the
little ones. They made supplication to God, praying: "Thou
knowest that we are not fulfilling the words of Pharaoh,
but it is our aim to fulfil Thy words. O that it be Thy will,
our Lord, to let the child come into the world safe and sound,
lest we fall under the suspicion that we tried to slay it, and
maimed it in the attempt." The Lord hearkened to their
prayer, and no child born under the ministrations of
Shiphrah and Puah, or Jochebed and Miriam, as the midwives
are also called, came into the world lame or blind or
afflicted with any other blemish.[17]
Seeing that his command was ineffectual, he summoned
the midwives a second time, and called them to account for
their disobedience. They replied: "This nation is compared
unto one animal and another, and, in sooth, the Hebrews
are like the animals. As little as the animals do they need
the offices of midwives."[18] These two God-fearing women
were rewarded in many ways for their good deeds. Not
only that Pharaoh did them no harm, but they were made
the ancestors of priests and Levites, and kings and princes.
Jochebed became the mother of the priest Aaron and of the
Levite Moses, and from Miriam's union with Caleb sprang
the royal house of David. The hand of God was visible
in her married life. She contracted a grievous sickness,
and though it was thought by all that saw her that death
would certainly overtake her, she recovered, and God
restored her youth, and bestowed unusual beauty upon her,
so that renewed happiness awaited her husband, who had
been deprived of the pleasures of conjugal life during her
long illness. His unexpected joys were the reward of his
piety and trust in God.[19] And another recompense was accorded
to Miriam: she was privileged to bring forth Bezalel,
the builder of the Tabernacle, who was endowed with celestial
wisdom.[20]
THE THREE COUNSELLORS
In the one hundred and thirtieth year after Israel's going
down to Egypt Pharaoh dreamed that he was sitting upon
his throne, and he lifted up his eyes, and he beheld an old
man before him with a balance in his hand, and he saw him
taking all the elders, nobles, and great men of Egypt, tying
them together, and laying them in one scale of the balance,
while he put a tender kid into the other. The kid bore
down the pan in which it lay until it hung lower than the
other with the bound Egyptians. Pharaoh arose early in
the morning, and called together all his servants and his
wise men to interpret his dream, and the men were greatly
afraid on account of his vision. Balaam the son of Beor
then spake, and said: "This means nothing but that a
great evil will spring up against Egypt, for a son will be
born unto Israel, who will destroy the whole of our land
and all its inhabitants, and he will bring forth the Israelites
from Egypt with a mighty hand. Now, therefore, O king,
take counsel as to this matter, that the hope of Israel be
frustrated before this evil arise against Egypt."
The king said unto Balaam: "What shall we do unto
Israel? We have tried several devices against this people,
but we could not prevail over it. Now let me hear thy
opinion."
At Balaam's instance, the king sent for his two counsellors,
Reuel the Midianite and Job the Uzite, to hear their advice.
Reuel spoke: "If it seemeth good to the king, let him desist
from the Hebrews, and let him not stretch forth his hand
against them, for the Lord chose them in days of old, and
took them as the lot of His inheritance from amongst all the
nations of the earth, and who is there that hath dared stretch
forth his hand against them with impunity, but that their
God avenged the evil done unto them?" Reuel then proceeded
to enumerate some of the mighty things God had
performed for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he closed his
admonition with the words: "Verily, thy grandfather, the
Pharaoh of former days, raised Joseph the son of Jacob
above all the princes of Egypt, because he discerned his
wisdom, for through his wisdom he rescued all the inhabitants
of the land from the famine, after which he invited
Jacob and his sons to come down to Egypt, that the land
of Egypt and the land of Goshen be delivered from the
famine through their virtues. Now, therefore, if it seem
good in thine eyes, leave off from destroying the children of
Israel, and if it be not thy will that they dwell in Egypt, send
them forth from here, that they may go to the land of Canaan,
the land wherein their ancestors sojourned."
When Pharaoh heard the words of Jethro-Reuel, he was
exceedingly wroth with him, and he was dismissed in disgrace
from before the king, and he went to Midian.
The king then spoke to Job, and said: "What sayest
thou, Job, and what is thy advice respecting the Hebrews?"
Job replied: "Behold, all the inhabitants of the land are in
thy power. Let the king do as seemeth good in his eyes."
Balaam was the last to speak at the behest of the king, and
he said: "From all that the king may devise against the
Hebrews, they will be delivered. If thou thinkest to diminish
them by the flaming fire, thou wilt not prevail over them,
for their God delivered Abraham their father from the furnace
in which the Chaldeans cast him. Perhaps thou thinkest
to destroy them with a sword, but their father Isaac was
delivered from being slaughtered by the sword. And if
thou thinkest to reduce them through hard and rigorous
labor, thou wilt also not prevail, for their father Jacob
served Laban in all manner of hard work, and yet he prospered.
If it please the king, let him order all the male
children that shall be born in Israel from this day forward
to be thrown into the water. Thereby canst thou wipe out
their name, for neither any of them nor any of their fathers
was tried in this way.[21]
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS
Balaam's advice was accepted by Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
They knew that God pays measure for measure,
therefore they believed that the drowning of the men children
would be the safest means of exterminating the Hebrews,
without incurring harm themselves, for the Lord had
sworn unto Noah never again to destroy the world by water.
Thus, they assumed, they would be exempt from punishment,
wherein they were wrong, however. In the first place,
though the Lord had sworn not to bring a flood upon men,
there was nothing in the way of bringing men into a flood.
Furthermore, the oath of God applied to the whole of mankind,
not to a single nation. The end of the Egyptians was
that they met their death in the billows of the Red Sea.
"Measure for measure"--as they had drowned the men
children of the Israelites, so they were drowned.[22]
Pharaoh now took steps looking to the faithful execution
of his decree. He sent his bailiffs into the houses of the
Israelites, to discover all new-born children, wherever they
might be. To make sure that the Hebrews should not succeed
in keeping the children hidden, the Egyptians hatched
a devilish plan. Their women were to take their little ones
to the houses of the Israelitish women that were suspected
of having infants. When the Egyptian children began to
cry or coo, the Hebrew children that were kept in hiding
would join in, after the manner of babies, and betray their
presence, whereupon the Egyptians would seize them and
bear them off.[23]
Furthermore, Pharaoh commanded that the Israelitish
women employ none but Egyptian midwives, who were to
secure precise information as to the time of their delivery,
and were to exercise great care, and let no male child escape
their vigilance alive. If there should be parents that evaded
the command, and preserved a new-born boy in secret, they
and all belonging to them were to be killed.[24]
Is it to be wondered at, then, that many of the Hebrews
kept themselves away from their wives? Nevertheless those
who put trust in God were not forsaken by Him. The
women that remained united with their husbands would go
out into the field when their time of delivery arrived, and
give birth to their children and leave them there, while they
themselves returned home. The Lord, who had sworn unto
their ancestors to multiply them, sent one of His angels to
wash the babes, anoint them, stretch their limbs, and swathe
them. Then he would give them two smooth pebbles, from
one of which they sucked milk, and from the other honey.
And God caused the hair of the infants to grow down
to their knees and serve them as a protecting garment, and
then He ordered the earth to receive the babes, that they
be sheltered therein until the time of their growing up, when
it would open its mouth and vomit forth the children, and
they would sprout up like the herb of the field and the grass
of the forest. Thereafter each would return to his family
and the house of his father.
When the Egyptians saw this, they went forth, every man
to his field, with his yoke of oxen, and they ploughed up the
earth as one ploughs it at seed time. Yet they were unable
to do harm to the infants of the children of Israel that had
been swallowed up and lay in the bosom of the earth. Thus
the people of Israel increased and waxed exceedingly. And
Pharaoh ordered his officers to go to Goshen, to look for the
male babes of the children of Israel, and when they discovered
one, they tore him from his mother's breast by force,
and thrust him into the river." But no one is so valiant
as to be able to foil God's purposes, though he contrive ten
thousand subtle devices unto that end. The child foretold
by Pharaoh's dreams and by his astrologers was brought
up and kept concealed from the king's spies. It came to
pass after the following manner.[26]
THE PARENTS OF MOSES
When Pharaoh's proclamation was issued, decreeing that
the men children of the Hebrews were to be cast into the
river, Amram, who was the president of the Sanhedrin, decided
that in the circumstances it was best for husbands to
live altogether separate from their wives. He set the example. He
divorced his wife, and all the men of Israel did
likewise,[27] for he occupied a place of great consideration
among his people, one reason being that he belonged to the
tribe of Levi, the tribe that was faithful to its God even in
the land of Egypt, though the other tribes wavered in their
allegiance, and attempted to ally themselves with the Egyptians,
going so far as to give up Abraham's sign of the covenant.[28]
To chastise the Hebrews for their impiety, God
turned the love of the Egyptians for them into hatred, so
that they resolved upon their destruction. Mindful of all
that he and his people owed to Joseph's wise rule, Pharaoh
refused at first to entertain the malicious plans proposed by
the Egyptians against the Hebrews. He spoke to his people,
"You fools, we are indebted to these Hebrews for whatever
we enjoy, and you desire now to rise up against them?" But
the Egyptians could not be turned aside from their purpose
of ruining Israel. They deposed their king, and incarcerated
him for three months, until he declared himself ready to
execute with determination what they had resolved upon,
and he sought to bring about the ruin of the children of
Israel by every conceivable means. Such was the retribution
they had drawn down upon themselves by their own
acts.[29]
As for Amram, not only did he belong to the tribe of Levi,
distinguished for its piety, but by reason of his extraordinary
piety he was prominent even among the pious of the tribe.
He was one of the four who were immaculate, untainted by
sin, over whom death would have had no power, had mortality
not been decreed against every single human being on
account of the fall of the first man and woman. The other
three that led the same sinless life were Benjamin, Jesse
the father of David, and Chileab the son of David.[30] If the
Shekinah was drawn close again to the dwelling-place of
mortals, it was due to Amram's piety. Originally the real
residence of the Shekinah was among men, but when Adam
committed his sin, she withdrew to heaven, at first to the
lowest of the seven heavens. Thence she was banished by
Cain's crime, and she retired to the second heaven. The
sins of the generation of Enoch removed her still farther
off from men, she took up her abode in the third heaven;
then, successively, in the fourth, on account of the malefactors
in the generation of the deluge; in the fifth, during the
building of the tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues;
in the sixth, by reason of the wicked Egyptians at the time
of Abraham; and, finally, in the seventh, in consequence of
the abominations of the inhabitants of Sodom. Six righteous
men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, and Amram,
drew the Shekinah back, one by one, from the seventh
to the first heaven, and through the seventh righteous man,
Moses, she was made to descend to the earth and abide
among men as aforetime.[31]
Amram's sagacity kept pace with his piety and his learning.
The Egyptians succeeded in enslaving the Hebrews by
seductive promises. At first they gave them a shekel for
every brick they made, tempting them to superhuman efforts
by the prospect of earning much money. Later, when the
Egyptians forced them to work without wages, they insisted
upon having as many bricks as the Hebrews had made when
their labor was paid for, but they could demand only a single
brick daily from Amram, for he had been the only one whom
they had not led astray by their artifice. He had been
satisfied with a single shekel daily, and had therefore made
only a single brick daily, which they had to accept afterward
as the measure of his day's work.[32]
As his life partner, Amram chose his aunt Jochebed, who
was born the same day with him.[33] She was the daughter of
Levi, and she owed her name, "Divine Splendor," to the
celestial light that radiated from her countenance.[34] She was
worthy of being her husband's helpmeet, for she was one of
the midwives that had imperilled their own lives to rescue
the little Hebrew babes. Indeed, if God had not allowed a
miracle to happen, she and her daughter Miriam would have
been killed by Pharaoh for having resisted his orders and
saved the Hebrew children alive. When the king sent his
hangmen for the two women, God caused them to become
invisible, and the bailiffs bad to return without accomplishing
their errand.[35]
The first child of the union between Amram and Jochebed,
his wife, who was one hundred and twenty-six years old at
the time of her marriage, was a girl, and the mother called
her Miriam, "Bitterness," for it was at the time of her birth
that the Egyptians began to envenom the life of the Hebrews.
The second child was a boy, called Aaron, which
means, "Woe unto this pregnancy!" because Pharaoh's instructions
to the midwives, to kill the male children of the
Hebrews, was proclaimed during the months before Aaron's
birth.[36]
THE BIRTH OF MOSES
When Amram separated from his wife on account of the
edict published against the male children of the Hebrews,
and his example was followed by all the Israelites, his
daughter Miriam said to him: "Father, thy decree is worse
than Pharaoh's decree. The Egyptians aim to destroy only
the male children, but thou includest the girls as well. Pharaoh
deprives his victims of life in this world, but thou preventest
children from being born, and thus thou deprivest
them of the future life, too. He resolves destruction, but
who knows whether the intention of the wicked can persist?
Thou art a righteous man, and the enactments of the righteous
are executed by God, hence thy decree will be upheld."
Amram recognized the justice of her plea, and he repaired
to the Sanhedrin, and put the matter before this body. The
members of the court spoke, and said: "It was thou that
didst separate husbands and wives, and from thee should go
forth the permission for re-marriage." Amram then made
the proposition that each of the members of the Sanhedrin
return to his wife, and wed her clandestinely, but his colleagues
repudiated the plan, saying, "And who will make it
known unto the whole of Israel? "
Accordingly, Amram stood publicly under the wedding
canopy with his divorced wife Jochebed, while Aaron and
Miriam danced about it, and the angels proclaimed, "Let
the mother of children be joyful!" His re-marriage was
solemnized with great ceremony, to the end that the men that
bad followed his example in divorcing their wives might
imitate him now in taking them again unto themselves. And
so it happened.[37]
Old as Jochebed was, she regained her youth. Her skin
became soft, the wrinkles in her face disappeared, the warm
tints of maiden beauty returned, and in a short time she became
pregnant.[38]
Amram was very uneasy about his wife's being with child;
he knew not what to do. He turned to God in prayer, and
entreated Him to have compassion upon those who had in
no wise transgressed the laws of His worship, and afford
them deliverance from the misery they endured, while He
rendered abortive the hope of their enemies, who yearned
for the destruction of their nation. God had mercy on
him, and He stood by him in his sleep, and exhorted him not
to despair of His future favors. He said further, that He
did not forget their piety, and He would always reward them
for it, as He had granted His favor in other days unto their
forefathers. "Know, therefore," the Lord continued to
speak, "that I shall provide for you all together what is for
your good, and for thee in particular that which shall make
thee celebrated; for the child out of dread of whose nativity
the Egyptians have doomed the Israelite children to destruction,
shall be this child of thine, and be shall remain concealed
from those who watch to destroy him, and when he
has been bred up, in a miraculous way, he shall deliver the
Hebrew nation from the distress they are under by reason of
the Egyptians. His memory shall be celebrated while the
world lasts, and not only among the Hebrews, but among
strangers also. And all this shall be the effect of My favor
toward thee and thy posterity. Also his brother shall be
such that he shall obtain My priesthood for himself, and for
his posterity after him, unto the end of the world."
After he had been informed of these things by the vision,
Amram awoke, and told all unto his wife Jochebed.[39]
His daughter Miriam likewise had a prophetic dream, and
she related it unto her parents, saying: "In this night I saw
a man clothed in fine linen. 'Tell thy father and thy mother,'
he said, 'that he who shall be born unto them, shall be cast
into the waters, and through him the waters shall become
dry, and wonders and miracles shall be performed through
him, and he shall save My people Israel, and be their leader
forever.' "[40]
During her pregnancy, Jochebed observed that the child
in her womb was destined for great things. All the time she
suffered no pain, and also she suffered none in giving birth
to her son, for pious women are not included in the curse
pronounced upon Eve, decreeing sorrow in conception and
in childbearing.[41]
At the moment of the child's appearance, the whole house
was filled with radiance equal to the splendor of the sun and
the moon.[42] A still greater miracle followed. The infant
was not yet a day old when he began to walk and speak with
his parents, and as though he were an adult, he refused to
drink milk from his mother's breast.[43]
Jochebed gave birth to the child six months after conception.
The Egyptian bailiffs, who kept strict watch over all
pregnant women in order to be on the spot in time to carry
off their new-born boys, had not expected her delivery for
three months more. These three months the parents succeeded
in keeping the babe concealed, though every Israelitish
house was guarded by two Egyptian women, one stationed
within and one without.[44] At the end of this time
they determined to expose the child, for Amram was afraid
that both he and his son would be devoted to death if the
secret leaked out, and he thought it better to entrust the
child's fate to Divine Providence. He was convinced that
God would protect the boy, and fulfil His word in truth.[45]
MOSES RESCUED FROM THE WATER
Jochebed accordingly took an ark fashioned of bulrushes,
daubed it with pitch on the outside, and lined it with clay
within. The reason she used bulrushes was because they
float on the surface of the water, and she put pitch only on
the outside, to protect the child as much as possible against
the annoyance of a disagreeable odor. Over the child as it
lay in the ark she spread a tiny canopy, to shade the babe,
with the words, "Perhaps I shall not live to see him under
the marriage canopy." And then she abandoned the ark on
the shores of the Red Sea. Yet it was not left unguarded.
Her daughter Miriam stayed near by, to discover whether a
prophecy she had uttered would be fulfilled. Before the
child's birth, his sister had foretold that her mother would
bring forth a son that should redeem Israel. When he was
born, and the house was filled with brilliant light, Amram
kissed her on her head, but when he was forced into the
expedient of exposing the child, he beat her on her head,
saying, "My daughter, what hath become of thy prophecy?"
Therefore Miriam stayed, and strolled along the shore, to
observe what would be the fate of the babe, and what would
come of her prophecy concerning him.[46]
The day the child was exposed was the twenty-first of the
month of Nisan, the same on which the children of Israel
later, under the leadership of Moses, sang the song of praise
and gratitude to God for the redemption from the waters of
the sea. The angels appeared before God, and spoke: "O
Lord of the world, shall he that is appointed to sing a song
of praise unto Thee on this day of Nisan, to thank Thee for
rescuing him and his people from the sea, shall he find his
death in the sea to-day?" The Lord replied: "Ye know
well that I see all things. The contriving of man can do
naught to change what bath been resolved in My counsel.
Those do not attain their end who use cunning and malice
to secure their own safety, and endeavor to bring ruin upon
their fellow-men. But he who trusts Me in his peril will be
conveyed from profoundest distress to unlooked-for happiness.
Thus My omnipotence will reveal itself in the fortunes
of this babe.[47]
At the time of the child's abandonment, God sent scorching
heat to plague the Egyptians, and they all suffered with
leprosy and smarting boils. Thermutis, the daughter of Pharaoh,
sought relief from the burning pain in a bath in the
waters of the Nile.[48] But physical discomfort was not her
only reason for leaving her father's palace. She was determined
to cleanse herself as well of the impurity of the idol
worship that prevailed there.
When she saw the little ark floating among the flags on
the surface of the water, she supposed it to contain one of
the little children exposed at her father's order, and she
commanded her handmaids to fetch it. But they protested,
saying, "O our mistress, it happens sometimes that a decree
issued by a king is unheeded, yet it is observed at least
by his children and the members of his household, and dost
thou desire to transgress thy father's edict?" Forthwith the
angel Gabriel appeared, seized all the maids except one,
whom he permitted the princess to retain for her service,
and buried them in the bowels of the earth.
Pharaoh's daughter now proceeded to do her own will.
She stretched forth her arm, and although the ark was swimming
at a distance of sixty ells, she succeeded in grasping it,
because her arm was lengthened miraculously. No sooner
had she touched it than the leprosy afflicting her departed
from her. Her sudden restoration led her to examine the
contents of the ark,[49] and when she opened it, her amazement
was great. She beheld an exquisitely beautiful boy, for
God bad fashioned the Hebrew babe's body with peculiar
care,[50] and beside it she perceived the Shekinah. Noticing
that the boy bore the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, she
knew that he was one of the Hebrew children, and mindful
of her father's decree concerning the male children of the
Israelites, she was about to abandon the babe to his fate. At
that moment the angel Gabriel came and gave the child a
vigorous blow, and he began to cry aloud, with a voice like
a young man's. His vehement weeping and the weeping of
Aaron, who was lying beside him, touched the princess, and
in her pity she resolved to save him. She ordered an Egyptian
woman to be brought, to nurse the child, but the little
one refused to take milk from her breast, as he refused to
take it from one after the other of the Egyptian women
fetched thither. Thus it had been ordained by God, that
none of them might boast later on, and say, "I suckled him
that holds converse now with the Shekinah." Nor was the
mouth destined to speak with God to draw nourishment from
the unclean body of an Egyptian woman.
Now Miriam stepped into the presence of Thermutis, as
though she had been standing there by chance to look at the
child,[51] and she spoke to the princess, saying, "It is vain for
thee, O queen, to call for nurses that are in no wise of kin
to the child, but if thou wilt order a woman of the Hebrews
to be brought, he may accept her breast, seeing that she is of
his own nation." Thermutis therefore bade Miriam fetch a
Hebrew woman, and with winged steps, speeding like a vigorous
youth, she hastened and brought back her own mother,
the child's mother, for she knew that none present was acquainted
with her. The babe, unresisting, took his mother's
breast, and clutched it tightly.[52] The princess committed the
child to Jochebed's care, saying these words, which contained
an unconscious divination: "Here is what is thine."
Nurse the boy henceforth, and I will give thee two silver
pieces as thy wages.[54]
The return of her son, safe and sound, after she had exposed
him, was Jochebed's reward from God for her services
as one of the midwives that had bidden defiance to Pharaoh's
command and saved the Hebrew children alive.[55]
By exposing their son to danger, Amram and Jochebed
had effected the withdrawal of Pharaoh's command enjoining
the extermination of the Hebrew men children. The
day Moses was set adrift in the little ark, the astrologers
had come to Pharaoh and told him the glad tidings, that the
danger threatening the Egyptians on account of one boy,
whose doom lay in the water, had now been averted. Thereupon
Pharaoh cried a halt to the drowning of the boys of his
empire. The astrologers had seen something, but they knew
not what, and they announced a message, the import of
which they did not comprehend. Water was, indeed, the
doom of Moses, but that did not mean that he would perish
in the waters of the Nile. It had reference to the waters of
Meribah, the waters of strife, and how they would cause his
death in the desert, before he had completed his task of leading
the people into the promised land. Pharaoh, misled by
the obscure vision of his astrologers, thought that the future
redeemer of Israel was to lose his life by drowning, and to
make sure that the boy whose appearance was foretold by
the astrologers might not escape his fate, he had ordered all
boys, even the children of the Egyptians, born during a
period of nine months to be cast into the water.
On account of the merits of Moses, the six hundred thousand
men children of the Hebrews begotten in the same
night with him, and thrown into the water on the same day,
were rescued miraculously together with him, and it was
therefore not an idle boast, if he said later, "The people that
went forth out of the water on account of my merits are six
hundred thousand men."[56]
THE INFANCY OF MOSES
For two years the child rescued by Pharaoh's daughter
stayed with his parents and kindred. They gave him various
names. His father called him Heber, because it was for this
child's sake that he had been "reunited" with his wife.
His mother's name for him was Jekuthiel, "because," she
said, "I set my hope upon God, and He gave him back to
me." To his sister Miriam he was Jered, because she had
"descended" to the stream to ascertain his fate. His
brother Aaron called him Abi Zanoah, because his father,
who had "cast off" his mother, had taken her back for the
sake of the child to be born. His grandfather Kohath knew
him as Abi Gedor, because the Heavenly Father had "built
up" the breach in Israel, when He rescued him, and thus
restrained the Egyptians from throwing the Hebrew men
children into the water. His nurse called him Abi Soco, because
he had been kept concealed in a "tent" for three
months, escaping the pursuit of the Egyptians. And Israel
called him Shemaiah ben Nethanel, because in his day God
would "hear" the sighs of the people, and deliver them
from their oppressors, and through him would He "give"
them His own law.[57]
His kindred and all Israel knew that the child was destined
for great things, for he was barely four months old
when he began to prophesy, saying, "In days to come I shall
receive the Torah from the flaming torch."[58]
When Jochebed took the child to the palace at the end of
two years, Pharaoh's daughter called him Moses, because
she had "drawn" him out of the water, and because he
would "draw" the children of Israel out of the land of
Egypt in a day to come.[59] And this was the only name
whereby God called the son of Amram, the name conferred
upon him by Pharaoh's daughter. He said to the princess:
"Moses was not thy child, yet thou didst treat him as such.
For this I will call thee My daughter, though thou art not
My daughter," and therefore the princess, the daughter of
Pharaoh, bears the name Bithiah, "the daughter of God."
She married Caleb later on, and he was a suitable husband
for her. As she stood up against her father's wicked counsels,
so Caleb stood up against the counsel of his fellow-messengers
sent to spy out the land of Canaan.[60] For
rescuing Moses and for her other pious deeds, she was permitted
to enter Paradise alive.[61]
That Moses might receive the treatment at court usually
accorded to a prince, Bithiah pretended that she was with
child for some time before she had him fetched away from
his parents' house." His royal foster-mother caressed and
kissed him constantly, and on account of his extraordinary
beauty she would not permit him ever to quit the palace.
Whoever set eyes on him, could not leave off from looking
at him, wherefore Bithiah feared to allow him out of her
sight.[63]
Moses' understanding was far beyond his years; his instructors
observed that he disclosed keener comprehension
than is usual at his age. All his actions in his infancy promised
greater ones after he should come to man's estate, and
when he was but three years old, God granted him remarkable
size. As for his beauty, it was so attractive that frequently
those meeting him as he was carried along on the
road were obliged to turn and stare at him. They would
leave what they were about, and stand still a great while,
looking after him, for the loveliness of the child was so
wondrous that it held the gaze of the spectator. The
daughter of Pharaoh, perceiving Moses to be an extraordinary
lad, adopted him as her son, for she had no child of her
own. She informed her father of her intention concerning
him, in these words: "I have brought up a child, who is
divine in form and of an excellent mind, and as I received
him through the bounty of the river in a wonderful way, I
have thought it proper to adopt him as my son and as the
heir of thy kingdom." And when she had spoken thus, she
put the infant between her father's hands, and he took him
and hugged him close to his breast.[64]
MOSES RESCUED BY GABRIEL
When Moses was in his third year, Pharaoh was dining
one day, with the queen Alfar'anit at his right hand, his
daughter Bithiah with the infant Moses upon her lap at his
left, and Balaam the son of Beor together with his two sons
and all the princes of the realm sitting at table in the king's
presence. It happened that the infant took the crown from
off the king's head, and placed it on his own. When the
king and the princes saw this, they were terrified, and each
one in turn expressed his astonishment. The king said unto
the princes, "What speak you, and what say you, O ye
princes, on this matter, and what is to be done to this Hebrew
boy on account of this act?"
Balaam spoke, saying: "Remember now, O my lord and
king, the dream which thou didst dream many days ago, and
how thy servant interpreted it unto thee. Now this is a child
of the Hebrews in whom is the spirit of God. Let not my
lord the king imagine in his heart that being a child he did
the thing without knowledge. For he is a Hebrew boy, and
wisdom and understanding are with him, although he is yet
a child, and with wisdom has he done this, and chosen unto
himself the kingdom of Egypt. For this is the manner of
all the Hebrews, to deceive kings and their magnates, to do
all things cunningly in order to make the kings of the earth
and their men to stumble.
"Surely thou knowest that Abraham their father acted
thus, who made the armies of Nimrod king of Babel and of
Abimelech king of Gerar to stumble, and he possessed himself
of the land of the children of Heth and the whole realm
of Canaan. Their father Abraham went down into Egypt,
and said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister, in order to
make Egypt and its king to stumble.
"His son Isaac did likewise when he went to Gerar, and
he dwelt there, and his strength prevailed over the army of
Abimelech, and he intended to make the kingdom of the
Philistines to stumble, by saying that Rebekah his wife was
his sister.
"Jacob also dealt treacherously with his brother, and took
his birthright and his blessing from him. Then he went to
Paddan-aram, to Laban, his mother's brother, and he obtained
his daughters from him cunningly, and also his cattle
and all his belongings, and he fled away and returned to the
land of Canaan, to his father.
"His sons sold their brother Joseph, and he went down
into Egypt and became a slave, and he was put into prison
for twelve years, until the former Pharaoh delivered him
from the prison, and magnified him above all the princes of
Egypt on account of his interpreting the king's dreams.
When God caused a famine to descend upon the whole
world, Joseph sent for his father, and he brought him down
into Egypt his father, his brethren, and all his father's
household, and he supplied them with food without pay or
reward, while he acquired Egypt, and made slaves of all its
inhabitants.
"Now, therefore, my lord king, behold, this child has
risen up in their stead in Egypt, to do according to their
deeds and make sport of every man, be he king, prince,
or judge. If it please the king, let us now spill his blood
upon the ground, lest he grow up and snatch the government
from thine hand, and the hope of Egypt be cut off
after he reigns. Let us, moreover, call for all the judges
and the wise men of Egypt, that we may know whether the
judgment of death be due to this child, as I have said, and
then we will slay him."
Pharaoh sent and called for all the wise men of Egypt,
and they came, and the angel Gabriel was disguised as one
of them. When they were asked their opinion in the matter,
Gabriel spoke up, and said: "If it please the king, let him
place an onyx stone before the child, and a coal of fire, and
if he stretches out his hand and grasps the onyx stone, then
shall we know that the child hath done with wisdom all that
he bath done, and we will slay him. But if he stretches out
his hand and grasps the coal of fire, then shall we know that
it was not with consciousness that he did the thing, and he
shall live."
The counsel seemed good in the eyes of the king, and
when they had placed the stone and the coal before the child,
Moses stretched forth his hand toward the onyx stone and
attempted to seize it, but the angel Gabriel guided his hand
away from it and placed it upon the live coal, and the coal
burnt the child's hand, and he lifted it up and touched it to
his mouth, and burnt part of his lips and part of his tongue,
and for all his life he became slow of speech and of a slow
tongue.
Seeing this, the king and the princes knew that Moses had
not acted with knowledge in taking the crown from off the
king's head, and they refrained from slaying him.[65] God
Himself, who protected Moses, turned the king's mind to
grace, and his foster-mother snatched him away, and she
had him educated with great care, so that the Hebrews
depended upon him, and cherished the hope that great things
would be done by him. But the Egyptians were suspicious
of what would follow from such an education as his.[66]
At great cost teachers were invited to come to Egypt from
neighboring lands, to educate the child Moses. Some came
of their own accord, to instruct him in the sciences and the
liberal arts. By reason of his admirable endowments of
mind, he soon excelled his teachers in knowledge. His
learning seemed a process of mere recollecting, and when
there was a difference of opinion among scholars, he selected
the correct one instinctively, for his mind refused to
store up anything that was false.[67]
But he deserves more praise for his unusual strength of
will than for his natural capacity, for he succeeded in
transforming
an originally evil disposition into a noble, exalted
character, a change that was farther aided by his resolution,
as he himself acknowledged later. After the wonderful
exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, a king of Arabia sent
an artist to Moses, to paint his portrait, that he might always
have the likeness of the divine man before him. The
painter returned with his handiwork, and the king assembled
his wise men, those in particular who were conversant with
the science of physiognomy. He displayed the portrait before
them, and invited their judgment upon it. The unanimous
opinion was that it represented a man covetous,
haughty, sensual, in short, disfigured by all possible ugly
traits. The king was indignant that they should pretend to
be masters in physiognomy, seeing that they declared the
picture of Moses, the holy, divine man, to be the picture of
a villain. They defended themselves by accusing the painter
in turn of not having produced a true portrait of Moses,
else they would not have fallen into the erroneous judgment
they had expressed. But the artist insisted that his work
resembled the original closely.
Unable to decide who was right, the Arabian king went to
see Moses, and he could not but admit that the portrait
painted for him was a masterpiece. Moses as he beheld him
in the flesh was the Moses upon the canvas. There could
be no doubt but that the highly extolled knowledge of his
physiognomy experts was empty twaddle. He told Moses
what had happened, and what he thought of it. He replied:
"Thy artist and thy experts alike are masters, each in his
line. If my fine qualities were a product of nature, I were
no better than a log of wood, which remains forever as
nature produced it at the first. Unashamed I make the confession
to thee that by nature I possessed all the reprehensible
traits thy wise men read in my picture and ascribed to
me, perhaps to a greater degree even than they think. But
I mastered my evil impulses with my strong will, and the
character I acquired through severe discipline has become
the opposite of the disposition with which I was born.
Through this change, wrought in me by my own efforts, I
have earned honor and commendation upon earth as well as
in heaven."[68]
THE YOUTH OF MOSES
One day--it was after he was grown up, and had passed
beyond the years of childhood--Moses went to the land of
Goshen, in which lived the children of Israel. There he saw
the burdens under which his people were groaning, and he
inquired why the heavy service had been put upon them.
The Israelites told him all that had befallen, told him of the
cruel edict Pharaoh had issued shortly before his birth, and
told him of the wicked counsels given by Balaam against
themselves as well as against his person when he was but a
little boy and had set Pharaoh's crown upon his head. The
wrath of Moses was kindled against the spiteful adviser,
and he tried to think out means of rendering him harmless.
But Balaam, getting wind of his ill-feeling, fled from Egypt
with his two sons, and betook himself to the court of Kikanos
king of Ethiopia.[69]
The sight of his enslaved people touched Moses unto
tears, and he spoke, saying: "Woe unto me for your anguish!
Rather would I die than see you suffer so grievously."
He did not disdain to help his unfortunate brethren
at their heavy tasks as much as lay in his power. He dismissed
all thought of his high station at court, shouldered a
share of the burdens put upon the Israelites, and toiled in
their place. The result was that he not only gave relief to
the heavily-laden workmen, but he also gained the favor of
Pharaoh, who believed that Moses was taking part in the
labor in order to promote the execution of the royal order.
And God said unto Moses: "Thou didst relinquish all thy
other occupations, and didst join thyself unto the children
of Israel, whom thou dost treat as brethren; therefore will I,
too, put aside now all heavenly and earthly affairs, and hold
converse with thee."[70]
Moses continued to do all he could to alleviate the suffering
of his brethren to the best of his ability. He addressed
encouraging words to them, saying: "My dear brethren,
bear your lot with fortitude! Do not lose courage, and let
not your spirit grow weary with the weariness of your body.
Better times will come, when tribulation shall be changed
into joy. Clouds are followed by sunshine, storms by calm,
all things in the world tend toward their opposites, and
nothing is more inconstant than the fortunes of man."[71]
The royal favor, which the king accorded him in ever-
increasing measure, he made use of to lighten the burden
laid upon the children of Israel. One day he came into the
presence of Pharaoh, and said: "O my lord, I have a request
to make of thee, and my hope is that thou wilt not
deny it." "Speak," replied the king. "It is an admitted
fact," said Moses, "that if a slave is not afforded rest at
least one day in the week, he will die of overexertion. Thy
Hebrew slaves will surely perish, unless thou accordest them
a day of cessation from work." Pharaoh fulfilled the petition
preferred by Moses, and the king's edict was published
in the whole of Egypt and in Goshen, as follows: "To the
sons of Israel! Thus saith the king: Do your work and
perform your service for six days, but on the seventh day
you shall rest; on it ye shall do no labor. Thus shall ye do
unto all times, according to the command of the king and
the command of Moses the son of Bithiah." And the day
appointed by Moses as the day of rest was Saturday, later
given by God to the Israelites as the Sabbath day.[72]
While Moses abode in Goshen, an incident of great importance
occurred. To superintend the service of the children
of Israel, an officer from among them was set over
every ten, and ten such officers were under the surveillance
of an Egyptian taskmaster. One of these Hebrew officers,
Dathan by name, had a wife, Shelomith, the daughter of
Dibri, of the tribe of Dan, who was of extraordinary beauty,
but inclined to be very loquacious. Whenever the Egyptian
taskmaster set over her husband came to their house on
business connected with his office, she would approach him
pleasantly and enter into conversation with him. The beautiful
Israelitish woman enkindled a mad passion in his
breast, and he sought and found a cunning way of satisfying
his lustful desire. One day he appeared at break of dawn
at the house of Dathan, roused him from his sleep, and ordered
him to hurry his detachment of men to their work.
The husband scarcely out of sight, he executed the villainy
he had planned, and dishonored the woman, and the fruit of
this illicit relation was the blasphemer of the Name whom
Moses ordered to execution on the march through the desert.
At the moment when the Egyptian slipped out of Shelomith's
chamber, Dathan returned home. Vexed that his
crime had come to the knowledge of the injured husband,
the taskmaster goaded him on to work with excessive vigor,
and dealt him blow after blow with the intention to kill
him.[73] Young Moses happened to visit the place at which
the much-abused and tortured Hebrew was at work. Dathan
hastened toward him, and complained of all the wrong and
suffering the Egyptian had inflicted upon him.[74] Full of
wrath, Moses, whom the holy spirit had acquainted with the
injury done the Hebrew officer by the Egyptian taskmaster,
cried out to the latter, saying: "Not enough that thou hast
dishonored this man's wife, thou aimest to kill him, too?"
And turning to God, he spoke further: "What will become
of Thy promise to Abraham, that his posterity shall be as
numerous as the stars, if his children are given over to
death? And what will become of the revelation on Sinai,
if the children of Israel are exterminated?"
Moses wanted to see if someone would step forward, and,
impelled by zeal for the cause of God and for God's law,
would declare himself ready to avenge the outrage. He
waited in vain. Then he determined to act himself. Naturally
enough he hesitated to take the life of a human being.
He did not know whether the evil-doer might not be brought
to repentance, and then lead a life of pious endeavor. He
also considered, that there would perhaps be some among
the descendants to spring from the Egyptian for whose sake
their wicked ancestor might rightfully lay claim to clemency.
The holy spirit allayed all his doubts. He was made
to see that not the slightest hope existed that good would
come either from the malefactor himself or from any of his
offspring. Then Moses was willing to requite him for his
evil deeds. Nevertheless he first consulted the angels, to
hear what they had to say, and they agreed that the Egyptian
deserved death, and Moses acted according to their
opinion.
Neither physical strength nor a weapon was needed to
carry out his purpose. He merely pronounced the Name of
God, and the Egyptian was a corpse. To the bystanders, the
Israelites, Moses said: "The Lord compared you unto the
sand of the sea-shore, and as the sand moves noiselessly
from place to place, so I pray you to keep the knowledge of
what hath happened a secret within yourselves. Let nothing
be heard concerning it."
The wish expressed by Moses was not honored. The slaying
of the Egyptian remained no secret, and those who betrayed
it were Israelites, Dathan and Abiram, the sons of
Pallu, of the tribe of Reuben, notorious for their effrontery
and contentiousness. The day after the thing with the
Egyptians happened, the two brothers began of malice aforethought
to scuffle with each other, only in order to draw
Moses into the quarrel and create an occasion for his betrayal.
The plan succeeded admirably. Seeing Dathan
raise his hand against Abiram, to deal him a blow, Moses
exclaimed, "O thou art a villain, to lift up thy hand against
an Israelite, even if he is no better than thou." Dathan replied:
"Young man, who hath made thee to be a judge
over us, thou that hast not yet attained to years of maturity?
We know very well that thou art the son of Jochebed, though
people call thee the son of the princess Bithiah, and if thou
shouldst attempt to play the part of our master and judge,
we will publish abroad the thing thou didst unto the Egyptian.
Or, peradventure, thou harborest the intention to
slay us as thou didst slay him, by pronouncing the Name
of God?"
Not satisfied with these taunts, the noble pair of brothers
betook themselves to Pharaoh, and spoke before him,
"Moses dishonoreth thy royal mantle and thy crown," to
which Pharaoh returned, saying, "Much good may it do
him!" But they pursued the subject. "He helps thine
enemies, Pharaoh," they continued, whereupon he replied, as
before, "Much good may it do him!" Still they went on,
"He is not the son of thy daughter." These last words did
not fail of making an impression upon Pharaoh.[75] A royal
command was issued for the arrest of Moses, and he was
condemned to death by the sword.
The angels came to God, and said, "Moses, the familiar
of Thine house, is held under restraint," and God replied, "I will espouse his cause." "But," the angels urged, "his
verdict of death has been pronounced--yes, they are leading
him to execution," and again God made reply, as before, "I
will espouse his cause."
Moses mounted the scaffold, and a sword, sharp beyond
compare, was set upon his neck ten times, but it always
slipped away, because his neck was as hard as ivory. And a
still greater miracle came to pass. God sent down the angel
Michael, in the guise of a hangman, and the human hangman
charged by Pharaoh with the execution was changed
into the form of Moses. This spurious Moses the angel
killed with the very sword with which the executioner had
purposed to slay the intended victim. Meantime Moses took
to flight. Pharaoh ordered his pursuit, but it was in vain.
The king's troops were partly stricken with blindness
partly with dumbness. The dumb could give no information
about the abiding-place of Moses, and the blind, though
they knew where it was, could not get to it.[76]
THE FLIGHT
An angel of God took Moses to a spot removed forty
days' journey from Egypt, so far off that all fear was banished
from his mind.[77] Indeed, his anxiety had never been
for his own person, but only on account of the future of
Israel. The subjugation of his people had always been an
unsolved enigma to him. Why should Israel, he would ask
himself, suffer more than all the other nations? But when
his personal straits initiated him in the talebearing and back-
biting that prevailed among the Israelites, then he asked
himself, Does this people deserve to be redeemed?[78] The
religious conditions among the children of Israel were of
such kind at that time as not to permit them to hope for
Divine assistance. They refused to give ear to Aaron and
the five sons of Zerah, who worked among them as prophets,
and admonished them unto the fear of God. It was on account
of their impiety that the heavy hand of Pharaoh rested
upon them more and more oppressively, until God had
mercy upon them, and sent Moses to deliver them from the
slavery of Egypt.[79]
When he succeeded in effecting his escape from the hands
of the hangman, Moses had no idea that a royal throne
awaited him. It was nevertheless so. A war broke out at
this time between Ethiopia and the nations of the East that
had been subject to it until then. Kikanos, the king,
advanced against the enemy with a great army. He left
Balaam and Balaam's two sons, Jannes and Jambres, behind,
to keep guard over his capital and take charge of the people
remaining at home. The absence of the king gave Balaam
the opportunity of winning his subjects over to his side, and
he was put upon the throne, and his two sons were set over
the army as generals. To cut Kikanos off from his capital,
Balaam and his sons invested the city, so that none could
enter it against their will. On two sides they made the
walls higher, on the third they dug a network of canals, into
which they conducted the waters of the river girding the
whole land of Ethiopia, and on the fourth side their magic
arts collected a large swarm of snakes and scorpions. Thus
none could depart, and none could enter.
Meantime Kikanos succeeded in subjugating the rebellious
nations. When he returned at the head of his victorious
army, and espied the high city wall from afar, he and
his men said: "The inhabitants of the city, seeing that the
war detained us abroad for a long time, have raised the
walls and fortified them, that the kings of Canaan may not
be able to enter." On approaching the city gates, which
were barred, they cried out to the guards to open them, but
by Balaam's instructions they were not permitted to pass
through. A skirmish ensued, in which Kikanos lost one
hundred and thirty men. On the morrow the combat was
continued, the king with his troops being stationed on the
thither bank of the river. This day he lost his thirty riders,
who, mounted on their steeds, had attempted to swim the
stream. Then the king ordered rafts to be constructed for
the transporting of his men. When the vessels reached the
canals, they were submerged, and the waters, swirling round
and round as though driven by mill wheels, swept away two
hundred men, twenty from each raft. On the third day they
set about assaulting the city from the side on which the
snakes and scorpions swarmed, but they failed to reach it,
and the reptiles killed one hundred and seventy men. The
king desisted from attacking the city, but for the space of
nine years he surrounded it, so that none could come out or
go in.
While the siege was in progress, Moses appeared in the
king's camp on his flight before Pharaoh, and at once found
favor with Kikanos and his whole army. He exercised an
attraction upon all that saw him, for he was slender like a
palm-tree, his countenance shone as the morning sun, and
his strength was equal to a lion's. So deep was the king's
affection for him that he appointed him to be commander-in-chief
of his forces.
At the end of the nine years Kikanos fell a prey to a mortal
disease, and he died on the seventh day of his illness. His
servants embalmed him, buried him opposite to the city gate
toward the land of Egypt, and over his grave they erected a
magnificent structure, strong and high, upon the walls
whereof they engraved all the mighty deeds and battles of
the dead king.
Now, after the death of Kikanos, his men were greatly
grieved on account of the war. One said unto the other,
"Counsel us, what shall we do at this time? We have been
abiding in the wilderness, away from our homes, for nine
years. If we fight against the city, many of us will fall
dead; and if we remain here besieging it, we shall also die.
For now all the princes of Aram and of the children of the
East will hear that our king is dead, and they will attack us
suddenly, and they will fight with us until not a remnant
will be left. Now, therefore, let us go and set a king over
us, and we will remain here besieging the city until it
surrenders unto us."
THE KING OF ETHIOPIA
They could find none except Moses fit to be their king.
They hastened and stripped off each man his upper garment,
and cast them all in a heap upon the ground, making
a high place, on top of which they set Moses. Then they
blew with trumpets, and called out before him: "Long live
the king! Long live the king!" And all the people and
the nobles swore unto him to give him Adoniah for wife, the
Ethiopian queen, the widow of Kikanos. And they made
Moses king over them on that day.
They also issued a proclamation, commanding every man
to give Moses of what he possessed, and upon the high
place they spread a sheet, wherein each one cast something,
this one a gold nose ring, that one a coin, and onyx stones,
bdellium, pearls, gold, and silver in great abundance.
Moses was twenty-seven years old when he became king
over Ethiopia, and he reigned for forty years. On the
seventh day of his reign, all the people assembled and came
before him, to ask his counsel as to what was to be done to
the city they were besieging. The king answered them, and
said: "If you will hearken to my words, the city will be
delivered into our hands. Proclaim with a loud voice
throughout the whole camp, unto all the people, saying:
'Thus saith the king! Go to the forest and fetch hither of
the young of the stork, each man one fledgling in his hand.
And if there be any man that transgresseth the word of the
king, not to bring a bird, he shall die, and the king shall take
all belonging to him.' And when you have brought them,
they shall be in your keeping. You shall rear them until
they grow up, and you shall teach them to fly as the hawk
flieth."
All the people did according to the word of Moses, and
after the young storks had grown to full size, he ordered
them to be starved for three days. On the third day the
king said unto them, "Let every man put on his armor and
gird his sword upon him. Each one shall mount his horse,
and each shall set his stork upon his hand, and we will rise
up and fight against the city opposite to the place of the
serpents."
When they came to the appointed spot, the king said to
them, "Let each man send forth his young stork, to descend
upon the serpents." Thus they did, and the birds swooped
down and devoured all the reptiles and destroyed them.
After the serpents were removed in this way, the men fought
against the city, subdued it, and killed all its inhabitants, but
of the people besieging it there died not one.
When Balaam saw that the city had fallen into the hands
of the besiegers, he exercised his magic arts, which enabled
him to fly through the air, and he carried with him his two
sons, Jannes and Jambres, and his eight brothers, and they
all took refuge in Egypt.
Seeing that they had been saved by the king, and the city
had been taken by his good counsel, the people became more
than ever attached to him. They set the royal crown upon
his head, and gave him Adoniah, the widow of Kikanos to
wife. But Moses feared the stern God of his fathers, and
he went not in unto Adoniah, nor did he turn his eyes toward
her, for he remembered how Abraham had made his servant
Eliezer swear, saying unto him, "Thou shalt not take a wife
for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom
I dwell." He also remembered what Isaac did when Jacob
fled before his brother Esau, how he commanded his son,
saying, "Thou shalt not take a wife from the daughters
of Canaan, nor ally thyself by marriage with any of the children
of Ham, for the Lord our God gave Ham the son of
Noah and all his seed as slaves to the children of Shem and
Japheth forever."
At that time Aram and the children of the East heard that
Kikanos the king of Ethiopia had died, and they rose up
against the Ethiopians, but Moses went forth with a mighty
army to fight against the rebellious nations, and he subdued
them, first the children of the East and then Aram.
Moses continued to prosper in his kingdom. He conducted
the government in justice, righteousness, and integrity,
and his people loved and feared him.
In the fortieth year of his reign, while he was sitting upon
his throne one day, surrounded by all the nobles, Adoniah
the queen, who was seated before him, rose up, and spake:
"What is this thing which you, the people of Ethiopia, have
done these many days? Surely you know that during the
forty years this man bath reigned over you, he hath not
approached me, nor hath he worshipped the gods of Ethiopia.
Now, therefore, let this man reign over you no more, for he
is not of our flesh. Behold, Monarchos my son is grown up,
let him reign over you. It is better for you to serve the son
of your lord than a stranger, a slave of the king of Egypt."
A whole day the people and the nobles contended with
one another, whether to pay heed to the words of the queen.
The officers of the army remained faithful to Moses, but the
people of the cities were in favor of crowning the son of
their former lord as king. The following morning they rose
up and made Monarchos, the son of Kikanos, king over
them, but they were afraid to stretch forth their hand
against Moses, for the Lord was with him. They also remembered
the oath they had sworn unto Moses, and therefore
they did him no harm. Moreover, they gave many
presents to him, and dismissed him with great honor.
When Moses left Ethiopia, in the sixty-seventh year of
his age, it was the time appointed by God in the days of old
to bring Israel forth from the affliction of the children of
Ham. But fearing to return to Egypt on account of Pharaoh,
Moses journeyed to Midian.[80]
JETHRO
In the city of Midian, named thus for a son of Abraham
by Keturah,[81] the man Jethro had lived for many years,
doing a priest's service before the idols. As time went on,
he grew more and more convinced of the vanity of idol worship.
His priesthood became repugnant to him, and he
resolved to give up his, charge. He stood before his townsmen,
and said, "Until now I performed your service before
the idols, but I have grown too old for the duties of the
office. Choose, therefore, whomever you would choose in
my place." Speaking thus, he delivered to the people all
the paraphernalia appertaining to the idol worship, and bade
them transfer them to the one to whom in their discretion
they should entrust his position. Suspecting Jethro's hidden
motives, the people put him under the ban, and none might
venture to do him the slightest service. Not even would
the shepherds pasture his flocks, and there was nothing for
him to do but impose this work upon his seven daughters.[82]
Jethro's transformation from an idolatrous priest into a
God-fearing man is conveyed by his seven names. He was
called Jether, because the Torah contains an "additional"
section about him; Jethro, he "overflowed" with good
deeds. Hobab, "the beloved son of God"; Reuel, "the
friend of God"; Heber, "the associate of God"; Putiel,
"he that hath renounced idolatry"; and Keni, he that was
"zealous" for God, and "acquired" the Torah.[83]
In consequence of the hostile relation between Jethro and
the inhabitants of the city, his daughters were in the habit
of making their appearance at the watering troughs before
the other shepherds came thither. But the ruse was not
successful. The shepherds would drive them away, and
water their own flocks at the troughs that the maidens had
filled. When Moses arrived in Midian, it was at the well
that he made halt, and his experience was the same as Isaac's
and Jacob's. Like them he found his helpmeet there.
Rebekah had been selected by Eliezer as the wife of Isaac,
while she was busy drawing water for him; Jacob had seen
Rachel first, while she was watering her sheep, and at this
well in Midian Moses met his future wife Zipporah.
The rudeness of the shepherds reached its climax the
very day of Moses' arrival. First they deprived the maidens
of the water they had drawn for themselves, and attempted
to do violence to them, and then they threw them into the
water with intent to kill them. At this moment Moses appeared,
dragged the maidens out of the water, and gave the
flocks to drink, first Jethro's and then the flocks of the shep-
herds, though the latter did not deserve his good offices.
True, he did them the service with but little trouble to himself,
for he had only to draw a bucketful, and the water
flowed so copiously that it sufficed for all the herds,[84] and
it
did not cease to flow until Moses withdrew from the well,[85]
--the same well at which Jacob had met Rachel, his future
wife, and the same well that God created at the beginning
of the world, the opening of which He made in the twilight
of the first Sabbath eve.[86]
Jethro's daughters thanked Moses for the assistance he
had afforded them. But Moses warded off their gratitude,
saying, "Your thanks are due to the Egyptian I killed, on
account of whom I had to flee from Egypt. Had it not been
for him, I should not be here now."[87]
MOSES MARRIES ZIPPORAH
One of the seven maidens whom Moses saw at the well
attracted his notice in particular on account of her modest
demeanor, and he made her a proposal of marriage. But
Zipporah repulsed him, saying, "My father has a tree in
his garden with which he tests every man that expresses a
desire to marry one of his daughters, and as soon as the
suitor touches the tree, he is devoured by it."
Moses: "Whence has he the tree?"
Zipporah: "It is the rod that the Holy One, blessed be
He, created in the twilight of the first Sabbath eve, and gave
to Adam. He transmitted it to Enoch, from him it descended
to Noah, then to Shem, and Abraham, and Isaac,
and finally to Jacob, who brought it with him to Egypt, and
gave it to his son Joseph. When Joseph died, the Egyptians
pillaged his house, and the rod, which was in their
booty, they brought to Pharaoh's palace. At that time my
father was one of the most prominent of the king's sacred
scribes, and as such he had the opportunity of seeing the
rod. He felt a great desire to possess it, and he stole it and
took it to his house. On this rod the Ineffable Name is
graven, and also the ten plagues that God will cause to visit
the Egyptians in a future day. For many years it lay in
my father's house. One day he was walking in his garden
carrying it, and he stuck it in the ground. When he attempted
to draw it out again, he found that it had sprouted,
and was putting forth blossoms. That is the rod with which
he tries any that desire to marry his daughters. He insists
that our suitors shall attempt to pull it out of the ground,
but as soon as they touch it, it devours them."
Having given him this account of her father's rod, Zipporah
went home, accompanied by her sisters, and Moses
followed them.[88]
Jethro was not a little amazed to see his daughters return
so soon from the watering troughs. As a rule, the chicanery
they had to suffer from the shepherds detained them until
late.[89] No sooner had he heard their report about the wonder-
working Egyptian than he exclaimed, "Mayhap he is
one of the descendants of Abraham, from whom issueth
blessing for the whole world."[90] He rebuked his daughters
for not having invited the stranger that had done them so
valuable a service to come into their house, and he ordered
them to fetch him, in the hope that he would take one of his
daughters to wife.[91]
Moses had been standing without all this time, and had
allowed Jethro's daughters to describe him as an Egyptian,
without protesting and asserting his Hebrew birth. For
this God punished him by causing him to die outside of the
promised land. Joseph, who had proclaimed in public that
he was a Hebrew, found his last resting-place in the land of
the Hebrews, and Moses, who apparently had no objection
to being considered an Egyptian, had to live and die outside
of that land.[92]
Zipporah hastened forth to execute her father's wish, and
no sooner had she ushered him in[93] than Moses requested her
hand in marriage. Jethro replied, "If thou canst bring me
the rod in my garden, I will give her to thee." Moses went
out,[94] found the sapphire rod that God had bestowed upon
Adam when he was driven forth from Paradise, the rod that
had reached Jethro after manifold vicissitudes, and which
he had planted in the garden. Moses uprooted it and carried
it to Jethro,[95] who conceived the idea at once that he was the
prophet in Israel concerning whom all the wise men of Egypt
had foretold that he would destroy their land and its
inhabitants.
As soon as this thought struck him, he seized Moses,
and threw him into a pit, in the expectation that he would
meet with death there.
And, indeed, he would have perished, if Zipporah had
not devised a stratagem to save his life. She said to her
father: "Would it were thy will to hearken unto my counsel.
Thou hast no wife, but only seven daughters. Dost
thou desire my six sisters to preside over thy household?
Then shall I go abroad with the sheep. If not, let my sisters
tend the flocks, and I shall take care of the house." Her
father said: "Thou hast spoken well. Thy six sisters shall
go forth with the sheep, and thou shalt abide in the house
and take care of it, and all that belongeth to me therein."
Now Zipporah could provide Moses with all sorts of
dainties as he lay in the pit, and she did it for the space of
seven years. At the expiration of this period, she said to
her father: "I recollect that once upon a time thou didst
cast into yonder pit a man that had fetched thy rod from the
garden for thee, and thou didst commit a great trespass
thereby. If it seemeth well to thee, uncover the pit and look
into it. If the man is dead, throw his corpse away, lest it
fill the house with stench. But should he be alive, then
thou oughtest to be convinced that he is one of those who
are wholly pious, else he had died of hunger."
The reply of Jethro was: "Thou hast spoken wisely.
Dost thou remember his name?" And Zipporah rejoined,
"I remember he called himself Moses the son of Amram."
Jethro lost no time, he opened the pit, and called out,
"Moses! Moses!" Moses replied, and said: "Here am
I!" Jethro drew him up out of the pit, kissed him, and
said: "Blessed be God, who guarded thee for seven years
in the pit. I acknowledge that He slayeth and reviveth,
that thou art one of the wholly pious, that through thee God
will destroy Egypt in time to come, lead His people out of
the land, and drown Pharaoh and his whole army in the
sea."[96]
Thereupon Jethro gave much money to Moses, and he
bestowed his daughter Zipporah upon him as wife, giving
her to him under the condition that the children born of the
marriage in Jethro's house should be divided into two equal
classes, the one to be Israelitish, the other Egyptian. When
Zipporah bore him a son, Moses circumcised him,[97] and
called him Gershom, as a memorial of the wonder God had
done for him, for although he lived in a "strange" land, the
Lord had not refused him aid even "there."[98]
Zipporah nursed her first child for two years, and in the
third year she bore a second son. Remembering his compact
with Jethro, Moses realized that his father-in-law would
not permit him to circumcise this one, too, and he determined
to return to Egypt, that he might have the opportunity
of bringing up his second son as an Israelite. On
the journey thither, Satan appeared to him in the guise of a
serpent, and swallowed Moses down to his extremities.
Zipporah knew by this token that the thing had happened
because her second son had not been circumcised, and she
hastened to make good the omission. As soon as she sprinkled
the blood of the circumcision on her husband's feet, a
heavenly voice was heard to cry to the serpent, commanding
him, "Spew him out!" and Moses came forth and stood
upon his feet. Thus Zipporah saved Moses' life twice, first
from the pit and then from the serpent.[99]
When Moses arrived in Egypt, he was approached by
Dathan and Abiram, the leaders of the Israelites, and they
spake: "Comest thou hither to slay us, or dost thou purpose
to do the same with us as thou didst with the Egyptian?"
This drove Moses straightway back to Midian, and
there he remained two years more, until God revealed Himself
at Horeb, and said to him, "Go and bring forth My
children out of the land of Egypt.[100]
A BLOODY REMEDY
The latter years of Israel's bondage in Egypt were the
worst. To punish Pharaoh for his cruelty toward the children
of Israel, God afflicted him with a plague of leprosy,
which covered his whole body, from the crown of his bead
to the soles of his feet. Instead of being chastened by his
disease, Pharaoh remained stiffnecked, and he tried to restore
his health by murdering Israelitish children. He took
counsel with his three advisers, Balaam, Jethro, and Job,
how he might be healed of the awful malady that had seized
upon him. Balaam spoke, saying, "Thou canst regain thy
health only if thou wilt slaughter Israelitish children and
bathe in their blood." Jethro, averse from having a share
in such an atrocity, left the king and fled to Midian. Job,
on the other hand, though he also disapproved of Balaam's
counsel, kept silence, and in no wise protested against it,[101]
wherefor God punished him with a year's suffering.[102] But
afterward He loaded him down with all the felicities of this
life, and granted him many years, so that this pious Gentile
might be rewarded in this world for his good deeds and not
have the right to urge a claim upon the beatitude of the
future life.[103]
In pursuance of the sanguinary advice given by Balaam,
Pharaoh had his bailiffs snatch Israelitish babes from their
mothers' breasts, and slaughter them, and in the blood of
these innocents he bathed. His disease afflicted him for ten
years, and every day an Israelitish child was killed for him.
It was all in vain; indeed, at the end of the time his leprosy
changed into boils, and he suffered more than before.
While he was in this agony, the report was brought to
him that the children of Israel in Goshen were careless and
idle in their forced labor. The news aggravated his suffering,
and he said: "Now that I am ill, they turn and scoff
at me. Harness my chariot, and I will betake myself to
Goshen, and see the derision wherewith the children of
Israel deride me." And they took and put him upon a horse,
for he was not able to mount it himself. When he and his
men had come to the border between Egypt and Goshen,
the king's steed passed into a narrow place. The other
horses, running rapidly through the pass, pressed upon each
other until the king's horse fell while he sate upon it, and
when it fell, the chariot turned over on his face, and also
the horse lay upon him. The king's flesh was torn from
him, for this thing was from the Lord, He had heard the
cries of His people and their affliction. The king's servants
carried him upon their shoulders, brought him back to
Egypt, and placed him on his bed.
He knew that his end was come to die, and the queen
Alfar'anit and his nobles gathered about his bed, and they
wept a great weeping with him.
The princes and his counsellors advised the king to make
choice of a successor, to reign in his stead, whomsoever he
would choose from among his sons. He had three sons and
two daughters by the queen Alfar'anit, beside children from
concubines. The name of his first-born was Atro, the name
of the second Adikam, and of the third Moryon. The name
of the older daughter was Bithiah, and of the other, Akuzit.
The first-born of the sons of the king was an idiot, precipitate
and heedless in all his actions. Adikam, the second son,
was a cunning and clever man, and versed in all the wisdom
of Egypt, but ungainly in appearance, fleshy and short of
stature; his height was a cubit and a space, and his beard
flowed down to his ankles.
The king resolved that Adikam should reign in his stead
after his death. When this second son of his was but ten
years old, he had given him Gedidah, the daughter of Abilat,
to wife, and she bore him four sons. Afterward Adikam
went and took three other wives, and begot eight sons and
three daughters.
The king's malady increased upon him greatly, and his
flesh emitted a stench like a carcass cast into the field in
summer time in the heat of the sun. When he saw that his
disorder bad seized upon him with a strong grip, he commanded
his son Adikam to be brought to him, and they made
him king over the land in his place.
At the end of three years the old king died in shame and
disgrace, a loathing to all that saw him, and they buried him
in the sepulchre of the kings of Egypt in Zoan, but they did
not embalm him, as was usual with kings, for his flesh was
putrid, and they could not approach his body on account of
the stench, and they buried him in haste. Thus the Lord
requited him with evil for the evil he had done in his days to
Israel, and he died in terror and shame after having reigned
ninety-four years.
Adikam was twenty years old when he succeeded his
father, and he reigned four years. The people of Egypt
called him Pharaoh, as was their custom with all their kings,
but his wise men called him Akuz, for Akuz is the word for
"short" in the Egyptian language, and Adikam was exceedingly
awkward and undersized. The new Pharaoh surpassed
his father Malol and all the former kings in wickedness,
and he made heavier the yoke upon the children of
Israel. He went to Goshen with his servants, and increased
their labor, and he said unto them, "Complete your work,
each day's task, and let not your hands slacken from the
work from this day forward, as you did in the day of my
father." He placed officers over them from amongst the
children of Israel, and over these officers he placed
taskmasters from amongst his servants. And he put before them
a measure for bricks, according to the number they were to
make day by day, and whenever any deficiency was discovered
in the measure of their daily bricks, the taskmasters of
Pharaoh would go to the women of the children of Israel,
and take their infants from them, as many as the number
of bricks lacking in the measure, and these babes they
put into the building instead of the missing bricks. The
taskmasters forced each man of the Israelites to put his own
child in the building. The father would place his son in the
wall, and cover him over with mortar, all the while weeping,
his tears running down upon his child.
The children of Israel sighed every day on account of
their dire suffering, for they had thought that after Pharaoh's
death his son would lighten their toil, but the new
king was worse than his father. And God saw the burden
of the children of Israel, and their heavy work, and He
determined to deliver them.[104]
However, it was not for their own sake that God resolved
upon the deliverance of the children of Israel, for they were
empty of good deeds, and the Lord foreknew that, once they
were redeemed, they would rise up against Him, and even
worship the golden calf. Yet He took mercy upon them, for
He remembered His covenant with the Fathers, and He
looked upon their repentance for their sins, and accepted
their promise, to fulfil the word of God after their going
forth from Egypt even before they should hear it.[105]
After all, the children of Israel were not wholly without
merits. In a high degree they possessed qualities of
extraordinary
excellence. There were no incestuous relations
among them, they were not evil-tongued, they did not change
their names, they clung to the Hebrew language, never giving
it up,[106] and great fraternal affection prevailed among
them. If one happened to finish the tale of his bricks before
his neighbors, he was in the habit of helping the others.
Therefore God spake, "They deserve that I should have
mercy upon them, for if a man shows mercy unto another, I
have mercy upon him."[107]
THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERD
When Jethro bestowed his daughter Zipporah upon Moses
as his wife, he said to his future son-in-law: "I know that
thy father Jacob took his wives, the daughters of Laban, and
went away with them against their father's will. Now take
an oath that thou wilt not do the same unto me," and Moses
swore not to leave him without his consent,[108] and he
remained with Jethro, who made him the shepherd of his
flocks. By the way he tended the sheep, God saw his fitness
to be the shepherd of His people, for God never gives an
exalted office to a man until He has tested him in little
things. Thus Moses and David were tried as shepherds of
flocks, and only after they had proved their ability as such,
He gave them dominion over men.
Moses watched over the flocks with loving care. He led
the young animals to pasture first, that they might have the
tender, juicy grass for their food; the somewhat older animals
he led forth next, and allowed them to graze off the
herbs suitable for them; and finally came the vigorous ones
that had attained their full growth, and to them he gave the
hard grass that was left, which the others could not eat, but
which afforded good food for them. Then spake God, "He
that understandeth how to pasture sheep, providing for each
what is good for it, he shall pasture My people."
Once a kid escaped from the flock, and when Moses followed
it, he saw how it stopped at all the water courses, and
he said to it: "Poor kid, I knew not that thou wast thirsty,
and wast running after water! Thou art weary, I ween,"
and he carried it back to the herd on his shoulder. Then
said God: "Thou hast compassion with a flock belonging
to a man of flesh and blood! As thou livest, thou shalt pasture
Israel, My flock."[109]
Not only did Moses take heed that no harm should come
to the herds under his charge, but he was also careful that
they cause no injury to men. He always chose an open
meadow as his pasturing place, to prevent his sheep from
grazing in private estates.[110]
Jethro had no reason to be dissatisfied with the services
rendered to him by his son-in-law. During the forty years
Moses acted as his shepherd not one sheep was attacked by
wild beasts, and the herds multiplied to an incredible
degree.[111] Once he drove the sheep about in the desert for
forty days, without finding a pasturing place for them.
Nevertheless he did not lose a single sheep.
Moses' longing for the desert was irresistible. His prophetic
spirit caused him to foresee that his own greatness
and the greatness of Israel would manifest themselves there.
In the desert God's wonders would appear, though it would
be at the same time the grave of the human herd to be entrusted
to him in the future, and also his own last resting-
place. Thus he had a presentiment at the very beginning
of his career that the desert would be the scene of his
activity, which not only came true in the present order of
things, but also will be true in the latter days, when he will
appear in the desert again, to lead into the promised land
the generation, arisen from their graves, that he brought
forth from Egyptian bondage.[112]
Wandering through the desert, he reached Mount Horeb,
which is called by six names, each conveying one of its
distinctions. It is "the mountain of God," wherein the Lord
revealed His law; "Basban," for God "came there"; "a
mountain of humps," for the Lord declared all the other
mountains unfit for the revelation, as "crookbackt" animals
are declared unfit for sacrifices; "mountain of abode,"
because it is the mountain that God desired for His
"abode"; Sinai, because the "hatred" of God against the
heathen began at the time when Israel received the law
thereon; and Horeb, "sword," because there the sword of
the law was drawn upon the sinners.[113]
THE BURNING THORN-BUSH
When Moses drew near to Mount Horeb, he was aware at
once that it was a holy place, for he noticed that passing
birds did not alight upon it. At his approach the mountain
began to move, as though to go forward and meet him, and
it settled back into quietude only when his foot rested upon
it.[114] The first thing Moses noticed was the wonderful burning
bush, the upper part of which was a blazing flame,
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