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,
neither consuming the bush, nor preventing it from bearing
blossoms as it burnt, for the celestial fire has three peculiar
qualities: it produces blossoms, it does not consume the object
around which it plays, and it is black of color. The
fire that Moses saw in the bush was the appearance of the
angel Michael, who had descended as the forerunner of the
Shekinah herself to come down presently. It was the wish
of God to hold converse with Moses, who, however, was not
inclined to permit any interruption of the work under his
charge. Therefore God startled him with the wonderful
phenomenon of the burning thorn-bush. That brought
Moses to a stop, and then God spoke with him.
There were good reasons for selecting the thorn-bush as
the vessel for a Divine vision. It was "clean," for the
heathen could not use it to make idols. God's choosing to
dwell in the stunted thorn-bush conveyed the knowledge to
Moses that He suffers along with Israel. Furthermore,
Moses was taught that there is nothing in nature, not even
the insignificant thorn-bush, that can exist without the presence
of the Shekinah. Besides, the thorn-bush may be taken
as the symbol for Israel in several respects. As the thorn-
bush is the lowliest of all species of trees, so the condition
of Israel in the exile is the lowliest as compared with that of
all the other nations, but as the thorn-bush releases no bird
that alights upon it without lacerating its wings, so the nations
that subjugate Israel will be punished. Also, as a
garden hedge is made of the thorn-bush, so Israel forms the
hedge for the world, the garden of God, for without Israel
the world could not endure. Furthermore, as the thorn-
bush bears thorns and roses alike, so Israel has pious and
impious members, and as the thorn-bush requires ample
water for its growth, so Israel can prosper only through the
Torah, the celestial water. And the thorn-bush, the leaf of
which consists of five leaflets, was to indicate to Moses that
God had resolved to redeem Israel only for the sake of the
merits of five pious men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, and
Moses. The numbers represented by the letters composing
the Hebrew word for thorn-bush, Seneh, add up to one
hundred and twenty, to convey that Moses would reach
the age of one hundred and twenty years, and that the
Shekinah would rest on Mount Horeb for one hundred and
twenty days. Finally, in order to give Moses an illustration
of His modesty, God descended from the exalted
heavens and spake to him from a lowly thorn-bush instead
of the summit of a lofty mountain or the top of a stately
cedar tree.[115]
THE ASCENSION OF MOSES
The vision of the burning bush appeared to Moses alone;
the other shepherds with him saw nothing of it. He took
five steps in the direction of the bush, to view it at close
range, and when God beheld the countenance of Moses distorted by
grief and anxiety over Israel's suffering, He spake,
"This one is worthy of the office of pasturing My people."[116]
Moses was still a novice in prophecy, therefore God said
to Himself, "If I reveal Myself to him in loud tones, I shall
alarm him, but if I reveal Myself with a subdued voice, he
will hold prophecy in low esteem," whereupon he addressed
him in his father Amram's voice. Moses was overjoyed to
hear his father speak, for it gave him the assurance that.
he was still alive. The voice called his name twice, and he
answered, "Here am I! What is my father's wish?" God
replied, saying, "I am not thy father. I but desired to
refrain from terrifying thee, therefore I spoke with thy
father's voice. I am the God of thy father, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." These
words rejoiced Moses greatly, for not only was his father
Amram's name pronounced in the same breath with the
names of the three Patriarchs, but it came before theirs, as
though he ranked higher than they.
Moses said not a word. In silent reverence before the
Divine vision he covered his face, and when God disclosed
the mission with which He charged him, of bringing the
Israelites forth from the land of Egypt, he answered with
humility, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and
bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" Thereupon
spake God, "Moses, thou art meek, and I will reward
thee for thy modesty. I will deliver the whole land of
Egypt into thine hand, and, besides, I will let thee ascend
unto the throne of My glory, and look upon all the angels
of the heavens."
Hereupon God commanded Metatron, the Angel of the
Face, to conduct Moses to the celestial regions amid the
sound of music and song, and He commanded him furthermore
to summon thirty thousand angels, to serve as his
body-guard, fifteen thousand to right of him and fifteen
thousand to left of him. In abject terror Moses asked Metatron,
"Who art thou?" and the angel replied, "I am
Enoch, the son of Jared, thy ancestor, and God has charged
me to accompany thee to His throne." But Moses demurred,
saying, "I am but flesh and blood, and I cannot look upon
the countenance of an angel," whereupon Metatron changed
Moses' flesh into torches of fire, his eyes into Merkabah
wheels, his strength into an angel's, and his tongue into a
flame, and he took him to heaven with a retinue of thirty
thousand angels, one half moving to right of them and one
half to left of them.
In the first heaven Moses saw streams upon streams of
water, and he observed that the whole heaven consisted of
windows, at each of which angels were stationed. Metatron
named and pointed out all the windows of heaven to
him: the window of prayer and the window of supplication;
of weeping and of joy; plenitude and starvation; wealth and
poverty; war and peace; conception and birth; showers and
soft rains; sin and repentance; life and death; pestilence
and healing; sickness and health; and many windows more.
In the second heaven Moses saw the angel Nuriel, standing
three hundred parasangs high, with his retinue of fifty
myriads of angels, all fashioned out of water and fire, and
all keeping their faces turned toward the Shekinah while
they sang a song of praise to God. Metatron explained to
Moses, that these were the angels set over the clouds, the
winds, and the rains, who return speedily, as soon as they
have executed the will of their Creator, to their station in
the second of the heavens, there to proclaim the praise of
God.
In the third heaven Moses saw an angel, so tall it would
take a human being five hundred years to climb to his height.
He had seventy thousand heads, each head having as many
mouths, each mouth as many tongues, and each tongue as
many sayings, and he together with his suite of seventy
thousand myriads of angels made of white fire praised and
extolled the Lord. "These," said Metatron to Moses, "are
called Erelim, and they are appointed over the grass, the
trees, the fruits, and the grain, but as soon as they have
done the will of their Creator, they return to the place assigned
to them, and praise God."
In the fourth heaven Moses saw a Temple, the pillars
thereof made of red fire, the staves of green fire, the
thresholds
of white fire, the boards and clasps of flaming fire, the
gates of carbuncles, and the pinnacles of rubies. Angels
were entering the Temple and giving praise to God there.
In response to a question from Moses Metatron told him
that they presided over the earth, the sun, the moon, the
stars, and the other celestial bodies. and all of them intone
songs before God. In this heaven Moses noticed also the
two great planets, Venus and Mars, each as large as the
whole earth, and concerning these he asked unto what purpose
they had been created. Metatron explained thereupon,
that Venus lies upon the sun to cool him off in summer, else
he would scorch the earth, and Mars lies upon the moon, to
impart warmth to her, lest she freeze the earth.
Arrived in the fifth heaven, Moses saw hosts of angels,
whose nether parts were of snow and their upper parts of
fire, and yet the snow did not melt nor was the fire
extinguished,
for God had established perfect harmony between
the two elements. These angels, called Ishim, have had
nothing to do since the day of their creation but praise and
extol the Lord.
In the sixth of the heavens were millions and myriads of
angels praising God, they were called 'Irin and kadishim,
"Watchers" and "Holy Ones," and their chief was made of
hail, and he was so tall, it would take five hundred years to
walk a distance equal to his height.
In the last heaven Moses saw two angels, each five hundred
parasangs in height, forged out of chains of black fire
and red fire, the angels Af, "Anger," and Hemah, "Wrath,"
whom God created at the beginning of the world, to execute
His will. Moses was disquieted when he looked upon them,
but Metatron embraced him, and said, "Moses, Moses, thou
favorite of God, fear not, and be not terrified," and Moses
became calm. There was another angel in the seventh
heaven, different in appearance from all the others, and of
frightful mien. His height was so great, it would have
taken five hundred years to cover a distance equal to it, and
from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he was
studded with glaring eyes, at the sight of which the beholder
fell prostrate in awe. "This one," said Metatron, addressing
Moses, "is Samael, who takes the soul away from man."
"Whither goes he now?" asked Moses, and Metatron replied,
"To fetch the soul of Job the pious." Thereupon
Moses prayed to God in these words, "O may it be Thy
will, my God and the God of my fathers, not to let me fall
into the hands of this angel."
Here, in the highest heaven, he saw also the seraphim
with their six wings. With two they cover their face, that
they gaze not upon the Shekinah; and with two their feet,
which, being like a calf's feet, they hide, to keep secret
Israel's transgression of the golden calf. With the third
pair of wings they fly and do the service of the Lord, all the
while exclaiming, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of His glory." The wings of these
angels are of prodigious size, it would take a man five hundred
years to traverse their length and their breadth, as
from one end of the earth to the other.
And Moses saw in the seventh heaven the holy Hayyot,
which support the throne of God; and he beheld also the
angel Zagzagel, the prince of the Torah and of wisdom, who
teaches the Torah in seventy languages to the souls of men,
and thereafter they cherish the precepts contained therein
as laws revealed by God to Moses on Sinai. From this
angel with the horns of glory Moses himself learnt all the
ten mysteries."
Having seen what there is in the seven heavens, he spoke
to God, saying, "I will not leave the heavens unless Thou
grantest me a gift," and God replied, "I will give thee the
Torah, and men shall call it the Law of Moses."[117]
MOSES VISITS PARADISE AND HELL
When Moses was on the point of departing from heaven,
a celestial voice announced: "Moses, thou camest hither,
and thou didst see the throne of My glory. Now thou shalt
see also Paradise and hell," and God dispatched Gabriel on
the errand of showing hell to him. Terrified by its fires,
when he caught sight of them as he entered the portals of
hell, Moses refused to go farther. But the angel encouraged
him, saying, "There is a fire that not only burns but also
consumes, and that fire will protect thee against hell fire,
so that thou canst step upon it, and yet thou wilt not be
seared."
As Moses entered hell, the fire withdrew a distance of
five hundred parasangs, and the Angel of Hell, Nasargiel,
asked him, "Who art thou?" and he answered, "I am
Moses, the son of Amram."
Nasargiel: "This is not thy place, thou belongest in
Paradise."
Moses: "I came hither to see the manifestation of the
power of God."
Then said God to the Angel of Hell, "Go and show hell
unto Moses, and how the wicked are treated there." Immediately
he went with Moses, walking before him like a pupil
before his master, and thus they entered hell together, and
Moses saw men undergoing torture by the Angels of Destruction:
some of the sinners were suspended by their eyelids,
some by their ears, some by their hands, and some by
their tongues, and they cried bitterly. And women were
suspended by their hair and by their breasts, and in other
ways, all on chains of fire. Nasargiel explained: "These
hang by their eyes, because they looked lustfully upon the
wives of their neighbors, and with a covetous eye upon the
possessions of their fellow-men. These hang by their ears
because they listened to empty and vain speech, and turned
their ear away from hearing the Torah. These hang by
their tongues, because they talked slander, and accustomed
their tongue to foolish babbling. These hang by their feet,
because they walked with them in order to spy upon their
fellow-men, but they walked not to the synagogue, to offer
prayer unto their Creator. These hang by their hands, because
with them they robbed their neighbors of their possessions,
and committed murder. These women hang by
their hair and their breasts, because they uncovered them in
the presence of young men, so that they conceived desire
unto them, and fell into sin."
Moses heard hell cry with a loud and a bitter cry, saying
to Nasargiel: "Give me something to eat, I am hungry."--
Nasargiel: "What shall I give thee?"--Hell: "Give me
the souls of the pious."--Nasargiel: "The Holy One,
blessed be He, will not deliver the souls of the pious unto
thee."
Moses saw the place called Alukah, where sinners were
suspended by their feet, their heads downward, and their
bodies covered with black worms, each five hundred parasangs
long. They lamented, and cried: "Woe unto us
for the punishment of hell. Give us death, that we may
die!" Nasargiel explained: "These are the sinners that
swore falsely, profaned the Sabbath and the holy days, despised
the sages, called their neighbors by unseemly nicknames,
wronged the orphan and the widow, and bore false
witness. Therefore bath God delivered them to these
worms."
Moses went thence to another place, and there he saw sinners
prone on their faces, with two thousand scorpions lashing,
stinging, and tormenting them, while the tortured victims
cried bitterly. Each of the scorpions had seventy
thousand heads, each head seventy thousand mouths, each
mouth seventy thousand stings, and each sting seventy thousand
pouches of poison and venom, which the sinners are
forced to drink down, although the anguish is so racking
that their eyes melt in their sockets. Nasargiel explained:
"These are the sinners who caused the Israelites to lose
their money, who exalted themselves above the community,
who put their neighbors to shame in public, who delivered
their fellow-Israelites into the hands of the Gentiles, who
denied the Torah of Moses, and who maintained that God is
not the Creator of the world."
Then Moses saw the place called Tit ba-Yawen, in which
the sinners stand in mud up to their navels, while the Angels
of Destruction lash them with fiery chains, and break their
teeth with fiery stones, from morning until evening, and
during the night they make their teeth grow again, to the
length of a parasang, only to break them anew the next
morning. Nasargiel explained: "These are the sinners
who ate carrion and forbidden flesh, who lent their money
at usury, who wrote the Name of God on amulets for
Gentiles, who used false weights, who stole money from
their fellow-Israelites, who ate on the Day of Atonement,
who ate forbidden fat, and animals and reptiles that are an
abomination, and who drank blood."
Then Nasargiel said to Moses: "Come and see how the
sinners are burnt in hell," and Moses answered, "I cannot
go there," but Nasargiel replied, "Let the light of the Shekinah
precede thee, and the fire of hell will have no power
over thee." Moses yielded, and he saw how the sinners were
burnt, one half of their bodies being immersed in fire and
the other half in snow, while worms bred in their own
flesh crawled over them, and the Angels of Destruction beat
them incessantly. Nasargiel explained: "These are the
sinners who committed incest, murder, and idolatry, who
cursed their parents and their teachers, and who, like Nimrod
and others, called themselves gods." In this place, which
is called Abaddon, he saw the sinners taking snow by stealth
and putting it in their armpits, to relieve the pain inflicted
by the scorching fire, and he was convinced that the saying
was true, "The wicked mend not their ways even at the gate
of hell."
As Moses departed from hell, he prayed to God, "May it
be Thy will, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, to save
me and the people of Israel from the places I have seen in
hell." But God answered him, and said, "Moses, before Me
there is no respecting of persons and no taking of gifts.
Whoever doeth good deeds entereth Paradise, and he that
doeth evil must go to hell."
At the command of God, Gabriel now led Moses to Paradise.
As he entered, two angels came toward him, and they
said to him, "Thy time is not yet arrived to leave the world,"
and Moses made answer, "What ye say is true, but I have
come to see the reward of the pious in Paradise." Then the
angels extolled Moses, saying: "Hail, Moses, servant of
God! Hail, Moses, born of woman, that hast been found
worthy to ascend to the seven heavens! Hail to the nation
to which thou belongest!"
Under the tree of life Moses saw the angel Shamshiel, the
prince of Paradise, who led him through it, and showed him
all there is therein. He saw seventy thrones made of
precious stones, standing on feet of fine gold, each throne
surrounded by seventy angels. But one of them was larger
than all the others, and it was encircled by one hundred and
twenty angels. This was the throne of Abraham, and when
Abraham beheld Moses, and heard who he was, and what his
purpose was in visiting Paradise, he exclaimed, "Praise ye
the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever."
Moses asked Shamshiel about the size of Paradise, but not
even he who is the prince thereof could answer the question,
for there is none that can gauge it. It can neither be measured
nor fathomed nor numbered. But Shamshiel explained
to Moses about the thrones, that they were different one
from the other, some being of silver, some of gold, some of
precious stones and pearls and rubies and carbuncles. The
thrones made of pearls are for the scholars that study the
Torah day and night for her own sake; those of precious
stones are for the pious, those of rubies for the just, those
of gold for the repentant sinners, and those of silver for the
righteous proselytes. "The greatest of them all," continued
Shamshiel, "is the throne of Abraham, the next in
size the thrones of Isaac and Jacob, then come the thrones
of the prophets, the saints, and the righteous, each in
accordance
with a man's worth, and his rank, and the good deeds
he has performed in his lifetime." Moses asked then for
whom the throne of copper was intended, and the angel
answered, "For the sinner that has a pious son. Through
the merits of his son he receives it as his share."
Again Moses looked, and he beheld a spring of living
water welling up from under the tree of life and dividing
into four streams, which passed under the throne of glory,
and thence encompassed Paradise from end to end. He also
saw four rivers flowing under each of the thrones of the
pious, one of honey, the second of milk, the third of wine,
and the fourth of pure balsam.
Beholding all these desirable and pleasant things, Moses
felt great joy, and he said, "Oh, how great is Thy goodness,
which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which
Thou hast wrought for them that put their trust in Thee, before
the sons of men!" And Moses left Paradise, and returned
to the earth.
At the moment of his departure, a heavenly voice cried
aloud: "Moses, servant of the Lord, thou that art faithful
in His house, even as thou hast seen the reward that is laid
up for the pious in the world to come, so also thou wilt be
worthy of seeing the life of the world that shall be in the
future time. Thou and all Israel, ye shall see the rebuilding
of the Temple and the advent of the Messiah, behold
the beauty of the Lord, and meditate in His Temple."[118]
In the world to come Moses, beside sharing the joys of
Israel, will continue his activity as the teacher of Israel, for
the people will go before Abraham and request him to instruct
them in the Torah. He will send them to Isaac, saying,
"Go to Isaac, he hath studied more of the Torah than
ever I studied," but Isaac, in turn, will send them to Jacob,
saying, "Go to Jacob, he hath had more converse with the
sages than ever I had." And Jacob will send them to Moses,
saying, "Go to Moses, he was instructed in the Torah by
God Himself."[119]
In the Messianic time, Moses will be one of the seven
shepherds that shall be the leaders of Israel with the
Messiah.[120]
MOSES DECLINES THE MISSION
When Moses turned aside to see the great sight, that the
bush was not consumed, he heard a voice calling to him,
"Draw not nigh hither." These words were to convey that
the dignity to be conferred upon him God intended for
Moses personally, not for his descendants, and further he
was warned not to arrogate honors appointed for others, as
the priesthood, which was to belong to Aaron and Aaron's
descendants, or royalty, which was to appertain to David
and the house of David.[121]
Again the voice spake: "Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
These words conveyed the desire of God that he cut asunder
every bond uniting him with earthly concerns, he was even
to give up his conjugal life. Hereupon the angel Michael
spoke to God: "O Lord of the world, can it be Thy purpose
to destroy mankind? Blessing can prevail only if male
and female are united, and yet Thou biddest Moses separate
from his wife." God answered, saying, "Moses has begot
children, he has done his duty toward the world. I desire
him to unite himself now with the Shekinah, that she may
descend upon earth for his sake."[122]
God spake furthermore, addressing Moses, "Thou seest
only what is to happen in the near future, that Israel is to
receive the Torah on Mount Sinai, but I behold what cometh
after, bow the people will worship the steer, the figure of
which they will see upon My chariot, even while My revelation
will be made on Sinai. Thus they will excite My
wrath. Nevertheless, though I know all the perverseness of
their hearts, wherein they will rebel against Me in the desert,
I will redeem them now, for I accord unto man the treatment
he merits for his present actions, not what he will deserve
in the future. I promised their father Jacob, 'I will go down
with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up
again,' and now I will betake myself thither, to bring Israel
up in accordance with My words unto Jacob, and bear them
to the land I swore unto their fathers, that their seed should
inherit it. So long as the time of affliction that I had
appointed unto his seed in My revelation to Abraham was not
past, I hearkened not to the supplication and the groaning
of his children, but now the end hath come. Therefore, go
before Pharaoh, that he dismiss My people. If thou dost
not bring about the redemption, none other will, for there is
none other that can do it. In thee doth Israel hope, and
upon thee doth Israel wait. The matter lieth in thine hands
alone."
Moses, however, refused to take the mission upon himself.
He said to God, "Thy promise unto Jacob was, 'I will
surely bring thee up again out of Egypt.' Thou didst undertake
to do it Thyself, and now it is Thy purpose to send me
thither. And how, indeed, were it possible for me to accomplish
this great matter, to bring the children of Israel up out
of Egypt? How could I provide them with food and drink?
Many are the women in childbirth among them, many are
the pregnant women and the little children. Whence shall I
procure dainties for those who have borne babes, whence
sweetmeats for the pregnant, and whence tidbits for the
little ones? And how may I venture to go among the Egyptian
brigands and murderers? for Thou art bidding me to
go to mine enemies, to those who lie in wait to take my life.
Why should I risk the safety of my person, seeing that I
know not whether Israel possesses merits making them
worthy of redemption?' I have reckoned up the years
with care, and I have found that but two hundred and ten
have elapsed since the covenant of the pieces made with
Abraham, and at that time Thou didst ordain four hundred
years of oppression for his seed."[124]
But God overturned all his objections. He spake to
Moses, saying: "I will be with thee. Whatever thou desirest
I will do, so that the redemption will in very truth be
realized through Me, in accordance with My promise to
Jacob. The little ones that Israel will carry up out of Egypt
I will provide with food for thirty days. This shall prove
to thee in what manner I will supply the needs of all. And
as I will be at thy side, thou hast no need to fear any man.
Respecting thy doubt, whether Israel deserves to be redeemed,
this is My answer: they will be permitted to go
forth from Egypt on account of the merits they will acquire
at this mountain, whereon they will receive the Torah
through thee.[125] And thy reckoning of the end is not correct,
for the four hundred years of bondage began with the
birth of Isaac, not with the going down of Jacob into Egypt.
Therefore the appointed end hath come."[126]
Persuaded now of God's unalterable resolve to use him as
His instrument in the redemption of Israel from Egypt,
Moses entreated God to impart to him the knowledge of His
Great Name, that he be not confounded if the children of
Israel ask for it. God answered, saying: "Thou desirest
to know My Name? My Name is according to My acts.
When I judge My creatures, I am called Elohim, "judge";
when I rise up to do battle against the sinners, I am Lord
Zebaot, "the Lord of hosts"; when I wait with longsuffering
patience for the improvement of the sinner, My name is
El Shaddai; when I have mercy upon the world, I am
Adonai. But unto the children of Israel shalt thou say that
I am He that was, that is, and that ever will be, and I am
He that is with them in their bondage now, and He that
shall be with them in the bondage of the time to come."
In reply to the latter words of God, Moses said, "Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof," and God assented
thereto. He admitted that it was not proper to force the
knowledge of future suffering upon Israel in a present that
was itself full of evil and sorrow. And the Lord said to
Moses: "My words about the future were meant for thee
alone, not also for them. Tell the children of Israel, besides,
that at My behest an angel can stretch his hand from
heaven and touch the earth with it, and three angels can
find room under one tree, and My majesty can fill the whole
world, for when it was My will, it appeared to Job in his
hair, and, again, when I willed otherwise, it appeared in a
thorn-bush."[127]
But the most important communication from God to
Moses concerning the Divine Names were the words to follow:
"In mercy I created the world; in mercy I guide it;
and with mercies I will return to Jerusalem. But unto the
children of Israel thou shalt say that My mercy upon them
is for the sake of the merits of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
When Moses heard these words, he spoke to God, saying,
"Are there men that transgress after death?" and when
God assured him that it was not possible for the dead to sin,
Moses asked again, "Why, then, is it that Thou didst reveal
Thyself to me at the first as the God of my father, and now
Thou passest him over?" Whereupon God said, "In the
beginning it was My purpose to address thee with flattering
words, but now thou hearest the whole and exact truth, I am
only the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob."[128]
Moses prayed to God, entreating Him to reveal His Great
and Holy Name unto him, so that he might call upon Him
with it and secure the fulfilment of all his wishes. The Lord
granted the prayer of Moses, and when the celestials knew
that He had revealed the secret of the Ineffable Name, they
cried out, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, gracious Giver of
knowledge!"[129]
God is always regardful of the honor of the elders of a
people, and He bade Moses assemble those of Israel and
announce the approaching redemption to them. And as
God knew beforehand how Pharaoh's obduracy would display
itself, He made it known to Moses at once, lest he reproach
God later with the Egyptian king's frowardness.[130]
MOSES PUNISHED FOR HIS STUBBORNNESS
In spite of all these safeguards, Moses was not yet ready
to accept the mission God wished to impose upon him. He
persisted in urging his fears, saying: "But, behold, they
will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will
say, 'The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.[] And the
Lord said unto him, "What is that in thine hand?" And
he said, "A rod." And the Lord said: "Thou deservest
to be castigated with it. If thou didst not intend to take My
mission upon thyself, thou shouldst have said so in the
beginning. Instead, thou didst hold back with thy refusal,
until I revealed to thee the great secret of the Ineffable
Name, that thou mightest know it if the children of Israel
should ask thee concerning it. And now thou sayest, I will
not go. Now, therefore, if thou wilt not execute My charge
to thee, it will be executed by this rod. It was My wish to
distinguish thee and make thee My instrument for doing
many miracles.[131] But thou deservest a punishment for having
suspected My children of lack of faith. The children of
Israel are believers and sons of believers, but thou wilt show
thyself of little faith in thy career, and as thou followest
the example of the slanderous serpent, so shalt thou be punished
with leprosy, wherewith the serpent was punished."
The Lord now bade Moses put his hand into his bosom
and take it out again, and when he took it out, behold, his
hand was leprous, as white as snow. And God bade him
put his hand into his bosom again, and it turned again as
his other flesh. Beside being a chastisement for his hasty
words, the plague on his hand was to teach him that as the
leper defiles, so the Egyptians defiled Israel, and as Moses
was healed of his uncleanness, so God would cleanse the
children of Israel of the pollution the Egyptians had brought
upon them.
The second wonder connected with the rod of Moses
likewise conveyed a double meaning, in that it pointed to the
coming redemption of Israel, and taught Moses a specific
lesson. At the bidding of God, Moses cast his rod on the
ground, and it became a serpent, to show him that when he
traduced Israel, he was following the example of the abusive
serpent, and also to show him that the great dragon that
lieth in the midst of the rivers of Egypt, though he was now
hacking into Israel with his teeth, would be rendered harmless
like the rod of wood, which has no power to bite.
And, again, through the third miracle he was bidden to
perform, God conveyed to Moses what would happen in the
latter years of his own life. The sign He gave him was to
make known to him that, before the water came, blood
would flow from the rock at Meribah, when Moses should
strike it after uttering the hasty, impatient words that were
destined to bring death down upon him.[132]
For seven days God urged Moses to undertake the mission
He desired him to execute. He resorted to persuasion, that
the heathen might not say, that He abused His power as the
Ruler of the world, forcing men to do His service against
their will. But Moses remained obdurate, he could not be
won over.[133] He said: "Thou doest a wrong unto me in
sending me to Pharaoh. In the palace of the Egyptian king
there are persons that know how to speak the seventy languages
of the world. No matter what language a man may
use, there is someone that understands him. If I should
come as Thy representative, and they should discover that
I am not able to converse in the seventy languages, they
will mock at me, and say, 'Behold this man, he pretends to
be the ambassador of the Creator of the world, and he
cannot speak the seventy languages.' " To this God made
reply, as follows: "Adam, who was taught by none, could
give names to the beasts in the seventy languages. Was it
not I that made him to speak?"[134]
Moses was not yet satisfied, he continued to urge objections,
and he said: "O Lord of the world, Thou wouldst
charge me with the task of chastising Egypt and redeeming
Israel, and I am ready to be Thy messenger. But is it
seemly that a man should execute two errands at once?
Nay, my Lord, for this two men are needed." God made
answer, and said, "Moses, I know well whom thou hast in
mind with thy request, to be thy companion in the mission I
assign to thee. Know, therefore, that the holy spirit hath
already come upon thy brother Aaron, and even now he is
awaiting thee on the way of Egypt, and when his eyes rest
upon thee he will rejoice."
Furthermore God spake to Moses, saying, "When I
appeared unto thee the first time, thou wast meek, and didst
hide thy face, not to see the vision. Whence cometh now
this effrontery of thine, that thou addressest Me as a
servant his master? Thou speakest too many words by far.
Perchance thou thinkest I have no messengers, hosts, seraphim,
ofanim, ministering angels, and Merkabah wheels, to
send to Egypt, to bring My children thence, that thou sayest,
'Send by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send.' In sooth,
thou deservest severe chastisement. But what can I do,
seeing that I am the Master of mercy? If thou escapest
unpunished, thou owest it to thy father Amram, who rendered
great services in behalf of the preservation of the Israelitish
people in Egypt."
But Moses replied: "O Lord of the world, I a prophet
and the son of a prophet obeyed Thy words only after much
hesitation, and I cannot expect Pharaoh, a wicked man and
the son of a wicked man, and the Egyptians, a disobedient
people and the sons of a disobedient people, to give ear to
my words. O Lord of the world, Thou dost send me to
Egypt to redeem sixty myriads of Thy people from the oppression
of the Egyptians. If it were a question of delivering
a couple of hundred men, it were a sufficiently difficult
enterprise. How much severer is the task of freeing sixty
myriads from the dominion of Pharaoh! If Thou hadst
called upon the Egyptians to give up their evil ways soon
after they began to enslave Israel, they might have heeded
Thy admonitions. But if I should go and speak to them
now, after they have been ruling over Israel these two hundred
and ten years, Pharaoh would say, 'If a slave has
served his master for ten years, and no protest has made
itself heard from any quarter, how can a man conceive the
idea suddenly of having him set at liberty?' Verily, O Lord
of the world, the task Thou puttest upon me is too heavy
for my strength."[135]
Moses said furthermore: "I am not an eloquent man,
nor can I see of what avail words can be in this matter.
Thou art sending me to one that is himself a slave, to Pharaoh
of the tribe of Ham, and a slave will not be corrected
by words. I consent to go on Thy errand only if Thou wilt
invest me with the power of chastising Pharaoh with brute
force." To these words spoken by Moses, God made reply:
"Let it not fret thee that thou art not an eloquent speaker.
It is I that made the mouth of all that speak, and I that
made men dumb. One I make to see, another I make blind;
one I make to hear, another I make deaf. Had I willed it
so, thou hadst been a man of ready speech. But I desired
to show a wonder through thee. Whenever I will it, the
words I cast into thy mouth shall come forth without hesitation.
But what thou sayest about a slave, that he cannot
be corrected by words, is true, and therefore I give thee
My rod for Pharaoh's castigation."
But Moses still stood his ground. He raised other objections.
"His grandchild," he said, "is closer to a man
than his nephew. Nevertheless when Lot was taken captive,
Thou didst send angels to the aid of Abraham's nephew.
But now, when the life of sixty myriads of Abraham's lineal
descendants is at stake, Thou sendest me, and not the angels.
When the Egyptian bondwoman Hagar was in distress,
Thou didst dispatch five angels to stand by her, and to redeem
sixty myriads of the children of Sarah Thou dost dispatch
me.[136] O Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him
whom Thou wilt send in days to come." To this God answered,
saying, "I said not that I would send thee to Israel,
but to Pharaoh, and that one whom thou madest mention of,
I will send to Israel at the end of days--Elijah will appear
to them before the great and terrible day."[137]
If Moses refused to do the errand of the Lord, there was
a reason. God had revealed to him the treasures of the
Torah, of wisdom, and of knowledge, and the whole world's
future. Now he beheld in the inner chamber of God rows
of scholars and judges interpreting the Torah in forty-
nine different ways as they sat in the court of hewn stones;
and he saw, besides, Rabbi Akiba explaining the meaning
of the crowns upon the letters. Then said Moses: "I do
not care to be God's messenger. Let Him rather send one
of these great scholars." Then God ordered the Angel of
Wisdom to carry Moses to a place of myriads of scholars,
all interpreting the Torah, and all making use of the
formula: This is a Halakah revealed to Moses on Mount
Sinai. Now Moses recognized that even the greatest scholars
of future generations would be dependent upon him, and
then, at last, he was ready to execute the mission God desired
to lay upon him.[138]
But Moses had to pay dear for having hesitated in the
execution of the Divine bidding. God said to him: "It was
appointed that thou shouldst be priest, and Aaron should be
the Levite. Because thou hast refused to execute My will,
thou shalt be the Levite, and Aaron shall be priest,"--a
punishment that did not fall upon Moses personally, but only
upon his descendants, all of whom are Levites. As for himself,
he performed a priest's service in the Tabernacle.[139]
Moses had said to God, "Thou hast been speaking to me
now these many days, nevertheless I am still slow of speech
and of a slow tongue." For this he received another punishment.
God said to him: "I might change thee into a new
man, and heal thee of thy imperfect speech, but because thou
hast uttered such words, I refrain from curing thee."[140]
THE RETURN TO EGYPT
When Moses finally gave in, and declared himself ready
to go to Egypt as God's messenger, his acceptance was still
conditional upon the promise of God to fulfil all his wishes,
and God granted whatsoever he desired, except immortality
and entering the Holy Land.[141] God also allayed his fears
regarding the danger that threatened him from his whilom
enemies Dathan and Abiram, on account of whom he had had
to flee from Egypt. He told him that they had sunk to the
estate of poor and insignificant men, bereft of the power of
doing him harm.[142]
Moses was loyal to the oath he had given his father-in-law
Jethro, never to return to Egypt without securing his consent.
His first concern therefore was to go back to Midian
and obtain his permission, which Jethro gave freely. Then
Moses could set out on his journey. He tarried only to take
his wife and his children with him, which made his father-
in-law say, "Those who are in Egypt are to leave it, and
thou desirest to take more thither?" Moses replied: "Very
soon the slaves held in bondage in Egypt will be redeemed,
and they will go forth from the land, and gather at Mount
Sinai, and hear the words, 'I am the Lord thy God,' and
should my sons not be present there?" Jethro acknowledged
the justice of Moses' words, and he said to him, "Go
in peace, enter Egypt in peace, and leave the land in
peace."[143]
At last Moses sallied forth upon his journey to Egypt,
accompanied by his wife and his children. He was mounted
upon the very ass that had borne Abraham to the Akedah
on Mount Moriah, the ass upon which the Messiah will
appear riding at the end of days.[144] Even now, his journey
begun, Moses was but half-hearted about his mission. He
travelled leisurely, thinking: "When I arrive in Egypt and
announce to the children of Israel that the end of the term of
Egyptian slavery has come, they will say, 'We know very
well that our bondage must last four hundred years, and the
end is not yet,' but if I were to put this objection before God,
He would break out in wrath against me. It is best for me
to consume as much time as possible on the way thither."
God was ill pleased with Moses for this artifice, and He
spake to him, saying, "Joseph prophesied long ago that the
oppression of Egypt would endure only two hundred and
ten years." For his lack of faith Moses was punished while
he was on the road to Egypt.[145] The angels Af and Hemah
appeared and swallowed his whole body down to his feet,[146]
and they gave him up only after Zipporah, nimble as a
"bird,"[147] circumcised her son Gershom, and touched the
feet of her husband with the blood of the circumcision. The
reason why their son had remained uncircumcised until then
was that Jethro had made the condition, when he consented
to the marriage of his daughter with Moses, that the first
son of their union should be brought up as a Gentile.[148]
When Moses was released by the angels, he attacked
them, and he slew Hemah, whose host of angels, however,
held their own before the assailant.[149]
The Divine voice heard by Moses in Midian telling him
to return to his brethren in Egypt fell at the same time upon
the ear of Aaron, dwelling in Egypt, and it bade him "go
into the wilderness to meet Moses." God speaketh marvellously
with His voice, and therefore the same revelation
could be understood one way in Midian and another way in
Egypt.
The greeting of the two brothers was very cordial. Envy
and jealousy bad no place between them. Aaron was rejoiced
that God had chosen his younger brother to be the
redeemer of Israel, and Moses was rejoiced that his older
brother had been divinely appointed the high priest in Israel.
God knew their hearts, for at the time when He charged
him with the Egyptian mission, Moses had said, "All these
years Aaron has been active as a prophet in Israel, and
should I now encroach upon his province and cause him
vexation?" But God reassured him, saying, "Moses, thy
brother Aaron will surely not be vexed, he will rather rejoice
at thy mission, yea, he will come forth and meet thee."
Aaron showed his joy freely at seeing his brother once
more, after their separation of many years. As for his joy
in the distinction accorded to Moses, it was too great to be
expressed in all its depth and extent. For his kind, generous
spirit, he received a reward from God, in that he was
permitted to bear the Urim and Thummim upon his heart,
"for," God said, "the heart that rejoiced at the exalting of
a brother shall wear the Urim and Thummim."[150]
Aaron ran to meet his brother, and embraced him, and
asked where he had spent all the years of their separation.
When he was told in Midian, he continued to question him,
saying, "Who are these that are travelling with thee?"
Moses: "My wife and my sons."
Aaron: "Whither goest thou with them?"
Moses: "To Egypt."
Aaron: "What! Great enough is our sorrow through
those who have been in Egypt from the beginning, and thou
takest more to the land?"
Moses recognized that Aaron was right, and he sent his
wife and his sons back to his father-in-law Jethro.[151]
He was no less magnanimous than Aaron. If the elder
brother felt no envy on account of the younger brother's
dignity, the younger brother did not withhold from the
other the teachings and revelations he had received. Immediately
after meeting with Aaron, Moses told him all that
God had taught him, even the awful secret of the Ineffable
Name communicated to him on Mount Horeb.[152]
In obedience to the command of God, the elders of the
people were assembled, and before them Moses performed
the wonders that were to be his credentials as the redeemer
sent to deliver the people. Nevertheless, the deeds he did
were not so potent in convincing them of the reality of the
mission as the words wherein God had announced the approaching
redemption to him, which he repeated in their
ears. The elders knew that Jacob had imparted to Joseph
the secret mark designating the redeemer, and Joseph had
in turn confided it to his brethren before his death. The last
surviving one of the brethren, Asher, had revealed it to his
daughter Serah, in the following words: "He that will
come and proclaim the redemption with the words of God,
'I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to
you in Egypt,' he is the true redeemer." Serah was still
alive at Moses' return, and the elders betook themselves to
her, and told her the words of Moses announcing the
redemption. When she heard that his words had been the
same as those Asher had quoted, she knew that he was the
promised redeemer, and all the people believed in him.
Thereupon Moses invited the elders to go to Pharaoh with
him, but they lacked the courage to appear before the king.
Though they started out with Moses, they dropped off
stealthily on the way, one by one, and when Moses and
Aaron stood in the presence of the king, they found themselves
alone, deserted by all the others. The elders did not
go out free. Their punishment was that God did not permit
them to ascend the holy mountain with Moses. They durst
accompany him on the way to God only as far as they had
accompanied him on the way to Pharaoh, and then they had
to tarry until he came again.[153]
MOSES AND AARON BEFORE PHARAOH
The day Moses and Aaron made their appearance before
Pharaoh happened to be the anniversary of his birth, and
he was surrounded by many kings, for he was the ruler of
the whole world, and this was the occasion on which the
kings of the earth came to do him homage. When the
attendants announced Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh inquired
whether the two old men had brought him crowns, and, receiving
a negative reply, he ordered that they were not to be
admitted to his presence, until he had seen and dismissed all
the others desirous of paying him their respects.[154]
Pharaoh's palace was surrounded by a vast army. It was
built with four hundred entrances, one hundred on each side,
and each of them guarded by sixty thousand soldiers.
Moses and Aaron were overawed by this display of power,
and they were afraid. But the angel Gabriel appeared, and
he led them into the palace, observed by none of the guards,
and Pharaoh decreed severe punishment upon the inattentive
sentinels for having admitted the old men without his
permission. They were dismissed, and others put in their
places. But the same thing happened the next day. Moses
and Aaron were within the palace, and the new guard had
not been able to hinder their passing. Pharaoh questioned
his servants, how it had been possible for the two old men
to enter, and they said: "We know it not! Through
the doors they did not come. Surely, they must be
magicians."[155]
Not enough that the palace was guarded by a host, at each
entrance two lions were stationed, and in terror of being
torn to pieces none dared approach the doors, and none
could go within until the lion tamer came and led the beasts
away. Now Balaam and all the other sacred scribes of
Egypt advised that the keepers loose the lions at the
approach of Moses and Aaron. But their advice availed
naught. Moses had but to raise his rod, and the lions
bounded toward him joyously, and followed at his feet, gambolling
like dogs before their master on his return home.[156]
Within the palace, Moses and Aaron found seventy
secretaries busy with Pharaoh's correspondence, which was
carried on in seventy languages. At the sight of the messengers
of Israel, they started up in great awe, for the two
men resembled angels. In stature they were as the cedars of
Lebanon, their countenances radiated splendor like the sun,
the pupils of their eyes were like the sphere of the morning
star, their beards like palm branches, and their mouths
emitted flames when they opened them for speech. In their
terror, the secretaries flung down pen and paper, and prostrated
themselves before Moses and Aaron.
Now the two representatives of the children of Israel
stepped before Pharaoh, and they spake, "The God of the
Hebrews hath met with us; let us go, we pray thee, three
days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the
Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with
the sword." But Pharaoh answered, saying: "What is
the name of your God? Wherein doth His strength consist,
and His power? How many countries, how many provinces,
how many cities hath He under His dominion? In
how many campaigns was He victorious? How many lands
did He make subject to Himself? How many cities did He
capture? When He goeth to war, how many warriors,
riders, chariots, and charioteers doth He lead forth?"
Whereto Moses and Aaron replied: "His strength and His
power fill the whole world. His voice heweth out flames of
fire; His words break mountains in pieces. The heaven is
His throne, and the earth His footstool. His bow is fire,
His arrows are flames, His spears torches, His shield clouds,
and His sword lightning flashes. He created the mountains
and the valleys, He brought forth spirits and souls, He
stretched out the earth by a word, He made the mountains
with His wisdom, He forms the embryo in the womb of the
mother, He covers the heavens with clouds, at His word the
dew and the rain descend earthward, He causes plants to
grow from the ground, He nourishes and sustains the whole
world, from the horns upon the rem down to the eggs of
vermin. Every day He causes men to die, and every day
He calls men into life."
Pharaoh answered, and said: "I have no need of Him. I
have created myself, and if ye say that He causes dew and
rain to descend, I have the Nile, the river that hath its
source under the tree of life, and the ground impregnated
by its waters bears fruit so huge that it takes two asses to
carry it. and it is palatable beyond description, for it has
three hundred different tastes."[157]
Then Pharaoh sent to fetch the books of the chronicles of
his kingdom from his archives, wherein are recorded the
names of the gods of all the nations, to see whether the
name of the God of the Hebrews was among them. He
read off: "The gods of Moab, the gods of Ammon, the
gods of Zidon--I do not find your God inscribed in the
archives!" Moses and Aaron exclaimed: "O thou fool!
Thou seekest the Living in the graves of the dead. These
which thou didst read are the names of dumb idols, but our
God is the God of life and the King of eternal life."[158]
When Pharaoh said the words, "I know not the Lord,"
God Himself made answer, saying: "O thou rascal! Thou
sayest to My ambassadors, 'I know not the strength and the
power of your God'? Lo, I will make thee to stand, for to
show thee My power, and that My Name may be declared
throughout all the earth."[159]
Having searched his list of the gods of the nations in vain
for a mention of the God of the Hebrews, Pharaoh cited before
him the wise men of Egypt, and he said to them:
"Have ye ever heard the name of the God of these people?"
They replied, "We have been told that He is a son of the
wise, the son of ancient kings." Then spake God, saying,
"O ye fools! Ye call yourselves wise men, but Me ye call
only the son of the wise. Verily, I will set at naught all
your wisdom and your understanding."[160]
Pharaoh persisted in his obduracy, even after Moses and
Aaron had performed the miracle of the rod. At the time
when the two Hebrews succeeded in entering the palace,
guarded as it was by lions, Pharaoh had sent for his magicians,
at their head Balaam and his two sons Jannes and
Jambres, and when they appeared before him, he told them
of the extraordinary incident, how the lions had followed the
two old men like dogs, and fawned upon them. It was
Balaam's opinion that they were simply magicians like himself
and his companions, and he prayed the king to have
them come before him together with themselves, to test
who were the master magicians, the Egyptians or the
Hebrews.
Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and he said to them:
"Who will believe you when you say that you are the ambassadors
of God, as you pretend to be, if you do not convince
men by performing wonders?" Thereupon Aaron
cast his rod to the ground, and it became a serpent.[161] Pharaoh
laughed aloud. "What," he exclaimed, "is this all your
God can do? It is the way of merchants to carry merchandise
to a place if there is none of it there, but would anyone
take brine to Spain or fish to Accho? It seems you do
not know that I am an adept in all sorts of magic!" He
ordered little school children to be brought, and they repeated
the wonder done by Moses and Aaron; indeed, Pharaoh's
own wife performed it. Jannes and Jambres, the
sons of Balaam, derided Moses, saying, "Ye carry straw to
Ephrain!"[162] whereto Moses answered, "To the place of
many vegetables, thither carry vegetables."
To show the Egyptians that Aaron could do something
with his rod that their magicians could not imitate, God
caused the serpent into which His rod had been changed to
swallow up all the rods of the magicians. But Balaam and
his associates said: "There is nothing marvellous or astonishing
in this feat. Your serpent has but devoured our
serpents, which is in accordance with a law of nature, one
living being devours another. If thou wishest us to acknowledge
that the spirit of God worketh in thee, then cast
thy rod to the earth, and if, being wood, it swallows up our
rods of wood, then we shall acknowledge that the spirit of
God is in thee." Aaron stood the test. After his rod had
resumed its original form, it swallowed up the rods of the
Egyptians,[163] and yet its bulk showed no increase. This
caused Pharaoh to reflect, whether this wonderful rod of
Aaron might not swallow up also him and his throne. Nevertheless
he refused to obey the behest of God, to let Israel
go, saying, "Had I Jacob-Israel himself here before me, I
should put trowel and bucket on his shoulder." And to
Moses and Aaron, he said, "Because ye, like all the rest of
the tribe of Levi, are not compelled to labor, therefore do ye
speak, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.' If you had
asked for a thousand people, or two thousand, I should have
fulfilled your request, but never will I consent to let six
hundred thousand men go away."
THE SUFFERING INCREASES
Beside refusing to dismiss the children of Israel, he ordered,
on the very day of Moses and Aaron's audience with
him, that the people be required to deliver the prescribed
tale of bricks, though the taskmasters were not as heretofore
to give them straw to make brick. Another decree
was, that the children of Israel were not to be permitted
to rest on the Sabbath, for Pharaoh knew that they used
the leisure for reading the rolls that described their
redemption. All this was a part of God's plan, the oppression
of Israel was to be increased the closer the end approached. As
they wandered up and down the land of
Egypt gathering the straw they needed for the due tale of
bricks, they were maltreated by the Egyptians if they caught
them on their fields. Such unkind acts perpetrated by the
whole people made it impossible for them to cast the entire
blame for the bondage of Israel upon Pharaoh. All the
Egyptians showed cruelty to the Israelites on their straw
foraging expeditions, and therefore the Divine punishment
descended upon all alike.
This frightful time of Israel's extreme suffering lasted six
months. Meantime Moses went to Midian, leaving Aaron
alone in Egypt. When Moses returned at the end of the
reign of terror, two of the Israelitish officers accosted him
and Aaron, and heaped abuse upon them for having increased
the woes of their people rather than diminished
them. They spake, saying, "If ye are truly the ambassadors
of God, then may He judge between us and Pharaoh.
But if you are seeking to bring about the redemption of
Israel on your own account, then may God judge between
you and Israel. You are responsible for the widespread
stench now issuing from the Israelitish corpses used as
bricks for building when our tale was not complete. The
Egyptians had but a faint suspicion that we were waiting
for our redemption. It is your fault if they are fully conscious
of it now. We are in the quandary of the poor sheep
that has been dragged away by a wolf. The shepherd pursues
the robber, catches up with him, and tries to snatch the
sheep from his jaws, and the wretched victim, pulled this
way by the wolf and that way by the shepherd, is torn to
pieces. Thus Israel fares between you and Pharaoh."
The two officers that spake these stinging words were
Dathan and Abiram, and it was neither the first nor the
last time they inflicted an injury upon Moses. The other
Israelitish officers were gentle and kind; they permitted
themselves to be beaten by the taskmasters rather than prod
the laborers of their own people put under their surveillance.
The cruel suffering to which his people was exposed
caused Moses to speak to God thus: "I have read the book
of Genesis through, and I found the doom in it pronounced
upon the generation of the deluge. It was a just judgment.
I found also the punishments decreed against the generation
of the confusion of tongues, and against the inhabitants of
Sodom. These, too, were just. But what hath this nation
of Israel done unto Thee, that it is oppressed more than
any other nation in history? Is it because Abraham said,
'Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit the land?' and
Thou didst rebuke him for his small faith, saying, 'Know
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs'? Why, then, are not the descendants of Esau
and Ishmael held in bondage, too? Are they not likewise of
the seed of Abraham? But if Thou wilt say, 'What concern
is it of mine?' then I ask Thee, Why didst Thou send me
hither as Thy messenger? Thy great, exalted, and terrible
Name is feared in all the earth, yet Pharaoh heard me pronounce
it, and he refuses obedience. I know Thou wilt redeem
Israel in Thine own good time, and it is of little moment
to Thee that now they are immuring living Israelites
in these buildings."
Were He a God of justice only, the Lord would have
slain Moses for the audacity of his last words, but in view
of his having spoken as he had only out of compassion with
Israel, the Lord dealt graciously with him. He answered
Moses, saying, "Thou shalt see what I will do to Pharaoh,"
words conveying to Moses, that although he would be witness
to the chastisement of Pharaoh, he would not be present
at that of the thirty-one kings of Canaan. Thus he was
rebuked for the unbecoming language he had used in
addressing God.[164] At the same time God's words were a
rejoinder to another speech by Moses. He had said: "O
Lord of the world, I know well that Thou wilt bring Thy
children forth from Egypt. O that Thou wouldst make
use of another instrument, for I am not worthy of being the
redeemer of Thy children." God made answer thereto:
"Yes, Moses, thou art worthy thereof. Through thee My
children will be brought forth out of Egypt. Thou shalt see
what I will do to Pharaoh."[165]
At the same time God called him to account for having so
little faith. He said: "O for the departed, their like cannot
be found any more! I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, as El Shaddai, God Almighty, but I was not
known to them by My name Adonai, God All-Merciful, as
I appeared unto thee. Nevertheless they did not cast
aspersions upon My acts. I spake to Abraham, 'Unto thee
will I give the land,' but when he was about to bury Sarah,
he had to pay out silver and buy a resting-place for her
body; and yet he did not find fault with Me. I spake to
Isaac, 'Unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these
lands,' but when he desired water to drink, he had to strive
with the herdsmen of Gerar; and yet he did not find fault
with Me. I spake to Jacob, 'The land whereon thou liest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed,' but when he wanted to
spread his tent, he had to acquire a parcel of ground for an
hundred pieces of money; and yet he did not find fault with
Me. None of them asked to know My Name. But thou
didst demand to know it at the very first, when I desired
to send thee down into Egypt, and after I revealed it to
thee, thou didst speak, saying, 'Thou didst tell me that
Thou art called Compassionate and Gracious, Longsuffering
and Merciful, but as soon as I pronounced this Name before
Pharaoh, misfortune descended upon the people of Israel.'
Now I desire to fulfil My covenant with the three Patriarchs,
and give their posterity the promised land, as a reward
for the unquestioning faith of the Fathers, and also
as a reward to the people, who, in spite of their suffering,
did not find fault with My deeds. For this will I give them
the land, which they do not deserve to possess for other
reasons. I swear that I will do thus!" God pronounced
this oath, to banish all fear from the mind of Moses, that He
might act only in accordance with His attribute of justice,
and thus delay the redemption of Israel for a time, on account
of the sins of the people.[166]
Now the redemption of Israel was a settled fact. But before
Moses and Aaron could start on the work of delivering
their people, God called various points to their attention,
which He bade them consider in their undertaking. He
spake to them, saying: "My children are perverse, passionate,
and troublesome. You must be prepared to stand their
abuse, to the length of being pelted with stones by them. I
send you to Pharaoh, and although I will punish him according
to his deserts, yet you must not fail in the respect
due to him as a ruler. Furthermore, be careful to take the
elders of the people into your counsel,[167] and let your first
step toward redemption be to make the people give up the
worship of idols."
The last was a most difficult task, and the words of God
concerning it wrung the exclamation from Moses: "See,
the children of Israel will not hearken unto me. How, then,
should Pharaoh hearken unto me?"[168] It was the third time
Moses declined to go on the errand of God. Now the Divine
patience was exhausted, and Moses was subjected to punishment.
At first God had revealed Himself only to Moses,
and the original intention had been that he alone was to
perform all the miracles, but henceforth the word of God
was addressed to Aaron as well, and he was given a share in
doing the wonders.[169]
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
God divided the ten punishments decreed for Egypt into
four parts, three of the plagues He committed to Aaron,
three to Moses, one to the two brothers together, and three
He reserved for Himself. Aaron was charged with those,
that proceeded from the earth and the water, the elements
that are composed of more or less solid parts, from which
are fashioned all the corporeal, distinctive entities, while the
three entrusted to Moses were those that proceeded from
the air and the fire, the elements that are most prolific of
life.[170]
The Lord is a man of war, and as a king of flesh and
blood devises various stratagems against his enemy, so God
attacked the Egyptians in various ways. He brought ten
plagues down upon them. When a province rises up in rebellion,
its sovereign lord first sends his army against it, to
surround it and cut off the water supply. If the people are
contrite, well and good; if not, he brings noise makers into
the field against them. If the people are contrite, well and
good; if not, he orders darts to be discharged against them.
If the people are contrite, well and good; if not, he orders
his legions to assault them. If the people are contrite, well
and good; if not, he causes bloodshed and carnage among
them. If the people are contrite, well and good; if not, he
directs a stream of hot naphtha upon them. If the people
are contrite, well and good; if not, he hurls projectiles at
them from his ballistae. If the people are contrite, well and
good; if not, he has scaling-ladders set up against their
walls. If the people are contrite, well and good; if not, he
casts them into dungeons. If the people are contrite, well
and good; if not, he slays their magnates.
Thus did God proceed against the Egyptians. First He
cut off their water supply by turning their rivers into blood.
They refused to let the Israelites go, and He sent the noisy,
croaking frogs into their entrails. They refused to let the
Israelites go, and He brought lice against them, which
pierced their flesh like darts. They refused to let the
Israelites go, and He sent barbarian legions against them, mixed
hordes of wild beasts. They refused to let the Israelites go,
and He brought slaughter upon them, a very grievous pestilence.
They refused to let the Israelites go, and He poured
out naphtha over them, burning blains. They refused to let
the Israelites go, and He caused His projectiles, the hail, to
descend upon them. They refused to let the Israelites go,
and He placed scaling-ladders against the wall for the locusts,
which climbed them like men of war. They refused
to let the Israelites go, and He cast them into dungeon darkness.
They refused to let the Israelites go, and He slew
their magnates, their first-born sons.[171]
The plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians corresponded
to the deeds they bad perpetrated against the children
of Israel. Because they forced the Israelites to draw
water for them, and also hindered them from the use of the
ritual baths, He changed their water into blood.
Because they had said to the Israelites, "Go and catch
fish for us," He brought frogs up against them, making
them to swarm in their kneading-troughs and their bed-
chambers and hop around croaking in their entrails. It
was the severest of all the ten plagues.
Because they had said to the Israelites, "Go and sweep
and clean our houses, our courtyards, and our streets," He
changed the dust of the air into lice, so that the vermin lay
piled up in heaps an ell high, and when the Egyptians put
on fresh garments, they were at once infested with the
insects.
The fourth plague was an invasion of the land by hordes
of all sorts of wild animals, lions, wolves, panthers, bears,
and others. They overran the houses of the Egyptians,
and when they closed their doors to keep them out, God
caused a little animal to come forth from the ground, and
it got in through the windows, and split open the doors,
and made a way for the bears, panthers, lions, and wolves,
which swarmed in and devoured the people down to the
infants in their cradles. If an Egyptian entrusted his ten
children to an Israelite, to take a walk with them, a lion
would come and snatch away one of the children, a bear
would carry off the second, a serpent the third, and so on,
and in the end the Israelite returned home alone. This
plague was brought upon them because they were in the
habit of bidding the Israelites go and catch wolves and lions
for their circuses, and they sent them on such errands, to
make them take up their abode in distant deserts, where
they would be separated from their wives, and could not
propagate their race.
Then God brought a grievous murrain upon their cattle,
because they had pressed the Israelites into their service as
shepherds, and assigned remote pasturing places to them,
to keep them away from their wives. Therefore the murrain
came and carried off all the cattle in the flocks the Israelites
were tending.
The sixth plague was a boil breaking forth with blains
upon man and upon beast. This was the punishment of the
Egyptians, because they would say to the children of Israel,
"Go and prepare a bath for us unto the delight of our flesh
and our bones." Therefore they were doomed to suffer with
boils that inflamed their flesh, and on account of the itch
they could not leave off scratching. While the Egyptians
suffered thus, the children of Israel used their baths.
Because they had sent the Israelites forth into the fields,
to plough and sow, hail was sent down upon them, and their
trees and crops were destroyed.
They had been in the habit of saying to the Israelites,
"Go forth, plant ye trees for us, and guard the fruit thereon."
Therefore God brought the locusts into the Egyptian
border, to eat the residue of that which was escaped, which
remained unto them from the hail, for the teeth of the locust
are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw teeth of a great
lion.
Because they would throw the Israelites into dungeons,
God brought darkness upon them, the darkness of hell, so
that they had to grope their way. He that sat could not rise
up on his feet, and he that stood could not sit down. The
infliction of darkness served another purpose. Among the
Israelites there were many wicked men, who refused to
leave Egypt, and God determined to put them out of the
way. But that the Egyptians might not say they had succumbed
to the plague like themselves, God slew them under
cover of the darkness, and in the darkness they were buried
by their fellow-Israelites, and the Egyptians knew nothing
of what had happened. But the number of these wicked
men had been very great, and the children of Israel spared
to leave Egypt were but a small fraction of the original
Israelitish population.
The tenth plague was the slaying of the first-born, and it
came upon the Egyptians because of their intention to murder
the men children of the Israelites at their birth, and,
finally, Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea,
because the Egyptians had caused the men children of the
Israelites to be exposed in the water.[172]
Each, of the plagues inflicted upon Egypt had another
parallel in the cruel treatment accorded to the Israelites.
The first was a punishment for the arrogant words spoken
by Pharaoh, "My Nile river is mine own, and I have made
it for myself."
The plague of the frogs God brought down upon the
Egyptians, "because," He said, "the frogs, which sometimes
inhabit the water, shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians
for having desired to destroy the nation destined to be the
bearers of the Torah, and the Torah is likened unto water."
God sent vermin upon them, saying, "Let the lice made
of the dust of the earth take vengeance upon the Egyptians
for having desired to destroy the nation whose seed is like
unto the dust of the earth."
Hordes of beasts, lions and wolves and swarms of serpents,
came down upon them, "because," God said, "these
animals shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having
desired to destroy the nation that is likened unto lions,
wolves, and serpents."
A fatal pestilence was brought upon them, "because,"
God said, "death shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians
for having desired to destroy the nation that faces death for
the glorification of the Name of God."
They were made to suffer with burning blains, "because,"
God said, "the boils coming from the ashes of the furnace
shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired
to destroy the nation whose ancestor Abraham walked into
the fiery furnace for the glorification of the Name of God."
He made hail to descend upon them, "because," He said,
"the white hail shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians
for having desired to destroy a nation whose sins shall be
white."
The locusts came upon them, "because," God said, "the
locusts, which are My great army, shall take vengeance
upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy the nation
that is called My hosts."
"Darkness," said God, "which is divided from the light,
shall come and take vengeance upon the Egyptians for desiring
to destroy the nation upon which shineth the light of
the Lord, while gross darkness covers the other peoples."
The tenth plague, the slaying of the first-born, God inflicted,
saying, "I will take vengeance upon the Egyptians
for having desired to destroy the nation that is My first-
born. As the night divided itself for Abraham, that his
enemies might be vanquished, so I will pass through Egypt
in the middle of the night, and as Abraham was proved by
ten temptations, so I will send ten plagues upon Egypt, the
enemy of his children."[173]
THE PLAGUES BROUGHT THROUGH AARON
From the infliction of the first of the plagues until the
passing of the last, after which the Egyptians yielded all
that Moses and Aaron demanded, there elapsed a whole
year, for twelve months is the term set by God for the expiation
of sins. The deluge lasted one year; Job suffered one
year; sinners must endure hell tortures for one year, and
the judgment upon Gog at the end of time will be executed
for the length of one year.[174]
Moses announced the first plague to Pharaoh one morning
when the king was walking by the river's brink. This morning
walk enabled him to practice a deception. He called
himself a god, and pretended that he felt no human needs.
To keep up the illusion, he would repair to the edge of the
river every morning, and ease nature there while alone and
unobserved. At such a time it was that Moses appeared
before him, and called out to him, "Is there a god that hath
human needs?" "Verily, I am no god," replied Pharaoh,
"I only pretend to be one before the Egyptians, who are
such idiots, one should consider them asses rather than
human beings."[175]
Then Moses made known to him that God would turn the
water into blood, if he refused to let Israel go. In the warning
we can discern the difference between God and man.
When a mortal harbors the intention to do an injury to an
enemy, he lies in wait for the moment when he can strike
an unexpected blow. But God is outspoken. He warned
Pharaoh and the Egyptians in public whenever a plague
was about to descend, and each warning was repeated by
Moses for a period of three weeks, although the plague itself
endured but a single week.
As Pharaoh would not lay the warning to heart, the
plague announced by Moses was let loose upon him and his
people--the waters were turned into blood. It is a well-
known proverb, "Beat the idols, and the priests are in
terror." God smote the river Nile, which the Egyptians
worshipped as their god, in order to terrify Pharaoh and
his people and force them to do the Divine will.
To produce the plague, Aaron took his rod, and stretched
out his hand over the waters of Egypt. Moses had no part
in performing the miracle, for God had said to him, "The
water that watched over thy safety when thou wast exposed
in the Nile, shall not suffer harm through thee."
Aaron had scarcely executed the Divine bidding, when
all the water of Egypt became blood, even such as was kept
in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. The very spittle
of an Egyptian turned into blood no sooner had he ejected
it from his mouth,[176] and blood dripped also from the idols
of the Egyptians.[177]
The transformation of the waters into blood was intended
mainly as a punishment for the oppressors, but it was at the
same time a source of profit for the oppressed. It gave the
Israelites the opportunity of amassing great wealth. The
Egyptians paid them large sums for their water, for if an
Egyptian and an Israelite drew water from the same trough,
the portion carried off by the Egyptian was bound to be
useless, it turned into blood. To be sure, nothing helped the
Egyptians in their distress, for though they drank water
from the same cup as an Israelite, it became blood in their
mouth.
However, this plague did not impress Pharaoh as a punishment
inflicted in the name of God, because with the help
of the Angels of Destruction the magicians of Egypt produced
the same phenomenon of changing water into blood.
Therefore he hearkened not unto the words of Moses.[178]
The next was the plague of the frogs, and again it was
Aaron that performed the wonder. He stretched forth his
hand with his rod over the rivers, and caused frogs to come
up upon the land of Egypt. Moses, whose life had been
preserved by the water, was kept from poisoning his savior
with the reptiles. At first only a single frog appeared, but
he began to croak, summoning so many companions that the
whole land of Egypt swarmed with them. Wherever an
Egyptian took up his stand, frogs appeared, and in some
mysterious way they were able to pierce the hardest of
metals, and even the marble palaces of the Egyptian nobles
afforded no protection against them. If a frog came close
to them, the walls split asunder immediately. "Make way,"
the frogs would call out to the stone, "that I may do the
will of my Creator," and at once the marble showed a rift,
through which the frogs entered, and then they attacked the
Egyptians bodily, and mutilated and overwhelmed them.
In their ardor to fulfil the behest of God, the frogs cast
themselves into the red-hot flames of the bake-ovens and
devoured the bread. Centuries later, the three holy children,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were ordered by
Nebuchadnezzar to pay worship to his idols on penalty of
death in the burning furnace, and they said, "If the frogs,
which were under no obligation to glorify the Name of God,
nevertheless threw themselves into the fire in order to execute
the Divine will concerning the punishment of the Egyptians,
how much more should we be ready to expose our lives
to the fire for the greater glory of His Name!"[179] And the
zealous frogs were not permitted to go unrewarded. While
the others were destroyed from Pharaoh and the Egyptian
houses at the moment appointed as the last of the plague,
God saved those in the bake-ovens alive, the fire had no
power to do them the least harm.[180]
Now, although the Egyptian magicians also brought up
frogs upon the land of Egypt through the help of demons,
Pharaoh nevertheless declared himself ready to let the people
go, to sacrifice unto the Lord. The difference between this
plague and the first was, that water turned into blood had
not caused him any personal inconvenience, while the
swarms of frogs inflicted physical suffering, and he gave the
promise to Moses to let Israel go, in the hope of ridding
himself of the pain he experienced. And Moses in turn
promised to entreat God for him on the following day. It
could not be done at once, because the seven days' term had
not yet elapsed. The prayer offered by Moses in behalf of
Pharaoh was granted, all the frogs perished, and their
destruction
was too swift for them to retire to the water. Consequently
the whole land was filled with the stench from the
decaying frogs, for they had been so numerous that every
man of the Egyptians gathered together four heaps of
them.[181] Although the frogs had filled all the market-places
and stables and dwellings, they retreated before the Hebrews
as if they had been able to distinguish between the
two nations, and had known which of them it was proper to
abuse, and which to treat with consideration.[182] Beside sparing
the Hebrews in the land of Egypt, the frogs kept within
the limits of the land, in no wise trenching upon the territory
of the neighboring nations. Indeed, they were the
means of settling peaceably an old boundary dispute between
Egypt and Ethiopia. Wherever they appeared, so
far extended the Egyptian domain; all beyond their line
belonged to Ethiopia.
Pharaoh was like the wicked that cry to God in their distress,
and when their fortunes prosper slide back into their
old, impious ways. No sooner had the frogs departed from
him, his houses, his servants, and his people, than he hardened
his heart again, and refused to let Israel go. Thereupon
God sent the plague of the lice, the last of those
brought upon Egypt through the mediation of Aaron.
Moses could have no part in it, "for," said God, "the earth
that afforded thee protection when she permitted thee to
hide the slain Egyptian, shall not suffer through thine
hand."[183]
The Egyptian magicians having boasted that they were
able to produce the first two plagues,--an empty boast it
was, for they did not bring them about with their enchantments,
but only because Moses willed them to do it,--God
put them to shame with the third plague. They tried in
vain to imitate it.[184] The demons could not aid them, for
their power is limited to the production of things larger
than a barley grain, and lice are smaller. The magicians
had to admit, "This is the finger of God." Their failure
put an end once for all to their attempts to do as Moses did.
But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and God spake to
Moses, saying, "This wicked fellow remains hard of heart,
in spite of the three plagues. The fourth shall be much
worse than those which have preceded it. Go to him, therefore,
and warn him, it would be well for him to let My
people go, that the plague come not upon him."[185]
THE PLAGUES BROUGHT THROUGH MOSES
The fourth plague was also announced to the king early
in the morning by the river's brink. Pharaoh went thither
regularly, for he was one of the magi, who need water for
their enchantments.[186] Moses' daily morning visits were
beginning to annoy him, and he left the house early, in the
hope of circumventing his monitor. But God, who knows
the thoughts of man, sent Moses to Pharaoh at the very
moment of his going forth.
The warning of the plague that was imminent not having
had any effect upon Pharaoh, God sent the fourth plague
upon Egypt,[187] a mixed horde of wild animals, lions, bears,
wolves, and panthers, and so many birds of prey of different
kinds that the light of the sun and the moon was darkened
as they circled through the air. These beasts came upon the
Egyptians as a punishment for desiring to force the seed of
Abraham to amalgamate with the other nations. God retaliated
by bringing a mixture upon them that cost them
their life.[188]
As Pharaoh had been the first of the Egyptians to lay evil
plans against the children of Israel, so he was the first upon
whom descended punishment. Into his house the mixed
horde of beasts came first of all, and then into the houses of
the rest of the Egyptians. Goshen, the land inhabited by
the Israelites, was spared entirely, for God put a division
between the two peoples. It is true, the Israelites had
committed sins enough to deserve punishment, but the Holy
One, blessed be He, permitted the Egyptians to act as a ransom
for Israel.
Again Pharaoh expressed his willingness to let the children
of Israel sacrifice unto their God, but they were to stay
in the land and do it, not go outside, into the wilderness.
Moses pointed out to Pharaoh how unbecoming it would be
for the Israelites to sacrifice, before the very eyes of his
people, the animals that the Egyptians worshipped as gods.
Then Pharaoh consented to let them go beyond the borders
of his land, only they were not to go very far away, and
Moses, to mislead him, asked for a three days' journey into
the wilderness. But, again, when Moses had entreated God
on Pharaoh's behalf, and the horde of wild beasts had vanished,
the king hardened his heart, and did not let the
people go.
The cessation of the fourth plague was as miraculous as
the plague itself. The very animals that had been slain by
the Egyptians in self-defense returned to life and departed
from the land with the rest. This was ordained to prevent
the wicked oppressors from profiting by the punishment
even so much as the value of the hides and the flesh of the
dead animals. It had not been so with the useless frogs,
they had died on the spot, and their carcasses had remained
where they fell.[189]
The fifth plague inflicted by God upon the Egyptians was
a grievous pestilence, which mowed down the cattle and
beasts chiefly, yet it did not spare men altogether. This
pestilence was a distinct plague, but it also accompanied all
the other plagues, and the death of many Egyptians was
due to it.[190] The Israelites again came off unscathed. Indeed,
if an Israelite had a just claim upon a beast held by
an Egyptian, it, too, was spared, and the same good fortune
waited upon such cattle as was the common property of
Israelites and Egyptians.
The sixth plague, the plague of boils, was produced by
Moses and Aaron together in a miraculous way. Each took
a handful of ashes of the furnace, then Moses held the contents
of the two heaps in the hollow of one of his hands, and
sprinkled the ashes tip toward the heaven, and it flew so
high that it reached the Divine throne. Returning earthward,
it scattered over the whole land of Egypt, a space
equal to four hundred square parasangs. The small dust
of the ashes produced leprosy upon the skin of the
Egyptians,[191]
and blains of a peculiar kind, soft within and dry
on top.[192]
The first five plagues the magicians had tried to imitate,
and partly they had succeeded. But in this sixth plague
they could not stand before Moses, and thenceforth they
gave up the attempt to do as he did. Their craft had all
along been harmful to themselves. Although they could
produce the plagues, they could not imitate Moses in causing
them to disappear. They would put their hands into their
bosom, and draw them out white with leprosy, exactly like
Moses, but their flesh remained leprous until the day of their
death. And the same happened with all the other plagues
that they imitated: until their dying day they were afflicted
with the ills they produced.[193]
As Pharaoh had wittingly hardened his heart with each
of the first five plagues, and refused to turn from his sinful
purpose, God punished him thereafter in such wise that he
could not mend his ways if he would. God said, "Even
though he should desire to do penance now, I will harden his
heart until he pays off the whole of his debt."
Pharaoh had observed that whenever he walked on the
brink of the Nile, Moses would intercept him. He therefore
gave up his morning walk. But God bade Moses seek the
king in his palace in the early hours of the day and urge him
to repent of his evil ways. Therefore Moses spake to him as
follows, in the name of God: "O thou villain! Thou thinkest
that I cannot destroy thee from the world. Consider, if
I had desired it, instead of smiting the cattle, I might have
smitten thee and thy people with the pestilence, and thou
wouldst have been cut off from the earth. I inflicted the
plague only in such degree as was necessary to show thee
My power, and that My Name may be declared throughout
all the earth. But thou dost not leave off treading My
people underfoot. Behold, to-morrow when the sun passes
this point,"--whereat Moses made a stroke upon the wall--
"I will cause a very grievous hail to pour down, such as
will be only once more, when I annihilate Gog with hail,
fire, and brimstone."
But God's lovingkindness is so great that even in His
wrath He has mercy upon the wicked, and as His chief
object was not to injure men and beasts, but to damage the
vegetation in the fields of the Egyptians, He bade Moses
admonish Pharaoh to send and hasten in his cattle and all
that he had in the field. But the warning fell on heedless
ears. Job was the only one to take it to heart, while Pharaoh
and his people regarded not the word of the Lord. Therefore
the Lord let the hail smite both man and beast, instead
of confining it to the herbs and the trees of the field, as He
had intended from the first.
As a rule, fire and water are elements at war with each
other, but in the hailstones that smote the land of Egypt
they were reconciled. A fire rested in the hailstones as the
burning wick swims in the oil of a lamp; the surrounding
fluid cannot extinguish the flame. The Egyptians were
smitten either by the hail or by the fire. In the one case as
the other their flesh was seared, and the bodies of the many
that were slain by the hail were consumed by the fire. The
hailstones heaped themselves up like a wall, so that the
carcasses of the slain beasts could not be removed, and if the
people succeeded in dividing the dead animals and carrying
their flesh off, the birds of prey would attack them on their
way home, and snatch their prize away. But the vegetation
in the field suffered even more than man and beast, for the
hail came down like an axe upon the trees and broke them.
That the wheat and the spelt were not crushed was a miracle.
Now, at last, Pharaoh acknowledged, and said, "The
Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. He
was righteous when He bade us hasten in our cattle from
before the hail, and I and my people were wicked, for we
heeded not His warning, and men and beasts were found in
the field by the hail, and slain." Again he begged Moses to
supplicate God in his behalf, that He turn the plague away,
and he promised to let the children of Israel go. Moses consented
to do his will, saying, however: "Think not that I
do not know what will happen after the plague is stayed. I
know that thou and thy servants, ye will fear the Lord God,
once His punishment is removed, as little as ye feared Him
before. But to show His greatness, I will pray to Him to
make the hail to cease."
Moses went a short distance out of the city from Pharaoh,
and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord, for he did not
desire to pray to God within, where there were many idols
and images. At once the hail remained suspended in the
air. Part of it dropped down while Joshua was engaged in
battle with the Amorites, and the rest God will send down
in His fury against Gog. Also the thunders ceased at
Moses' intercession, and were stored up for a later time,
for they were the noise which the Lord made the host of the
Syrians to hear at the siege of Samaria, wherefore they
arose and fled in the twilight.[194]
As Moses had foreseen, so it happened. No sooner had
the hail stopped than Pharaoh abandoned his resolve, and
refused to let Israel go. Moses lost no time in announcing
the eighth plague to him, the plague of the locusts. Observing
that his words had made an impression upon the king's
counsellors, he turned and went out from Pharaoh, to give
them the opportunity of discussing the matter among themselves.
And, indeed, his servants urged Pharaoh to let the
Israelites go and serve the Lord their God. But, again,
when Moses insisted that the whole people must go, the
young and the old, the sons and the daughters, Pharaoh demurred,
saying, "I know it to be customary for young men
and old men to take part in sacrifices, but surely not little
children, and when you demand their presence, too, you
betray your evil purpose. It is but a pretense, your saying
that you will go a three days' journey into the wilderness,
and then return. You mean to escape and never come back.
I will have nothing more to do with the matter.[195] My god
Baal-zephon will oppose you in the way, and hinder you on
your journey." Pharaoh's last words were a dim presentiment.
As a magician he foresaw that on their going forth
from Egypt the children of Israel would find themselves in
desperate straits before the sanctuary of Baal-zephon.[196]
Pharaoh was not content with merely denying the request
preferred by Moses and Aaron. He ordered them to be
forcibly expelled from the palace. Then God sent the
plague of the locusts announced by Moses before. They
ate every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees that
the hail had left, and there remained not any green thing.
And again Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, to ask their
forgiveness, both for his sin against the Lord God, in not
having hearkened unto His word, and for his sin against
them, in having chased them forth and intended to curse
them. Moses, as before, prayed to God in Pharaoh's behalf,
and his petition was granted, the plague was taken away,
and in a rather surprising manner. When the swarms of
locusts began to darken the land, the Egyptians caught them
and preserved them in brine as a dainty to be eaten. Now
the Lord turned an exceeding strong west wind, which took
up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea. Even
those they were keeping in their pots flew up and away, and
they had none of the expected profit.[197]
The last plague but one, like those which had preceded it,
endured seven days. All the time the land was enveloped
in darkness, only it was not always of the same degree of
density. During the first three days, it was not so thick
but that the Egyptians could change their posture when they
desired to do so. If they were sitting down, they could rise
up, and if they were standing, they could sit down. On the
fourth, fifth, and sixth days, the darkness was so dense that
they could not stir from their place. They either sat the
whole time, or stood; as they were at the beginning, so they
remained until the end. The last day of darkness overtook
the Egyptians, not in their own land, but at the Red Sea, on
their pursuit of Israel. The darkness was not of the ordinary,
earthly kind; it came from hell, and it could be
felt. It was as thick as a dinar, and all the time it prevailed
a celestial light brightened the dwellings of the children of
Israel, whereby they could see what the Egyptians were
doing under cover of the darkness. This was of great advantage
to them, for when they were about to go forth
from the land, and they asked their neighbors to lend them
raiment, and jewels of gold and jewels of silver, for the
journey, the Egyptians tried to deny having any in their
possession. But the children of Israel, having spied out all
their treasures during the days of darkness, could describe
the objects they needed with accuracy, and designate their
hiding-places. The Egyptians reasoned that the words of
the Israelites could be taken implicitly as they spoke them,
for if they had had any idea of deceiving them, asking for
a loan when they intended to keep what they laid hands on,
they might have taken unobserved during the days of darkness
whatever: they desired. Hence the Egyptians felt
no hesitation in lending the children of Israel all the treasures
they asked for.[198]
The darkness was of such a nature that it could not be
dispelled by artificial means. The light of the fire kindled
for household uses was either extinguished by the violence
of the storm, or else it was made invisible and swallowed
up in the density of the darkness. Sight, that most indispensable
of all the external senses, though unimpaired, was
deprived of its office, for nothing could be discerned, and
all the other senses were overthrown like subjects whose
leader has fallen. None was able to speak or to hear, nor
could anyone venture to take food, but they lay themselves
down in quiet and hunger, their outward senses in a trance.
Thus they remained, overwhelmed by the affliction, until
Moses had compassion on them again, and besought God in
their behalf, who granted him the power of restoring fine
weather, light instead of darkness and day instead of night.[199]
Intimidated by this affliction, Pharaoh permitted the
people to go, the little ones as well as the men and the
women, only he asked that they let their flocks and their
herds be stayed. But Moses said: "As thou livest, our
cattle also shall go with us. Yea, if but the hoof of an
animal belongs to an Israelite, the beast shall not be left
behind in Egypt." This speech exasperated Pharaoh to
such a degree that he threatened Moses with death in the
day he should see his face again.
At this very moment the Lord appeared unto Moses, and
bade him inform Pharaoh of the infliction of the last plague,
the slaying of the first-born. It was the first and the last
time that God revealed Himself in the royal palace. He
chose the residence of Pharaoh on this occasion that Moses
might not be branded as a liar, for he had replied to Pharaoh's
threat of killing him if he saw his face again, with
the words, "Thou hast spoken well; I will see thy face
again no more."
With a loud voice Moses proclaimed the last plague, closing
his announcement with the words: "And all these thy
servants shall come down unto me and bow down themselves
unto me, saying, Get thee out: and all the people that
follow thee; and after that I will go out." Moses knew well
enough that Pharaoh himself would come and urge him to
lead Israel forth with as great haste as possible, but he
mentioned
only the servants of the king, and not the king himself,
because he never forgot the respect due to a ruler.[200]
THE FIRST PASSOVER
When the time approached in which, according to the
promise made to Abraham, his children would be redeemed,
it was seen that they had no pious deeds to their credit for
the sake of which they deserved release from bondage. God
therefore gave them two commandments, one bidding them
to sacrifice the paschal lamb and one to circumcise their
sons.[201] Along with the first they received the calendar in
use among the Jews, for the Passover feast is to be celebrated
on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan, and with
this month the year is to begin. But the computations for
the calendar are so involved that Moses could not understand
them until God showed him the movements of the
moon plainly. There were three other things equally difficult,
which Moses could comprehend only after God made
him to see them plainly. They were the compounding of
the holy anointing oil, the construction of the candlestick
in the Tabernacle, and the animals the flesh of which is
permitted
or prohibited.[202] Also the determination of the new
moon was the subject of special Divine teaching. That
Moses might know the exact procedure, God appeared to
him in a garment with fringes upon its corners, bade Moses
stand at His right hand and Aaron at His left, and then,
citing Michael and Gabriel as witnesses, He addressed
searching questions to the angels as to how the new moon
had seemed to them. Then the Lord addressed Moses and
Aaron, saying, "Thus shall My children proclaim the new
moon, on the testimony of two witnesses and through the
president of the court.[203]
When Moses appeared before the children of Israel and
delivered the Divine message to them, telling them that their
redemption would come about in this month of Nisan, they
said: "How is it possible that we should be redeemed? Is
not the whole of Egypt full of our idols? And we have no
pious deeds to show making us worthy of redemption."
Moses made reply, and said: "As God desires your redemption,
He pays no heed to your idols; He passes them
by. Nor does He look upon your evil deeds, but only upon
the good deeds of the pious among you."[204]
God would not, indeed, have delivered Israel if they had
not abandoned their idol worship. Unto this purpose He
commanded them to sacrifice the paschal lamb. Thus they
were to show that they had given up the idolatry of the
Egyptians, consisting in the worship of the ram.[205] The
early law was different from the practice of later times, for
they were bidden to select their sacrificial animal four days
before the day appointed for the offering, and to designate
it publicly as such, to show that they did not stand in awe of
the Egyptians.
With a heavy heart the Egyptians watched the preparations
of the Israelites for sacrificing the animals they worshipped.
Yet they did not dare interpose an objection, and
when the time came for the offering to be made, the children
of Israel could perform the ceremonies without a
tremor, seeing that they knew, through many days' experience,
that the Egyptians feared to approach them with hostile
intent. There was another practice connected with the
slaughter of the paschal lamb that was to show the Egyptians
how little the Israelites feared them. They took of the
blood of the animal, and openly put it on the two side posts
and on the lintel of the doors of their houses.[206]
Moses communicated the laws regulating the Passover
sacrifice to the elders, and they in turn made them known to
the people at large. The elders were commended for having
supported the leader at his first appearance, for their
faith in Moses caused the whole people to adhere to him
at once. Therefore God spake, saying: "I will reward
the elders for inspiring the people with confidence in Moses.
They shall have the honor of delivering Israel. They shall
lead the people to the Passover sacrifice, and through this
the redemption will be brought about."[207]
The ceremonies connected with the Passover sacrifice had
the purpose of conveying instruction to Israel about the past
and the future alike. The blood put on the two side posts
and on the lintel of their doors was to remind them of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and the bunch of hyssop for
sprinkling the blood on the doors was to imply that, although
Israel's position among the peoples of the earth is
as lowly as that of the hyssop among the plants, yet this little
nation is bound together like the bunch of hyssop, for it is
God's peculiar treasure.[208]
The paschal sacrifice afforded Moses the opportunity for
inducing the children of Israel to submit themselves to
circumcision,
which many had refused to do until then in spite
of his urgent appeals. But God has means of persuasion.
He caused a wind to blow that wafted the sweet scents of
Paradise toward Moses' paschal lamb, and the fragrance
penetrated to all parts of Egypt, to the distance of a forty
days' journey. The people were attracted in crowds to
Moses' lamb, and desired to partake of it. But he said,
"This is the command of God, 'No uncircumcised person
shall eat thereof,' " and they all decided to undergo
circumcision. When the Lord passed through the land of Egypt,
He blessed every Israelite for his fulfilment of the two
commands, the command of the paschal sacrifice and the command
regarding circumcision."
The Lord performed a great miracle for the Israelites.
As no sacrifice may be eaten beyond the borders of the Holy
Land, all the children of Israel were transported thither on
clouds, and after they had eaten of the sacrifice, they were
carried back to Egypt in the same way.[210]
THE SMITING OF THE FIRST-BORN
When Moses announced the slaying of the first-born, the
designated victims all repaired to their fathers, and said:
"Whatever Moses hath foretold has been fulfilled. Let the
Hebrews go, else we shall all die." But the fathers replied,
"It is better for one of every ten of us to die, than the Hebrews
should execute their purpose." Then the first-born
repaired to Pharaoh, to induce him to dismiss the children
of Israel. So far from granting their wish, he ordered his
servants to fall upon the first-born and beat them, to punish
them for their presumptuous demand. Seeing that they
could not accomplish their end by gentle means, they attempted
to bring it about by force.[211]
Pharaoh and all that opposed the wishes of the first-born
were of the opinion that the loss of so inconsiderable a
percentage of the population was a matter of small moment.
They were mistaken in their calculation, for the Divine
decree included not only the first-born sons, but also the
first-born daughters, and not only the first-born of the
marriages
then existing, but also the first-born issuing from
previous alliances of the fathers and the mothers, and as the
Egyptians led dissolute lives, it happened not rarely that
each of the ten children of one woman was the first-born of
its father. Finally, God decreed that death should smite
the oldest member of every household, whether or not he
was the first-born of his parents.[212] What God resolves is
executed. At the exact instant marking the middle of the
night, so precise that only God Himself could determine and
discern it, He appeared in Egypt, attended by nine thousand
myriads of the Angels of Destruction who are fashioned
some of hail and some of flames, and whose glances drive
terror and trembling to the heart of the beholder. These
angels were about to precipitate themselves into the work of
annihilation, but God restrained them, saying, "My wrath
will not be appeased until I Myself execute vengeance upon
the enemies of Israel."[213]
Those among the Egyptians who gave credence to Moses'
words, and tried to shield their first-born children from
death, sent them to their Hebrew neighbors, to spend the
fateful night with them, in the hope that God would exempt
the houses of the children of Israel from the plague. But in
the morning, when the Israelites arose from their sleep, they
found the corpses of the Egyptian fugitives next to them.[214]
That was the night in which the Israelites prayed before
lying down to sleep: "Cause us, O Lord our God, to lie
down in peace, remove Satan from before us and from behind
us, and guard our going out and our coming in unto
life and unto peace,"[215] for it was Satan that had caused
frightful bloodshed among the Egyptians.[216]
Among the slain there were, beside the Egyptian first-
born, also the first-born of other nationalities residing in
Egypt, as well as the Egyptian first-born dwelling outside of
their own land.[217] Even the long dead of the first-born were
not spared. The dogs dragged their corpses out of their
graves in the houses, for it was the Egyptian custom to inter
the dead at home. At the appalling sight the Egyptians
mourned as though the bereavement had befallen them but
recently. The very monuments and statues erected to the
memory of the first-born dead were changed into dust, which
was scattered and flew out of sight. Moreover, their slaves
had to share the fate of the Egyptians, and no less the first-
born of the captive that was in the dungeon, for none was
so low but he hated the Hebrews, and rejoiced when the
Egyptians decreed their persecution.[218] The female slaves
that ground corn between mill-stones were in the habit of
saying, "We do not regret our servitude, if only the Israelites
are gagged, too.[219]
In dealing out punishment to these aliens in the land of
Egypt, God showed that He was at once the Master of the
land and the Lord over all the gods of the nations, for if
the slaves and the captives of war had not been smitten,
they would have said, "Mighty is our god, who helped us
in this plague."[220] For the same reason all the idols of the
Egyptians were swept out of existence in that night. The
stone idols were ground into dust, the wooden idols rotted,
and those made of metal melted away,[221] and so the Egyptians
were kept from ascribing their chastisement to the
wrath of their own gods. Likewise the Lord God slew the
first-born of the cattle, for the Egyptians paid worship to
animals, and they would have attributed their misfortunes
to them. In all these ways the Lord showed them that
their gods were but vanity.
THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPTIAN BONDAGE
Pharaoh rose up in the night of the smiting of the first-
born. He waited not for the third hour of the morning,
when kings usually arise, nor did he wait to be awakened,
but he himself roused his slaves from their slumber, and
all the other Egyptians, and together they went forth to
seek Moses and Aaron.[222] He knew that Moses had never
spoken an untruth, and as he had said, "I will see thy face
again no more," he could not count upon Moses' coming to
him. There remained nothing for him to do but go in search
of the Israelitish leader.[223] He did not know where Moses
lived, and he had great difficulty and lost much time in looking
for his house, for the Hebrew lads of whom he made
inquiries when he met them in the street played practical
jokes on him, misdirected him, and led him astray. Thus
he wandered about a long time.[224] all the while weeping and
crying out, "O my friend Moses, pray for me to God!"
Meanwhile Moses and Aaron and all Israel beside were
at the paschal meal, drinking wine as they sat and leaned to
one side, and singing songs in praise of God, the Hallel,
which they were the first to recite. When Pharaoh finally
reached the door of the house wherein Moses abode, he
called to him, and from Moses the question came back,
"Who art thou, and what is thy name?"--"I am Pharaoh,
who stands here humiliated."--Moses asked again: "Why
dost thou come to me thyself? Is it the custom of kings to
linger at the doors of common folk?"--"I pray thee, my
lord," returned Pharaoh, "come forth and intercede for us,
else there will not remain a single being in Egypt."--"I
may not come forth, for God bath commanded us, 'None of
you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.' "
--But Pharaoh continued to plead: "Do but step to the
window, and speak with me," and when Moses yielded to
his importunities, and appeared at the window, the king addressed
these words to him: "Thou didst say yesterday,
'All the first-born in the land of Egypt will die,' but now as
many as nine-tenths of the inhabitants have perished."[225]
Pharaoh was accompanied by his daughter Bithiah,
Moses' foster-mother. She reproached him with ingratitude,
in having brought down evil upon her and her countrymen.
And Moses answered, and said: "Ten plagues the
Lord brought upon Egypt. Hath evil accrued to thee from
any of them? Did one of them affect thee?" And when
Bithiah acknowledged that no harm had touched her, Moses
continued to speak, "Although thou art thy mother's first-
born, thou shalt not die, and no evil shall reach thee in the
midst of Egypt." But Bithiah said, "Of what advantage
is my security to me, when I see the king, my brother, and
all his household, and his servants in this evil plight, and
look upon their first-born perishing with all the first-born of
Egypt?" And Moses returned, "Verily, thy brother and
his household and the other Egyptians would not hearken to
the words of the Lord, therefore did this evil come upon
them.[226]
Turning to Pharaoh, Moses said: "In spite of all that
hath happened, I will teach thee something, if thou desirest
to learn, and thou wilt be spared, and thou wilt not die.
Raise thy voice, and say: 'Ye children of Israel, ye are
your own masters. Prepare for your journey, and depart
from among my people. Hitherto ye were the slaves of
Pharaoh, but henceforward ye are under the authority of
God. Serve the Lord your God!' " Moses made him say
these words three times,[227] and God caused Pharaoh's voice
to be heard throughout the land of Egypt, so that all the
inhabitants, the home-born and the aliens, knew that Pharaoh
had released the children of Israel from the bondage in
which they had languished. And all Israel sang, "Hallelujah,
praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the Name of
the Lord," for they belonged to the Lord, and no more were
the servants of Pharaoh.[228]
Now the king of Egypt insisted upon their leaving the
land without delay. But Moses objected, and said: "Are
we thieves, that we should slink away under cover of the
night? Wait until morning." Pharaoh, however, urged
and begged Moses to depart, confessing that he was anxious
about his own person, for he was a first-born son, and he
was terrified that death would strike him down, too. Moses
dissipated his alarm, though he substituted a new horror,
with the words, "Fear not, there is worse in store for
thee!" Dread seized upon the whole people; every one of
the Egyptians was afraid of losing his life, and they all
united their prayers with Pharaoh's, and begged Moses to
take the Israelites hence. And God spake, Ye shall all
find your end, not here, but in the Red Sea!"[229]
THE EXODUS
Pharaoh and the Egyptians let their dead lie unburied,
while they hastened to help the Israelites load their possessions
on wagons, to get them out of the land with as little
delay as possible. When they left, they took with them, beside
their own cattle, the sheep and the oxen that Pharaoh
had ordered his nobles to give them as presents. The king
also forced his magnates to beg pardon of the Israelites for
all they had suffered, knowing as he did that God forgives
an injury done by man to his fellow only after the wrong-
doer has recovered the good-will of his victim by confessing
and regretting his fault.[230] "Now, depart!" said Pharaoh
to the Israelites, "I want nothing from you but that you
should pray to God for me, that I may be saved from
death."[231]
The hatred of the Egyptians toward the Israelites changed
now into its opposite. They conceived affection and friendship
for them, and fairly forced raiment upon them, and
jewels of silver and jewels of gold, to take along with them
on their journey, although the children of Israel had not yet
returned the articles they had borrowed from their neighbors
at an earlier time. This action is in part to be explained
by the vanity of Pharaoh and his people. They desired
to pretend before the world that they were vastly rich,
as everybody would conclude when this wealth of their mere
slaves was displayed to observers. Indeed, the Israelites
bore so much away from Egypt that one of them alone might
have defrayed the expense of building and furnishing the
Tabernacle.
On their leaving the land only the private wealth of the
Egyptians was in their hands, but when they arrived at the
Red Sea they came into possession of the public treasure,
too, for Pharaoh, like all kings, carried the moneys of the
state with him on his campaigns, in order to be prepared to
hire a relay of mercenaries in case of defeat. Great as the
other treasure was, the booty captured at the sea far exceeded
it.[232]
But if the Israelites loaded themselves down with goods
and jewels and money, it was not to gratify love of riches,
or, as any usurer might say, because they coveted their
neighbors' possessions. In the first place they could look
upon their plunder as wages due to them from those they
had long served, and, secondly, they were entitled to retaliate
on those at whose hands they had suffered wrong.
Even then they were requiting them with an affliction far
slighter than any one of all they had endured themselves.[233]
The plagues did not stay the cruelty of the Egyptian oppressors
toward the Hebrews. It continued unabated until
the very end of their sojourn in the land. On the day of
the exodus, Rachel the daughter of Shuthelah gave birth to
a child, while she and her husband together were treading
the clay for bricks. The babe dropped from her womb into
the clay and sank out of sight. Gabriel appeared, moulded a
brick out of the clay containing the child, and carried it to
the highest of the heavens, where he made it a footstool before
the Divine throne. In that night it was that God looked
upon the suffering of Israel, and smote the first-born of the
Egyptians,[234] and it is one of the four nights that God has
inscribed in the Book of Memorial. The first of the four is
that in which God appeared to create the world; all was
waste and void, and darkness brooded over the abyss, until
the Lord came and spread light round about by His word.
The second night is that in which God appeared unto Abraham
at the covenant of the pieces. In the third night He
appeared in Egypt, slaying the first-born of the Egyptians
with His right hand, and protecting the first-born of the
Israelites with His left. The fourth night recorded will be
that in which the end of the redemption will be accomplished,
when the iron yoke of the wicked kingdom will be
broken, and the evil-doers will be destroyed. Then will
Moses come from the desert, and the Messiah from Rome,
each at the head of his flock, and the word of God will
mediate between them, causing both to walk with one accord
in the same direction.
Israel's redemption in future days will happen on the fifteenth
of Nisan, the night of Israel's redemption from Egypt,
for thus did Moses say, "In this night God protected Israel
against the Angels of Destruction, and in this night He will
also redeem the generations of the future."[235]
Though the actual deliverance from Egypt took place in
that night, the Hebrews did not leave the land until the
following day.[236]
During the same night God requited the Egyptians for
their evil deeds in the sight of all the people, the night being
as bright as day at the time of the summer solstice. Not one
could escape the general chastisement, for by Divine
dispensation none was absent from home at the time, so that
none could fail to see the chastisement.[237]
The angels in heaven learnt what was happening on earth.
When they were about to begin their song of praise to God,
He silenced them with the words, "My children on earth
are singing now," and the celestial hosts had to stop and
listen to the song of Israel.[238]
Great as the joy of the Hebrews was at their deliverance
from the Egyptian bondage, it was exceeded by that of Pharaoh's
people at seeing their slaves depart, for with them
went the dread of death that had obsessed them. They were
like the portly gentleman riding an ass. The rider feels
uncomfortable and longs for the moment of alighting, but his
longing cannot compare in intensity with that of the ass
groaning under the corpulent burden, and when their journey's
end is reached, the ass rejoices more than his master.
So the Egyptians were happier to be rid of the Hebrews
than these were to be free.[239]
In general, the Israelites were not in a joyous mood. The
strength of men is readily exhausted, mentally and physically,
by the strain of a sudden change from slavery to freedom.
They did not recover vigor and force until they
heard the angel hosts sing songs of praise and joy over the
redemption of Israel and the redemption of the Shekinah,
for so long as the chosen people is in exile, the Shekinah,
who dwells among Israel, is also, as it were, in exile. At
the same time, God caused the earth to exhale and send aloft
a healing fragrance, which cured them of all their diseases.[240]
The exodus of the Israelites began at Raamses, and although
the distance from there to the city of Mizraim, where
Moses abode, was a forty days' journey, yet they heard the
voice of their leader urging them to leave the land. They
covered the distance from Raamses to Succoth, a three days'
march, in an instant. In Succoth God enveloped them in
seven clouds of glory, four hovering in front, behind, and
at the two sides of them, one suspended above them, to
keep off rain, hail, and the rays of the sun, and one under
them to protect them against thorns and snakes. The
seventh cloud preceded them, and prepared the way for
them, exalting the valleys and making low every mountain
and hill.[241] Thus they wandered through the wilderness for
forty years. In all that time no artificial lighting was
needed; a beam from the celestial cloud followed them into
the darkest of chambers, and if one of the people had to go
outside of the camp, even thither he was accompanied by a
fold of the cloud, covering and protecting him.[242] Only, that
a difference might be made between day and night, a pillar
of fire took the place of the cloud in the evening.[243] Never
for an instant were the people without the one or the other
to guide them: the pillar of fire glowed in front of them
before the pillar of cloud retired, and in the morning the
cloud was there before the fire vanished.[244] The clouds of
glory and the pillar of fire were sent for the protection of
Israel alone, for none beside, not for the heathen and not
for the mixed multitude that went up with them; these had
to walk outside of the cloud enclosure.[245]
The cavalcade consisted of six hundred thousand heads of
families afoot, each accompanied by five children on horseback,
and to these must be added the mixed multitude, exceeding
the Hebrews vastly in number.[246]
So profound was Israel's trust in the Lord, that they followed
Moses unmurmuringly into the wilderness, without
supplying themselves with provisions.[247] The only edibles
they took were the remains of the unleavened bread and the
bitter herbs, and these not to satisfy their hunger, but because
they were unwilling to separate themselves from what
they had prepared lovingly at the command of God. These
possessions were so dear to them that they would not entrust
them to the beasts of burden, they carried them on their
own shoulders.[248]
End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Legends of the Jews Volume 2 | 