Masters were brought for him from all quarters, and he was instructed in all the wisdom and learning of the Egyptians; and the people looked upon him with hope as their future sovereign.474

3. THE YOUTH AND MARRIAGE OF MOSES.

Moses went daily to Goshen to see his relations; and he observed how the Hebrews were oppressed, and groaned under their burdens. And he asked wherefore the yoke was pressed so heavily on the neck of these slaves. He was told of the advice of Balaam against the people, and of the way in which Pharaoh had sought the destruction of himself in his infancy. This information filled Moses with indignation, and alienated his affections from Pharoah, and filled him with animosity towards Balaam.475 But, as he was not in a position to rescue his brethren, or to punish Balaam, he cried, “Alas! I had rather die than continue to behold the affliction of my brethren.” Then he took the necklace from off him, which indicated his princely position, and sought to ease the burden of the Israelites. He took the excessive loads from the women and old men, and laid them on the young and strong; and thus he seemed to be fulfilling Pharaoh’s intentions in getting the work of building sooner executed, whereas, by making each labor according to his strength, their sufferings were lightened. And he said to the Hebrews, “Be of good cheer, relief is not so far off as you suppose—calm follows storm, blue sky succeeds black clouds, sunshine comes after rain. The whole world is full of change, and all is for an object.”

Nevertheless Moses himself desponded; he looked with hatred upon Balaam, and lost all pleasure in the society of the Egyptians. Balaam seeing that the young man was against him, and dreading his power, escaped with his sons Jannes and Jambres to the court of Ethiopia.

The young Moses, however, grew in favor with the king, who laid upon him the great office of introducing illustrious foreigners to the royal presence.

But Moses kept ever before his eyes the aim of his life, to relieve his people from their intolerable burdens. One day he presented himself before the king and said, “Sire! I have a petition to make of thee.”

Pharaoh answered, “Say on, my son.”

Then said Moses, “O king! every laborer is given one day in seven for rest, otherwise his work becomes languid and unprofitable. But the children of Israel are given no day of rest, but they work from the first day of the week to the last day, without cessation; therefore is their work inferior, and it is not executed with that heartiness which might be found, were they given one day in which to recruit their strength.”

Pharaoh said, “Which day shall be given to them?”

Moses said, “Suffer them to rest on the seventh day.”

The king consented, and the people were given the Sabbath, on which they ceased from their labors; therefore they rejoiced greatly, and for a thousand years the last day of the week was called “The gift of Moses.”476

As the command to destroy all the male children had been withdrawn the day that Moses was cast into the Nile, the people had multiplied greatly, and again the fears of the Egyptians were aroused. Therefore the king published a new decree, with the object of impeding the increase of the bondsmen.

He required the Egyptian task-masters to impose a tale of bricks on every man, and if at evening the tale of bricks was not made up, then, in place of the deficient bricks, even though only one brick was short, they were to take the children of those who had not made up their tale, and to build them into the wall in place of bricks.477 Thus upon one misery another was piled.

In order that this decree might be executed with greater certainty, ten laborers were placed under one Hebrew overseer, and one Egyptian task-master controlled the ten overseers. The duty of the Hebrew overseers was to wake the ten men they were set over, every morning before dawn, and bring them to their work. If the Egyptian task-masters observed that one of the laborers was not at his post, he went to the overseer, and bade him produce the man immediately.

Now one of these overseers had a wife of the tribe of Dan, whose name was Salome, daughter of Dibri. She was beautiful and faultless in her body. The Egyptian task-master had observed her frequently, and he loved her. Then, one day, he went early to the house of her husband, and bade him arise, and go and call the ten laborers. So the overseer rose, nothing doubting, and went forth, and then the Egyptian entered and concealed himself in the house. But the overseer returning, found him, and drew him forth, and asked him with what intent he had hidden himself there; and Moses drew nigh. Now Moses was known to the Hebrews as merciful, and ready to judge righteously their causes; so the man ran to Moses, and told him that he had found the Egyptian task-master concealed in his house.

And Moses knew for what intent the man had done thus, and his anger was kindled, and he raised a spade to smite the man on the head and kill him.

But whilst the spade was yet in his hand, before it fell, Moses said within himself, “I am about to take a man’s life; how know I that he will not repent? How know I that if I suffer him to live, he may beget children who will do righteously and serve the Lord? Is it well that I should slay this man?”

Then Moses’ eyes were opened, and he saw the throne of God, and the angels that surrounded it, and God said to him, “It is well that thou shouldst slay this Egyptian, and therefore have I called thee hither. Know that he would never repent, nor would his children do other than work evil, wert thou to give him his life.”

So Moses called on the name of the Most High and smote; but before the spade touched the man, as the sound of the name of God reached his ears, he fell and died.478

Then Moses looked on the Hebrews who had crowded round, and he said to them, “God has declared that ye shall be as the sand of the sea-shore. Now the sand falls and it is noiseless, and the foot of man presses it, and it sounds not. Therefore understand that ye are to be silent as is the sand of the sea-shore, and tell not of what I have this day done.”

Now when the man of the Hebrews returned home, he drove out his wife Salome, because he had found the Egyptian concealed in his house, and he gave her a writing of divorcement and sent her away. Then the Hebrews talked among themselves at their work, and some said he had done well, and others that he had done ill. There were at their task two young men, brothers, Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, of the tribe of Reuben, and they strove together on this subject, and Dathan in anger lifted his hand, and would have smitten Abiram. Then Moses came up and stayed him, and cried, “What wickedness art thou doing, striking thy comrade? It beseems you not to lay hands on each other.”

Boldly did Dathan answer: “Who made thee, beardless youth, a lord and ruler over us? We know well that thou art not the son of the king’s daughter, but of Jochebed. Wilt thou slay me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?”

“Alas!” said Moses, “now I see that the evil words, and evil acts, and evil thoughts of this people will fight against them, and frustrate the loving kindness of the Lord towards them.”

Then Dathan and Abiram went before Pharaoh, and told him that Moses had slain an Egyptian task-master; and Pharaoh’s anger was kindled against Moses, and he cried, “Enough of evil hath been prophesied against thee, and I have not heeded it, and now thou liftest thy hand against my servants!”

For he had, for long, been slowly turning against Moses, when he saw that he walked not in the ways of the Egyptians, and that he loved the king’s enemies, and hated the king’s friends. Then he consulted his soothsayers and his councillors, and they gave him advice that he should put Moses to death with the sword. Therefore the young man, Moses, was brought forth, and he ascended the scaffold, and the executioner stood over him with his sword, the like of which was not in the whole world. And when the king gave the word, the headsman smote. But the Lord turned the neck of Moses into marble, and the sword bit not into it.

Instantly, before the second blow was dealt, the angel Michael took from the executioner his sword and his outward semblance, and gave to the headsman the semblance of Moses, and he smote at the executioner, and took his head from off his shoulders. But Moses fled away, and none observed him. And he went to the king of Ethiopia.479

Now the king of Ethiopia, Kikannos (Candacus) by name, was warring against his enemies; and when he left his capital city, Mero, at the head of a mighty army, he left Balaam and his two sons regents during his absence.

Whilst the king was engaged in war, Balaam and his sons conspired against the king, and they bewitched the people with their enchantments, and led them from their allegiance, and persuaded them to submit to Balaam as their king. And Balaam strengthened the city on all sides. Sheba, or Mero, was almost impregnable, as it was surrounded by the Nile and the Astopus. On two sides Balaam built walls, and on the third side, between the Nile and the city, he dug countless canals, into which he let the water run. And on the fourth side he assembled innumerable serpents. Thus he made the city wholly impregnable.

When King Kikannos returned from the war, he saw that his capital was fortified, and he wondered; but when he was refused admission, he knew that there was treason.

One day he endeavored to surmount the walls, but was repulsed with great slaughter; and the next day he threw thirty pontoons across the river, but when his soldiers reached the other side, they were engulfed in the canals, of which the water was impelled with foaming fury by great mill-wheels. On the third day he assaulted the town on the fourth side, but his men were bitten by the serpents and died. Then King Kikannos saw that the only hope of reducing the city was by famine; so he invested it, that no provisions might be brought into it.

Whilst he sat down before the capital, Moses took refuge in his camp, and was treated by him with great honor and distinction.

As the siege protracted itself through nine years, Kikannos fell ill and died.

Then the chief captains of his army assembled, and determined to elect a king, who might carry on the siege with energy, and reduce the city with speed, for they were weary of the long investment. So they elected Moses to be their king, and they threw off their garments and folded them and made thereof a throne, and set Moses thereon, and blew their trumpets, and cried “God save King Moses!”480

And they gave him the widow of Kikannos to wife, and costly gifts of gold and silver and precious stones were brought to him, but all these he laid aside in the treasury. This took place 157 years after Jacob and his sons came down into Egypt, when Moses was aged twenty-seven years.

On the seventh day after his coronation came the captains and officers before him, and besought of him counsel, how the city might be taken. Then said Moses, “Nine years have ye invested it, and it is not yet in your power. Follow my advice, and in nine days it shall be yours.”

They said, “Speak, and we will obey.”

Then Moses gave this advice, “Make it known in the camp that all the soldiers go into the woods, and bring me storks’ nests as many as they can find.”

So they obeyed, and young storks innumerable were brought to him. Then he said, “Keep them fasting till I give you word, and he who gives to a stork food, though it were but a crumb of bread, or a grain of corn, he shall be slain, and all that he hath shall become the king’s property, and his house shall be made a dung-heap.”

So the storks were kept fasting. And on the third day the king said, “Let the birds go.”

Then the storks flew into the air, and they spied the serpents on the fourth side of the city, and they fell upon them, and the serpents fled, and they were killed and eaten by the storks or ever they reached their holes, and not a serpent remained. Then said Moses, “March into the city and take it.”

And the army entered the city, and not one man fell of the king’s army, but they slew all that opposed them.

Thus Moses had brought the Ethiopian army into possession of the capital. The grateful people placed the crown upon his head, and the queen of Kikannos gave him her hand with readiness. But Balaam and his sons escaped, riding upon a cloud.

Moses reigned in wisdom and righteousness for forty years, and the land prospered under his government, and all loved and honored him. Nevertheless, some thought that the son of their late king ought to ascend the throne of his ancestors;—he was an infant when Moses was crowned, but now that he was a man, a party of the nobles desired to proclaim his right.

They prevailed upon the queen to speak; and when all the princes and great men of the kingdom were assembled, she declared the matter before all. “Men of Ethiopia,” said she, “it is known to you that for forty years my husband has reigned in Sheba. Well do you know that he has ruled in equity, and administered righteous judgment. But know also, that his God is not our God, and that his faith is not our faith. My son, Mena-Cham (Minakros) is of fitting age to succeed his father; therefore it is my opinion that Moses should surrender to him the throne.”

An assembly of the people was called, and as this advice of the queen pleased them, they besought Moses to resign the crown to the rightful heir. He consented, without hesitation, and, laden with gifts and good wishes, he left the country and went into Midian.481

Moses was sixty-seven years old when he entered Midian. Reuel or Jethro,482 who had been a councillor of Pharaoh, had, as has been already related, taken up his residence in Midian, where the people had raised him to be High Priest and Prince over the whole tribe. But Jethro after a while withdrew from the priesthood, for he believed in the one True God, and abhorred the idols which the Midianites worshipped. And when the people found that Jethro despised their gods, and that he preached against their idolatry, they placed him under the ban, that none might give him meat or drink, or serve him.

This troubled Jethro greatly, for all his shepherds forsook him, as he was under the ban. Therefore it was, that his seven daughters were constrained to lead and water the flocks.483

Moses arrived near a well and sat down to rest. Then he saw the seven daughters of Jethro approach.

The maidens had gone early to the well, for they feared lest the shepherds, taking advantage of their being placed under ban, should molest them, and refuse to give their sheep water. They let down their pitchers in turn, and with much trouble filled the trough. Then the shepherds came up and drove them away, and led their sheep to the trough the maidens had filled, and in rude jest they would have thrown the damsels into the water, but Moses stood up and delivered them, and rebuked the shepherds, and they were ashamed.

Then Moses let down his pitcher, and the water leaped up and overflowed, and he filled the trough and gave the flocks of the seven maidens to drink, and then he watered also the flocks of the shepherds, lest there should be evil blood between them.

Now when the maidens came home, they related to their father all that had taken place; and he said, “Where is the man that hath shown kindness to you?—bring him to me.”

So Zipporah ran—she ran like a bird—and came to the well, and bade Moses enter under their roof and eat of their table.

When Moses come to Raguel (Jethro), the old man asked him whence he came, and Moses told him all the truth.

Then thought Jethro, “I am fallen under the displeasure of Midian, and this man has been driven out of Egypt and out of Ethiopia; he must be a dangerous man; he will embroil me with the men of this land, and, if the king of Ethiopia or Pharaoh of Egypt hears that I have harbored him it will go ill with me.”

Therefore Raguel took Moses and bound him in chains, and threw him into a dungeon, where he was given only scanty food; and soon Jethro, whose thoughts were turned to reconciliation with the Midianites, forgot him, and sent him no food. But Zipporah loved him, and was grateful to him for the kindness he had showed her, in saving her from the hands of the shepherds who would have dipped her in the water-trough, and every day she took him food and drink, and in return was instructed by the prisoner in the law of the Most High.484

Thus passed seven, or, as others say, ten years;485 and all the while the gentle and loving Zipporah ministered to his necessities.

The Midianites were reconciled again with Jethro, and restored him to his former position; and his scruples about the worship of idols abated, when he found that opposition to the established religion interfered with his temporal interests.

Then, when all was again prosperous, many great men and princes came to ask the hand of Zipporah his daughter, who was beautiful as the morning star, and as the dove in the hole of the rock, and as the narcissus by the water’s side. But Zipporah loved Moses alone; and Jethro, unwilling to offend those who solicited her by refusing them, as he could give his daughter to one only, took his staff, whereon was written the name of God, the staff which was cut from the Tree of Life, and which had belonged to Joseph, but which he had taken with him from the palace of Pharaoh, and he planted it in his garden, and said, “He who can pluck up this staff, he shall take my daughter Zipporah.”

Then the strong chiefs of Edom and of Midian came and tried, but they could not move the staff.

One day Zipporah went before her father, and reminded him of the man whom he had cast into a dungeon so many years before. Jethro was amazed, and he said, “I had forgotten him these seven years; he must be dead; he has had no food.”

But Zipporah said meekly, “With God all things are possible.”

So Jethro went to the prison door and opened it, and Moses was alive. Then he brought him forth, and cut his hair, and pared his nails, and gave him a change of raiment, and set him in his garden, and placed meat before him.

Now Moses, being once more in the fresh air, and under the blue sky, and with the light of heaven shining upon him, prayed and gave thanks to God; and seeing the staff, whereupon was written the name of the Most High, he went to it and took it away, and it followed his hand.

When Jethro returned into the garden, lo! Moses had the staff of the Tree of Life in his hand; then Jethro cried out, “This is a man called of God to be a prince and a great man among the Hebrews, and to be famous throughout the world.” And he gave him Zipporah, his daughter, to be his wife.486

One day, as Moses was tending his flock in a barren place, he saw that one of the lambs had left the flock and was escaping. The good shepherd pursued it, but the lamb ran so much the faster, fled through valley and over hill, till it reached a mountain stream; then it halted and drank.

Moses now came up to it, and looked at it with troubled countenance, and said,—

“My dear little friend! Then it was thirst which made thee run so far and seem to fly from me; and I knew it not! Poor little creature, how tired thou must be! How canst thou return so far to the flock?”

And when the lamb heard this, it suffered Moses to take it up and lay it upon his shoulders; and, carrying the lamb, he returned to the flock.

Now whilst Moses walked, burdened with the lamb, there fell a voice from heaven, “Thou, who hast shown so great love, so great patience towards the sheep of man’s fold, thou art worthy to be called to pasture the sheep of the fold of God.”487

4. MOSES BEFORE PHARAOH.

One day that Moses was keeping sheep, his father-in-law, Jethro, came to him and demanded back the staff that he had given him. Then Moses cast the staff from him among a number of other rods, but the staff ever returned to his hand as often as he cast it away. Then Jethro laid hold of the rod, but he could not move it. Therefore he was obliged to let Moses retain it. But he was estranged from him.

Now Pharaoh was dead. And when the news reached Moses in Midian, he gat him up, and set his wife Zipporah and his son Gershom on an ass, and took the way of Egypt.

And as they were in the way, they halted in a certain place; and it was cloudy, and cold, and rainy. Then they encamped, and Zipporah tried to make a fire, but could not, for the wood was damp.

Moses said, “I see a fire burning at the foot of the mountain. I will go to it, for there must be travellers there; and I will fetch a brand away and will kindle a fire, and be warm.”

Then he took his rod in his hand and went. But when he came near the spot, he saw that the fire was not on the ground, but at the summit of a tree; and the tree was a thorn. A thorn-tree was the first tree that grew, when God created the herb of the field and the trees of the forest. Moses was filled with fear, and he would have turned and fled, but a voice488 called to him out of the fire, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here am I.” And the voice said again, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” This was the reason why he was bidden put off his shoes; they were made of asses’ hide, and Moses had trodden on the dung of his ass as he followed Zipporah and Gershom.

Then God gave Moses his commission to go into Egypt, and release his captive people. But Moses feared, and said, “I am of slow lips and tongue!” for he had burnt them, with his finger, when he took the live coal before Pharoah, as already related. But God said to him, “I have given thee Aaron thy brother to speak for thee. And now, what is this that thou hast in thy hand?”

Moses answered, “This is my rod.”

“And to what purpose dost thou turn it?”

“I lean on it when I am walking, and when I come where there is no grass, I strike the trees therewith, and bring down the leaves to feed my sheep withal.” And when he had narrated all the uses to which he put the staff, God said to him, “With this staff shalt thou prevail against Pharaoh. Cast it upon the ground.” And when he cast it down, it was transformed into a serpent or dragon, and Moses turned his back to run from it; but God said, “Fear not; take it up by the neck;” and he caught it and it became a rod in his hands. Then said the Most Holy, “Put thy hand into thy bosom.” And he did so, and drew it forth, and it was white, and shining like the moon in the dark of night.

Then Moses desired to go back to Zipporah his wife, but the angel Gabriel retained him, saying, “Thou hast higher duties to perform than to attend on thy wife. Lo! I have already reconducted her to her father’s house. Go on upon thy way to Pharaoh, as the Lord hath commanded thee.”

The night on which Moses entered Egyptian territory, an angel appeared to Aaron in a dream, with a crystal glass full of good wine in his hand, and said, as he extended it to him:—

“Aaron, drink of this wine which the Lord sends thee as a pledge of good news. Thy brother Moses has returned to Egypt, and God has chosen him to be His prophet, and thee to be his spokesman. Arise, and go forth to meet him!”

Aaron therefore arose from his bed and went out of the city to the banks of the Nile, but there was no boat there by which he could cross. Suddenly he perceived in the distance a light which approached; and as it drew nearer he saw it was a horseman. It was Gabriel mounted on a steed of fire, which shone like the brighest diamond, and whose neighing was hymns of praise, for the steed was one of the cherubim.

Aaron at first supposed that he was pursued by one of Pharaoh’s horsemen, and he would have cast himself into the Nile; but Gabriel stayed him, declared who he was, mounted him on the fiery cherub, and they crossed the Nile on his back.

There stood Moses, who, when he saw Aaron, exclaimed, “Truth is come, Falsehood is passed.” Now this was the sign that God had given to Moses, “Behold he cometh to meet thee.”489 And they rejoiced over each other.

But another account is this: Moses entered Memphis with his sheep, during the night. Now Amram was dead, but his wife Jochebed was alive. When Moses reached the door, Jochebed was awake. He knocked at the door; then she opened, but knew him not, and asked, “Who art thou?”

He answered, “I am a man from a far country; I pray thee lodge me, and give me to eat this night.”

She took him in, and brought him some meat, and said to Aaron, “Sit down and eat with the guest, to do him honor.” Aaron, in eating conversed with Moses and recognized him.

Then the mother and sister knew him also. And when the meal was over, Moses acquitted himself of his mission to Aaron, and Aaron answered, “I will obey the will of God.”490

Moses spent the night, and the whole of the following day, in relating to his mother the things that had befallen him.

And on the second night, Moses and Aaron went forth to Pharoah’s palace. Now the palace had four hundred doors, a hundred on each side, and each door was guarded by sixty thousand fighting men. The angel Gabriel came to them and led them into the palace, but not by the doors.

When they appeared before Pharoah they said: “God hath sent us unto thee, to bid thee let the Hebrews go, that they may hold a feast in the wilderness.”

But Pharoah said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.”491

Tabari tells a different story. Moses and Aaron sought admittance during two years. Now Pharoah gave himself out to be a god.

But Moses and Aaron, when they spake at the door with the porters, said, “He is no god.” One day the jester of Pharoah heard his master read the history of his own life, and when he came to the passage which asserted he was a god, the jester exclaimed, “Now this is strange! For two years there have been two strangers at thy gate denying thy divinity.”

When Pharoah heard this, he was in a fury, and he sent and had Moses and Aaron brought before him.

But to return to the Rabbinic tale. Moses and Aaron were driven out from the presence of Pharoah; and he said, “Who admitted these men?” And some of the porters he slew, and some he scourged.

Then two lionesses were placed before the palace to protect it, and the beasts suffered no man to enter unless Pharoah gave the word.

And the Lord spake to Moses and Aaron, saying, “When Pharoah talketh with you, saying, Give us a miracle, thou shalt say to Aaron, Take thy rod and cast it down, and it shall become a basilisk serpent; for all the inhabitants of the earth shall hear the voice of the shriek of Egypt when I destroy it, as all creatures heard the shriek of the serpent when I stripped it, and took from it its legs and made it lick the dust after the Fall.”492

On the morrow, Moses and Aaron came again to the king’s palace, and the lionesses would have devoured them. Then Moses raised his staff, and their chains brake, and they followed him, barking like dogs, into the house.493

When Moses and Aaron stood before the king, Aaron cast down the rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent, which opened its jaws, and it laid one jaw beneath the throne, and its upper jaw was over the canopy above it; then the servants fled from before it, and Pharaoh hid himself beneath his throne, and the fear it caused him gave him bowel-complaint for a week. Now before this Pharaoh was only moved once a week, and this was the occasion of his being lifted up with pride, and giving himself out to be a god.494

Pharaoh cried out from under the throne, “O Moses, take hold of the serpent, and I will do what you desire.”495

Moses took hold of the serpent, and it became a rod in his hands. Then Pharaoh crawled out from under his throne, and sat down upon it. And Moses put his hand into his bosom, and when he drew it forth, it shone like the moon.

The king sent for his magicians, and the chief of these were Jannes and Jambres. He told them what Moses had done.

They said, “We can turn a thousand rods into serpents.”

Then the king named a day when Moses and Aaron on one side should strive with Jannes and Jambres496 and all the magicians on the other; and he gave them a month to prepare for the contest.

On the day appointed—it was Pharaoh’s birthday—all the inhabitants of Memphis were assembled in a great plain outside the city, where lists were staked out, and the royal tent was spread for the king to view the contest.

Moses and Aaron stood on one side and the magicians on the other.

The latter said, “Shall we cast our rods, or will you?”

Moses answered, “Do you cast your rods first.”

Then the magicians threw down a hundred ass-loads of rods, tied the rods together with cords, and by their enchantment caused them to appear to the spectators like serpents, leaping and darting from one side of the arena to the other.

And all the people were filled with fear, and the magicians said, “We have this day triumphed over Moses.”

Then the prophet of God cast his rod before Pharaoh, and it became a mighty serpent. It rolled its tail round the throne of the king, and it shot forth its head, and swallowed all the rods of the enchanters, so that there remained not one.

After that all had disappeared, Moses took the serpent, and it became a rod in his hand again, but all the rods of the magicians had vanished.

And when the magicians saw the miracle that Moses had wrought, they were converted, and worshipped the true God. But Pharaoh cut off their hands and feet, and crucified them; and they died. Pharaoh’s own daughter Maschita believed; and the king in his rage did not spare her, but cast her into a fire, and she was burnt. Bithia was also denounced to him, and she was condemned to the flames, but the angel Gabriel delivered her. The Mussulmans say that he consoled her by telling her that she would become the wife of Mohammed in Paradise, after which he gave her to drink, and when she had tasted, she died without pain.

Then Moses and Aaron met Pharaoh in the morning as he went by the side of the river, and Moses said to the king, “The Lord of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness.”

But Pharaoh would not hearken to him. Then Aaron stretched out his rod over the river, and it became blood.

All the water that was in the vessels also became blood, even the spittle that was in the mouth of the Egyptians. The Rabbi Levi said that by this means the Israelites realized large fortunes; for if an Israelite and an Egyptian went together to the Nile to fetch water, the vessel of the Egyptian was found to contain blood, but that of the Israelite pure water; but if an Israelite brought water to the house of an Egyptian and sold it, it remained water.497

But Pharaoh’s heart was hard; and seven days passed, after that the Lord had smitten the river.

Then went Moses and Aaron to him. But the four hundred doors of the palace were guarded by bears, lions, and other savage beasts, so that none might pass, till they were satisfied with flesh. But Moses and Aaron came up, collected them together, drew a circle round them with the sacred staff, and the wild beasts licked the feet of the prophets and followed them into the presence of Pharaoh.498

Moses and Aaron repeated this message to Pharaoh, but he would not hearken to them, but drove them from his presence. Aaron smote the river; but Moses on no occasion smote the Nile, for he respected the river which had saved his life as a babe.499 Then the Lord brought frogs upon the land, and filled all the houses; they were in the beds, on the tables, in the cups. And the king sent for Moses and said: “Intreat the Lord, that He may take the frogs from me and from my people.” So the Lord sent a great rain, and it washed the frogs into the Red Sea.

The next plague was lice.500

The fourth plague was wild beasts.

The fifth was murrain.

The sixth was boils and blains upon man and beast.501

The seventh was hail and tempest. Now Job regarded the word of Moses, and he brought his cattle within doors, and they were saved; but Balaam regarded it not, and all his cattle were destroyed.502

The eighth was locusts; these the Egyptians fried, and laid by in store to serve them for food; but when the west wind came to blow the locusts away, it blew away also those that had been pickled and laid by for future consumption.503

The ninth plague was darkness.

The tenth was the death of the first-born.

The Book of Jasher says that, the Egyptians having closed their doors and windows against the plagues of flies, and locusts, and lice, God sent the sea-monster Silinoth, a huge polypus with arms ten cubits long, and the beast climbed upon the roofs and broke them up, and let down its slimy arms, and unlatched all the doors and windows, and threw them open for the flies and locusts and lice to enter.504

But the Mohammedans gave a different order to the signs:—(1) the rod changed into a serpent; (2) the whitened hand; (3) the famine; (4) a deluge, the Nile rose over the land so that every man stood in water up to his neck; (5) locusts; (6) anommals—these are two-legged animals smaller than locusts; (7) blood; (8) frogs; (9) every green thing throughout the land, all fruit, all grain, eggs, and every thing in the houses were turned to stone.505

After the plague of the darkness, Pharaoh resolved on a general massacre of all the children of the Hebrews. The Mussulmans put the temporary petrifaction of all in the land in the place of the darkness. The Book of Exodus says that during the darkness “they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place;” but the Arabs say that they were turned to stone. Here might be seen a petrified man with a balance in his hand sitting in the bazaar; there, another stone man counting out money; and the porters at the palace were congealed to marble with their swords in their hands.506 But others say that this was a separate plague, and that the darkness followed it.

And now Gabriel took on him the form of a servant of the king, and he went before him and asked him what was his desire.

“That vile liar Moses deserves death,” said Pharaoh.

“How shall I slay him?” asked Gabriel.

“Let him be cast into the water.”

“Give me a written order,” said the angel. Pharaoh did so.

Then Gabriel went to Moses and told him that the time was come when he was to leave Egypt with all the people, for the measure of the iniquity of Pharoah was filled up, and the Lord would destroy him with a signal overthrow.

5. THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

Moses prayed to God, and the water fell till the bed of the river was left dry; and then he and the women went into it, and came on the tomb of Joseph; it was a sarcophagus of marble without joints.507

Moses made preparations for departure, and said to the children of Israel, “God will destroy the Egyptians, and will give you their precious things.”

Then every one among the Hebrews who had an Egyptian neighbor said to him, if he was rich: “I am going to a feast in the country, I pray thee lend me jewels of gold and silver to adorn my wife and children.”

The Egyptians lent their precious things, and the Israelites by this means found themselves possessed of borrowed jewels in great abundance. Then Moses said, “We will leave Egypt this night when the Egyptians are asleep. Let every housekeeper softly desert his house, and bring with him his precious things, and meet outside the town. And let every one slay a lamb, and sprinkle with the blood the lintel and door-posts of the house, that the neighbors may know, when they see the blood, that the house is empty.”

When the middle of the night was passed, the Israelites were assembled outside Memphis, at the place which Moses had appointed. Then the host was numbered, and it contained six hundred thousand horsemen, not including those who were on foot, the women, the children, and the aged. All who were under twenty were accounted infants, and all who were over sixty were accounted aged.

After that, Moses placed Aaron in command of the first battalion, and he said to him, “March in the direction of the sea, for Gabriel has promised to meet me on its shores.” At that time one branch of the Nile (the Pelusiac branch) flowed into the Red Sea, which extended over where is now sandy desert to Migdol.

Moses made the host follow Aaron, troop by troop, and tribe by tribe; and he brought up the rear with a strong guard of picked men.

It was dawning towards the first day of the week when Israel escaped out of Egypt.

And when day broke, behold, they were gone away. Then the Egyptians came and told Pharaoh. He sent to search all the houses of the Israelites, but they were all empty, only their lamps were left burning. Pharaoh said, “We will pursue them.” The Egyptians said, “They have borrowed our jewels; we must follow after them, and recover what is our own.”

Now Moses had used craft touching these ornaments, in order that the Egyptians might be constrained to follow. For if the Israelites had gone without these, the Egyptians would have rejoiced at their departure. But because they had borrowed of the Egyptians, therefore the Egyptians went after them to recover their ornaments, and by this means rushed into destruction.

And Israel marched all day through the wilderness protected by seven clouds of glory on their four sides: one above them, that neither hail nor rain might fall upon them, nor that they should be burned by the heat of the sun; one beneath them, that they might not be hurt by thorns, serpents, or scorpions; and one went before them, to make the valleys even, and the mountains low, and to prepare them a place of habitation.508

Also, when the morning dawned, there was not a house in all Egypt in which there was not a first-born dead. And this delayed the people from pursuing after the Israelites; for they were engaged in bewailing their dead, and in digging graves for them. Thus they were not at leisure to follow after their former slaves, till they had escaped clean away.

Also that night was every metal image in Egypt molten, and every idol of stone was broken, and every idol of clay was shattered, and every idol of wood was dissolved to dust.509

The same day Pharaoh sent into all the cities of Egypt and collected an army. When even was come the whole army was assembled about the king, and Pharaoh said to Dathan and Abiram, who had remained behind,510 “The Israelites are few in number, they are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.” For all the way was full of marshes and canals of water and desert tracts. “They have acted wrongly by us, for they have carried away the ornaments and jewels of our people; and Moses, by magic, has slain all our first-born, so that there is not a house in which there is not one dead.”

On the morrow—it was the second day of the week—the army was reviewed, and Pharaoh numbered the host, and he had six hundred chosen chariots, and two million foot soldiers, and five million horsemen, and, in addition, there were one million seven hundred thousand horses, and on these horses were black men.

When the sun rose on the third day, Pharaoh marched out of Memphis, and he pursued for half a day with forced marches. At noon, Pharaoh had come up with Moses, and the fore-front of Pharaoh’s army thrust the rear-guard of the army of Moses. Then the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?”

They were divided into four opinions. One set said, “Let us fling ourselves into the sea.” Another set said, “Let us return and surrender ourselves.” The third set said, “Let us array battle against the Egyptians.” The fourth recommended, “Let us shout against them, and frighten them away with our clamor.”511

And Moses said unto the people, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”512

Then Moses raised his rod over the sea, and it divided, and let twelve channels of dry land appear traversing it, one for each of the twelve tribes. “When Moses had smitten,” says the Koran, “the sea divided into twelve heaps, and left twelve ways through it, and each heap was as a great mountain.”513

The Israelites hesitated to enter; for they said, “O Moses! the bottom of this sea is black mud, and when we place our feet on it we shall sink in and be swallowed up.”

But Moses prayed to God, and he sent a wind and the rays of the sun, and the wind and the sun dried the mud, and it became as sand.

Then Gabriel and Michael appeared to Moses and said, “Pass on, and lead the people through. As for us, we have orders to tarry for Pharaoh.” So Moses galloped forward into the sea, crying, “In the name of the merciful and glorious God!” and all the people went in after him. But as they marched by twelve ways, and there were walls of water between, they could not see each other, and they were in fear; therefore Moses prayed to the Lord, and the Lord made the water-heaps rise and arch over them like bowers, and shelter them from the fire of the sun; and He made the watery walls so clear they were as sheets of glass, and through them the columns of the advancing army were visible to each other.

Moses traversed the sea in two hours, and he came forth with all the people on the other side.

Then Pharoah and his host came to the water’s side, but he feared to enter in. Now Pharaoh was mounted on an entire horse of great beauty. He reined in his steed and would not go forward, for he thought that this was part of the enchantment of Moses.

But now Gabriel appeared mounted on a mare, and this was the cherub Ramka.514 And when the horse of Pharaoh saw the mare of Gabriel, he plunged forward and followed the mare into the sea. Then, when the Egyptian army saw their king enter fearlessly into one of the channels, they also precipitated themselves into the ways through the deep.

They advanced till they reached the middle of the Red Sea, and then Gabriel reined in and turned and unfurled before Pharaoh the order he had given for the destruction of Moses in the water, and it was signed by Pharoah and sealed with his own signet.

“See!” exclaimed the angel, “What thou wouldest do to Moses, that shall be done to thee; for thou art but a man, thou who fightest against God.”

Then the twelve heaps of water overwhelmed the host. But Pharaoh’s horse was so fleet of foot that he outfled the returning waters, and he brought the king to the shore. He would have been saved, had not Gabriel smitten him on the face, and he fell back into the sea and perished with the rest. Then said Miriam, as he sank, “Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.”515

Another curious incident is related by Tabari. When the water reached Pharaoh, and he knew that he must perish, he cried out, “I believe in the God of Israel!” Gabriel, fearing lest Pharaoh should repeat these words, and that God in His mercy should accept his profession of faith, and pardon him, passed his wing over the bottom of the sea, raised the earth, and threw it into the mouth of Pharaoh so as to prevent him from swallowing again, and said, “Now thou believest, but before thou wast rebellious; nevertheless, thou art numbered with the wicked.”516

It was the ninth hour of the day when the children of Israel stood on dry land on the further side of the sea.

On the morrow, the children of Israel assembled around Moses, and said to him, “We do not believe that Pharaoh is drowned, for he had peculiar power. He never suffered from headache, nor from fever, nor from any sickness, and was internally moved but once a week.”

Then Moses clave the sea asunder with his rod, and they saw Pharaoh and all his host dead at the bottom of the sea. The bodies of the Egyptians were covered with armor and much gold and silver, and on the corpse of Pharaoh were chains and bracelets of gold. The children of Israel would have spoiled the dead, but Moses forbade them, for he said, “It is lawful to spoil the living, but it is robbery to strip the dead.” Nevertheless many of the Hebrews went in and took from the Egyptians all that was valuable. Then God was wroth, because they had disobeyed Moses, and the sea was troubled, and for ten days it raged with fury, and even to this day the water is not at rest where the Israelites committed this sin. And the name of that place at this day is “Bab el Taquath.”517

6. THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

Aaron bade them break off their earrings and bracelets and give them to him, for he thought that they would be reluctant to part with their jewels. Nevertheless the people brought their ornaments to him in great abundance, and one named Micah cast them into a copper vessel; and when the gold was melted, he threw in a handful of the sand which had been under the hoof of Gabriel’s horse, and there came forth a calf, which ran about like a living beast, and bellowed; for Sammael (Satan) had entered into it. “Here is your god that shall go before you,” cried Micah; and all the people fell down and worshipped the golden calf.518

And when Moses came down from the Mount and drew near to the camp, and saw the calf, and the instruments of music in the hands of the wicked, who were dancing and bowing before it, and Satan among them dancing and leaping before the people, the wrath of Moses was suddenly kindled, and he cast the tables of the Commandments, which he had received from God on the Mount, out of his hand and brake them at the foot of the mountain; but the holy writing that was on them flew, and was carried away into the heavens; and he cried and said, “Woe upon the people who have heard from the mouth of the Holy One, ‘Thou shalt not make to thyself any image, a figure, or any likeness;’ and yet at the end of forty days make a useless molten calf!”

And he took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it to powder, and cast it upon the face of the water of the stream, and made the sons of Israel drink; and whoever had given thereto any trinket of gold, the sign of it came forth upon his nostrils.519

Of all the children of Israel only twelve thousand were found who had not worshipped the calf.520

The Mussulmans say that the Tables borne by Moses were from ten to twelve cubits in length, and were made, say some, of cedar wood, but others say of ruby, others of carbuncle; but the general opinion is that they were of sapphire or emerald;521 and the letters were graven within them, not on the surface, so that the words could be read on either side. When the golden calf had been pounded to dust, Moses made the Israelites drink water in which was the dust, and those who had kissed the idol were marked with gilt lips. Thus the Levites were able to distinguish them; and they slew of them twenty and three thousand.522

It is a common tradition among the Jews that the red hair which is by no means infrequently met with in the Hebrew race is derived from this period; all those who had sinned and drank of the water lost their black hair and it became red, and they transmitted the color to their posterity.

Another version of the story is as follows. Samiri (Micah), who had fashioned the golden calf, was of the tribe of Levi. When Moses came down from the Mount, he would have beaten Aaron, but his brother said, “It is not I, it is Samiri who made the calf.” Then Moses would have slain Samiri, but God forbade him, and ordered him instead to place him under ban.

From that time till now, the man wanders, like a wild beast, from one end of the earth to the other; every man avoids him, and cleanses the earth on which his feet have rested; and when he comes near any man, he cries out, “Touch me not!”

But before Moses drave Samiri out of the camp, he ground the calf to powder, and made Samiri pollute it; then he mixed it with the water, and gave it to the Israelites to drink. After Samiri had departed, Moses interceded with God for the people. But God answered, “I cannot pardon them, for their sin is yet in them, and it will only be purged out by the draught they have drunk.”

When Moses returned to the camp, he heard a piteous cry. Many Israelites with yellow faces and livid bodies cast themselves before him, and cried, “Help! Moses, help! the golden calf consumes our intestines; we will repent and die, if the Lord will pardon us.”

Some, really contrite, were healed. Then a black cloud came down on the camp, and all those who were in it fought with one another and slew one another; but upon the innocent the swords had no power. Seven thousand idolaters had been slain, when Moses, hearing the cry of the women and children, came and prayed; and the cloud vanished, and the sword rested.523

According to some, the complaint caused by swallowing the dust of the calf was jaundice, a complaint which has never ceased from among men since that day. Thus the calf brought two novelties into the world, red hair and jaundice.

And Moses went up again into the Mount, and took with him seventy of the elders. And he besought the Lord, “Suffer me, O Lord, to see Thee!”524 But the Lord answered him, “Thinkest thou that thou canst behold Me and live?” And He said, “Look at this mountain; I will display Myself to this mountain.”

Then the mountain saw God, and it dissolved into fine dust. So Moses knew that it was not for him to see God, and he repented that he had asked this thing.525 After that he went with the seventy elders to Sinai, and a cloud, white and glistening, came down and rested on the head of Moses, and then descended and wholly enveloped him, so that the seventy saw him not; and when he was in the cloud, he received again the Tables of the Commandments, and he came forth out of the cloud. But they murmured that they had not also received the revelation. Then the cloud enveloped them also, and they heard all the words that had been spoken to Moses; and after that they said, “Now we believe, because we have heard with our own ears.”

Then the wrath of God blazed forth, and a thundering was heard so great and terrible that they fainted and died. But Moses feared, and he prayed to God, and God restored the seventy men to life again, and they came down the Mount with him.526

And it was at this time that the face of Moses shone with the splendor which had come upon him from the brightness of the glory of the Lord’s Shekinah in the time of His speaking with him. And Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and, behold, the glory of his face was dazzling, so that they were afraid to come near to him. And Moses called to them, and Aaron, and all the princes of the congregation; and he taught them all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses spoke with them, he had a veil upon his face; and when he went up to speak with the Lord, he removed the veil from his countenance until he came forth.527

This was the reason why the face of Moses shone. He saw the light which God had created, whereby Adam was enabled to see from one end of the earth to the other. God showed this light now to Moses, and thereby he was able to see to Dan.528

When Moses went up into the Mount, a cloud received him, and bore him into heaven. On his way, he met the doorkeeper Kemuel, chief of twelve thousands of angels of destruction; they were angels of fire; and he would have prevented Moses from advancing: then Moses pronounced the Name in twelve letters, revealed to him by God from the Burning Bush, and the angel and his host recoiled before that word twelve thousand leagues. But some say that Moses smote the angel, and wounded him.

A little further, Moses met another angel; this was Hadarniel, who had a terrible voice, and every word he uttered split into twelve thousand lightnings; he reigned six hundred thousand leagues higher than Kemuel. Moses, in fear, wept at his voice, and would have fallen out of the cloud, had not God restrained him. Then the prophet pronounced the Name of seventy-two letters, and the angel fled.

Next he came to the fiery angel Sandalfon, and he would have fallen out of the cloud, but God held him up. Then he reached the river of flame, called Rigjon, which flows from the beasts which are beneath the Throne, and is filled with their sweat; across this God led him.529

It is asserted by the Rabbis that Moses learnt the whole law in the forty days that he was in the Mount, but as he descended from the immediate presence of God, he entered the region where stood the angels guarding the Mount, and when he saw the Angel of Fear, the Angel of Sweat, the Angel of Trembling, and the Angel of Cold Shuddering, he was so filled with consternation, that he forgot all that he had learnt. Then God sent the Angel Jephipha, who brought back all to his remembrance; and, armed with the law, Moses passed the ranks of all the angels, and each gave him some secret or mystery; one the art of mixing simples, one that of reading in the stars, another that of compounding antidotes, a fourth the secret of name, or the Kabalistic mystery.530

It is said by the Mussulmans, that when the law was declared to the children of Israel by Moses, they refused to receive it; then Mount Sinai rose into the air, and moved above them, and they fled from it; but it followed them, and hung over their heads ready to crush them. And Moses said, “Accept the law, or the mountain will fall on you and destroy you.”

Then they fell on their faces and placed the right side of the brow and right cheek against the ground and looked up with the left eye at the mountain that hung above them, and said, “We will accept the law.” This is the manner in which the Jews to this day perform their worship, says Tabari; they place the brow and right cheek and eye upon the ground, and turn the left cheek and eye to heaven, and in this position they pray.531