And he answered, “I am your son, your eldest son, Esau.”
And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, “Who came, then, in your place? Who brought venison and I ate it, and gave him your blessing?”
Then Esau cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”
And Isaac said, “It was your brother, Jacob. He lied to me, and stole your blessing. But I have blessed him, and I cannot change it. I have made him the head of the family after my death.”
And Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father!” And Esau cried aloud. Then Isaac blessed Esau also, but he could not give him so good a blessing as he had given Jacob.
Now Rebekah had been thinking for a good while that it would be well for Jacob to visit his cousins, who lived in the old country, beyond the rivers. For there was a family in the neighborhood named Heth, whom Isaac and Rebekah did not like, and they had a number of daughters, and Jacob used to go to see them. It troubled Rebekah greatly, and more than once she had said to Isaac, “Those Heth girls worry me almost to death. How dreadful it would be if Jacob should marry one of them!” And Isaac had said, “Let him go and see his cousins. A change will do him good.” So now, when Jacob’s behavior had displeased his father and made his brother so angry with him that he threatened to kill him, Rebekah felt that the time had come. She packed up Jacob’s things, and sent him off for a long visit at his Uncle Laban’s.
SO Jacob mounted a camel, and away he went. And when the sun began to set, he looked about him, and he was in a wild country where nobody lived, and where the only roof in sight was the round roof of the sky. So he lay down on the hard ground and put a smooth stone under his head for a pillow, and went to sleep, for he was tired. And in the night he dreamed a dream.
He thought that the night sky was all bright above him, and that there was a ladder of light reaching from earth to heaven, and that there were angels climbing up and climbing down, and that at the top of the ladder was God himself, who said, “Jacob, this land on which you sleep shall some time belong to you and to your children, and your family shall grow into a great nation and be a blessing to the world.” Then all was dark again, till the morning sun shone upon the sleeper.
That morning, after Jacob had said his prayers, he took the stone which he had used for a pillow, and a lot of other stones, and piled them up to mark the place. And he asked God to protect him from all the dangers of the way and to bring him home again in peace; and he promised that he would try to please God. For, in spite of the mean things that he had done, there was a great deal of good in Jacob.
So he journeyed and he journeyed, and by and by he came to the river Jordan, and his camel carried him over, wading across a shallow place. And then he journeyed, and he journeyed, and he journeyed, till by and by he came to the river Euphrates, and even over this wide river did his camel carry him, finding a shallow place and wading across. And one day about noon he came to a well in a field, and three flocks of sheep were lying by it, but the mouth of the well was covered with a great stone.
And Jacob spoke to the shepherds and said, “Brothers, where do you live?”
And they said, “We live in Haran.” And that was the very place for which Jacob was looking.
And Jacob said, “Do you know anybody there named Laban?”
“Yes,” they said, “we know him.”
“Is he well?”
“Yes, he is very well, and there at this moment comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”
And Jacob looked, and across the field, leading a flock of sheep, came his Cousin Rachel. And Jacob rolled away the stone from the well’s mouth, and drew water for Rachel’s sheep. And he said, “I am your Cousin Jacob, the son of your Uncle Isaac and your Aunt Rebekah, and I have come to make you a long visit.” And there were tears in his eyes, because he was so glad to be at the end of his journey. And he kissed Rachel. And Rachel left the sheep, and ran and told her father that Jacob had come. And when Laban heard that, he ran out to meet Jacob and he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house.
The next day, Jacob began to help in the work of the farm. He milked the cows and watered the cattle, and made himself generally useful; but the work which he liked best was the tending of the sheep. Every day, whether there was rain or shine, he went out into the pastures and helped Rachel keep the sheep. And this he did partly because he liked sheep, but still more because he liked Rachel. So a month passed, and one day his Uncle Laban said, “Jacob, I don’t think that you ought to work without any pay just because you are my nephew. Stay with me and let me give you wages, like the other men. What shall I give you?”
And Jacob said, “Uncle Laban, I would like very much to have your daughter Rachel.”
And Laban said, “Jacob, I would rather have her marry you than any other man I know.” And Rachel felt just the same way. So it was settled that Jacob should work for Laban seven years, and then should marry Rachel. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her.
Now this, you understand, was a long time ago, and far away in Asia, beyond the Euphrates. And they had a strange custom of marrying two wives, or three, and sometimes more. So when the seven years were over, Laban told Jacob that if he wished to marry Rachel, he must first marry her older sister Leah. “In our country,” he said, “we must not give the younger before the older.” So Jacob had to marry Leah, who was a good girl but very near-sighted, and serve seven more years for Rachel. This was pretty hard for both Rachel and Jacob, but he did it, and when the seven added years were passed they were married with great joy.
Then Jacob felt that it was time for him to go home, for he had gone to his Uncle Laban’s to spend a month and had stayed fourteen years. All this time his flocks and herds had grown in number. For Laban gave him sheep and goats, in payment for his work. But when Laban said, “This year you shall have for your wages all the brown sheep and all the speckled goats,” behold, that year almost all of the goats were speckled and almost all of the sheep were brown. So Jacob got to be very rich. He had sheep and goats, and cows and camels, and men-servants and maid-servants. But Jacob was so useful to Laban that Laban was not willing to let him go.
Finally, one day, when Laban was away off shearing sheep, Jacob and Rachel and Leah gathered all their belongings together, and all their cattle, and started for Jacob’s home without saying good-by. Off they went, over the river. And though Laban followed and begged them to come back, they would not go. Then they journeyed and they journeyed, till at last Jacob saw in the distance the hills of his own land.
Then Jacob began to remember Esau and how he had threatened to kill him. And he sent messengers to Esau to tell him that he was coming back, and to find how Esau felt. And the messengers returned and said, “Esau is coming to meet you with four hundred men.” And Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.
And that night he had a dream. He dreamed that he was wrestling with a man; he was trying to throw the man, and the man was trying to throw him; and neither could master the other. At last, as the sun rose, Jacob found that the man was an angel, and the angel said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” And Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” So the angel blessed Jacob, and he awoke. And there across the wide field was his brother Esau. And Jacob stood up and bowed down before his brother seven times, because he did not know whether Esau was a friend or an enemy. But Esau ran to meet him, and threw his arms about his neck and kissed him.
And Esau said, “Who are these with you?”
And Jacob said, “Esau, this is my wife Rachel, and this is my wife Leah. And I have brought you a present, all this drove of cattle.”
But Esau said, “Thank you, Jacob; keep the cattle. I have enough of my own.” Thus Esau forgave Jacob for the mean things that he had done.
OF all his twelve sons, Jacob loved Joseph best. Most of the others were grown men, who were away all day at work in the fields; Benjamin was a baby. But Joseph was a bright lad who was a great companion for his father. And he was a good lad, who could always be trusted to do what was right, while some of the others gave Jacob a great deal of trouble.
Joseph’s older brothers were stout farmers who spent most of their time attending to their cattle. They expected to milk the cows and feed the sheep and ride the camels all the rest of their days, and wished for nothing better. But Joseph, even as a boy, had made up his mind to be a great person, a prince, or perhaps a king. He thought that he would like to sit on a throne, and wear a crown, and be a mighty ruler. And this his father liked; for Jacob, too, in his own boyhood, had made long plans. So his father gave him a coat such as princes wore, a coat of many colors; and he wore it every day, even when he went to tend the sheep,—a shining coat, reaching to his heels. But his older brothers teased him, and called him names, and disliked him.
One time, when they came home from the pasture in their rough clothes, and found Joseph wearing his fine coat, they said, “Well, Prince Joseph, what have you been dreaming about to-day?”
And Joseph said, “I dreamed that we were all binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright, and your sheaves came round about, and bowed down to my sheaf.”
And that made his brothers very angry. “What,” they said, “shall you be ruler over us?”
Another time, after the cows were milked and the older brothers came in to wash their hands for supper, and found Joseph with his bright coat flapping about his ankles, they said, “Well, King Joseph, what foolish dream have you had to-day?”
And Joseph answered, “To-day I dreamed that the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.”
Even his father did not quite like that. “What,” he said, “shall your mother and I and your brothers bow down to you?”
But his brothers hated him. And once, when four of them so misbehaved themselves that Joseph told his father what they had done, they hated him yet the more.
Now, when Joseph was seventeen years old, his brothers took the sheep one day and led them so far in search of green pastures that their father did not know where they had gone. So he called Joseph. “Joseph,” he said, “you know which way your brothers went; go after them and see if all is well with them and with the flocks, and bring me word again.” So Joseph started out to find his brothers, and here he searched and there he searched, till at last he found a man who knew where they had gone, and there they were. So his brothers looked up, and in the distance, shining in the sun, they saw the coat of many colors, like a walking rainbow. And they said, “There is the dreamer!” And some said, “Come, now, let us kill him and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” And others said, “No, let us not kill him. That will do us no good. Let us sell him; we will get some money.” So when Joseph came near, they laid hold of him, and pulled off his colored coat, and put him down in a deep pit till they should make up their minds what to do with him, whether to kill him or to sell him.
There, then, was Joseph, in the pit, calling and crying; and his brothers sat down to eat their supper. And as they ate, they saw in the distance a caravan of merchants on their camels, riding down from Gilead with bags of spices and balm and myrrh, to Egypt. And as they passed, the brothers hailed them and said, “We have a boy to sell. What will you give for him?” And they pulled up Joseph out of the pit, and the merchants looked at him, and said, “We will give twenty pieces of silver.” So Joseph’s brothers sold him for twenty pieces of silver. And the merchants put him on the back of a camel, and away they went.
Then said the brothers one to another, “What shall we say to father?”
And some said, “Let us kill a goat, and take the coat of many colors and dip it in the blood, and tell father that we found it in a field.” And that they did. They carried the bloody coat to Jacob, and said, “See what we found. Is it not Joseph’s coat?”
And Jacob cried out at the sight of it. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s coat. Some wild beast has devoured him. Joseph is no doubt torn to pieces.” And he mourned for him, day after day, and nobody could comfort him.
But the men of the caravan carried Joseph down to Egypt, and there sold him to a man named Potiphar, who
was the captain of the guard and the keeper of the king’s prison, and he put Joseph into the prison to wait upon the prisoners.
The king of Egypt was called Pharaoh. And in Pharaoh’s prison at that time were the king’s chief butler and chief baker. One morning, when Joseph took them their breakfast, he saw that they both looked very sad.
So he said, “What is the matter? Why do you look so sad?”
They said, “We have each had a strange dream, and nobody can tell us what it means.”
Joseph said, “Tell me what it was.”
Then the butler answered, “In my dream I saw a vine with three branches, and ripe grapes grew upon them, and I pressed the juice into Pharaoh’s cup.”
And Joseph said, “I will tell you the meaning of that: in three days, Pharaoh will take you out of prison, and you will again be his chief butler. When that comes true, remember me and bring me out of this prison.”
Then the baker said, “In my dream, I had on my head three baskets full of bread for Pharaoh, and the birds came and ate the bread of the top basket.”
And Joseph said, “In three days, Pharaoh will take you out of prison and cut off your head.”
And all this came to pass, for the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he pardoned the chief butler, and beheaded the chief baker. The butler, however, did not remember Joseph.
TWO years passed by, and Joseph was still in the prison. Then, one night, Pharaoh dreamed. And in his dream he stood by the river, and seven fat cows were feeding on the bank, and seven lean cows came and ate them up. And he dreamed again, and seven full ears of corn grew upon one stalk, and seven thin ears ate them up. The next morning, when Pharaoh told his dreams, nobody could explain them. Then, at last, the chief butler remembered Joseph. And he said to Pharaoh, “There is a slave in the prison who can tell the meaning of dreams. One time, when the chief baker and I were there, he told us what our dreams meant and it came true.” So Pharaoh sent for Joseph. And Joseph shaved himself and put on his best clothes, and went out of the prison into the palace.
And Pharaoh told his dreams. And Joseph said, “Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, and they shall be followed by seven years of famine.” And Joseph said, “The thing to do is this: Let food be laid up in storehouses during the good years to feed the people during the bad years.”
Pharaoh said, “You are the man to do it. You shall be in charge of this business.” And he took off his signet ring and put it on Joseph’s hand, and dressed him in royal robes, and put a gold chain about his neck, and set him over the land of Egypt. And Joseph rode through the streets in the king’s chariot, and everybody bowed down before him.
Then came the seven years of plenty, and everything grew by handfuls. Joseph made great storehouses, and put into them so much grain that it could no more be measured than the sand of the sea. Then followed the seven years of famine, and nothing grew at all, and the people were very hungry, and they came to Joseph, and he opened the storehouses and sold them food to eat.
Even in Joseph’s old home, the famine was upon the land, and Joseph’s brothers came down to Egypt to buy grain. But Benjamin, the youngest brother, they left with their father. So they appeared before Joseph, and he knew them, but they did not know him. He sat upon a throne, ruling the land of Egypt, and the poor farmers never thought of their brother Joseph. And Joseph punished them for their wickedness.
“You men,” he said, “are spies.” And he had them put in prison.
They said, “We are no spies. We are twelve sons of our father Jacob; one is with our father, and one is dead; and we have come to buy grain.”
And Joseph said, “Now I will prove you. Let me see your other brother. I will keep one of you in prison. The rest of you go and carry back your corn, and bring me down your other brother.”
So they left Simeon behind, and returned home very sad. And when they opened their sacks of grain, there was a bag of money in the mouth of each sack, just what they had paid. And they knew not what to think. But when they told their father what had happened and how the governor of the land wanted to see Benjamin, Jacob would not let him go. “I have lost Joseph,” he said, “and now Simeon is gone. I will keep Benjamin.”
But by and by the grain was almost all eaten, and they began to be very hungry, and there was nothing to do but to go again to Egypt, and they dared not go without Benjamin. So one day his father kissed the boy, with tears in his eyes, and let him go, and with him he sent a present in a basket for the governor, balm and honey, spice and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.
So they came again to Joseph’s palace, and Joseph’s steward brought Simeon out of prison, and told them that they were all to come to dinner that day at noon. So at noon they came, and Joseph met them, dressed in his splendid garments, and he said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke?”
And they said, “He is well.”
“And is this your youngest brother?” and he said, “God be gracious unto thee, my son.”
And suddenly he turned about and went into another room to hide his tears. Then he washed his face and came out, and they had dinner. But he gave Benjamin five times as much to eat as any of the others. So they had a very pleasant time.
Now Joseph had told his steward that when he filled the sacks, he should put into Benjamin’s sack a silver cup. And nobody knew it but the steward. So early the next morning, with Simeon and Benjamin, off they started very happily for home, singing as they went. And by and by, they heard a sound of voices following, and there was Joseph’s steward and some other men.
And the steward said, “Stop, you thieves, and give me my master’s silver cup which you have stolen.”
And the brothers stopped, and said, “We are no thieves. We have taken neither gold nor silver from your master’s palace. Search us, and the man with whom you find the cup shall die.”
“Very well,” he said, “the man with whom the cup is found shall be my slave.” So he searched the sacks, beginning with the oldest brother and ending with the youngest, and in Benjamin’s sack, there was the cup!
And they all cried out in great grief, and tore their clothes, for that was the custom, and back they went to Joseph’s palace. And Judah, one of the brothers, spoke to Joseph. “My lord,” he said, “you asked to see our little brother, and we brought him down. And our father said as we came away, ‘If mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave,’ and now if we go back without our brother, our father will die. Let me take his place. I will be your slave; and let him go.”
And Joseph sent everybody out of the room, except his brothers. And he said, “I am Joseph. Come near to me, I pray you. I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And God has made me ruler of all Egypt.” And as they were amazed, he said, “Do you not see that I am indeed your brother? Go back now and bring my father, and all your flocks and herds, and your wives and children, and come and live with me.” And he kissed his brothers. And the next day he gave them wagons for his father and their wives and children, and sent them away.
So Jacob saw his son Joseph, for whom he had mourned as dead. And all the family moved down to Egypt, and Pharaoh gave them pastures for their sheep.
JOSEPH and his brothers had many sons and daughters, and they in their turn had many sons and daughters; and even after they were grown up they were all called the Children of Israel; for Israel, you remember, was the new name of their father Jacob.
And years passed, and years passed, and Pharaoh died, and another Pharaoh reigned in his stead. And the Egyptians forgot how Joseph had saved their fathers from starving in the seven years of famine. And they made the Children of Israel their slaves, and sent them into their fields to work, and set taskmasters over them with whips. And the new Pharaoh said to his princes, “The Children of Israel are more and mightier than we. We must keep them from increasing.” So they made a law that all the boy babies of the Children of Israel should be put to death as soon as they were born.
Now there was a man and his wife who had two children, a girl of eight or ten, named Miriam, and a boy of three, named Aaron. And just at the time of this law, there came a little new boy baby. And his mother hid him, so that the Egyptians should not take him away and kill him. But it is very hard to hide a baby. So after three months his mother made a basket of bulrushes, and put pitch on the inside to keep the water out, and laid the baby in the basket, and set the basket in the river, near the bank among the reeds. And she told little Miriam to stay near, and see what would happen. So Miriam hid herself in the bushes and watched and waited, and by and by who should come down to the water but the princess herself, the daughter of Pharaoh. And the princess saw the basket and sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened it, there was the baby. And the baby began to cry.
And the princess said, “This is one of the babies of the Children of Israel.” And she was very sorry.
Then Miriam came and said, “Princess, if you want a good nurse to take care of the baby for you, I think I can find one.”
And the princess said, “Go, find her, and bring her to me.”
So Miriam went and brought the baby’s mother. And the princess said, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay you.”
So the mother nursed her baby in peace, and when he became a big boy, she took him to the king’s palace, and he lived there with the princess as if he had been a prince himself. And his name was Moses.
So years passed, and the boy became a man. The princess had sent him to school, and he had learned all that the best teachers could tell him. He was very wise. But he never forgot that he was one of the Children of Israel. When he saw his people working in the fields, and the task-masters urging them with whips, he was sad and troubled. One day, as he passed by, and saw an Egyptian beating one of the Children of Israel, he could restrain himself no longer. He saved the man and killed the Egyptian. Then he found that the thing was known, and that Pharaoh had discovered that he was really on the side of the Children of Israel. And he had to run away to save his life.
Now the land which was next to Egypt was called Arabia, and to Arabia went Moses, and there he found a well. And flocks of sheep were feeding by it, some of them tended by men and some by women. But the men were very unkind to the women and kept them from drawing water for their sheep. And as Moses sat by the well, there came seven sisters with a flock of sheep, and the shepherds would not let them get any water. But Moses stood up and drove away the shepherds, and drew water for the seven sisters, and watered their flocks himself.
So the sisters went home to their father, and he said, “How is it that you are come so soon to-day?” They said, “An Egyptian beat the shepherds, and watered our sheep.”
Their father said, “Where is the man? Why did you not bring him home to dinner?”
So they found Moses, and brought him home, and when they knew that he had no place in which to stay, they asked him to live with them. And pretty soon he married one of the seven sisters.
One day, as Moses kept the flock of his father-in-law, and led them here and there for pasture, he came to a high mountain, and at the foot of the mountain he saw a fire. There was a bush burning, and yet, as he watched it, the bush was not burnt. And he said to himself, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” And as he came near, he heard a voice; and the voice said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he answered, “Here I am.”
And the voice said, “I am the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. I have seen the sorrows of my people, the Children of Israel, how the Egyptians make them work, and whip them. Come now, return to Egypt, and tell
Pharaoh to let my people go that they may meet me here at this mountain.”
But Moses said, “Pharaoh will not hear me.”
And God said, “I will make Pharaoh hear you.”
Then Moses said, “I am no speaker.”
And God answered, “Look, who is that coming?” And Moses looked, and there was his brother Aaron. And he ran to meet him and kissed him. And God said, “Aaron shall go with you and speak for you.”
So Moses went back to his father-in-law and told him what had happened at the burning bush. And the next day, Moses and Aaron started for Egypt. There they found the Children of Israel working very hard, and the taskmasters beating them with whips to make them work harder. And Moses and Aaron said to the people, “God spoke to us in Arabia, and sent us to tell you to meet him there beside a mountain. He has seen your affliction and has promised to help you.” And the people were very glad.
ONE day, as Pharaoh the king was sitting in his palace, in came one who said, “Two of the Children of Israel are at the door, and would like to speak with you.”
And Pharaoh said, “Let them come in.”
And in came Moses and Aaron. “Pharaoh,” they said, “we have a message for you from our God. He wishes you to give the Children of Israel a holiday, that they may go out into the country, and meet Him at a mountain in Arabia.”
Then Pharaoh was very angry. “Who is your God,” he said, “that I should obey Him? There is work to be done: there are cities to be built; this is our busy season; this is no time for a holiday.” And Pharaoh sent away Moses and Aaron, and called for the taskmasters who had charge of the Children of Israel, and said, “These people have asked for a holiday. They are idle. Give them more work.”
Now the Children of Israel were making brick and building the walls of houses and towers; and the way to make brick was to take clay and mix it with straw and bake it; and the taskmasters provided the straw. But the taskmasters heard what Pharaoh said, and they stopped the supply of straw. “You must get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it: but you must make just as many bricks as you made before.” And when the Children of Israel could not do it, they were beaten with whips. So they cried out against Moses, saying, “You have done us harm instead of good.”
Then Moses and Aaron went again to Pharaoh, and Aaron had a rod in his hand, and he threw it on the floor at the king’s feet, and the rod became a serpent. But Egypt was a great place for tricks of magic. Pharaoh had magicians at his court, who performed before him every day. So he called for two magicians, and in came Jannes and Jambres, each with a rod, and they cast their rods on the floor, and in a moment there were two more wriggling serpents fighting with Aaron’s serpent. And although Aaron’s serpent chased these two and ate them up, Pharaoh only laughed, and would not let the people go.
But the next morning, when the king went down to the river, there was Moses waiting for him. And Moses said, “Pharaoh, if you will not let the people go, God will make this river red like blood, so that nobody may drink out of it.”
And so it was. That great river, the Nile, which flows through the midst of Egypt, was red like blood, for a whole week. But when it cleared again, Pharaoh said, “I have seen it like that many a time, after the spring rains.” And he would not let the people go.
Then Moses called again upon the king, and said, “Pharaoh, if you still refuse, God will bring frogs out of the river till they cover all the land.” And so it was. The frogs came: first, along the bank; then, across the road so that nobody could go that way; then in crowds and crowds, crawling and hopping and skipping, up the streets and up the lanes and up the steps of houses. And at night, there were frogs in the bed; and in the morning, at breakfast, there were frogs on the table. And Pharaoh said, “This is more than I can bear. Take away the frogs, and I will do whatever you wish.”
But after the frogs had gone back into the river, Pharaoh said, “That was not so very bad. Almost every year, we have a plague of frogs.” And he would not let the people go.
Then, week after week, all kinds of dreadful things came one upon another. Once there were lice, like the dust of the ground; then there were such swarms of flies that nobody could eat or sleep; after that, the horses and cattle were all sick. Then people had boils; and there was a very grievous hail, and thunder and lightning so that fire ran along upon the ground. The locusts came, blown by the east wind, and ate all the leaves and the grass. And after the locusts there was a storm of sand, and for three days it was so dark, that people could feel it with their hands. And every time, when the trouble was worst, Pharaoh said to Moses, “Take it away, and I will let the people go.”
But when the plague was over, Pharaoh said, “I don’t believe that God did it. It was only the weather or the wind.” And he broke his promise.
Thus there were nine plagues. Then Moses said to the Children of Israel, “The tenth plague is at hand. This very night, Pharaoh will beg you to go. Get yourselves ready. There is a long journey before you. Let every family prepare supper. Kill a lamb and roast it, and bake bread. But the time is short; you cannot wait for the bread to rise; make it without leaven” (or, as we say, without yeast). “Do not even sit down at the table: stand up, with your coats and hats on, and eat in haste. For to-night, God will send a sudden sickness upon the Egyptians, and in every house there will be one dead. You must mark your houses. Take of the blood of the lamb and strike it on the upper post and on the two side posts of your doors. Then God will pass over you when He comes to punish the Egyptians.”
And at midnight so it was. And there was a great cry through all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. “This is the end,” he said; “get you gone out of the land, you and all your people.”
And the Egyptians hurried them. “Quick!” they said, “go out of Egypt before we all die.”
But the Children of Israel said, “Shall we go with empty hands after all the work which we have done for you? What will you give us?”
And the Egyptians gave them jewels of gold and jewels of silver. So they departed. There was a full moon that night, and in the light of it they made their way out of all the cities where they lived, and they turned their faces toward Arabia. But now they went not only to meet God at the mountain, but to be a new nation, and never again to live as slaves in Egypt.
IN the middle of the night, under the round moon, the Children of Israel started on their journey. The fathers and mothers carried the babies, the boys and girls ran and danced beside them, and they drove their flocks and herds before them. And as they went, they talked about the ten plagues, and especially about the last and worst of all, when the firstborn died in every house in Egypt. “Except our houses,” they said. “God passed over our houses, and saved our lives, and brought us out.” And they said, “We must keep the memory of this night forever. When we have a land of our own, and are settled there, then every year when the spring is green and the moon is shining full, we will have a supper of roast lamb and bread unleavened, such as we had to-night, and when the children say, ‘Why do we have this supper and eat unleavened bread?’ we will reply, ‘Children, this is the feast of the Lord’s Passover, when He passed over our houses, and saved us from our slavery in Egypt.’ ”
So they journeyed all that night and all the next day. But in the meantime, the Egyptians had begun to recover from their fear. “Yes,” they said, “we have indeed been stricken by a fearful pestilence. There is hardly a house in which there is not one dead. And Moses says that this is a punishment upon us because we would not let the Children of Israel go. But we are not so sure of that. How do we know that the Children of Israel or their God had anything to do with it? We were foolish to be frightened and let them go. Now there is nobody left to do our work. All our carpenters and masons, all our brick-makers and bricklayers, all our hired men, have gone away: and all our cooks and washerwomen have gone with them. What shall we do? Come, let us go after them, and bring them back.” And Pharaoh sent for his chariot in which he rode when he went to war, and ordered his captains to bring up six hundred other chariots, the best that there were in Egypt. And there was a great clattering of horses’ hoofs, and a great clashing of swords and battle-axes, in the street before the king’s palace. And Pharaoh came out, and away they went, as fast as they could go, after the Children of Israel.
Now the Children of Israel, after a long day’s march, were very tired, and they stopped to rest by the Red Sea. On the other side of the sea was the land of Arabia, where they were going to meet God beside a mountain. And on the morrow, they expected to walk around the head of the sea, and so reach the other side. But suddenly, in the far distance, as the sun was setting, there was a gleam of light, and they knew that it was the shining armor of the Egyptian soldiers. And there they were, the poor Children of Israel, with the soldiers behind them and the sea before them, and no way of escape to either right or left. And they cried out against Moses, and said, “Why did you bring us here to die? Were there not graves in Egypt? Did we not tell you that we did not want to come? Oh, that we had stayed in our slavery! That was bad enough, but this is worse.”
But Moses said, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see what God will show you. God is on your side, and not an Egyptian shall be able to hurt you.” So the sun went down, and night came on. And with the night came the fog, and the moon, and the wind. And the fog settled down on the Egyptians so that they could not see the Children of Israel. And upon the sea the strong wind from the east blew and blew, so that it drove away the fog from the Children of Israel, and the clear moon shone upon them. So it was like a pillar of cloud behind them, and a pillar of fire before them. And harder and harder blew the strong wind upon the shallow sea, till clear across from shore to shore there was a place where they could see the bottom, like a narrow path of land across the sea. And Moses cried, “Go forward!” And into the sea marched the Children of Israel, along the path of land, in the great gale of wind, with water on the left and water on the right, and the spray dashing upon them.
And when the Egyptian army got out of the fog, and came in sight of the sea, there were the Children of Israel more than half across. And the captains commanded the drivers of the chariots, and in they went, as fast as the horses could carry them, chasing the Children of Israel. But it was a bad road for chariots. Deeper and deeper, the wheels sank in the mud. And then, as day began to dawn, the wind changed. Instead of blowing from the east, it blew from the west, and the water came back with it, and the path was covered, and the sea returned to its strength. And when the sun arose, there were the Children of Israel safe on the shore of Arabia, but the Egyptians were nowhere to be seen. The sea had covered them. They had sunk like lead in the mighty waters.
And on the shore the Children of Israel sang a song of praise and thanksgiving. Moses led the voices of the men, and Miriam and all the women, with timbrels in their hands, joined in the chorus. “Sing ye to the Lord,” they sang, “for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” Thus God overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea, and the Children of Israel were saved from their enemies.
AFTER the great adventure of the Red Sea, the Children of Israel started on their way to the Mountain of the Burning Bush. They had never been away from home before, and they did not know how to behave. So when they were uncomfortable, as people are likely to be on a long journey, instead of taking it cheerfully, they complained and cried.
One time, they were very thirsty, and there was no water. And they all said, “Oh, that we had stayed in Egypt, where there was plenty of water!” And they said to Moses, “Why did you not let us alone? You have brought us into this desert to kill us with thirst.” But Moses found a spring of water coming out of a great rock, and gave them to drink.
Another time, they were very hungry, and there was nothing to eat. And they cried out against Moses, and said, “Oh, that we had stayed in Egypt, by the fleshpots! You have brought us into this desert to kill us with hunger!” But Moses said, “Be patient. God is taking care of you. He will feed you.” And when they waked up the next morning, the ground was covered with something which looked like frost. And they gathered it, and ground it, and baked it, and it was very nice to eat. And the name of it was manna.
So they ate the manna, and they liked it so much that they said it was good enough even for angels. But as day after day passed and there was manna for breakfast, and manna for dinner, and manna for supper, and nothing else, they came to hate the sight of it. Again they wished that they were back in Egypt. “When we were in Egypt,” they said, “we had fish to eat, and cucumbers to eat with it, and melons and leeks and onions and garlic. Now we have nothing but manna.” So they went on their way complaining, and Moses had a very hard time with them.
But at last they came to the mountain where they were to meet God. And there they pitched their tents, and put out their flocks and herds to pasture. And on the morning of the third day, there was a great storm of thunder and lightning, and the mountain, which was called Sinai, was covered with black clouds, and smoked like a volcano, and out of the smoke and cloud came a sound like the blowing of a mighty wind, and like the rolling of thunder, and like the voice of a loud trumpet. And the Children of Israel were exceedingly afraid. But Moses said, “I am going to climb the mountain. I am going up into the cloud and smoke and thunder. God told me that He would speak to us in this place. I am going up to meet Him.” And he took with him a young man named Joshua.
“You wait,” he said to the people, “till I come back and tell you what God says.”
So Moses and Joshua climbed up the steep side of the mountain, and the black cloud hid them from the people’s sight. And the storm increased in fury. The lightning flashed its fires of red and green, the rain came down in torrents, and louder and louder pealed the voice of the wind and the thunder and the trumpet. And as the people stood watching and waiting, they trembled so that their knees knocked together. But night came, and Moses did not return. All the next day they waited, but he did not appear. And the days grew into weeks, and the weeks into a month, till the people said, “Moses is dead. He lost his way, or he fell over a cliff, or he was struck by lightning. What shall we do? What shall we do?” And they made Aaron their leader.
Now the people of Egypt, among whom the Children of Israel had lived so long, had strange ideas about God. They thought that God lived in certain animals. And they
said their prayers to these animals, and made images of them to put in their churches. And as years passed and years passed, till the time of Joseph was as far away from them as the time of Columbus is from us, a good many of the Children of Israel, being slaves in Egypt, forgot the religion of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and became like the Egyptians. So now they said to Aaron, “Make us an image of God.” And Aaron said, “Give me your earrings.” Now all the men and women wore gold earrings, and they gave them to Aaron, and he melted them together and made a golden calf. And the people said, “This is our God.” And they began to pray to it, and to dance and sing around it.
But all this time, Moses was speaking with God. God told Moses what He wished the people to do. And these things were put in the Ten Commandments, and were written on two smooth tables—or, as we say, tablets—of stone. And Moses took the Ten Commandments, and started down the mountain.
And on the way he heard a noise; and he said to Joshua, “What is that noise?”
And Joshua said, “It sounds like shouting. There must be a battle.”
But Moses said, “It sounds to me like singing.”
So they came in sight of the camp. And there was the Golden Calf, and all the people singing and dancing around it. And Moses was so angry that he took the tables of stone and threw them down the mountain, and they broke in pieces. And the people were ashamed and afraid. And he told them what a foolish and wicked thing they had done. “God,” he said, “has just been telling me that we must not worship images.” And he destroyed the Golden Calf.
Then he went again upon the mountain, and asked God to forgive his people. And God gave him the Ten Commandments over again. Thus the Children of Israel met God at the mountain, and were told what they must do, and were ready at last to start upon their journey to the Promised Land.
ONCE upon a time, when the world was younger than it is at present, and people believed that all the animals could speak Hebrew if they only would, a man was riding on an ass along a country road.
Sometimes the way went between wide farms which stretched out over the flat land. Sometimes it lay between vineyards, and had a stone wall on the right and on the left. Sometimes the man hastened the ass, striking her with a stick; because he had been sent for by the king and was in a hurry. Sometimes he let the ass take her own time, and she strayed now on this side of the road and now on that, cropping the thistles; because, although the man had been sent for by the king, he was not quite sure whether he ought to go or not.
The man’s name was Balaam and the king’s name was Balak. They were both of them heathen; that is, they did not know so much about God as the Children of Israel knew. But God knew them, and to Balaam God sometimes spoke, and told him what was right and what was wrong; so that people came to Balaam, even from distant lands, that he might tell them the will of God. Thus before a battle, a general or even a king might come and say, “Tell me, Balaam, is God for me or against me? Shall I lose or win?” And Balaam would go away by himself and ask God, and God would speak in Balaam’s soul and teach him what to say, and Balaam would come back and say it. Many people thought that Balaam could do quite as he liked, and bless or curse as he pleased, and they said, “See, Balaam, here is gold and silver: come now, bless me and curse my enemy.” But Balaam would speak only that which the Lord God taught him to speak.
Balak was the king of Moab. After the Children of Israel had come across the Red Sea out of Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness and lived in tents till they grew strong enough to go to war. They had no country of their own, but they meant to take the country which God had promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. There were already people living in that country, having walled cities and brave soldiers, and the Children of Israel had to grow very strong indeed before they could hope to take it away from them. But now the time had come. The Children of Israel were on the march. Only one country remained to be crossed before they came to the Promised Land: and that was Moab.
So Balak, king of Moab, was filled with fear, and he sent for Balaam.
“Behold,” he said, “there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now, therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people, else shall they lick us up as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” And the princes of Balak came to Balaam with these words.
And Balaam said, “Stay here this night, and I will ask the Lord, and in the morning I will tell you.” So the princes stayed at Balaam’s house, and in the night God spoke in Balaam’s soul, and God said, “Do not go to Balak. Thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
And when the morning was come, Balaam told the princes that he could not go.
But Balak was not satisfied. He sent more princes, and they came to Balaam with splendid promises. And Balaam answered, “I must do as the Lord says. If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. But wait another night, and I will see if the Lord will speak again.”
And that night God did speak again, and God said, “Go with the men, but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.” So in the morning he saddled his ass, and away he went with Balak’s princes. And thus he rode, sometimes in haste and sometimes in doubt, between the farms and vineyards.
Now Balak had gone out to meet Balaam that he might take him to the top of a high hill whence he should curse the Children of Israel. And they two went together. And Balaam said, “I am come in vain. The Lord God is against you. Even as I came, the ass on which I rode refused to go and crushed my foot against the vineyard wall, and the ass said, ‘Behold, there is an angel in the way,’ and lo, there was an angel with a drawn sword to keep me back! I cannot do you any good. I cannot curse the Children of Israel.”
But Balak urged him, and on they went. And as they climbed the hill, at last the army of Israel came in sight, all in their goodly tents along the valley, as gardens by the river’s side, and as cedar trees beside the waters. And Balak built seven altars and offered on every altar a bullock and a ram; and Balaam prayed amidst the altars, and God told him what to say, and Balaam cried aloud and blessed the Children of Israel. Then Balak took Balaam