The Book of Jasher

Referred to in Joshua and Second Samuel

Faithfully Translated

FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW INTO ENGLISH

Chapter 68

Moses, a Child of Promise, is born. The Egyptian
Women acting as Spies. Moses is discovered, and placed by his Mother in an
Ark of Bulrushes. Is Found and Adopted by the Daughter of Pharaoh, and grows
up among the King’s Children.

1 And it was at that time the spirit of God was upon
Miriam the daughter of Amram the sister of Aaron, and she went forth and prophesied
about the house, saying, Behold a son will be born unto us from my father and mother
this time, and he will save Israel from the hands of Egypt.

2 And when Amram heard the words of his daughter,
he went and took his wife back to the house, after he had driven her away at the
time when Pharaoh ordered every male child of the house of Jacob to be thrown into
the water.

3 So Amram took Jochebed his wife, three years after
he had driven her away, and he came to her and she conceived.

4 And at the end of seven months from her conception
she brought forth a son, and the whole house was filled with great light as of the
light of the sun and moon at the time of their shining.

5 And when the woman saw the child that it was good
and pleasing to the sight, she hid it for three months in an inner room.

6 In those days the Egyptians conspired to destroy
all the Hebrews there.

7 And the Egyptian women went to Goshen where the
children of Israel were, and they carried their young ones upon their shoulders,
their babes who could not yet speak.

8 And in those days, when the women of the children
of Israel brought forth, each woman had hidden her son from before the Egyptians,
that the Egyptians might not know of their bringing forth, and might not destroy
them from the land.

9 And the Egyptian women came to Goshen and their
children who could not speak were upon their shoulders, and when an Egyptian woman
came into the house of a Hebrew woman her babe began to cry.

10 And when it cried the child that was in the inner
room answered it, so the Egyptian women went and told it at the house of Pharaoh.

11 And Pharaoh sent his officers to take the children
and slay them; thus did the Egyptians to the Hebrew women all the days.

12 And it was at that time, about three months from
Jochebed’s concealment of her son, that the thing was known in Pharaoh’s house.

13 And the woman hastened to take away her son before
the officers came, and she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with
slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags by
the river’s brink.

14 And his sister Miriam stood afar off to know what
would be done to him, and what would become of her words.

15 And God sent forth at that time a terrible heat
in the land of Egypt, which burned up the flesh of man like the sun in his circuit,
and it greatly oppressed the Egyptians.

16 And all the Egyptians went down to bathe in the
river, on account of the consuming heat which burned up their flesh.

17 And Bathia, the daughter of Pharaoh, went also
to bathe in the river, owing to the consuming heat, and her maidens walked at the
river side, and all the women of Egypt as well.

18 And Bathia lifted up her eyes to the river, and
she saw the ark upon the water, and sent her maid to fetch it.

19 And she opened it and saw the child, and behold
the babe wept, and she had compassion on him, and she said, This is one of the Hebrew
children.

20 And all the women of Egypt walking on the river
side desired to give him suck, but he would not suck, for this thing was from the
Lord, in order to restore him to his mother’s breast.

21 And Miriam his sister was at that time amongst
the Egyptian women at the river side, and she saw this thing and she said to Pharaoh’s
daughter, Shall I go and fetch a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the
child for thee?

22 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go, and the
young woman went and called the child’s mother.

23 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to Jochebed, Take this
child away and suckle it for me, and I will pay thee thy wages, two bits of silver
daily; and the woman took the child and nursed it.

24 And at the end of two years, when the child grew
up, she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he was unto her as a son, and
she called his name Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

25 And Amram his father called his name Chabar, for
he said, It was for him that he associated with his wife whom he had turned away.

26 And Jochebed his mother called his name Jekuthiel,
Because, she said, I have hoped for him to the Almighty, and God restored him unto
me.

27 And Miriam his sister called him Jered, for she
descended after him to the river to know what his end would be.

28 And Aaron his brother called his name Abi Zanuch,
saying, My father left my mother and returned to her on his account.

29 And Kehath the father of Amram called his name
Abigdor, because on his account did God repair the breach of the house of Jacob,
that they could no longer throw their male children into the water.

30 And their nurse called him Abi Socho, saying, In
his tabernacle was he hidden for three months, on account of the children of Ham.

31 And all Israel called his name Shemaiah, son of
Nethanel, for they said, In his days has God heard their cries and rescued them
from their oppressors.

32 And Moses was in Pharaoh’s house, and was unto
Bathia, Pharaoh’s daughter, as a son, and Moses grew up amongst the king’s children.