The Legends of the Jews, Volume II, Chapter 4 MOSES IN EGYPT

THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS

BY

LOUIS GINZBERG

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN MANUSCRIPT BY HENRIETTA SZOLD

Volume II

BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS FROM JOSEPH TO THE EXODUS

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Chapter 4

MOSES IN EGYPT–THE BEGINNING OF THE EGYPTIAN BONDAGE–PHARAOH’S CUNNING–THE
PIOUS MIDWIVES–THE THREE COUNSELLORS–THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS–THE PARENTS
OF MOSES–THE BIRTH OF MOSES–MOSES RESCUED FROM THE WATER–THE INFANCY OF MOSES–MOSES
RESCUED BY GABRIEL–THE YOUTH OF MOSES–THE FLIGHT–THE KING OF ETHIOPIA–JETHRO–MOSES
MARRIES ZIPPORAH–A BLOODY REMEDY–THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERD–THE BURNING THORN-BUSH–THE
ASCENSION OF MOSES–MOSES VISITS PARADISE AND HELL–MOSES DECLINES THE MISSION–MOSES
PUNISHED FOR HIS STUBBORNNESS–THE RETURN TO EGYPT–MOSES AND AARON BEFORE PHARAOH–THE
SUFFERING INCREASES–MEASURE FOR MEASURE–THE PLAGUES BROUGHT THROUGH AARON–THE
PLAGUES BROUGHT THROUGH MOSES–THE FIRST PASSOVER–THE SMITING OF THE FIRST-BORN–THE
REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPTIAN BONDAGE–THE EXODUS

MOSES IN EGYPT–THE BEGINNING OF THE EGYPTIAN BONDAGE

As soon as Jacob was dead, the eyes of the Israelites were closed, as well
as their hearts. They began to feel the dominion of the stranger, although real
bondage did not enslave them until some time later. While a single one of the
sons of Jacob was alive, the Egyptians did not venture to approach the Israelites
with evil intent. It was only when Levi, the last of them, had departed this life
that their suffering commenced. A change in the relation of the Egyptians toward
the Israelites had, indeed, been noticeable immediately after the death of Joseph,
but they did not throw off their mask completely until Levi was no more. Then
the slavery of the Israelites supervened in good earnest.

The first hostile act on the part of the Egyptians was to deprive the Israelites
of their fields, their vineyards, and the gifts that Joseph had sent to his brethren.
Not content with these animosities, they sought to do them harm in, other ways.
The reason for the hatred of the Egyptians was envy and fear. The Israelites had
increased to a miraculous degree. At the death of Jacob the seventy persons he
had brought down with him had grown to the number of six hundred thousand, and
their physical strength and heroism were extraordinary and therefore alarming
to the Egyptians. There were many occasions at that time for the display of prowess.
Not long after the death of Levi occurred that of the Egyptian king Magron, who
had been bred up by Joseph, and therefore was not wholly without grateful recollection
of what he and his family had accomplished for the welfare of Egypt. But his son
and successor Malol, together with his whole court, knew not the sons of Jacob
and their achievements, and they did not scruple to oppress the Hebrews.

The final breach between them and the Egyptians took place during the wars
waged by Malol against Zepho, the grandson of Esau. In the course of it, the Israelites
had saved the Egyptians from a crushing defeat, but instead of being grateful
they sought only the undoing of their benefactors, from fear that the giant strength
of the Hebrews might be turned against them.

PHARAOH’S CUNNING

The counsellors and elders of Egypt came to Pharaoh, and spake unto him, saying:
“Behold, the people of the children of Israel are greater and mightier than we.
Thou hast seen their strong power, which they have inherited from their fathers,
for a few of them stood up against a people as many as the sand of the sea, and
not one hath fallen. Now, therefore, give us counsel what to do with them, until
we shall gradually destroy them from among us, lest they become too numerous in
the land, for if they multiply, and there falleth out any war, they will also
join themselves with their great strength unto our enemies, and fight against
us, destroy us from the land, and get them up out of the land.”

The king answered the elders, saying: “This is the plan advised by me against
Israel, from which we will not depart. Behold, Pithom and Raamses are cities not
fortified against battle. It behooves us to fortify them. Now, go ye and act cunningly
against the children of Israel, and proclaim in Egypt and in Goshen, saying: ‘All
ye men of Egypt, Goshen, and Pathros! The king has commanded us to build Pithom
and Raamses and fortify them against battle. Those amongst you in all Egypt, of
the children of Israel and of all the inhabitants of the cities, who are willing
to build with us, shall have their wages given to them daily at the king’s order.’

“Then go ye first, and begin to build Pithom and Raamses, and cause the king’s
proclamation to be made daily, and when some of the children of Israel come to
build, do ye give them their wages daily, and after they shall have built with
you for their daily wages, draw yourselves away from them day by day, and one
by one, in secret. Then you shall rise up and become their taskmasters and their
officers, and you shall have them afterward to build without wages. And should
they refuse, then force them with all your might to build. If you do this, it
will go well with us, for we shall cause our land to be fortified after this manner,
and with the children of Israel it will go ill, for they will decrease in number
on account of the work, because you will prevent them from being with their wives.”

The elders, the counsellors, and the whole of Egypt did according to the word
of the king. For a month the servants of Pharaoh built with Israel, then they
withdrew themselves gradually, while the children of Israel continued to work,
receiving their daily wages, for some men of Egypt were still carrying on the
work with them. After a time all the Egyptians had withdrawn, and they had turned
to become the officers and taskmasters of the Israelites. Then they refrained
from giving them any pay, and when some of the Hebrews refused to work without
wages, their taskmasters smote them, and made them return by force to labor with
their brethren. And the children of Israel were greatly afraid of the Egyptians,
and they came again and worked without pay, all except the tribe of Levi, who
were not employed in the work with their brethren. The children of Levi knew that
the proclamation of the king was made to deceive Israel, therefore they refrained
from listening to it, and the Egyptians did not molest them later, since they
had not been with their brethren at the beginning, and though the Egyptians embittered
the lives of the other Israelites with servile labor, they did not disturb the
children of Levi. The Israelites called Malol, the king of Egypt, Maror, “Bitterness,”
because in his days the Egyptians embittered their lives with all manner of rigorous
service.

But Pharaoh did not rest satisfied with his proclamation and the affliction
it imposed upon the Israelites. He suspended a brick-press from his own neck,
and himself took part in the work at Pithom and Raamses. After this, whenever
a Hebrew refused to come and help with the building, alleging that he was not
fit for such hard service, the Egyptians would retort, saying, “Dost thou mean
to make us believe thou art more delicate than Pharaoh?”

The king himself urged the Israelites on with gentle words, saying, “My children,
I beg you to do this work and erect these little buildings for me. I will give
you great reward therefor.” By means of such artifices and wily words the Egyptians
succeeded in overmastering the Israelites, and once they had them in their power,
they treated them with undisguised brutality. Women were forced to perform men’s
work, and men women’s work.

The building of Pithom and Raamses turned out of no advantage to the Egyptians,
for scarcely were the structures completed, when they collapsed, or they were
swallowed by the earth, and the Hebrew workmen, besides having to suffer hardships
during their erection, lost their lives by being precipitated from enormous heights,
when the buildings fell in a heap.

But the Egyptians were little concerned whether or not they derived profit
from the forced labor of the children of Israel. Their main object was to hinder
their increase, and Pharaoh therefore issued an order, that they were not to be
permitted to sleep at their own homes, that so they might be deprived of the opportunity
of having intercourse with their wives. The officers executed the will of the
king, telling the Hebrews that the reason was the loss of too much time in going
to and fro, which would prevent them from completing the required tale of bricks.
Thus the Hebrew husbands were kept apart from their wives, and they were compelled
to sleep on the ground, away from their habitations.

But God spake, saying: “Unto their father Abraham I gave the promise, that
I would make his children to be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and you
contrive plans to prevent them from multiplying. We shall see whose word will
stand, Mine or yours.” And it came to pass that the more the Egyptians afflicted
them, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. And they continued
to increase in spite of Pharaoh’s command, that those who did not complete the
required tale of bricks were to be immured in the buildings between the layers
of bricks, and great was the number of the Israelites that lost their lives in
this way. Many of their children were, besides, slaughtered as sacrifices to the
idols of the Egyptians. For this reason God visited retribution upon the idols
at the time of the going forth of the Israelites from Egypt. They had caused the
death of the Hebrew children, and in turn they were shattered, and they crumbled
into dust.”

THE PIOUS MIDWIVES

When now, in spite of all their tribulations, the children of Israel continued
to multiply and spread abroad, so that the land was full of them as with thick
underbrush–for the women brought forth many children at a birth–the Egyptians
appeared before Pharaoh again, and urged him to devise some other way of ridding
the land of the Hebrews, seeing that they were increasing mightily, though they
were made to toil and labor hard. Pharaoh could invent no new design; he asked
his counsellors to give him their opinion of the thing. Then spake one of them,
Job of the land of Uz, which is in Aram-naharaim, as follows: “The plan which
the king invented, of putting a great burden of work upon the Israelites, was
good in its time, and it should be executed henceforth, too, but to secure us
against the fear that, if a war should come to pass, they may overwhelm us by
reason of their numbers, and chase us forth out of the land, let the king issue
a decree, that every male child of the Israelites shall be killed at his birth.
Then we need not be afraid of them if we should be overtaken by war. Now let the
king summon the Hebrew midwives, that they come hither, and let him command them
in accordance with this plan.”

Job’s advice found favor in the eyes of Pharaoh and the Egyptians.” They preferred
to have the midwives murder the innocents, for they feared the punishment of God
if they laid hands upon them themselves. Pharaoh cited the two midwives of the
Hebrews before him, and commanded them to slay all men children, but to save the
daughters of the Hebrew women alive,” for the Egyptians were as much interested
in preserving the female children as in bringing about the death of the male children.
They were very sensual, and were desirous of having as many women as possible
at their service.”

However, the plan, even if it had been carried into execution, was not wise,
for though a man may marry many wives, each woman can marry but one husband. Thus
a diminished number of men and a corresponding increase in the number of women
did not constitute so serious a menace to the continuance of the nation of the
Israelites as the reverse case would have been.

The two Hebrew midwives were Jochebed, the mother of Moses, and Miriam, his
sister. When they appeared before Pharaoh, Miriam exclaimed: “Woe be to this man
when God visits retribution upon him for his evil deeds.” The king would have
killed her for these audacious words, had not Jochebed allayed his wrath by saying:
“Why dost thou pay heed to her words? She is but a child, and knows not what she
speaks.” Yet, although Miriam was but five years old at the time, she nevertheless
accompanied her mother, and helped her with her offices to the Hebrew women, giving
food to the new-born babes while Jochebed washed and bathed them.

Pharaoh’s order ran as follows: “At the birth of the child, if it be a man
child, kill it; but if it be a female child, then you need not kill it, but you
may save it alive.” The midwives returned: “How are we to know whether the child
is male or female?” for the king had bidden them kill it while it was being born.
Pharaoh replied: “If the child issues forth from the womb with its face foremost,
it is a man child, for it looks to the earth, whence man was taken; but if its
feet appear first, it is a female, for it looks up toward the rib of the mother,
and from a rib woman was made.”

The king used all sorts of devices to render the midwives amenable to his wishes.
He approached them with amorous proposals, which they both repelled, and then
he threatened them with death by fire. But they said within themselves: “Our father
Abraham opened an inn, that he might feed the wayfarers, though they were heathen,
and we should neglect the children, nay, kill them? No, we shall have a care to
keep them alive.” Thus they failed to execute what Pharaoh had commanded. Instead
of murdering the babes, they supplied all their needs. If a mother that had given
birth to a child lacked food and drink, the midwives went to well-to-do women,
and took up a collection, that the infant might not suffer want. They did still
more for the little ones. They made supplication to God, praying: “Thou knowest
that we are not fulfilling the words of Pharaoh, but it is our aim to fulfil Thy
words. O that it be Thy will, our Lord, to let the child come into the world safe
and sound, lest we fall under the suspicion that we tried to slay it, and maimed
it in the attempt.” The Lord hearkened to their prayer, and no child born under
the ministrations of Shiphrah and Puah, or Jochebed and Miriam, as the midwives
are also called, came into the world lame or blind or afflicted with any other
blemish.

Seeing that his command was ineffectual, he summoned the midwives a second
time, and called them to account for their disobedience. They replied: “This nation
is compared unto one animal and another, and, in sooth, the Hebrews are like the
animals. As little as the animals do they need the offices of midwives.” These
two God-fearing women were rewarded in many ways for their good deeds. Not only
that Pharaoh did them no harm, but they were made the ancestors of priests and
Levites, and kings and princes. Jochebed became the mother of the priest Aaron
and of the Levite Moses, and from Miriam’s union with Caleb sprang the royal house
of David. The hand of God was visible in her married life. She contracted a grievous
sickness, and though it was thought by all that saw her that death would certainly
overtake her, she recovered, and God restored her youth, and bestowed unusual
beauty upon her, so that renewed happiness awaited her husband, who had been deprived
of the pleasures of conjugal life during her long illness. His unexpected joys
were the reward of his piety and trust in God. And another recompense was accorded
to Miriam: she was privileged to bring forth Bezalel, the builder of the Tabernacle,
who was endowed with celestial wisdom.

THE THREE COUNSELLORS

In the one hundred and thirtieth year after Israel’s going down to Egypt Pharaoh
dreamed that he was sitting upon his throne, and he lifted up his eyes, and he
beheld an old man before him with a balance in his hand, and he saw him taking
all the elders, nobles, and great men of Egypt, tying them together, and laying
them in one scale of the balance, while he put a tender kid into the other. The
kid bore down the pan in which it lay until it hung lower than the other with
the bound Egyptians. Pharaoh arose early in the morning, and called together all
his servants and his wise men to interpret his dream, and the men were greatly
afraid on account of his vision. Balaam the son of Beor then spake, and said:
“This means nothing but that a great evil will spring up against Egypt, for a
son will be born unto Israel, who will destroy the whole of our land and all its
inhabitants, and he will bring forth the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand.
Now, therefore, O king, take counsel as to this matter, that the hope of Israel
be frustrated before this evil arise against Egypt.”

The king said unto Balaam: “What shall we do unto Israel? We have tried several
devices against this people, but we could not prevail over it. Now let me hear
thy opinion.”

At Balaam’s instance, the king sent for his two counsellors, Reuel the Midianite
and Job the Uzite, to hear their advice. Reuel spoke: “If it seemeth good to the
king, let him desist from the Hebrews, and let him not stretch forth his hand
against them, for the Lord chose them in days of old, and took them as the lot
of His inheritance from amongst all the nations of the earth, and who is there
that hath dared stretch forth his hand against them with impunity, but that their
God avenged the evil done unto them?” Reuel then proceeded to enumerate some of
the mighty things God had performed for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he closed
his admonition with the words: “Verily, thy grandfather, the Pharaoh of former
days, raised Joseph the son of Jacob above all the princes of Egypt, because he
discerned his wisdom, for through his wisdom he rescued all the inhabitants of
the land from the famine, after which he invited Jacob and his sons to come down
to Egypt, that the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen be delivered from the
famine through their virtues. Now, therefore, if it seem good in thine eyes, leave
off from destroying the children of Israel, and if it be not thy will that they
dwell in Egypt, send them forth from here, that they may go to the land of Canaan,
the land wherein their ancestors sojourned.”

When Pharaoh heard the words of Jethro-Reuel, he was exceedingly wroth with
him, and he was dismissed in disgrace from before the king, and he went to Midian.

The king then spoke to Job, and said: “What sayest thou, Job, and what is thy
advice respecting the Hebrews?” Job replied: “Behold, all the inhabitants of the
land are in thy power. Let the king do as seemeth good in his eyes.”

Balaam was the last to speak at the behest of the king, and he said: “From
all that the king may devise against the Hebrews, they will be delivered. If thou
thinkest to diminish them by the flaming fire, thou wilt not prevail over them,
for their God delivered Abraham their father from the furnace in which the Chaldeans
cast him. Perhaps thou thinkest to destroy them with a sword, but their father
Isaac was delivered from being slaughtered by the sword. And if thou thinkest
to reduce them through hard and rigorous labor, thou wilt also not prevail, for
their father Jacob served Laban in all manner of hard work, and yet he prospered.
If it please the king, let him order all the male children that shall be born
in Israel from this day forward to be thrown into the water. Thereby canst thou
wipe out their name, for neither any of them nor any of their fathers was tried
in this way.

THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS

Balaam’s advice was accepted by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They knew that God
pays measure for measure, therefore they believed that the drowning of the men
children would be the safest means of exterminating the Hebrews, without incurring
harm themselves, for the Lord had sworn unto Noah never again to destroy the world
by water. Thus, they assumed, they would be exempt from punishment, wherein they
were wrong, however. In the first place, though the Lord had sworn not to bring
a flood upon men, there was nothing in the way of bringing men into a flood. Furthermore,
the oath of God applied to the whole of mankind, not to a single nation. The end
of the Egyptians was that they met their death in the billows of the Red Sea.
“Measure for measure”–as they had drowned the men children of the Israelites,
so they were drowned.

Pharaoh now took steps looking to the faithful execution of his decree. He
sent his bailiffs into the houses of the Israelites, to discover all new-born
children, wherever they might be. To make sure that the Hebrews should not succeed
in keeping the children hidden, the Egyptians hatched a devilish plan. Their women
were to take their little ones to the houses of the Israelitish women that were
suspected of having infants. When the Egyptian children began to cry or coo, the
Hebrew children that were kept in hiding would join in, after the manner of babies,
and betray their presence, whereupon the Egyptians would seize them and bear them
off.

Furthermore, Pharaoh commanded that the Israelitish women employ none but Egyptian
midwives, who were to secure precise information as to the time of their delivery,
and were to exercise great care, and let no male child escape their vigilance
alive. If there should be parents that evaded the command, and preserved a new-born
boy in secret, they and all belonging to them were to be killed.

Is it to be wondered at, then, that many of the Hebrews kept themselves away
from their wives? Nevertheless those who put trust in God were not forsaken by
Him. The women that remained united with their husbands would go out into the
field when their time of delivery arrived, and give birth to their children and
leave them there, while they themselves returned home. The Lord, who had sworn
unto their ancestors to multiply them, sent one of His angels to wash the babes,
anoint them, stretch their limbs, and swathe them. Then he would give them two
smooth pebbles, from one of which they sucked milk, and from the other honey.
And God caused the hair of the infants to grow down to their knees and serve them
as a protecting garment, and then He ordered the earth to receive the babes, that
they be sheltered therein until the time of their growing up, when it would open
its mouth and vomit forth the children, and they would sprout up like the herb
of the field and the grass of the forest. Thereafter each would return to his
family and the house of his father.

When the Egyptians saw this, they went forth, every man to his field, with
his yoke of oxen, and they ploughed up the earth as one ploughs it at seed time.
Yet they were unable to do harm to the infants of the children of Israel that
had been swallowed up and lay in the bosom of the earth. Thus the people of Israel
increased and waxed exceedingly. And Pharaoh ordered his officers to go to Goshen,
to look for the male babes of the children of Israel, and when they discovered
one, they tore him from his mother’s breast by force, and thrust him into the
river.” But no one is so valiant as to be able to foil God’s purposes, though
he contrive ten thousand subtle devices unto that end. The child foretold by Pharaoh’s
dreams and by his astrologers was brought up and kept concealed from the king’s
spies. It came to pass after the following manner.

THE PARENTS OF MOSES

When Pharaoh’s proclamation was issued, decreeing that the men children of
the Hebrews were to be cast into the river, Amram, who was the president of the
Sanhedrin, decided that in the circumstances it was best for husbands to live
altogether separate from their wives. He set the example. He divorced his wife,
and all the men of Israel did likewise, for he occupied a place of great consideration
among his people, one reason being that he belonged to the tribe of Levi, the
tribe that was faithful to its God even in the land of Egypt, though the other
tribes wavered in their allegiance, and attempted to ally themselves with the
Egyptians, going so far as to give up Abraham’s sign of the covenant. To chastise
the Hebrews for their impiety, God turned the love of the Egyptians for them into
hatred, so that they resolved upon their destruction. Mindful of all that he and
his people owed to Joseph’s wise rule, Pharaoh refused at first to entertain the
malicious plans proposed by the Egyptians against the Hebrews. He spoke to his
people, “You fools, we are indebted to these Hebrews for whatever we enjoy, and
you desire now to rise up against them?” But the Egyptians could not be turned
aside from their purpose of ruining Israel. They deposed their king, and incarcerated
him for three months, until he declared himself ready to execute with determination
what they had resolved upon, and he sought to bring about the ruin of the children
of Israel by every conceivable means. Such was the retribution they had drawn
down upon themselves by their own acts.

As for Amram, not only did he belong to the tribe of Levi, distinguished for
its piety, but by reason of his extraordinary piety he was prominent even among
the pious of the tribe. He was one of the four who were immaculate, untainted
by sin, over whom death would have had no power, had mortality not been decreed
against every single human being on account of the fall of the first man and woman.
The other three that led the same sinless life were Benjamin, Jesse the father
of David, and Chileab the son of David. If the Shekinah was drawn close again
to the dwelling-place of mortals, it was due to Amram’s piety. Originally the
real residence of the Shekinah was among men, but when Adam committed his sin,
she withdrew to heaven, at first to the lowest of the seven heavens. Thence she
was banished by Cain’s crime, and she retired to the second heaven. The sins of
the generation of Enoch removed her still farther off from men, she took up her
abode in the third heaven; then, successively, in the fourth, on account of the
malefactors in the generation of the deluge; in the fifth, during the building
of the tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues; in the sixth, by reason of
the wicked Egyptians at the time of Abraham; and, finally, in the seventh, in
consequence of the abominations of the inhabitants of Sodom. Six righteous men,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, and Amram, drew the Shekinah back, one by
one, from the seventh to the first heaven, and through the seventh righteous man,
Moses, she was made to descend to the earth and abide among men as aforetime.

Amram’s sagacity kept pace with his piety and his learning. The Egyptians succeeded
in enslaving the Hebrews by seductive promises. At first they gave them a shekel
for every brick they made, tempting them to superhuman efforts by the prospect
of earning much money. Later, when the Egyptians forced them to work without wages,
they insisted upon having as many bricks as the Hebrews had made when their labor
was paid for, but they could demand only a single brick daily from Amram, for
he had been the only one whom they had not led astray by their artifice. He had
been satisfied with a single shekel daily, and had therefore made only a single
brick daily, which they had to accept afterward as the measure of his day’s work.

As his life partner, Amram chose his aunt Jochebed, who was born the same day
with him. She was the daughter of Levi, and she owed her name, “Divine Splendor,”
to the celestial light that radiated from her countenance. She was worthy of being
her husband’s helpmeet, for she was one of the midwives that had imperilled their
own lives to rescue the little Hebrew babes. Indeed, if God had not allowed a
miracle to happen, she and her daughter Miriam would have been killed by Pharaoh
for having resisted his orders and saved the Hebrew children alive. When the king
sent his hangmen for the two women, God caused them to become invisible, and the
bailiffs had to return without accomplishing their errand.

The first child of the union between Amram and Jochebed, his wife, who was
one hundred and twenty-six years old at the time of her marriage, was a girl,
and the mother called her Miriam, “Bitterness,” for it was at the time of her
birth that the Egyptians began to envenom the life of the Hebrews. The second
child was a boy, called Aaron, which means, “Woe unto this pregnancy!” because
Pharaoh’s instructions to the midwives, to kill the male children of the Hebrews,
was proclaimed during the months before Aaron’s birth.

THE BIRTH OF MOSES

When Amram separated from his wife on account of the edict published against
the male children of the Hebrews, and his example was followed by all the Israelites,
his daughter Miriam said to him: “Father, thy decree is worse than Pharaoh’s decree.
The Egyptians aim to destroy only the male children, but thou includest the girls
as well. Pharaoh deprives his victims of life in this world, but thou preventest
children from being born, and thus thou deprivest them of the future life, too.
He resolves destruction, but who knows whether the intention of the wicked can
persist? Thou art a righteous man, and the enactments of the righteous are executed
by God, hence thy decree will be upheld.”

Amram recognized the justice of her plea, and he repaired to the Sanhedrin,
and put the matter before this body. The members of the court spoke, and said:
“It was thou that didst separate husbands and wives, and from thee should go forth
the permission for re-marriage.” Amram then made the proposition that each of
the members of the Sanhedrin return to his wife, and wed her clandestinely, but
his colleagues repudiated the plan, saying, “And who will make it known unto the
whole of Israel? “

Accordingly, Amram stood publicly under the wedding canopy with his divorced
wife Jochebed, while Aaron and Miriam danced about it, and the angels proclaimed,
“Let the mother of children be joyful!” His re-marriage was solemnized with great
ceremony, to the end that the men that had followed his example in divorcing their
wives might imitate him now in taking them again unto themselves. And so it happened.

Old as Jochebed was, she regained her youth. Her skin became soft, the wrinkles
in her face disappeared, the warm tints of maiden beauty returned, and in a short
time she became pregnant.

Amram was very uneasy about his wife’s being with child; he knew not what to
do. He turned to God in prayer, and entreated Him to have compassion upon those
who had in no wise transgressed the laws of His worship, and afford them deliverance
from the misery they endured, while He rendered abortive the hope of their enemies,
who yearned for the destruction of their nation. God had mercy on him, and He
stood by him in his sleep, and exhorted him not to despair of His future favors.
He said further, that He did not forget their piety, and He would always reward
them for it, as He had granted His favor in other days unto their forefathers.
“Know, therefore,” the Lord continued to speak, “that I shall provide for you
all together what is for your good, and for thee in particular that which shall
make thee celebrated; for the child out of dread of whose nativity the Egyptians
have doomed the Israelite children to destruction, shall be this child of thine,
and be shall remain concealed from those who watch to destroy him, and when he
has been bred up, in a miraculous way, he shall deliver the Hebrew nation from
the distress they are under by reason of the Egyptians. His memory shall be celebrated
while the world lasts, and not only among the Hebrews, but among strangers also.
And all this shall be the effect of My favor toward thee and thy posterity. Also
his brother shall be such that he shall obtain My priesthood for himself, and
for his posterity after him, unto the end of the world.”

After he had been informed of these things by the vision, Amram awoke, and
told all unto his wife Jochebed.

His daughter Miriam likewise had a prophetic dream, and she related it unto
her parents, saying: “In this night I saw a man clothed in fine linen. ‘Tell thy
father and thy mother,’ he said, ‘that he who shall be born unto them, shall be
cast into the waters, and through him the waters shall become dry, and wonders
and miracles shall be performed through him, and he shall save My people Israel,
and be their leader forever.'”

During her pregnancy, Jochebed observed that the child in her womb was destined
for great things. All the time she suffered no pain, and also she suffered none
in giving birth to her son, for pious women are not included in the curse pronounced
upon Eve, decreeing sorrow in conception and in childbearing.

At the moment of the child’s appearance, the whole house was filled with radiance
equal to the splendor of the sun and the moon. A still greater miracle followed.
The infant was not yet a day old when he began to walk and speak with his parents,
and as though he were an adult, he refused to drink milk from his mother’s breast.

Jochebed gave birth to the child six months after conception. The Egyptian
bailiffs, who kept strict watch over all pregnant women in order to be on the
spot in time to carry off their new-born boys, had not expected her delivery for
three months more. These three months the parents succeeded in keeping the babe
concealed, though every Israelitish house was guarded by two Egyptian women, one
stationed within and one without. At the end of this time they determined to expose
the child, for Amram was afraid that both he and his son would be devoted to death
if the secret leaked out, and he thought it better to entrust the child’s fate
to Divine Providence. He was convinced that God would protect the boy, and fulfil
His word in truth.

MOSES RESCUED FROM THE WATER

Jochebed accordingly took an ark fashioned of bulrushes, daubed it with pitch
on the outside, and lined it with clay within. The reason she used bulrushes was
because they float on the surface of the water, and she put pitch only on the
outside, to protect the child as much as possible against the annoyance of a disagreeable
odor. Over the child as it lay in the ark she spread a tiny canopy, to shade the
babe, with the words, “Perhaps I shall not live to see him under the marriage
canopy.” And then she abandoned the ark on the shores of the Red Sea. Yet it was
not left unguarded. Her daughter Miriam stayed near by, to discover whether a
prophecy she had uttered would be fulfilled. Before the child’s birth, his sister
had foretold that her mother would bring forth a son that should redeem Israel.
When he was born, and the house was filled with brilliant light, Amram kissed
her on her head, but when he was forced into the expedient of exposing the child,
he beat her on her head, saying, “My daughter, what hath become of thy prophecy?”
Therefore Miriam stayed, and strolled along the shore, to observe what would be
the fate of the babe, and what would come of her prophecy concerning him.

The day the child was exposed was the twenty-first of the month of Nisan, the
same on which the children of Israel later, under the leadership of Moses, sang
the song of praise and gratitude to God for the redemption from the waters of
the sea. The angels appeared before God, and spoke: “O Lord of the world, shall
he that is appointed to sing a song of praise unto Thee on this day of Nisan,
to thank Thee for rescuing him and his people from the sea, shall he find his
death in the sea to-day?” The Lord replied: “Ye know well that I see all things.
The contriving of man can do naught to change what bath been resolved in My counsel.
Those do not attain their end who use cunning and malice to secure their own safety,
and endeavor to bring ruin upon their fellow-men. But he who trusts Me in his
peril will be conveyed from profoundest distress to unlooked-for happiness. Thus
My omnipotence will reveal itself in the fortunes of this babe.

At the time of the child’s abandonment, God sent scorching heat to plague the
Egyptians, and they all suffered with leprosy and smarting boils. Thermutis, the
daughter of Pharaoh, sought relief from the burning pain in a bath in the waters
of the Nile. But physical discomfort was not her only reason for leaving her father’s
palace. She was determined to cleanse herself as well of the impurity of the idol
worship that prevailed there.

When she saw the little ark floating among the flags on the surface of the
water, she supposed it to contain one of the little children exposed at her father’s
order, and she commanded her handmaids to fetch it. But they protested, saying,
“O our mistress, it happens sometimes that a decree issued by a king is unheeded,
yet it is observed at least by his children and the members of his household,
and dost thou desire to transgress thy father’s edict?” Forthwith the angel Gabriel
appeared, seized all the maids except one, whom he permitted the princess to retain
for her service, and buried them in the bowels of the earth.

Pharaoh’s daughter now proceeded to do her own will. She stretched forth her
arm, and although the ark was swimming at a distance of sixty ells, she succeeded
in grasping it, because her arm was lengthened miraculously. No sooner had she
touched it than the leprosy afflicting her departed from her. Her sudden restoration
led her to examine the contents of the ark, and when she opened it, her amazement
was great. She beheld an exquisitely beautiful boy, for God had fashioned the
Hebrew babe’s body with peculiar care, and beside it she perceived the Shekinah.
Noticing that the boy bore the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, she knew that he
was one of the Hebrew children, and mindful of her father’s decree concerning
the male children of the Israelites, she was about to abandon the babe to his
fate. At that moment the angel Gabriel came and gave the child a vigorous blow,
and he began to cry aloud, with a voice like a young man’s. His vehement weeping
and the weeping of Aaron, who was lying beside him, touched the princess, and
in her pity she resolved to save him. She ordered an Egyptian woman to be brought,
to nurse the child, but the little one refused to take milk from her breast, as
he refused to take it from one after the other of the Egyptian women fetched thither.
Thus it had been ordained by God, that none of them might boast later on, and
say, “I suckled him that holds converse now with the Shekinah.” Nor was the mouth
destined to speak with God to draw nourishment from the unclean body of an Egyptian
woman.

Now Miriam stepped into the presence of Thermutis, as though she had been standing
there by chance to look at the child, and she spoke to the princess, saying, “It
is vain for thee, O queen, to call for nurses that are in no wise of kin to the
child, but if thou wilt order a woman of the Hebrews to be brought, he may accept
her breast, seeing that she is of his own nation.” Thermutis therefore bade Miriam
fetch a Hebrew woman, and with winged steps, speeding like a vigorous youth, she
hastened and brought back her own mother, the child’s mother, for she knew that
none present was acquainted with her. The babe, unresisting, took his mother’s
breast, and clutched it tightly. The princess committed the child to Jochebed’s
care, saying these words, which contained an unconscious divination: “Here is
what is thine.” Nurse the boy henceforth, and I will give thee two silver pieces
as thy wages.

The return of her son, safe and sound, after she had exposed him, was Jochebed’s
reward from God for her services as one of the midwives that had bidden defiance
to Pharaoh’s command and saved the Hebrew children alive.

By exposing their son to danger, Amram and Jochebed had effected the withdrawal
of Pharaoh’s command enjoining the extermination of the Hebrew men children. The
day Moses was set adrift in the little ark, the astrologers had come to Pharaoh
and told him the glad tidings, that the danger threatening the Egyptians on account
of one boy, whose doom lay in the water, had now been averted. Thereupon Pharaoh
cried a halt to the drowning of the boys of his empire. The astrologers had seen
something, but they knew not what, and they announced a message, the import of
which they did not comprehend. Water was, indeed, the doom of Moses, but that
did not mean that he would perish in the waters of the Nile. It had reference
to the waters of Meribah, the waters of strife, and how they would cause his death
in the desert, before he had completed his task of leading the people into the
promised land. Pharaoh, misled by the obscure vision of his astrologers, thought
that the future redeemer of Israel was to lose his life by drowning, and to make
sure that the boy whose appearance was foretold by the astrologers might not escape
his fate, he had ordered all boys, even the children of the Egyptians, born during
a period of nine months to be cast into the water.

On account of the merits of Moses, the six hundred thousand men children of
the Hebrews begotten in the same night with him, and thrown into the water on
the same day, were rescued miraculously together with him, and it was therefore
not an idle boast, if he said later, “The people that went forth out of the water
on account of my merits are six hundred thousand men.”

THE INFANCY OF MOSES

For two years the child rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter stayed with his parents
and kindred. They gave him various names. His father called him Heber, because
it was for this child’s sake that he had been “reunited” with his wife. His mother’s
name for him was Jekuthiel, “because,” she said, “I set my hope upon God, and
He gave him back to me.” To his sister Miriam he was Jered, because she had “descended”
to the stream to ascertain his fate. His brother Aaron called him Abi Zanoah,
because his father, who had “cast off” his mother, had taken her back for the
sake of the child to be born. His grandfather Kohath knew him as Abi Gedor, because
the Heavenly Father had “built up” the breach in Israel, when He rescued him,
and thus restrained the Egyptians from throwing the Hebrew men children into the
water. His nurse called him Abi Soco, because he had been kept concealed in a
“tent” for three months, escaping the pursuit of the Egyptians. And Israel called
him Shemaiah ben Nethanel, because in his day God would “hear” the sighs of the
people, and deliver them from their oppressors, and through him would He “give”
them His own law.

His kindred and all Israel knew that the child was destined for great things,
for he was barely four months old when he began to prophesy, saying, “In days
to come I shall receive the Torah from the flaming torch.”

When Jochebed took the child to the palace at the end of two years, Pharaoh’s
daughter called him Moses, because she had “drawn” him out of the water, and because
he would “draw” the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt in a day to come.
And this was the only name whereby God called the son of Amram, the name conferred
upon him by Pharaoh’s daughter. He said to the princess: “Moses was not thy child,
yet thou didst treat him as such. For this I will call thee My daughter, though
thou art not My daughter,” and therefore the princess, the daughter of Pharaoh,
bears the name Bithiah, “the daughter of God.” She married Caleb later on, and
he was a suitable husband for her. As she stood up against her father’s wicked
counsels, so Caleb stood up against the counsel of his fellow-messengers sent
to spy out the land of Canaan. For rescuing Moses and for her other pious deeds,
she was permitted to enter Paradise alive.

That Moses might receive the treatment at court usually accorded to a prince,
Bithiah pretended that she was with child for some time before she had him fetched
away from his parents’ house.” His royal foster-mother caressed and kissed him
constantly, and on account of his extraordinary beauty she would not permit him
ever to quit the palace. Whoever set eyes on him, could not leave off from looking
at him, wherefore Bithiah feared to allow him out of her sight.

Moses’ understanding was far beyond his years; his instructors observed that
he disclosed keener comprehension than is usual at his age. All his actions in
his infancy promised greater ones after he should come to man’s estate, and when
he was but three years old, God granted him remarkable size. As for his beauty,
it was so attractive that frequently those meeting him as he was carried along
on the road were obliged to turn and stare at him. They would leave what they
were about, and stand still a great while, looking after him, for the loveliness
of the child was so wondrous that it held the gaze of the spectator. The daughter
of Pharaoh, perceiving Moses to be an extraordinary lad, adopted him as her son,
for she had no child of her own. She informed her father of her intention concerning
him, in these words: “I have brought up a child, who is divine in form and of
an excellent mind, and as I received him through the bounty of the river in a
wonderful way, I have thought it proper to adopt him as my son and as the heir
of thy kingdom.” And when she had spoken thus, she put the infant between her
father’s hands, and he took him and hugged him close to his breast.

MOSES RESCUED BY GABRIEL

When Moses was in his third year, Pharaoh was dining one day, with the queen
Alfar’anit at his right hand, his daughter Bithiah with the infant Moses upon
her lap at his left, and Balaam the son of Beor together with his two sons and
all the princes of the realm sitting at table in the king’s presence. It happened
that the infant took the crown from off the king’s head, and placed it on his
own. When the king and the princes saw this, they were terrified, and each one
in turn expressed his astonishment. The king said unto the princes, “What speak
you, and what say you, O ye princes, on this matter, and what is to be done to
this Hebrew boy on account of this act?”

Balaam spoke, saying: “Remember now, O my lord and king, the dream which thou
didst dream many days ago, and how thy servant interpreted it unto thee. Now this
is a child of the Hebrews in whom is the spirit of God. Let not my lord the king
imagine in his heart that being a child he did the thing without knowledge. For
he is a Hebrew boy, and wisdom and understanding are with him, although he is
yet a child, and with wisdom has he done this, and chosen unto himself the kingdom
of Egypt. For this is the manner of all the Hebrews, to deceive kings and their
magnates, to do all things cunningly in order to make the kings of the earth and
their men to stumble.

“Surely thou knowest that Abraham their father acted thus, who made the armies
of Nimrod king of Babel and of Abimelech king of Gerar to stumble, and he possessed
himself of the land of the children of Heth and the whole realm of Canaan. Their
father Abraham went down into Egypt, and said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister,
in order to make Egypt and its king to stumble.

“His son Isaac did likewise when he went to Gerar, and he dwelt there, and
his strength prevailed over the army of Abimelech, and he intended to make the
kingdom of the Philistines to stumble, by saying that Rebekah his wife was his
sister.

“Jacob also dealt treacherously with his brother, and took his birthright and
his blessing from him. Then he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, his mother’s brother,
and he obtained his daughters from him cunningly, and also his cattle and all
his belongings, and he fled away and returned to the land of Canaan, to his father.

“His sons sold their brother Joseph, and he went down into Egypt and became
a slave, and he was put into prison for twelve years, until the former Pharaoh
delivered him from the prison, and magnified him above all the princes of Egypt
on account of his interpreting the king’s dreams. When God caused a famine to
descend upon the whole world, Joseph sent for his father, and he brought him down
into Egypt his father, his brethren, and all his father’s household, and he supplied
them with food without pay or reward, while he acquired Egypt, and made slaves
of all its inhabitants.

“Now, therefore, my lord king, behold, this child has risen up in their stead
in Egypt, to do according to their deeds and make sport of every man, be he king,
prince, or judge. If it please the king, let us now spill his blood upon the ground,
lest he grow up and snatch the government from thine hand, and the hope of Egypt
be cut off after he reigns. Let us, moreover, call for all the judges and the
wise men of Egypt, that we may know whether the judgment of death be due to this
child, as I have said, and then we will slay him.”

Pharaoh sent and called for all the wise men of Egypt, and they came, and the
angel Gabriel was disguised as one of them. When they were asked their opinion
in the matter, Gabriel spoke up, and said: “If it please the king, let him place
an onyx stone before the child, and a coal of fire, and if he stretches out his
hand and grasps the onyx stone, then shall we know that the child hath done with
wisdom all that he bath done, and we will slay him. But if he stretches out his
hand and grasps the coal of fire, then shall we know that it was not with consciousness
that he did the thing, and he shall live.”

The counsel seemed good in the eyes of the king, and when they had placed the
stone and the coal before the child, Moses stretched forth his hand toward the
onyx stone and attempted to seize it, but the angel Gabriel guided his hand away
from it and placed it upon the live coal, and the coal burnt the child’s hand,
and he lifted it up and touched it to his mouth, and burnt part of his lips and
part of his tongue, and for all his life he became slow of speech and of a slow
tongue.

Seeing this, the king and the princes knew that Moses had not acted with knowledge
in taking the crown from off the king’s head, and they refrained from slaying
him. God Himself, who protected Moses, turned the king’s mind to grace, and his
foster-mother snatched him away, and she had him educated with great care, so
that the Hebrews depended upon him, and cherished the hope that great things would
be done by him. But the Egyptians were suspicious of what would follow from such
an education as his.

At great cost teachers were invited to come to Egypt from neighboring lands,
to educate the child Moses. Some came of their own accord, to instruct him in
the sciences and the liberal arts. By reason of his admirable endowments of mind,
he soon excelled his teachers in knowledge. His learning seemed a process of mere
recollecting, and when there was a difference of opinion among scholars, he selected
the correct one instinctively, for his mind refused to store up anything that
was false.

But he deserves more praise for his unusual strength of will than for his natural
capacity, for he succeeded in transforming an originally evil disposition into
a noble, exalted character, a change that was farther aided by his resolution,
as he himself acknowledged later. After the wonderful exodus of the Israelites
from Egypt, a king of Arabia sent an artist to Moses, to paint his portrait, that
he might always have the likeness of the divine man before him. The painter returned
with his handiwork, and the king assembled his wise men, those in particular who
were conversant with the science of physiognomy. He displayed the portrait before
them, and invited their judgment upon it. The unanimous opinion was that it represented
a man covetous, haughty, sensual, in short, disfigured by all possible ugly traits.
The king was indignant that they should pretend to be masters in physiognomy,
seeing that they declared the picture of Moses, the holy, divine man, to be the
picture of a villain. They defended themselves by accusing the painter in turn
of not having produced a true portrait of Moses, else they would not have fallen
into the erroneous judgment they had expressed. But the artist insisted that his
work resembled the original closely.

Unable to decide who was right, the Arabian king went to see Moses, and he
could not but admit that the portrait painted for him was a masterpiece. Moses
as he beheld him in the flesh was the Moses upon the canvas. There could be no
doubt but that the highly extolled knowledge of his physiognomy experts was empty
twaddle. He told Moses what had happened, and what he thought of it. He replied:
“Thy artist and thy experts alike are masters, each in his line. If my fine qualities
were a product of nature, I were no better than a log of wood, which remains forever
as nature produced it at the first. Unashamed I make the confession to thee that
by nature I possessed all the reprehensible traits thy wise men read in my picture
and ascribed to me, perhaps to a greater degree even than they think. But I mastered
my evil impulses with my strong will, and the character I acquired through severe
discipline has become the opposite of the disposition with which I was born. Through
this change, wrought in me by my own efforts, I have earned honor and commendation
upon earth as well as in heaven.”

THE YOUTH OF MOSES

One day–it was after he was grown up, and had passed beyond the years of childhood–Moses
went to the land of Goshen, in which lived the children of Israel. There he saw
the burdens under which his people were groaning, and he inquired why the heavy
service had been put upon them. The Israelites told him all that had befallen,
told him of the cruel edict Pharaoh had issued shortly before his birth, and told
him of the wicked counsels given by Balaam against themselves as well as against
his person when he was but a little boy and had set Pharaoh’s crown upon his head.
The wrath of Moses was kindled against the spiteful adviser, and he tried to think
out means of rendering him harmless. But Balaam, getting wind of his ill-feeling,
fled from Egypt with his two sons, and betook himself to the court of Kikanos
king of Ethiopia.

The sight of his enslaved people touched Moses unto tears, and he spoke, saying:
“Woe unto me for your anguish! Rather would I die than see you suffer so grievously.”
He did not disdain to help his unfortunate brethren at their heavy tasks as much
as lay in his power. He dismissed all thought of his high station at court, shouldered
a share of the burdens put upon the Israelites, and toiled in their place. The
result was that he not only gave relief to the heavily-laden workmen, but he also
gained the favor of Pharaoh, who believed that Moses was taking part in the labor
in order to promote the execution of the royal order. And God said unto Moses:
“Thou didst relinquish all thy other occupations, and didst join thyself unto
the children of Israel, whom thou dost treat as brethren; therefore will I, too,
put aside now all heavenly and earthly affairs, and hold converse with thee.”

Moses continued to do all he could to alleviate the suffering of his brethren
to the best of his ability. He addressed encouraging words to them, saying: “My
dear brethren, bear your lot with fortitude! Do not lose courage, and let not
your spirit grow weary with the weariness of your body. Better times will come,
when tribulation shall be changed into joy. Clouds are followed by sunshine, storms
by calm, all things in the world tend toward their opposites, and nothing is more
inconstant than the fortunes of man.”

The royal favor, which the king accorded him in ever-increasing measure, he
made use of to lighten the burden laid upon the children of Israel. One day he
came into the presence of Pharaoh, and said: “O my lord, I have a request to make
of thee, and my hope is that thou wilt not deny it.” “Speak,” replied the king.
“It is an admitted fact,” said Moses, “that if a slave is not afforded rest at
least one day in the week, he will die of overexertion. Thy Hebrew slaves will
surely perish, unless thou accordest them a day of cessation from work.” Pharaoh
fulfilled the petition preferred by Moses, and the king’s edict was published
in the whole of Egypt and in Goshen, as follows: “To the sons of Israel! Thus
saith the king: Do your work and perform your service for six days, but on the
seventh day you shall rest; on it ye shall do no labor. Thus shall ye do unto
all times, according to the command of the king and the command of Moses the son
of Bithiah.” And the day appointed by Moses as the day of rest was Saturday, later
given by God to the Israelites as the Sabbath day.

While Moses abode in Goshen, an incident of great importance occurred. To superintend
the service of the children of Israel, an officer from among them was set over
every ten, and ten such officers were under the surveillance of an Egyptian taskmaster.
One of these Hebrew officers, Dathan by name, had a wife, Shelomith, the daughter
of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan, who was of extraordinary beauty, but inclined to
be very loquacious. Whenever the Egyptian taskmaster set over her husband came
to their house on business connected with his office, she would approach him pleasantly
and enter into conversation with him. The beautiful Israelitish woman enkindled
a mad passion in his breast, and he sought and found a cunning way of satisfying
his lustful desire. One day he appeared at break of dawn at the house of Dathan,
roused him from his sleep, and ordered him to hurry his detachment of men to their
work. The husband scarcely out of sight, he executed the villainy he had planned,
and dishonored the woman, and the fruit of this illicit relation was the blasphemer
of the Name whom Moses ordered to execution on the march through the desert.

At the moment when the Egyptian slipped out of Shelomith’s chamber, Dathan
returned home. Vexed that his crime had come to the knowledge of the injured husband,
the taskmaster goaded him on to work with excessive vigor, and dealt him blow
after blow with the intention to kill him. Young Moses happened to visit the place
at which the much-abused and tortured Hebrew was at work. Dathan hastened toward
him, and complained of all the wrong and suffering the Egyptian had inflicted
upon him. Full of wrath, Moses, whom the holy spirit had acquainted with the injury
done the Hebrew officer by the Egyptian taskmaster, cried out to the latter, saying:
“Not enough that thou hast dishonored this man’s wife, thou aimest to kill him,
too?” And turning to God, he spoke further: “What will become of Thy promise to
Abraham, that his posterity shall be as numerous as the stars, if his children
are given over to death? And what will become of the revelation on Sinai, if the
children of Israel are exterminated?”

Moses wanted to see if someone would step forward, and, impelled by zeal for
the cause of God and for God’s law, would declare himself ready to avenge the
outrage. He waited in vain. Then he determined to act himself. Naturally enough
he hesitated to take the life of a human being. He did not know whether the evil-doer
might not be brought to repentance, and then lead a life of pious endeavor. He
also considered, that there would perhaps be some among the descendants to spring
from the Egyptian for whose sake their wicked ancestor might rightfully lay claim
to clemency. The holy spirit allayed all his doubts. He was made to see that not
the slightest hope existed that good would come either from the malefactor himself
or from any of his offspring. Then Moses was willing to requite him for his evil
deeds. Nevertheless he first consulted the angels, to hear what they had to say,
and they agreed that the Egyptian deserved death, and Moses acted according to
their opinion.

Neither physical strength nor a weapon was needed to carry out his purpose.
He merely pronounced the Name of God, and the Egyptian was a corpse. To the bystanders,
the Israelites, Moses said: “The Lord compared you unto the sand of the sea-shore,
and as the sand moves noiselessly from place to place, so I pray you to keep the
knowledge of what hath happened a secret within yourselves. Let nothing be heard
concerning it.”

The wish expressed by Moses was not honored. The slaying of the Egyptian remained
no secret, and those who betrayed it were Israelites, Dathan and Abiram, the sons
of Pallu, of the tribe of Reuben, notorious for their effrontery and contentiousness.
The day after the thing with the Egyptians happened, the two brothers began of
malice aforethought to scuffle with each other, only in order to draw Moses into
the quarrel and create an occasion for his betrayal. The plan succeeded admirably.
Seeing Dathan raise his hand against Abiram, to deal him a blow, Moses exclaimed,
“O thou art a villain, to lift up thy hand against an Israelite, even if he is
no better than thou.” Dathan replied: “Young man, who hath made thee to be a judge
over us, thou that hast not yet attained to years of maturity? We know very well
that thou art the son of Jochebed, though people call thee the son of the princess
Bithiah, and if thou shouldst attempt to play the part of our master and judge,
we will publish abroad the thing thou didst unto the Egyptian. Or, peradventure,
thou harborest the intention to slay us as thou didst slay him, by pronouncing
the Name of God?”

Not satisfied with these taunts, the noble pair of brothers betook themselves
to Pharaoh, and spoke before him, “Moses dishonoreth thy royal mantle and thy
crown,” to which Pharaoh returned, saying, “Much good may it do him!” But they
pursued the subject. “He helps thine enemies, Pharaoh,” they continued, whereupon
he replied, as before, “Much good may it do him!” Still they went on, “He is not
the son of thy daughter.” These last words did not fail of making an impression
upon Pharaoh. A royal command was issued for the arrest of Moses, and he was condemned
to death by the sword.

The angels came to God, and said, “Moses, the familiar of Thine house, is held
under restraint,” and God replied, “I will espouse his cause.” “But,” the angels
urged, “his verdict of death has been pronounced–yes, they are leading him to
execution,” and again God made reply, as before, “I will espouse his cause.”

Moses mounted the scaffold, and a sword, sharp beyond compare, was set upon
his neck ten times, but it always slipped away, because his neck was as hard as
ivory. And a still greater miracle came to pass. God sent down the angel Michael,
in the guise of a hangman, and the human hangman charged by Pharaoh with the execution
was changed into the form of Moses. This spurious Moses the angel killed with
the very sword with which the executioner had purposed to slay the intended victim.
Meantime Moses took to flight. Pharaoh ordered his pursuit, but it was in vain.
The king’s troops were partly stricken with blindness partly with dumbness. The
dumb could give no information about the abiding-place of Moses, and the blind,
though they knew where it was, could not get to it.

THE FLIGHT

An angel of God took Moses to a spot removed forty days’ journey from Egypt,
so far off that all fear was banished from his mind. Indeed, his anxiety had never
been for his own person, but only on account of the future of Israel. The subjugation
of his people had always been an unsolved enigma to him. Why should Israel, he
would ask himself, suffer more than all the other nations? But when his personal
straits initiated him in the talebearing and back-biting that prevailed among
the Israelites, then he asked himself, Does this people deserve to be redeemed?
The religious conditions among the children of Israel were of such kind at that
time as not to permit them to hope for Divine assistance. They refused to give
ear to Aaron and the five sons of Zerah, who worked among them as prophets, and
admonished them unto the fear of God. It was on account of their impiety that
the heavy hand of Pharaoh rested upon them more and more oppressively, until God
had mercy upon them, and sent Moses to deliver them from the slavery of Egypt.

When he succeeded in effecting his escape from the hands of the hangman, Moses
had no idea that a royal throne awaited him. It was nevertheless so. A war broke
out at this time between Ethiopia and the nations of the East that had been subject
to it until then. Kikanos, the king, advanced against the enemy with a great army.
He left Balaam and Balaam’s two sons, Jannes and Jambres, behind, to keep guard
over his capital and take charge of the people remaining at home. The absence
of the king gave Balaam the opportunity of winning his subjects over to his side,
and he was put upon the throne, and his two sons were set over the army as generals.
To cut Kikanos off from his capital, Balaam and his sons invested the city, so
that none could enter it against their will. On two sides they made the walls
higher, on the third they dug a network of canals, into which they conducted the
waters of the river girding the whole land of Ethiopia, and on the fourth side
their magic arts collected a large swarm of snakes and scorpions. Thus none could
depart, and none could enter.

Meantime Kikanos succeeded in subjugating the rebellious nations. When he returned
at the head of his victorious army, and espied the high city wall from afar, he
and his men said: “The inhabitants of the city, seeing that the war detained us
abroad for a long time, have raised the walls and fortified them, that the kings
of Canaan may not be able to enter.” On approaching the city gates, which were
barred, they cried out to the guards to open them, but by Balaam’s instructions
they were not permitted to pass through. A skirmish ensued, in which Kikanos lost
one hundred and thirty men. On the morrow the combat was continued, the king with
his troops being stationed on the thither bank of the river. This day he lost
his thirty riders, who, mounted on their steeds, had attempted to swim the stream.
Then the king ordered rafts to be constructed for the transporting of his men.
When the vessels reached the canals, they were submerged, and the waters, swirling
round and round as though driven by mill wheels, swept away two hundred men, twenty
from each raft. On the third day they set about assaulting the city from the side
on which the snakes and scorpions swarmed, but they failed to reach it, and the
reptiles killed one hundred and seventy men. The king desisted from attacking
the city, but for the space of nine years he surrounded it, so that none could
come out or go in.

While the siege was in progress, Moses appeared in the king’s camp on his flight
before Pharaoh, and at once found favor with Kikanos and his whole army. He exercised
an attraction upon all that saw him, for he was slender like a palm-tree, his
countenance shone as the morning sun, and his strength was equal to a lion’s.
So deep was the king’s affection for him that he appointed him to be commander-in-chief
of his forces.

At the end of the nine years Kikanos fell a prey to a mortal disease, and he
died on the seventh day of his illness. His servants embalmed him, buried him
opposite to the city gate toward the land of Egypt, and over his grave they erected
a magnificent structure, strong and high, upon the walls whereof they engraved
all the mighty deeds and battles of the dead king.

Now, after the death of Kikanos, his men were greatly grieved on account of
the war. One said unto the other, “Counsel us, what shall we do at this time?
We have been abiding in the wilderness, away from our homes, for nine years. If
we fight against the city, many of us will fall dead; and if we remain here besieging
it, we shall also die. For now all the princes of Aram and of the children of
the East will hear that our king is dead, and they will attack us suddenly, and
they will fight with us until not a remnant will be left. Now, therefore, let
us go and set a king over us, and we will remain here besieging the city until
it surrenders unto us.”

THE KING OF ETHIOPIA

They could find none except Moses fit to be their king. They hastened and stripped
off each man his upper garment, and cast them all in a heap upon the ground, making
a high place, on top of which they set Moses. Then they blew with trumpets, and
called out before him: “Long live the king! Long live the king!” And all the people
and the nobles swore unto him to give him Adoniah for wife, the Ethiopian queen,
the widow of Kikanos. And they made Moses king over them on that day.

They also issued a proclamation, commanding every man to give Moses of what
he possessed, and upon the high place they spread a sheet, wherein each one cast
something, this one a gold nose ring, that one a coin, and onyx stones, bdellium,
pearls, gold, and silver in great abundance.

Moses was twenty-seven years old when he became king over Ethiopia, and he
reigned for forty years. On the seventh day of his reign, all the people assembled
and came before him, to ask his counsel as to what was to be done to the city
they were besieging. The king answered them, and said: “If you will hearken to
my words, the city will be delivered into our hands. Proclaim with a loud voice
throughout the whole camp, unto all the people, saying: ‘Thus saith the king!
Go to the forest and fetch hither of the young of the stork, each man one fledgling
in his hand. And if there be any man that transgresseth the word of the king,
not to bring a bird, he shall die, and the king shall take all belonging to him.’
And when you have brought them, they shall be in your keeping. You shall rear
them until they grow up, and you shall teach them to fly as the hawk flieth.”

All the people did according to the word of Moses, and after the young storks
had grown to full size, he ordered them to be starved for three days. On the third
day the king said unto them, “Let every man put on his armor and gird his sword
upon him. Each one shall mount his horse, and each shall set his stork upon his
hand, and we will rise up and fight against the city opposite to the place of
the serpents.”

When they came to the appointed spot, the king said to them, “Let each man
send forth his young stork, to descend upon the serpents.” Thus they did, and
the birds swooped down and devoured all the reptiles and destroyed them. After
the serpents were removed in this way, the men fought against the city, subdued
it, and killed all its inhabitants, but of the people besieging it there died
not one.

When Balaam saw that the city had fallen into the hands of the besiegers, he
exercised his magic arts, which enabled him to fly through the air, and he carried
with him his two sons, Jannes and Jambres, and his eight brothers, and they all
took refuge in Egypt.

Seeing that they had been saved by the king, and the city had been taken by
his good counsel, the people became more than ever attached to him. They set the
royal crown upon his head, and gave him Adoniah, the widow of Kikanos to wife.
But Moses feared the stern God of his fathers, and he went not in unto Adoniah,
nor did he turn his eyes toward her, for he remembered how Abraham had made his
servant Eliezer swear, saying unto him, “Thou shalt not take a wife for my son
of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell.” He also remembered what
Isaac did when Jacob fled before his brother Esau, how he commanded his son, saying,
“Thou shalt not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, nor ally thyself by
marriage with any of the children of Ham, for the Lord our God gave Ham the son
of Noah and all his seed as slaves to the children of Shem and Japheth forever.”

At that time Aram and the children of the East heard that Kikanos the king
of Ethiopia had died, and they rose up against the Ethiopians, but Moses went
forth with a mighty army to fight against the rebellious nations, and he subdued
them, first the children of the East and then Aram.

Moses continued to prosper in his kingdom. He conducted the government in justice,
righteousness, and integrity, and his people loved and feared him.

In the fortieth year of his reign, while he was sitting upon his throne one
day, surrounded by all the nobles, Adoniah the queen, who was seated before him,
rose up, and spake: “What is this thing which you, the people of Ethiopia, have
done these many days? Surely you know that during the forty years this man bath
reigned over you, he hath not approached me, nor hath he worshipped the gods of
Ethiopia. Now, therefore, let this man reign over you no more, for he is not of
our flesh. Behold, Monarchos my son is grown up, let him reign over you. It is
better for you to serve the son of your lord than a stranger, a slave of the king
of Egypt.”

A whole day the people and the nobles contended with one another, whether to
pay heed to the words of the queen. The officers of the army remained faithful
to Moses, but the people of the cities were in favor of crowning the son of their
former lord as king. The following morning they rose up and made Monarchos, the
son of Kikanos, king over them, but they were afraid to stretch forth their hand
against Moses, for the Lord was with him. They also remembered the oath they had
sworn unto Moses, and therefore they did him no harm. Moreover, they gave many
presents to him, and dismissed him with great honor.

When Moses left Ethiopia, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, it was the
time appointed by God in the days of old to bring Israel forth from the affliction
of the children of Ham. But fearing to return to Egypt on account of Pharaoh,
Moses journeyed to Midian.

JETHRO

In the city of Midian, named thus for a son of Abraham by Keturah, the man
Jethro had lived for many years, doing a priest’s service before the idols. As
time went on, he grew more and more convinced of the vanity of idol worship. His
priesthood became repugnant to him, and he resolved to give up his, charge. He
stood before his townsmen, and said, “Until now I performed your service before
the idols, but I have grown too old for the duties of the office. Choose, therefore,
whomever you would choose in my place.” Speaking thus, he delivered to the people
all the paraphernalia appertaining to the idol worship, and bade them transfer
them to the one to whom in their discretion they should entrust his position.
Suspecting Jethro’s hidden motives, the people put him under the ban, and none
might venture to do him the slightest service. Not even would the shepherds pasture
his flocks, and there was nothing for him to do but impose this work upon his
seven daughters.

Jethro’s transformation from an idolatrous priest into a God-fearing man is
conveyed by his seven names. He was called Jether, because the Torah contains
an “additional” section about him; Jethro, he “overflowed” with good deeds. Hobab,
“the beloved son of God”; Reuel, “the friend of God”; Heber, “the associate of
God”; Putiel, “he that hath renounced idolatry”; and Keni, he that was “zealous”
for God, and “acquired” the Torah.

In consequence of the hostile relation between Jethro and the inhabitants of
the city, his daughters were in the habit of making their appearance at the watering
troughs before the other shepherds came thither. But the ruse was not successful.
The shepherds would drive them away, and water their own flocks at the troughs
that the maidens had filled. When Moses arrived in Midian, it was at the well
that he made halt, and his experience was the same as Isaac’s and Jacob’s. Like
them he found his helpmeet there. Rebekah had been selected by Eliezer as the
wife of Isaac, while she was busy drawing water for him; Jacob had seen Rachel
first, while she was watering her sheep, and at this well in Midian Moses met
his future wife Zipporah.

The rudeness of the shepherds reached its climax the very day of Moses’ arrival.
First they deprived the maidens of the water they had drawn for themselves, and
attempted to do violence to them, and then they threw them into the water with
intent to kill them. At this moment Moses appeared, dragged the maidens out of
the water, and gave the flocks to drink, first Jethro’s and then the flocks of
the shep-herds, though the latter did not deserve his good offices. True, he did
them the service with but little trouble to himself, for he had only to draw a
bucketful, and the water flowed so copiously that it sufficed for all the herds,
and it did not cease to flow until Moses withdrew from the well, –the same well
at which Jacob had met Rachel, his future wife, and the same well that God created
at the beginning of the world, the opening of which He made in the twilight of
the first Sabbath eve.

Jethro’s daughters thanked Moses for the assistance he had afforded them. But
Moses warded off their gratitude, saying, “Your thanks are due to the Egyptian
I killed, on account of whom I had to flee from Egypt. Had it not been for him,
I should not be here now.”

MOSES MARRIES ZIPPORAH

One of the seven maidens whom Moses saw at the well attracted his notice in
particular on account of her modest demeanor, and he made her a proposal of marriage.
But Zipporah repulsed him, saying, “My father has a tree in his garden with which
he tests every man that expresses a desire to marry one of his daughters, and
as soon as the suitor touches the tree, he is devoured by it.”

Moses: “Whence has he the tree?”

Zipporah: “It is the rod that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in the twilight
of the first Sabbath eve, and gave to Adam. He transmitted it to Enoch, from him
it descended to Noah, then to Shem, and Abraham, and Isaac, and finally to Jacob,
who brought it with him to Egypt, and gave it to his son Joseph. When Joseph died,
the Egyptians pillaged his house, and the rod, which was in their booty, they
brought to Pharaoh’s palace. At that time my father was one of the most prominent
of the king’s sacred scribes, and as such he had the opportunity of seeing the
rod. He felt a great desire to possess it, and he stole it and took it to his
house. On this rod the Ineffable Name is graven, and also the ten plagues that
God will cause to visit the Egyptians in a future day. For many years it lay in
my father’s house. One day he was walking in his garden carrying it, and he stuck
it in the ground. When he attempted to draw it out again, he found that it had
sprouted, and was putting forth blossoms. That is the rod with which he tries
any that desire to marry his daughters. He insists that our suitors shall attempt
to pull it out of the ground, but as soon as they touch it, it devours them.”

Having given him this account of her father’s rod, Zipporah went home, accompanied
by her sisters, and Moses followed them.

Jethro was not a little amazed to see his daughters return so soon from the
watering troughs. As a rule, the chicanery they had to suffer from the shepherds
detained them until late. No sooner had he heard their report about the wonder-working
Egyptian than he exclaimed, “Mayhap he is one of the descendants of Abraham, from
whom issueth blessing for the whole world.” He rebuked his daughters for not having
invited the stranger that had done them so valuable a service to come into their
house, and he ordered them to fetch him, in the hope that he would take one of
his daughters to wife.

Moses had been standing without all this time, and had allowed Jethro’s daughters
to describe him as an Egyptian, without protesting and asserting his Hebrew birth.
For this God punished him by causing him to die outside of the promised land.
Joseph, who had proclaimed in public that he was a Hebrew, found his last resting-place
in the land of the Hebrews, and Moses, who apparently had no objection to being
considered an Egyptian, had to live and die outside of that land.

Zipporah hastened forth to execute her father’s wish, and no sooner had she
ushered him in than Moses requested her hand in marriage. Jethro replied, “If
thou canst bring me the rod in my garden, I will give her to thee.” Moses went
out, found the sapphire rod that God had bestowed upon Adam when he was driven
forth from Paradise, the rod that had reached Jethro after manifold vicissitudes,
and which he had planted in the garden. Moses uprooted it and carried it to Jethro,
who conceived the idea at once that he was the prophet in Israel concerning whom
all the wise men of Egypt had foretold that he would destroy their land and its
inhabitants. As soon as this thought struck him, he seized Moses, and threw him
into a pit, in the expectation that he would meet with death there.

And, indeed, he would have perished, if Zipporah had not devised a stratagem
to save his life. She said to her father: “Would it were thy will to hearken unto
my counsel. Thou hast no wife, but only seven daughters. Dost thou desire my six
sisters to preside over thy household? Then shall I go abroad with the sheep.
If not, let my sisters tend the flocks, and I shall take care of the house.” Her
father said: “Thou hast spoken well. Thy six sisters shall go forth with the sheep,
and thou shalt abide in the house and take care of it, and all that belongeth
to me therein.”

Now Zipporah could provide Moses with all sorts of dainties as he lay in the
pit, and she did it for the space of seven years. At the expiration of this period,
she said to her father: “I recollect that once upon a time thou didst cast into
yonder pit a man that had fetched thy rod from the garden for thee, and thou didst
commit a great trespass thereby. If it seemeth well to thee, uncover the pit and
look into it. If the man is dead, throw his corpse away, lest it fill the house
with stench. But should he be alive, then thou oughtest to be convinced that he
is one of those who are wholly pious, else he had died of hunger.”

The reply of Jethro was: “Thou hast spoken wisely. Dost thou remember his name?”
And Zipporah rejoined, “I remember he called himself Moses the son of Amram.”
Jethro lost no time, he opened the pit, and called out, “Moses! Moses!” Moses
replied, and said: “Here am I!” Jethro drew him up out of the pit, kissed him,
and said: “Blessed be God, who guarded thee for seven years in the pit. I acknowledge
that He slayeth and reviveth, that thou art one of the wholly pious, that through
thee God will destroy Egypt in time to come, lead His people out of the land,
and drown Pharaoh and his whole army in the sea.”

Thereupon Jethro gave much money to Moses, and he bestowed his daughter Zipporah
upon him as wife, giving her to him under the condition that the children born
of the marriage in Jethro’s house should be divided into two equal classes, the
one to be Israelitish, the other Egyptian. When Zipporah bore him a son, Moses
circumcised him, and called him Gershom, as a memorial of the wonder God had done
for him, for although he lived in a “strange” land, the Lord had not refused him
aid even “there.”

Zipporah nursed her first child for two years, and in the third year she bore
a second son. Remembering his compact with Jethro, Moses realized that his father-in-law
would not permit him to circumcise this one, too, and he determined to return
to Egypt, that he might have the opportunity of bringing up his second son as
an Israelite. On the journey thither, Satan appeared to him in the guise of a
serpent, and swallowed Moses down to his extremities. Zipporah knew by this token
that the thing had happened because her second son had not been circumcised, and
she hastened to make good the omission. As soon as she sprinkled the blood of
the circumcision on her husband’s feet, a heavenly voice was heard to cry to the
serpent, commanding him, “Spew him out!” and Moses came forth and stood upon his
feet. Thus Zipporah saved Moses’ life twice, first from the pit and then from
the serpent.

When Moses arrived in Egypt, he was approached by Dathan and Abiram, the leaders
of the Israelites, and they spake: “Comest thou hither to slay us, or dost thou
purpose to do the same with us as thou didst with the Egyptian?” This drove Moses
straightway back to Midian, and there he remained two years more, until God revealed
Himself at Horeb, and said to him, “Go and bring forth My children out of the
land of Egypt.

A BLOODY REMEDY

The latter years of Israel’s bondage in Egypt were the worst. To punish Pharaoh
for his cruelty toward the children of Israel, God afflicted him with a plague
of leprosy, which covered his whole body, from the crown of his bead to the soles
of his feet. Instead of being chastened by his disease, Pharaoh remained stiffnecked,
and he tried to restore his health by murdering Israelitish children. He took
counsel with his three advisers, Balaam, Jethro, and Job, how he might be healed
of the awful malady that had seized upon him. Balaam spoke, saying, “Thou canst
regain thy health only if thou wilt slaughter Israelitish children and bathe in
their blood.” Jethro, averse from having a share in such an atrocity, left the
king and fled to Midian. Job, on the other hand, though he also disapproved of
Balaam’s counsel, kept silence, and in no wise protested against it, wherefor
God punished him with a year’s suffering. But afterward He loaded him down with
all the felicities of this life, and granted him many years, so that this pious
Gentile might be rewarded in this world for his good deeds and not have the right
to urge a claim upon the beatitude of the future life.

In pursuance of the sanguinary advice given by Balaam, Pharaoh had his bailiffs
snatch Israelitish babes from their mothers’ breasts, and slaughter them, and
in the blood of these innocents he bathed. His disease afflicted him for ten years,
and every day an Israelitish child was killed for him. It was all in vain; indeed,
at the end of the time his leprosy changed into boils, and he suffered more than
before.

While he was in this agony, the report was brought to him that the children
of Israel in Goshen were careless and idle in their forced labor. The news aggravated
his suffering, and he said: “Now that I am ill, they turn and scoff at me. Harness
my chariot, and I will betake myself to Goshen, and see the derision wherewith
the children of Israel deride me.” And they took and put him upon a horse, for
he was not able to mount it himself. When he and his men had come to the border
between Egypt and Goshen, the king’s steed passed into a narrow place. The other
horses, running rapidly through the pass, pressed upon each other until the king’s
horse fell while he sate upon it, and when it fell, the chariot turned over on
his face, and also the horse lay upon him. The king’s flesh was torn from him,
for this thing was from the Lord, He had heard the cries of His people and their
affliction. The king’s servants carried him upon their shoulders, brought him
back to Egypt, and placed him on his bed.

He knew that his end was come to die, and the queen Alfar’anit and his nobles
gathered about his bed, and they wept a great weeping with him.

The princes and his counsellors advised the king to make choice of a successor,
to reign in his stead, whomsoever he would choose from among his sons. He had
three sons and two daughters by the queen Alfar’anit, beside children from concubines.
The name of his first-born was Atro, the name of the second Adikam, and of the
third Moryon. The name of the older daughter was Bithiah, and of the other, Akuzit.
The first-born of the sons of the king was an idiot, precipitate and heedless
in all his actions. Adikam, the second son, was a cunning and clever man, and
versed in all the wisdom of Egypt, but ungainly in appearance, fleshy and short
of stature; his height was a cubit and a space, and his beard flowed down to his
ankles.

The king resolved that Adikam should reign in his stead after his death. When
this second son of his was but ten years old, he had given him Gedidah, the daughter
of Abilat, to wife, and she bore him four sons. Afterward Adikam went and took
three other wives, and begot eight sons and three daughters.

The king’s malady increased upon him greatly, and his flesh emitted a stench
like a carcass cast into the field in summer time in the heat of the sun. When
he saw that his disorder had seized upon him with a strong grip, he commanded
his son Adikam to be brought to him, and they made him king over the land in his
place.

At the end of three years the old king died in shame and disgrace, a loathing
to all that saw him, and they buried him in the sepulchre of the kings of Egypt
in Zoan, but they did not embalm him, as was usual with kings, for his flesh was
putrid, and they could not approach his body on account of the stench, and they
buried him in haste. Thus the Lord requited him with evil for the evil he had
done in his days to Israel, and he died in terror and shame after having reigned
ninety-four years.

Adikam was twenty years old when he succeeded his father, and he reigned four
years. The people of Egypt called him Pharaoh, as was their custom with all their
kings, but his wise men called him Akuz, for Akuz is the word for “short” in the
Egyptian language, and Adikam was exceedingly awkward and undersized. The new
Pharaoh surpassed his father Malol and all the former kings in wickedness, and
he made heavier the yoke upon the children of Israel. He went to Goshen with his
servants, and increased their labor, and he said unto them, “Complete your work,
each day’s task, and let not your hands slacken from the work from this day forward,
as you did in the day of my father.” He placed officers over them from amongst
the children of Israel, and over these officers he placed taskmasters from amongst
his servants. And he put before them a measure for bricks, according to the number
they were to make day by day, and whenever any deficiency was discovered in the
measure of their daily bricks, the taskmasters of Pharaoh would go to the women
of the children of Israel, and take their infants from them, as many as the number
of bricks lacking in the measure, and these babes they put into the building instead
of the missing bricks. The taskmasters forced each man of the Israelites to put
his own child in the building. The father would place his son in the wall, and
cover him over with mortar, all the while weeping, his tears running down upon
his child.

The children of Israel sighed every day on account of their dire suffering,
for they had thought that after Pharaoh’s death his son would lighten their toil,
but the new king was worse than his father. And God saw the burden of the children
of Israel, and their heavy work, and He determined to deliver them.

However, it was not for their own sake that God resolved upon the deliverance
of the children of Israel, for they were empty of good deeds, and the Lord foreknew
that, once they were redeemed, they would rise up against Him, and even worship
the golden calf. Yet He took mercy upon them, for He remembered His covenant with
the Fathers, and He looked upon their repentance for their sins, and accepted
their promise, to fulfil the word of God after their going forth from Egypt even
before they should hear it.

After all, the children of Israel were not wholly without merits. In a high
degree they possessed qualities of extraordinary excellence. There were no incestuous
relations among them, they were not evil-tongued, they did not change their names,
they clung to the Hebrew language, never giving it up, and great fraternal affection
prevailed among them. If one happened to finish the tale of his bricks before
his neighbors, he was in the habit of helping the others. Therefore God spake,
“They deserve that I should have mercy upon them, for if a man shows mercy unto
another, I have mercy upon him.”

THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERD

When Jethro bestowed his daughter Zipporah upon Moses as his wife, he said
to his future son-in-law: “I know that thy father Jacob took his wives, the daughters
of Laban, and went away with them against their father’s will. Now take an oath
that thou wilt not do the same unto me,” and Moses swore not to leave him without
his consent, and he remained with Jethro, who made him the shepherd of his flocks.
By the way he tended the sheep, God saw his fitness to be the shepherd of His
people, for God never gives an exalted office to a man until He has tested him
in little things. Thus Moses and David were tried as shepherds of flocks, and
only after they had proved their ability as such, He gave them dominion over men.

Moses watched over the flocks with loving care. He led the young animals to
pasture first, that they might have the tender, juicy grass for their food; the
somewhat older animals he led forth next, and allowed them to graze off the herbs
suitable for them; and finally came the vigorous ones that had attained their
full growth, and to them he gave the hard grass that was left, which the others
could not eat, but which afforded good food for them. Then spake God, “He that
understandeth how to pasture sheep, providing for each what is good for it, he
shall pasture My people.”

Once a kid escaped from the flock, and when Moses followed it, he saw how it
stopped at all the water courses, and he said to it: “Poor kid, I knew not that
thou wast thirsty, and wast running after water! Thou art weary, I ween,” and
he carried it back to the herd on his shoulder. Then said God: “Thou hast compassion
with a flock belonging to a man of flesh and blood! As thou livest, thou shalt
pasture Israel, My flock.”

Not only did Moses take heed that no harm should come to the herds under his
charge, but he was also careful that they cause no injury to men. He always chose
an open meadow as his pasturing place, to prevent his sheep from grazing in private
estates.

Jethro had no reason to be dissatisfied with the services rendered to him by
his son-in-law. During the forty years Moses acted as his shepherd not one sheep
was attacked by wild beasts, and the herds multiplied to an incredible degree.
Once he drove the sheep about in the desert for forty days, without finding a
pasturing place for them. Nevertheless he did not lose a single sheep.

Moses’ longing for the desert was irresistible. His prophetic spirit caused
him to foresee that his own greatness and the greatness of Israel would manifest
themselves there. In the desert God’s wonders would appear, though it would be
at the same time the grave of the human herd to be entrusted to him in the future,
and also his own last resting-place. Thus he had a presentiment at the very beginning
of his career that the desert would be the scene of his activity, which not only
came true in the present order of things, but also will be true in the latter
days, when he will appear in the desert again, to lead into the promised land
the generation, arisen from their graves, that he brought forth from Egyptian
bondage.

Wandering through the desert, he reached Mount Horeb, which is called by six
names, each conveying one of its distinctions. It is “the mountain of God,” wherein
the Lord revealed His law; “Basban,” for God “came there”; “a mountain of humps,”
for the Lord declared all the other mountains unfit for the revelation, as “crookbackt”
animals are declared unfit for sacrifices; “mountain of abode,” because it is
the mountain that God desired for His “abode”; Sinai, because the “hatred” of
God against the heathen began at the time when Israel received the law thereon;
and Horeb, “sword,” because there the sword of the law was drawn upon the sinners.

THE BURNING THORN-BUSH

When Moses drew near to Mount Horeb, he was aware at once that it was a holy
place, for he noticed that passing birds did not alight upon it. At his approach
the mountain began to move, as though to go forward and meet him, and it settled
back into quietude only when his foot rested upon it. The first thing Moses noticed
was the wonderful burning bush, the upper part of which was a blazing flame, neither
consuming the bush, nor preventing it from bearing blossoms as it burnt, for the
celestial fire has three peculiar qualities: it produces blossoms, it does not
consume the object around which it plays, and it is black of color. The fire that
Moses saw in the bush was the appearance of the angel Michael, who had descended
as the forerunner of the Shekinah herself to come down presently. It was the wish
of God to hold converse with Moses, who, however, was not inclined to permit any
interruption of the work under his charge. Therefore God startled him with the
wonderful phenomenon of the burning thorn-bush. That brought Moses to a stop,
and then God spoke with him.

There were good reasons for selecting the thorn-bush as the vessel for a Divine
vision. It was “clean,” for the heathen could not use it to make idols. God’s
choosing to dwell in the stunted thorn-bush conveyed the knowledge to Moses that
He suffers along with Israel. Furthermore, Moses was taught that there is nothing
in nature, not even the insignificant thorn-bush, that can exist without the presence
of the Shekinah. Besides, the thorn-bush may be taken as the symbol for Israel
in several respects. As the thorn-bush is the lowliest of all species of trees,
so the condition of Israel in the exile is the lowliest as compared with that
of all the other nations, but as the thorn-bush releases no bird that alights
upon it without lacerating its wings, so the nations that subjugate Israel will
be punished. Also, as a garden hedge is made of the thorn-bush, so Israel forms
the hedge for the world, the garden of God, for without Israel the world could
not endure. Furthermore, as the thorn-bush bears thorns and roses alike, so Israel
has pious and impious members, and as the thorn-bush requires ample water for
its growth, so Israel can prosper only through the Torah, the celestial water.
And the thorn-bush, the leaf of which consists of five leaflets, was to indicate
to Moses that God had resolved to redeem Israel only for the sake of the merits
of five pious men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, and Moses. The numbers represented
by the letters composing the Hebrew word for thorn-bush, Seneh, add up to one
hundred and twenty, to convey that Moses would reach the age of one hundred and
twenty years, and that the Shekinah would rest on Mount Horeb for one hundred
and twenty days. Finally, in order to give Moses an illustration of His modesty,
God descended from the exalted heavens and spake to him from a lowly thorn-bush
instead of the summit of a lofty mountain or the top of a stately cedar tree.

THE ASCENSION OF MOSES

The vision of the burning bush appeared to Moses alone; the other shepherds
with him saw nothing of it. He took five steps in the direction of the bush, to
view it at close range, and when God beheld the countenance of Moses distorted
by grief and anxiety over Israel’s suffering, He spake, “This one is worthy of
the office of pasturing My people.”

Moses was still a novice in prophecy, therefore God said to Himself, “If I
reveal Myself to him in loud tones, I shall alarm him, but if I reveal Myself
with a subdued voice, he will hold prophecy in low esteem,” whereupon he addressed
him in his father Amram’s voice. Moses was overjoyed to hear his father speak,
for it gave him the assurance that. he was still alive. The voice called his name
twice, and he answered, “Here am I! What is my father’s wish?” God replied, saying,
“I am not thy father. I but desired to refrain from terrifying thee, therefore
I spoke with thy father’s voice. I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” These words rejoiced Moses greatly, for
not only was his father Amram’s name pronounced in the same breath with the names
of the three Patriarchs, but it came before theirs, as though he ranked higher
than they.

Moses said not a word. In silent reverence before the Divine vision he covered
his face, and when God disclosed the mission with which He charged him, of bringing
the Israelites forth from the land of Egypt, he answered with humility, “Who am
I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and bring forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt?” Thereupon spake God, “Moses, thou art meek, and I will reward thee for
thy modesty. I will deliver the whole land of Egypt into thine hand, and, besides,
I will let thee ascend unto the throne of My glory, and look upon all the angels
of the heavens.”

Hereupon God commanded Metatron, the Angel of the Face, to conduct Moses to
the celestial regions amid the sound of music and song, and He commanded him furthermore
to summon thirty thousand angels, to serve as his body-guard, fifteen thousand
to right of him and fifteen thousand to left of him. In abject terror Moses asked
Metatron, “Who art thou?” and the angel replied, “I am Enoch, the son of Jared,
thy ancestor, and God has charged me to accompany thee to His throne.” But Moses
demurred, saying, “I am but flesh and blood, and I cannot look upon the countenance
of an angel,” whereupon Metatron changed Moses’ flesh into torches of fire, his
eyes into Merkabah wheels, his strength into an angel’s, and his tongue into a
flame, and he took him to heaven with a retinue of thirty thousand angels, one
half moving to right of them and one half to left of them.

In the first heaven Moses saw streams upon streams of water, and he observed
that the whole heaven consisted of windows, at each of which angels were stationed.
Metatron named and pointed out all the windows of heaven to him: the window of
prayer and the window of supplication; of weeping and of joy; plenitude and starvation;
wealth and poverty; war and peace; conception and birth; showers and soft rains;
sin and repentance; life and death; pestilence and healing; sickness and health;
and many windows more.

In the second heaven Moses saw the angel Nuriel, standing three hundred parasangs
high, with his retinue of fifty myriads of angels, all fashioned out of water
and fire, and all keeping their faces turned toward the Shekinah while they sang
a song of praise to God. Metatron explained to Moses, that these were the angels
set over the clouds, the winds, and the rains, who return speedily, as soon as
they have executed the will of their Creator, to their station in the second of
the heavens, there to proclaim the praise of God.

In the third heaven Moses saw an angel, so tall it would take a human being
five hundred years to climb to his height. He had seventy thousand heads, each
head having as many mouths, each mouth as many tongues, and each tongue as many
sayings, and he together with his suite of seventy thousand myriads of angels
made of white fire praised and extolled the Lord. “These,” said Metatron to Moses,
“are called Erelim, and they are appointed over the grass, the trees, the fruits,
and the grain, but as soon as they have done the will of their Creator, they return
to the place assigned to them, and praise God.”

In the fourth heaven Moses saw a Temple, the pillars thereof made of red fire,
the staves of green fire, the thresholds of white fire, the boards and clasps
of flaming fire, the gates of carbuncles, and the pinnacles of rubies. Angels
were entering the Temple and giving praise to God there. In response to a question
from Moses Metatron told him that they presided over the earth, the sun, the moon,
the stars, and the other celestial bodies. and all of them intone songs before
God. In this heaven Moses noticed also the two great planets, Venus and Mars,
each as large as the whole earth, and concerning these he asked unto what purpose
they had been created. Metatron explained thereupon, that Venus lies upon the
sun to cool him off in summer, else he would scorch the earth, and Mars lies upon
the moon, to impart warmth to her, lest she freeze the earth.

Arrived in the fifth heaven, Moses saw hosts of angels, whose nether parts
were of snow and their upper parts of fire, and yet the snow did not melt nor
was the fire extinguished, for God had established perfect harmony between the
two elements. These angels, called Ishim, have had nothing to do since the day
of their creation but praise and extol the Lord.

In the sixth of the heavens were millions and myriads of angels praising God,
they were called ‘Irin and kadishim, “Watchers” and “Holy Ones,” and their chief
was made of hail, and he was so tall, it would take five hundred years to walk
a distance equal to his height.

In the last heaven Moses saw two angels, each five hundred parasangs in height,
forged out of chains of black fire and red fire, the angels Af, “Anger,” and Hemah,
“Wrath,” whom God created at the beginning of the world, to execute His will.
Moses was disquieted when he looked upon them, but Metatron embraced him, and
said, “Moses, Moses, thou favorite of God, fear not, and be not terrified,” and
Moses became calm. There was another angel in the seventh heaven, different in
appearance from all the others, and of frightful mien. His height was so great,
it would have taken five hundred years to cover a distance equal to it, and from
the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he was studded with glaring eyes,
at the sight of which the beholder fell prostrate in awe. “This one,” said Metatron,
addressing Moses, “is Samael, who takes the soul away from man.” “Whither goes
he now?” asked Moses, and Metatron replied, “To fetch the soul of Job the pious.”
Thereupon Moses prayed to God in these words, “O may it be Thy will, my God and
the God of my fathers, not to let me fall into the hands of this angel.”

Here, in the highest heaven, he saw also the seraphim with their six wings.
With two they cover their face, that they gaze not upon the Shekinah; and with
two their feet, which, being like a calf’s feet, they hide, to keep secret Israel’s
transgression of the golden calf. With the third pair of wings they fly and do
the service of the Lord, all the while exclaiming, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” The wings of these angels are
of prodigious size, it would take a man five hundred years to traverse their length
and their breadth, as from one end of the earth to the other.

And Moses saw in the seventh heaven the holy Hayyot, which support the throne
of God; and he beheld also the angel Zagzagel, the prince of the Torah and of
wisdom, who teaches the Torah in seventy languages to the souls of men, and thereafter
they cherish the precepts contained therein as laws revealed by God to Moses on
Sinai. From this angel with the horns of glory Moses himself learnt all the ten
mysteries.”

Having seen what there is in the seven heavens, he spoke to God, saying, “I
will not leave the heavens unless Thou grantest me a gift,” and God replied, “I
will give thee the Torah, and men shall call it the Law of Moses.”

MOSES VISITS PARADISE AND HELL

When Moses was on the point of departing from heaven, a celestial voice announced:
“Moses, thou camest hither, and thou didst see the throne of My glory. Now thou
shalt see also Paradise and hell,” and God dispatched Gabriel on the errand of
showing hell to him. Terrified by its fires, when he caught sight of them as he
entered the portals of hell, Moses refused to go farther. But the angel encouraged
him, saying, “There is a fire that not only burns but also consumes, and that
fire will protect thee against hell fire, so that thou canst step upon it, and
yet thou wilt not be seared.”

As Moses entered hell, the fire withdrew a distance of five hundred parasangs,
and the Angel of Hell, Nasargiel, asked him, “Who art thou?” and he answered,
“I am Moses, the son of Amram.”

Nasargiel: “This is not thy place, thou belongest in Paradise.”

Moses: “I came hither to see the manifestation of the power of God.”

Then said God to the Angel of Hell, “Go and show hell unto Moses, and how the
wicked are treated there.” Immediately he went with Moses, walking before him
like a pupil before his master, and thus they entered hell together, and Moses
saw men undergoing torture by the Angels of Destruction: some of the sinners were
suspended by their eyelids, some by their ears, some by their hands, and some
by their tongues, and they cried bitterly. And women were suspended by their hair
and by their breasts, and in other ways, all on chains of fire. Nasargiel explained:
“These hang by their eyes, because they looked lustfully upon the wives of their
neighbors, and with a covetous eye upon the possessions of their fellow-men. These
hang by their ears because they listened to empty and vain speech, and turned
their ear away from hearing the Torah. These hang by their tongues, because they
talked slander, and accustomed their tongue to foolish babbling. These hang by
their feet, because they walked with them in order to spy upon their fellow-men,
but they walked not to the synagogue, to offer prayer unto their Creator. These
hang by their hands, because with them they robbed their neighbors of their possessions,
and committed murder. These women hang by their hair and their breasts, because
they uncovered them in the presence of young men, so that they conceived desire
unto them, and fell into sin.”

Moses heard hell cry with a loud and a bitter cry, saying to Nasargiel: “Give
me something to eat, I am hungry.”–Nasargiel: “What shall I give thee?”–Hell:
“Give me the souls of the pious.”–Nasargiel: “The Holy One, blessed be He, will
not deliver the souls of the pious unto thee.”

Moses saw the place called Alukah, where sinners were suspended by their feet,
their heads downward, and their bodies covered with black worms, each five hundred
parasangs long. They lamented, and cried: “Woe unto us for the punishment of hell.
Give us death, that we may die!” Nasargiel explained: “These are the sinners that
swore falsely, profaned the Sabbath and the holy days, despised the sages, called
their neighbors by unseemly nicknames, wronged the orphan and the widow, and bore
false witness. Therefore bath God delivered them to these worms.”

Moses went thence to another place, and there he saw sinners prone on their
faces, with two thousand scorpions lashing, stinging, and tormenting them, while
the tortured victims cried bitterly. Each of the scorpions had seventy thousand
heads, each head seventy thousand mouths, each mouth seventy thousand stings,
and each sting seventy thousand pouches of poison and venom, which the sinners
are forced to drink down, although the anguish is so racking that their eyes melt
in their sockets. Nasargiel explained: “These are the sinners who caused the Israelites
to lose their money, who exalted themselves above the community, who put their
neighbors to shame in public, who delivered their fellow-Israelites into the hands
of the Gentiles, who denied the Torah of Moses, and who maintained that God is
not the Creator of the world.”

Then Moses saw the place called Tit ba-Yawen, in which the sinners stand in
mud up to their navels, while the Angels of Destruction lash them with fiery chains,
and break their teeth with fiery stones, from morning until evening, and during
the night they make their teeth grow again, to the length of a parasang, only
to break them anew the next morning. Nasargiel explained: “These are the sinners
who ate carrion and forbidden flesh, who lent their money at usury, who wrote
the Name of God on amulets for Gentiles, who used false weights, who stole money
from their fellow-Israelites, who ate on the Day of Atonement, who ate forbidden
fat, and animals and reptiles that are an abomination, and who drank blood.”

Then Nasargiel said to Moses: “Come and see how the sinners are burnt in hell,”
and Moses answered, “I cannot go there,” but Nasargiel replied, “Let the light
of the Shekinah precede thee, and the fire of hell will have no power over thee.”
Moses yielded, and he saw how the sinners were burnt, one half of their bodies
being immersed in fire and the other half in snow, while worms bred in their own
flesh crawled over them, and the Angels of Destruction beat them incessantly.
Nasargiel explained: “These are the sinners who committed incest, murder, and
idolatry, who cursed their parents and their teachers, and who, like Nimrod and
others, called themselves gods.” In this place, which is called Abaddon, he saw
the sinners taking snow by stealth and putting it in their armpits, to relieve
the pain inflicted by the scorching fire, and he was convinced that the saying
was true, “The wicked mend not their ways even at the gate of hell.”

As Moses departed from hell, he prayed to God, “May it be Thy will, O Lord
my God and God of my fathers, to save me and the people of Israel from the places
I have seen in hell.” But God answered him, and said, “Moses, before Me there
is no respecting of persons and no taking of gifts. Whoever doeth good deeds entereth
Paradise, and he that doeth evil must go to hell.”

At the command of God, Gabriel now led Moses to Paradise. As he entered, two
angels came toward him, and they said to him, “Thy time is not yet arrived to
leave the world,” and Moses made answer, “What ye say is true, but I have come
to see the reward of the pious in Paradise.” Then the angels extolled Moses, saying:
“Hail, Moses, servant of God! Hail, Moses, born of woman, that hast been found
worthy to ascend to the seven heavens! Hail to the nation to which thou belongest!”

Under the tree of life Moses saw the angel Shamshiel, the prince of Paradise,
who led him through it, and showed him all there is therein. He saw seventy thrones
made of precious stones, standing on feet of fine gold, each throne surrounded
by seventy angels. But one of them was larger than all the others, and it was
encircled by one hundred and twenty angels. This was the throne of Abraham, and
when Abraham beheld Moses, and heard who he was, and what his purpose was in visiting
Paradise, he exclaimed, “Praise ye the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth
forever.”

Moses asked Shamshiel about the size of Paradise, but not even he who is the
prince thereof could answer the question, for there is none that can gauge it.
It can neither be measured nor fathomed nor numbered. But Shamshiel explained
to Moses about the thrones, that they were different one from the other, some
being of silver, some of gold, some of precious stones and pearls and rubies and
carbuncles. The thrones made of pearls are for the scholars that study the Torah
day and night for her own sake; those of precious stones are for the pious, those
of rubies for the just, those of gold for the repentant sinners, and those of
silver for the righteous proselytes. “The greatest of them all,” continued Shamshiel,
“is the throne of Abraham, the next in size the thrones of Isaac and Jacob, then
come the thrones of the prophets, the saints, and the righteous, each in accordance
with a man’s worth, and his rank, and the good deeds he has performed in his lifetime.”
Moses asked then for whom the throne of copper was intended, and the angel answered,
“For the sinner that has a pious son. Through the merits of his son he receives
it as his share.”

Again Moses looked, and he beheld a spring of living water welling up from
under the tree of life and dividing into four streams, which passed under the
throne of glory, and thence encompassed Paradise from end to end. He also saw
four rivers flowing under each of the thrones of the pious, one of honey, the
second of milk, the third of wine, and the fourth of pure balsam.

Beholding all these desirable and pleasant things, Moses felt great joy, and
he said, “Oh, how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that
fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that put their trust in Thee, before
the sons of men!” And Moses left Paradise, and returned to the earth.

At the moment of his departure, a heavenly voice cried aloud: “Moses, servant
of the Lord, thou that art faithful in His house, even as thou hast seen the reward
that is laid up for the pious in the world to come, so also thou wilt be worthy
of seeing the life of the world that shall be in the future time. Thou and all
Israel, ye shall see the rebuilding of the Temple and the advent of the Messiah,
behold the beauty of the Lord, and meditate in His Temple.”

In the world to come Moses, beside sharing the joys of Israel, will continue
his activity as the teacher of Israel, for the people will go before Abraham and
request him to instruct them in the Torah. He will send them to Isaac, saying,
“Go to Isaac, he hath studied more of the Torah than ever I studied,” but Isaac,
in turn, will send them to Jacob, saying, “Go to Jacob, he hath had more converse
with the sages than ever I had.” And Jacob will send them to Moses, saying, “Go
to Moses, he was instructed in the Torah by God Himself.”

In the Messianic time, Moses will be one of the seven shepherds that shall
be the leaders of Israel with the Messiah.

MOSES DECLINES THE MISSION

When Moses turned aside to see the great sight, that the bush was not consumed,
he heard a voice calling to him, “Draw not nigh hither.” These words were to convey
that the dignity to be conferred upon him God intended for Moses personally, not
for his descendants, and further he was warned not to arrogate honors appointed
for others, as the priesthood, which was to belong to Aaron and Aaron’s descendants,
or royalty, which was to appertain to David and the house of David.

Again the voice spake: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground.” These words conveyed the desire of God
that he cut asunder every bond uniting him with earthly concerns, he was even
to give up his conjugal life. Hereupon the angel Michael spoke to God: “O Lord
of the world, can it be Thy purpose to destroy mankind? Blessing can prevail only
if male and female are united, and yet Thou biddest Moses separate from his wife.”
God answered, saying, “Moses has begot children, he has done his duty toward the
world. I desire him to unite himself now with the Shekinah, that she may descend
upon earth for his sake.”

God spake furthermore, addressing Moses, “Thou seest only what is to happen
in the near future, that Israel is to receive the Torah on Mount Sinai, but I
behold what cometh after, bow the people will worship the steer, the figure of
which they will see upon My chariot, even while My revelation will be made on
Sinai. Thus they will excite My wrath. Nevertheless, though I know all the perverseness
of their hearts, wherein they will rebel against Me in the desert, I will redeem
them now, for I accord unto man the treatment he merits for his present actions,
not what he will deserve in the future. I promised their father Jacob, ‘I will
go down with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up again,’ and
now I will betake myself thither, to bring Israel up in accordance with My words
unto Jacob, and bear them to the land I swore unto their fathers, that their seed
should inherit it. So long as the time of affliction that I had appointed unto
his seed in My revelation to Abraham was not past, I hearkened not to the supplication
and the groaning of his children, but now the end hath come. Therefore, go before
Pharaoh, that he dismiss My people. If thou dost not bring about the redemption,
none other will, for there is none other that can do it. In thee doth Israel hope,
and upon thee doth Israel wait. The matter lieth in thine hands alone.”

Moses, however, refused to take the mission upon himself. He said to God, “Thy
promise unto Jacob was, ‘I will surely bring thee up again out of Egypt.’ Thou
didst undertake to do it Thyself, and now it is Thy purpose to send me thither.
And how, indeed, were it possible for me to accomplish this great matter, to bring
the children of Israel up out of Egypt? How could I provide them with food and
drink? Many are the women in childbirth among them, many are the pregnant women
and the little children. Whence shall I procure dainties for those who have borne
babes, whence sweetmeats for the pregnant, and whence tidbits for the little ones?
And how may I venture to go among the Egyptian brigands and murderers? for Thou
art bidding me to go to mine enemies, to those who lie in wait to take my life.
Why should I risk the safety of my person, seeing that I know not whether Israel
possesses merits making them worthy of redemption?’ I have reckoned up the years
with care, and I have found that but two hundred and ten have elapsed since the
covenant of the pieces made with Abraham, and at that time Thou didst ordain four
hundred years of oppression for his seed.”

But God overturned all his objections. He spake to Moses, saying: “I will be
with thee. Whatever thou desirest I will do, so that the redemption will in very
truth be realized through Me, in accordance with My promise to Jacob. The little
ones that Israel will carry up out of Egypt I will provide with food for thirty
days. This shall prove to thee in what manner I will supply the needs of all.
And as I will be at thy side, thou hast no need to fear any man. Respecting thy
doubt, whether Israel deserves to be redeemed, this is My answer: they will be
permitted to go forth from Egypt on account of the merits they will acquire at
this mountain, whereon they will receive the Torah through thee. And thy reckoning
of the end is not correct, for the four hundred years of bondage began with the
birth of Isaac, not with the going down of Jacob into Egypt. Therefore the appointed
end hath come.”

Persuaded now of God’s unalterable resolve to use him as His instrument in
the redemption of Israel from Egypt, Moses entreated God to impart to him the
knowledge of His Great Name, that he be not confounded if the children of Israel
ask for it. God answered, saying: “Thou desirest to know My Name? My Name is according
to My acts. When I judge My creatures, I am called Elohim, “judge”; when I rise
up to do battle against the sinners, I am Lord Zebaot, “the Lord of hosts”; when
I wait with longsuffering patience for the improvement of the sinner, My name
is El Shaddai; when I have mercy upon the world, I am Adonai. But unto the children
of Israel shalt thou say that I am He that was, that is, and that ever will be,
and I am He that is with them in their bondage now, and He that shall be with
them in the bondage of the time to come.”

In reply to the latter words of God, Moses said, “Sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof,” and God assented thereto. He admitted that it was not proper
to force the knowledge of future suffering upon Israel in a present that was itself
full of evil and sorrow. And the Lord said to Moses: “My words about the future
were meant for thee alone, not also for them. Tell the children of Israel, besides,
that at My behest an angel can stretch his hand from heaven and touch the earth
with it, and three angels can find room under one tree, and My majesty can fill
the whole world, for when it was My will, it appeared to Job in his hair, and,
again, when I willed otherwise, it appeared in a thorn-bush.”

But the most important communication from God to Moses concerning the Divine
Names were the words to follow: “In mercy I created the world; in mercy I guide
it; and with mercies I will return to Jerusalem. But unto the children of Israel
thou shalt say that My mercy upon them is for the sake of the merits of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.”

When Moses heard these words, he spoke to God, saying, “Are there men that
transgress after death?” and when God assured him that it was not possible for
the dead to sin, Moses asked again, “Why, then, is it that Thou didst reveal Thyself
to me at the first as the God of my father, and now Thou passest him over?” Whereupon
God said, “In the beginning it was My purpose to address thee with flattering
words, but now thou hearest the whole and exact truth, I am only the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Moses prayed to God, entreating Him to reveal His Great and Holy Name unto
him, so that he might call upon Him with it and secure the fulfilment of all his
wishes. The Lord granted the prayer of Moses, and when the celestials knew that
He had revealed the secret of the Ineffable Name, they cried out, “Blessed art
Thou, O Lord, gracious Giver of knowledge!”

God is always regardful of the honor of the elders of a people, and He bade
Moses assemble those of Israel and announce the approaching redemption to them.
And as God knew beforehand how Pharaoh’s obduracy would display itself, He made
it known to Moses at once, lest he reproach God later with the Egyptian king’s
frowardness.

MOSES PUNISHED FOR HIS STUBBORNNESS

In spite of all these safeguards, Moses was not yet ready to accept the mission
God wished to impose upon him. He persisted in urging his fears, saying: “But,
behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say,
‘The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, “What is that
in thine hand?” And he said, “A rod.” And the Lord said: “Thou deservest to be
castigated with it. If thou didst not intend to take My mission upon thyself,
thou shouldst have said so in the beginning. Instead, thou didst hold back with
thy refusal, until I revealed to thee the great secret of the Ineffable Name,
that thou mightest know it if the children of Israel should ask thee concerning
it. And now thou sayest, I will not go. Now, therefore, if thou wilt not execute
My charge to thee, it will be executed by this rod. It was My wish to distinguish
thee and make thee My instrument for doing many miracles. But thou deservest a
punishment for having suspected My children of lack of faith. The children of
Israel are believers and sons of believers, but thou wilt show thyself of little
faith in thy career, and as thou followest the example of the slanderous serpent,
so shalt thou be punished with leprosy, wherewith the serpent was punished.”

The Lord now bade Moses put his hand into his bosom and take it out again,
and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. And God
bade him put his hand into his bosom again, and it turned again as his other flesh.
Beside being a chastisement for his hasty words, the plague on his hand was to
teach him that as the leper defiles, so the Egyptians defiled Israel, and as Moses
was healed of his uncleanness, so God would cleanse the children of Israel of
the pollution the Egyptians had brought upon them.

The second wonder connected with the rod of Moses likewise conveyed a double
meaning, in that it pointed to the coming redemption of Israel, and taught Moses
a specific lesson. At the bidding of God, Moses cast his rod on the ground, and
it became a serpent, to show him that when he traduced Israel, he was following
the example of the abusive serpent, and also to show him that the great dragon
that lieth in the midst of the rivers of Egypt, though he was now hacking into
Israel with his teeth, would be rendered harmless like the rod of wood, which
has no power to bite.

And, again, through the third miracle he was bidden to perform, God conveyed
to Moses what would happen in the latter years of his own life. The sign He gave
him was to make known to him that, before the water came, blood would flow from
the rock at Meribah, when Moses should strike it after uttering the hasty, impatient
words that were destined to bring death down upon him.

For seven days God urged Moses to undertake the mission He desired him to execute.
He resorted to persuasion, that the heathen might not say, that He abused His
power as the Ruler of the world, forcing men to do His service against their will.
But Moses remained obdurate, he could not be won over. He said: “Thou doest a
wrong unto me in sending me to Pharaoh. In the palace of the Egyptian king there
are persons that know how to speak the seventy languages of the world. No matter
what language a man may use, there is someone that understands him. If I should
come as Thy representative, and they should discover that I am not able to converse
in the seventy languages, they will mock at me, and say, ‘Behold this man, he
pretends to be the ambassador of the Creator of the world, and he cannot speak
the seventy languages.'” To this God made reply, as follows: “Adam, who was taught
by none, could give names to the beasts in the seventy languages. Was it not I
that made him to speak?”

Moses was not yet satisfied, he continued to urge objections, and he said:
“O Lord of the world, Thou wouldst charge me with the task of chastising Egypt
and redeeming Israel, and I am ready to be Thy messenger. But is it seemly that
a man should execute two errands at once? Nay, my Lord, for this two men are needed.”
God made answer, and said, “Moses, I know well whom thou hast in mind with thy
request, to be thy companion in the mission I assign to thee. Know, therefore,
that the holy spirit hath already come upon thy brother Aaron, and even now he
is awaiting thee on the way of Egypt, and when his eyes rest upon thee he will
rejoice.”

Furthermore God spake to Moses, saying, “When I appeared unto thee the first
time, thou wast meek, and didst hide thy face, not to see the vision. Whence cometh
now this effrontery of thine, that thou addressest Me as a servant his master?
Thou speakest too many words by far. Perchance thou thinkest I have no messengers,
hosts, seraphim, ofanim, ministering angels, and Merkabah wheels, to send to Egypt,
to bring My children thence, that thou sayest, ‘Send by the hand of him whom Thou
wilt send.’ In sooth, thou deservest severe chastisement. But what can I do, seeing
that I am the Master of mercy? If thou escapest unpunished, thou owest it to thy
father Amram, who rendered great services in behalf of the preservation of the
Israelitish people in Egypt.”

But Moses replied: “O Lord of the world, I a prophet and the son of a prophet
obeyed Thy words only after much hesitation, and I cannot expect Pharaoh, a wicked
man and the son of a wicked man, and the Egyptians, a disobedient people and the
sons of a disobedient people, to give ear to my words. O Lord of the world, Thou
dost send me to Egypt to redeem sixty myriads of Thy people from the oppression
of the Egyptians. If it were a question of delivering a couple of hundred men,
it were a sufficiently difficult enterprise. How much severer is the task of freeing
sixty myriads from the dominion of Pharaoh! If Thou hadst called upon the Egyptians
to give up their evil ways soon after they began to enslave Israel, they might
have heeded Thy admonitions. But if I should go and speak to them now, after they
have been ruling over Israel these two hundred and ten years, Pharaoh would say,
‘If a slave has served his master for ten years, and no protest has made itself
heard from any quarter, how can a man conceive the idea suddenly of having him
set at liberty?’ Verily, O Lord of the world, the task Thou puttest upon me is
too heavy for my strength.”

Moses said furthermore: “I am not an eloquent man, nor can I see of what avail
words can be in this matter. Thou art sending me to one that is himself a slave,
to Pharaoh of the tribe of Ham, and a slave will not be corrected by words. I
consent to go on Thy errand only if Thou wilt invest me with the power of chastising
Pharaoh with brute force.” To these words spoken by Moses, God made reply: “Let
it not fret thee that thou art not an eloquent speaker. It is I that made the
mouth of all that speak, and I that made men dumb. One I make to see, another
I make blind; one I make to hear, another I make deaf. Had I willed it so, thou
hadst been a man of ready speech. But I desired to show a wonder through thee.
Whenever I will it, the words I cast into thy mouth shall come forth without hesitation.
But what thou sayest about a slave, that he cannot be corrected by words, is true,
and therefore I give thee My rod for Pharaoh’s castigation.”

But Moses still stood his ground. He raised other objections. “His grandchild,”
he said, “is closer to a man than his nephew. Nevertheless when Lot was taken
captive, Thou didst send angels to the aid of Abraham’s nephew. But now, when
the life of sixty myriads of Abraham’s lineal descendants is at stake, Thou sendest
me, and not the angels. When the Egyptian bondwoman Hagar was in distress, Thou
didst dispatch five angels to stand by her, and to redeem sixty myriads of the
children of Sarah Thou dost dispatch me. O Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand
of him whom Thou wilt send in days to come.” To this God answered, saying, “I
said not that I would send thee to Israel, but to Pharaoh, and that one whom thou
madest mention of, I will send to Israel at the end of days–Elijah will appear
to them before the great and terrible day.”

If Moses refused to do the errand of the Lord, there was a reason. God had
revealed to him the treasures of the Torah, of wisdom, and of knowledge, and the
whole world’s future. Now he beheld in the inner chamber of God rows of scholars
and judges interpreting the Torah in forty-nine different ways as they sat in
the court of hewn stones; and he saw, besides, Rabbi Akiba explaining the meaning
of the crowns upon the letters. Then said Moses: “I do not care to be God’s messenger.
Let Him rather send one of these great scholars.” Then God ordered the Angel of
Wisdom to carry Moses to a place of myriads of scholars, all interpreting the
Torah, and all making use of the formula: This is a Halakah revealed to Moses
on Mount Sinai. Now Moses recognized that even the greatest scholars of future
generations would be dependent upon him, and then, at last, he was ready to execute
the mission God desired to lay upon him.

But Moses had to pay dear for having hesitated in the execution of the Divine
bidding. God said to him: “It was appointed that thou shouldst be priest, and
Aaron should be the Levite. Because thou hast refused to execute My will, thou
shalt be the Levite, and Aaron shall be priest,”–a punishment that did not fall
upon Moses personally, but only upon his descendants, all of whom are Levites.
As for himself, he performed a priest’s service in the Tabernacle.

Moses had said to God, “Thou hast been speaking to me now these many days,
nevertheless I am still slow of speech and of a slow tongue.” For this he received
another punishment. God said to him: “I might change thee into a new man, and
heal thee of thy imperfect speech, but because thou hast uttered such words, I
refrain from curing thee.”

THE RETURN TO EGYPT

When Moses finally gave in, and declared himself ready to go to Egypt as God’s
messenger, his acceptance was still conditional upon the promise of God to fulfil
all his wishes, and God granted whatsoever he desired, except immortality and
entering the Holy Land. God also allayed his fears regarding the danger that threatened
him from his whilom enemies Dathan and Abiram, on account of whom he had had to
flee from Egypt. He told him that they had sunk to the estate of poor and insignificant
men, bereft of the power of doing him harm.

Moses was loyal to the oath he had given his father-in-law Jethro, never to
return to Egypt without securing his consent. His first concern therefore was
to go back to Midian and obtain his permission, which Jethro gave freely. Then
Moses could set out on his journey. He tarried only to take his wife and his children
with him, which made his father-in-law say, “Those who are in Egypt are to leave
it, and thou desirest to take more thither?” Moses replied: “Very soon the slaves
held in bondage in Egypt will be redeemed, and they will go forth from the land,
and gather at Mount Sinai, and hear the words, ‘I am the Lord thy God,’ and should
my sons not be present there?” Jethro acknowledged the justice of Moses’ words,
and he said to him, “Go in peace, enter Egypt in peace, and leave the land in
peace.”

At last Moses sallied forth upon his journey to Egypt, accompanied by his wife
and his children. He was mounted upon the very ass that had borne Abraham to the
Akedah on Mount Moriah, the ass upon which the Messiah will appear riding at the
end of days. Even now, his journey begun, Moses was but half-hearted about his
mission. He travelled leisurely, thinking: “When I arrive in Egypt and announce
to the children of Israel that the end of the term of Egyptian slavery has come,
they will say, ‘We know very well that our bondage must last four hundred years,
and the end is not yet,’ but if I were to put this objection before God, He would
break out in wrath against me. It is best for me to consume as much time as possible
on the way thither.”

God was ill pleased with Moses for this artifice, and He spake to him, saying,
“Joseph prophesied long ago that the oppression of Egypt would endure only two
hundred and ten years.” For his lack of faith Moses was punished while he was
on the road to Egypt. The angels Af and Hemah appeared and swallowed his whole
body down to his feet, and they gave him up only after Zipporah, nimble as a “bird,”
circumcised her son Gershom, and touched the feet of her husband with the blood
of the circumcision. The reason why their son had remained uncircumcised until
then was that Jethro had made the condition, when he consented to the marriage
of his daughter with Moses, that the first son of their union should be brought
up as a Gentile.

When Moses was released by the angels, he attacked them, and he slew Hemah,
whose host of angels, however, held their own before the assailant.

The Divine voice heard by Moses in Midian telling him to return to his brethren
in Egypt fell at the same time upon the ear of Aaron, dwelling in Egypt, and it
bade him “go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” God speaketh marvellously with
His voice, and therefore the same revelation could be understood one way in Midian
and another way in Egypt.

The greeting of the two brothers was very cordial. Envy and jealousy had no
place between them. Aaron was rejoiced that God had chosen his younger brother
to be the redeemer of Israel, and Moses was rejoiced that his older brother had
been divinely appointed the high priest in Israel. God knew their hearts, for
at the time when He charged him with the Egyptian mission, Moses had said, “All
these years Aaron has been active as a prophet in Israel, and should I now encroach
upon his province and cause him vexation?” But God reassured him, saying, “Moses,
thy brother Aaron will surely not be vexed, he will rather rejoice at thy mission,
yea, he will come forth and meet thee.”

Aaron showed his joy freely at seeing his brother once more, after their separation
of many years. As for his joy in the distinction accorded to Moses, it was too
great to be expressed in all its depth and extent. For his kind, generous spirit,
he received a reward from God, in that he was permitted to bear the Urim and Thummim
upon his heart, “for,” God said, “the heart that rejoiced at the exalting of a
brother shall wear the Urim and Thummim.”

Aaron ran to meet his brother, and embraced him, and asked where he had spent
all the years of their separation. When he was told in Midian, he continued to
question him, saying, “Who are these that are travelling with thee?”

Moses: “My wife and my sons.”

Aaron: “Whither goest thou with them?”

Moses: “To Egypt.”

Aaron: “What! Great enough is our sorrow through those who have been in Egypt
from the beginning, and thou takest more to the land?”

Moses recognized that Aaron was right, and he sent his wife and his sons back
to his father-in-law Jethro.

He was no less magnanimous than Aaron. If the elder brother felt no envy on
account of the younger brother’s dignity, the younger brother did not withhold
from the other the teachings and revelations he had received. Immediately after
meeting with Aaron, Moses told him all that God had taught him, even the awful
secret of the Ineffable Name communicated to him on Mount Horeb.

In obedience to the command of God, the elders of the people were assembled,
and before them Moses performed the wonders that were to be his credentials as
the redeemer sent to deliver the people. Nevertheless, the deeds he did were not
so potent in convincing them of the reality of the mission as the words wherein
God had announced the approaching redemption to him, which he repeated in their
ears. The elders knew that Jacob had imparted to Joseph the secret mark designating
the redeemer, and Joseph had in turn confided it to his brethren before his death.
The last surviving one of the brethren, Asher, had revealed it to his daughter
Serah, in the following words: “He that will come and proclaim the redemption
with the words of God, ‘I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done
to you in Egypt,’ he is the true redeemer.” Serah was still alive at Moses’ return,
and the elders betook themselves to her, and told her the words of Moses announcing
the redemption. When she heard that his words had been the same as those Asher
had quoted, she knew that he was the promised redeemer, and all the people believed
in him.

Thereupon Moses invited the elders to go to Pharaoh with him, but they lacked
the courage to appear before the king. Though they started out with Moses, they
dropped off stealthily on the way, one by one, and when Moses and Aaron stood
in the presence of the king, they found themselves alone, deserted by all the
others. The elders did not go out free. Their punishment was that God did not
permit them to ascend the holy mountain with Moses. They durst accompany him on
the way to God only as far as they had accompanied him on the way to Pharaoh,
and then they had to tarry until he came again.

MOSES AND AARON BEFORE PHARAOH

The day Moses and Aaron made their appearance before Pharaoh happened to be
the anniversary of his birth, and he was surrounded by many kings, for he was
the ruler of the whole world, and this was the occasion on which the kings of
the earth came to do him homage. When the attendants announced Moses and Aaron,
Pharaoh inquired whether the two old men had brought him crowns, and, receiving
a negative reply, he ordered that they were not to be admitted to his presence,
until he had seen and dismissed all the others desirous of paying him their respects.

Pharaoh’s palace was surrounded by a vast army. It was built with four hundred
entrances, one hundred on each side, and each of them guarded by sixty thousand
soldiers. Moses and Aaron were overawed by this display of power, and they were
afraid. But the angel Gabriel appeared, and he led them into the palace, observed
by none of the guards, and Pharaoh decreed severe punishment upon the inattentive
sentinels for having admitted the old men without his permission. They were dismissed,
and others put in their places. But the same thing happened the next day. Moses
and Aaron were within the palace, and the new guard had not been able to hinder
their passing. Pharaoh questioned his servants, how it had been possible for the
two old men to enter, and they said: “We know it not! Through the doors they did
not come. Surely, they must be magicians.”

Not enough that the palace was guarded by a host, at each entrance two lions
were stationed, and in terror of being torn to pieces none dared approach the
doors, and none could go within until the lion tamer came and led the beasts away.
Now Balaam and all the other sacred scribes of Egypt advised that the keepers
loose the lions at the approach of Moses and Aaron. But their advice availed naught.
Moses had but to raise his rod, and the lions bounded toward him joyously, and
followed at his feet, gambolling like dogs before their master on his return home.

Within the palace, Moses and Aaron found seventy secretaries busy with Pharaoh’s
correspondence, which was carried on in seventy languages. At the sight of the
messengers of Israel, they started up in great awe, for the two men resembled
angels. In stature they were as the cedars of Lebanon, their countenances radiated
splendor like the sun, the pupils of their eyes were like the sphere of the morning
star, their beards like palm branches, and their mouths emitted flames when they
opened them for speech. In their terror, the secretaries flung down pen and paper,
and prostrated themselves before Moses and Aaron.

Now the two representatives of the children of Israel stepped before Pharaoh,
and they spake, “The God of the Hebrews hath met with us; let us go, we pray thee,
three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God,
lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” But Pharaoh answered,
saying: “What is the name of your God? Wherein doth His strength consist, and
His power? How many countries, how many provinces, how many cities hath He under
His dominion? In how many campaigns was He victorious? How many lands did He make
subject to Himself? How many cities did He capture? When He goeth to war, how
many warriors, riders, chariots, and charioteers doth He lead forth?” Whereto
Moses and Aaron replied: “His strength and His power fill the whole world. His
voice heweth out flames of fire; His words break mountains in pieces. The heaven
is His throne, and the earth His footstool. His bow is fire, His arrows are flames,
His spears torches, His shield clouds, and His sword lightning flashes. He created
the mountains and the valleys, He brought forth spirits and souls, He stretched
out the earth by a word, He made the mountains with His wisdom, He forms the embryo
in the womb of the mother, He covers the heavens with clouds, at His word the
dew and the rain descend earthward, He causes plants to grow from the ground,
He nourishes and sustains the whole world, from the horns upon the rem down to
the eggs of vermin. Every day He causes men to die, and every day He calls men
into life.”

Pharaoh answered, and said: “I have no need of Him. I have created myself,
and if ye say that He causes dew and rain to descend, I have the Nile, the river
that hath its source under the tree of life, and the ground impregnated by its
waters bears fruit so huge that it takes two asses to carry it. and it is palatable
beyond description, for it has three hundred different tastes.”

Then Pharaoh sent to fetch the books of the chronicles of his kingdom from
his archives, wherein are recorded the names of the gods of all the nations, to
see whether the name of the God of the Hebrews was among them. He read off: “The
gods of Moab, the gods of Ammon, the gods of Zidon–I do not find your God inscribed
in the archives!” Moses and Aaron exclaimed: “O thou fool! Thou seekest the Living
in the graves of the dead. These which thou didst read are the names of dumb idols,
but our God is the God of life and the King of eternal life.”

When Pharaoh said the words, “I know not the Lord,” God Himself made answer,
saying: “O thou rascal! Thou sayest to My ambassadors, ‘I know not the strength
and the power of your God’? Lo, I will make thee to stand, for to show thee My
power, and that My Name may be declared throughout all the earth.”

Having searched his list of the gods of the nations in vain for a mention of
the God of the Hebrews, Pharaoh cited before him the wise men of Egypt, and he
said to them: “Have ye ever heard the name of the God of these people?” They replied,
“We have been told that He is a son of the wise, the son of ancient kings.” Then
spake God, saying, “O ye fools! Ye call yourselves wise men, but Me ye call only
the son of the wise. Verily, I will set at naught all your wisdom and your understanding.”

Pharaoh persisted in his obduracy, even after Moses and Aaron had performed
the miracle of the rod. At the time when the two Hebrews succeeded in entering
the palace, guarded as it was by lions, Pharaoh had sent for his magicians, at
their head Balaam and his two sons Jannes and Jambres, and when they appeared
before him, he told them of the extraordinary incident, how the lions had followed
the two old men like dogs, and fawned upon them. It was Balaam’s opinion that
they were simply magicians like himself and his companions, and he prayed the
king to have them come before him together with themselves, to test who were the
master magicians, the Egyptians or the Hebrews.

Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and he said to them: “Who will believe
you when you say that you are the ambassadors of God, as you pretend to be, if
you do not convince men by performing wonders?” Thereupon Aaron cast his rod to
the ground, and it became a serpent. Pharaoh laughed aloud. “What,” he exclaimed,
“is this all your God can do? It is the way of merchants to carry merchandise
to a place if there is none of it there, but would anyone take brine to Spain
or fish to Accho? It seems you do not know that I am an adept in all sorts of
magic!” He ordered little school children to be brought, and they repeated the
wonder done by Moses and Aaron; indeed, Pharaoh’s own wife performed it. Jannes
and Jambres, the sons of Balaam, derided Moses, saying, “Ye carry straw to Ephrain!”
whereto Moses answered, “To the place of many vegetables, thither carry vegetables.”

To show the Egyptians that Aaron could do something with his rod that their
magicians could not imitate, God caused the serpent into which His rod had been
changed to swallow up all the rods of the magicians. But Balaam and his associates
said: “There is nothing marvellous or astonishing in this feat. Your serpent has
but devoured our serpents, which is in accordance with a law of nature, one living
being devours another. If thou wishest us to acknowledge that the spirit of God
worketh in thee, then cast thy rod to the earth, and if, being wood, it swallows
up our rods of wood, then we shall acknowledge that the spirit of God is in thee.”
Aaron stood the test. After his rod had resumed its original form, it swallowed
up the rods of the Egyptians, and yet its bulk showed no increase. This caused
Pharaoh to reflect, whether this wonderful rod of Aaron might not swallow up also
him and his throne. Nevertheless he refused to obey the behest of God, to let
Israel go, saying, “Had I Jacob-Israel himself here before me, I should put trowel
and bucket on his shoulder.” And to Moses and Aaron, he said, “Because ye, like
all the rest of the tribe of Levi, are not compelled to labor, therefore do ye
speak, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ If you had asked for a thousand
people, or two thousand, I should have fulfilled your request, but never will
I consent to let six hundred thousand men go away.”

THE SUFFERING INCREASES

Beside refusing to dismiss the children of Israel, he ordered, on the very
day of Moses and Aaron’s audience with him, that the people be required to deliver
the prescribed tale of bricks, though the taskmasters were not as heretofore to
give them straw to make brick. Another decree was, that the children of Israel
were not to be permitted to rest on the Sabbath, for Pharaoh knew that they used
the leisure for reading the rolls that described their redemption. All this was
a part of God’s plan, the oppression of Israel was to be increased the closer
the end approached. As they wandered up and down the land of Egypt gathering the
straw they needed for the due tale of bricks, they were maltreated by the Egyptians
if they caught them on their fields. Such unkind acts perpetrated by the whole
people made it impossible for them to cast the entire blame for the bondage of
Israel upon Pharaoh. All the Egyptians showed cruelty to the Israelites on their
straw foraging expeditions, and therefore the Divine punishment descended upon
all alike.

This frightful time of Israel’s extreme suffering lasted six months. Meantime
Moses went to Midian, leaving Aaron alone in Egypt. When Moses returned at the
end of the reign of terror, two of the Israelitish officers accosted him and Aaron,
and heaped abuse upon them for having increased the woes of their people rather
than diminished them. They spake, saying, “If ye are truly the ambassadors of
God, then may He judge between us and Pharaoh. But if you are seeking to bring
about the redemption of Israel on your own account, then may God judge between
you and Israel. You are responsible for the widespread stench now issuing from
the Israelitish corpses used as bricks for building when our tale was not complete.
The Egyptians had but a faint suspicion that we were waiting for our redemption.
It is your fault if they are fully conscious of it now. We are in the quandary
of the poor sheep that has been dragged away by a wolf. The shepherd pursues the
robber, catches up with him, and tries to snatch the sheep from his jaws, and
the wretched victim, pulled this way by the wolf and that way by the shepherd,
is torn to pieces. Thus Israel fares between you and Pharaoh.”

The two officers that spake these stinging words were Dathan and Abiram, and
it was neither the first nor the last time they inflicted an injury upon Moses.
The other Israelitish officers were gentle and kind; they permitted themselves
to be beaten by the taskmasters rather than prod the laborers of their own people
put under their surveillance.

The cruel suffering to which his people was exposed caused Moses to speak to
God thus: “I have read the book of Genesis through, and I found the doom in it
pronounced upon the generation of the deluge. It was a just judgment. I found
also the punishments decreed against the generation of the confusion of tongues,
and against the inhabitants of Sodom. These, too, were just. But what hath this
nation of Israel done unto Thee, that it is oppressed more than any other nation
in history? Is it because Abraham said, ‘Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit
the land?’ and Thou didst rebuke him for his small faith, saying, ‘Know of a surety
that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs’? Why, then, are
not the descendants of Esau and Ishmael held in bondage, too? Are they not likewise
of the seed of Abraham? But if Thou wilt say, ‘What concern is it of mine?’ then
I ask Thee, Why didst Thou send me hither as Thy messenger? Thy great, exalted,
and terrible Name is feared in all the earth, yet Pharaoh heard me pronounce it,
and he refuses obedience. I know Thou wilt redeem Israel in Thine own good time,
and it is of little moment to Thee that now they are immuring living Israelites
in these buildings.”

Were He a God of justice only, the Lord would have slain Moses for the audacity
of his last words, but in view of his having spoken as he had only out of compassion
with Israel, the Lord dealt graciously with him. He answered Moses, saying, “Thou
shalt see what I will do to Pharaoh,” words conveying to Moses, that although
he would be witness to the chastisement of Pharaoh, he would not be present at
that of the thirty-one kings of Canaan. Thus he was rebuked for the unbecoming
language he had used in addressing God. At the same time God’s words were a rejoinder
to another speech by Moses. He had said: “O Lord of the world, I know well that
Thou wilt bring Thy children forth from Egypt. O that Thou wouldst make use of
another instrument, for I am not worthy of being the redeemer of Thy children.”
God made answer thereto: “Yes, Moses, thou art worthy thereof. Through thee My
children will be brought forth out of Egypt. Thou shalt see what I will do to
Pharaoh.”

At the same time God called him to account for having so little faith. He said:
“O for the departed, their like cannot be found any more! I appeared unto Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, as El Shaddai, God Almighty, but I was not known to them by
My name Adonai, God All-Merciful, as I appeared unto thee. Nevertheless they did
not cast aspersions upon My acts. I spake to Abraham, ‘Unto thee will I give the
land,’ but when he was about to bury Sarah, he had to pay out silver and buy a
resting-place for her body; and yet he did not find fault with Me. I spake to
Isaac, ‘Unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these lands,’ but when he
desired water to drink, he had to strive with the herdsmen of Gerar; and yet he
did not find fault with Me. I spake to Jacob, ‘The land whereon thou liest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed,’ but when he wanted to spread his tent,
he had to acquire a parcel of ground for an hundred pieces of money; and yet he
did not find fault with Me. None of them asked to know My Name. But thou didst
demand to know it at the very first, when I desired to send thee down into Egypt,
and after I revealed it to thee, thou didst speak, saying, ‘Thou didst tell me
that Thou art called Compassionate and Gracious, Longsuffering and Merciful, but
as soon as I pronounced this Name before Pharaoh, misfortune descended upon the
people of Israel.’ Now I desire to fulfil My covenant with the three Patriarchs,
and give their posterity the promised land, as a reward for the unquestioning
faith of the Fathers, and also as a reward to the people, who, in spite of their
suffering, did not find fault with My deeds. For this will I give them the land,
which they do not deserve to possess for other reasons. I swear that I will do
thus!” God pronounced this oath, to banish all fear from the mind of Moses, that
He might act only in accordance with His attribute of justice, and thus delay
the redemption of Israel for a time, on account of the sins of the people.

Now the redemption of Israel was a settled fact. But before Moses and Aaron
could start on the work of delivering their people, God called various points
to their attention, which He bade them consider in their undertaking. He spake
to them, saying: “My children are perverse, passionate, and troublesome. You must
be prepared to stand their abuse, to the length of being pelted with stones by
them. I send you to Pharaoh, and although I will punish him according to his deserts,
yet you must not fail in the respect due to him as a ruler. Furthermore, be careful
to take the elders of the people into your counsel, and let your first step toward
redemption be to make the people give up the worship of idols.”

The last was a most difficult task, and the words of God concerning it wrung
the exclamation from Moses: “See, the children of Israel will not hearken unto
me. How, then, should Pharaoh hearken unto me?” It was the third time Moses declined
to go on the errand of God. Now the Divine patience was exhausted, and Moses was
subjected to punishment. At first God had revealed Himself only to Moses, and
the original intention had been that he alone was to perform all the miracles,
but henceforth the word of God was addressed to Aaron as well, and he was given
a share in doing the wonders.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

God divided the ten punishments decreed for Egypt into four parts, three of
the plagues He committed to Aaron, three to Moses, one to the two brothers together,
and three He reserved for Himself. Aaron was charged with those, that proceeded
from the earth and the water, the elements that are composed of more or less solid
parts, from which are fashioned all the corporeal, distinctive entities, while
the three entrusted to Moses were those that proceeded from the air and the fire,
the elements that are most prolific of life.

The Lord is a man of war, and as a king of flesh and blood devises various
stratagems against his enemy, so God attacked the Egyptians in various ways. He
brought ten plagues down upon them. When a province rises up in rebellion, its
sovereign lord first sends his army against it, to surround it and cut off the
water supply. If the people are contrite, well and good; if not, he brings noise
makers into the field against them. If the people are contrite, well and good;
if not, he orders darts to be discharged against them. If the people are contrite,
well and good; if not, he orders his legions to assault them. If the people are
contrite, well and good; if not, he causes bloodshed and carnage among them. If
the people are contrite, well and good; if not, he directs a stream of hot naphtha
upon them. If the people are contrite, well and good; if not, he hurls projectiles
at them from his ballistae. If the people are contrite, well and good; if not,
he has scaling-ladders set up against their walls. If the people are contrite,
well and good; if not, he casts them into dungeons. If the people are contrite,
well and good; if not, he slays their magnates.

Thus did God proceed against the Egyptians. First He cut off their water supply
by turning their rivers into blood. They refused to let the Israelites go, and
He sent the noisy, croaking frogs into their entrails. They refused to let the
Israelites go, and He brought lice against them, which pierced their flesh like
darts. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He sent barbarian legions against
them, mixed hordes of wild beasts. They refused to let the Israelites go, and
He brought slaughter upon them, a very grievous pestilence. They refused to let
the Israelites go, and He poured out naphtha over them, burning blains. They refused
to let the Israelites go, and He caused His projectiles, the hail, to descend
upon them. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He placed scaling-ladders
against the wall for the locusts, which climbed them like men of war. They refused
to let the Israelites go, and He cast them into dungeon darkness. They refused
to let the Israelites go, and He slew their magnates, their first-born sons.

The plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians corresponded to the deeds they
had perpetrated against the children of Israel. Because they forced the Israelites
to draw water for them, and also hindered them from the use of the ritual baths,
He changed their water into blood.

Because they had said to the Israelites, “Go and catch fish for us,” He brought
frogs up against them, making them to swarm in their kneading-troughs and their
bed-chambers and hop around croaking in their entrails. It was the severest of
all the ten plagues.

Because they had said to the Israelites, “Go and sweep and clean our houses,
our courtyards, and our streets,” He changed the dust of the air into lice, so
that the vermin lay piled up in heaps an ell high, and when the Egyptians put
on fresh garments, they were at once infested with the insects.

The fourth plague was an invasion of the land by hordes of all sorts of wild
animals, lions, wolves, panthers, bears, and others. They overran the houses of
the Egyptians, and when they closed their doors to keep them out, God caused a
little animal to come forth from the ground, and it got in through the windows,
and split open the doors, and made a way for the bears, panthers, lions, and wolves,
which swarmed in and devoured the people down to the infants in their cradles.
If an Egyptian entrusted his ten children to an Israelite, to take a walk with
them, a lion would come and snatch away one of the children, a bear would carry
off the second, a serpent the third, and so on, and in the end the Israelite returned
home alone. This plague was brought upon them because they were in the habit of
bidding the Israelites go and catch wolves and lions for their circuses, and they
sent them on such errands, to make them take up their abode in distant deserts,
where they would be separated from their wives, and could not propagate their
race.

Then God brought a grievous murrain upon their cattle, because they had pressed
the Israelites into their service as shepherds, and assigned remote pasturing
places to them, to keep them away from their wives. Therefore the murrain came
and carried off all the cattle in the flocks the Israelites were tending.

The sixth plague was a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast.
This was the punishment of the Egyptians, because they would say to the children
of Israel, “Go and prepare a bath for us unto the delight of our flesh and our
bones.” Therefore they were doomed to suffer with boils that inflamed their flesh,
and on account of the itch they could not leave off scratching. While the Egyptians
suffered thus, the children of Israel used their baths.

Because they had sent the Israelites forth into the fields, to plough and sow,
hail was sent down upon them, and their trees and crops were destroyed.

They had been in the habit of saying to the Israelites, “Go forth, plant ye
trees for us, and guard the fruit thereon.” Therefore God brought the locusts
into the Egyptian border, to eat the residue of that which was escaped, which
remained unto them from the hail, for the teeth of the locust are the teeth of
a lion, and he hath the jaw teeth of a great lion.

Because they would throw the Israelites into dungeons, God brought darkness
upon them, the darkness of hell, so that they had to grope their way. He that
sat could not rise up on his feet, and he that stood could not sit down. The infliction
of darkness served another purpose. Among the Israelites there were many wicked
men, who refused to leave Egypt, and God determined to put them out of the way.
But that the Egyptians might not say they had succumbed to the plague like themselves,
God slew them under cover of the darkness, and in the darkness they were buried
by their fellow-Israelites, and the Egyptians knew nothing of what had happened.
But the number of these wicked men had been very great, and the children of Israel
spared to leave Egypt were but a small fraction of the original Israelitish population.

The tenth plague was the slaying of the first-born, and it came upon the Egyptians
because of their intention to murder the men children of the Israelites at their
birth, and, finally, Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea, because
the Egyptians had caused the men children of the Israelites to be exposed in the
water.

Each of the plagues inflicted upon Egypt had another parallel in the cruel
treatment accorded to the Israelites. The first was a punishment for the arrogant
words spoken by Pharaoh, “My Nile river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.”

The plague of the frogs God brought down upon the Egyptians, “because,” He
said, “the frogs, which sometimes inhabit the water, shall take vengeance upon
the Egyptians for having desired to destroy the nation destined to be the bearers
of the Torah, and the Torah is likened unto water.”

God sent vermin upon them, saying, “Let the lice made of the dust of the earth
take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy the nation whose
seed is like unto the dust of the earth.”

Hordes of beasts, lions and wolves and swarms of serpents, came down upon them,
“because,” God said, “these animals shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians for
having desired to destroy the nation that is likened unto lions, wolves, and serpents.”

A fatal pestilence was brought upon them, “because,” God said, “death shall
take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy the nation that
faces death for the glorification of the Name of God.”

They were made to suffer with burning blains, “because,” God said, “the boils
coming from the ashes of the furnace shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians for
having desired to destroy the nation whose ancestor Abraham walked into the fiery
furnace for the glorification of the Name of God.”

He made hail to descend upon them, “because,” He said, “the white hail shall
take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy a nation whose
sins shall be white.”

The locusts came upon them, “because,” God said, “the locusts, which are My
great army, shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy
the nation that is called My hosts.”

“Darkness,” said God, “which is divided from the light, shall come and take
vengeance upon the Egyptians for desiring to destroy the nation upon which shineth
the light of the Lord, while gross darkness covers the other peoples.”

The tenth plague, the slaying of the first-born, God inflicted, saying, “I
will take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy the nation
that is My first-born. As the night divided itself for Abraham, that his enemies
might be vanquished, so I will pass through Egypt in the middle of the night,
and as Abraham was proved by ten temptations, so I will send ten plagues upon
Egypt, the enemy of his children.”

THE PLAGUES BROUGHT THROUGH AARON

From the infliction of the first of the plagues until the passing of the last,
after which the Egyptians yielded all that Moses and Aaron demanded, there elapsed
a whole year, for twelve months is the term set by God for the expiation of sins.
The deluge lasted one year; Job suffered one year; sinners must endure hell tortures
for one year, and the judgment upon Gog at the end of time will be executed for
the length of one year.

Moses announced the first plague to Pharaoh one morning when the king was walking
by the river’s brink. This morning walk enabled him to practice a deception. He
called himself a god, and pretended that he felt no human needs. To keep up the
illusion, he would repair to the edge of the river every morning, and ease nature
there while alone and unobserved. At such a time it was that Moses appeared before
him, and called out to him, “Is there a god that hath human needs?” “Verily, I
am no god,” replied Pharaoh, “I only pretend to be one before the Egyptians, who
are such idiots, one should consider them asses rather than human beings.”

Then Moses made known to him that God would turn the water into blood, if he
refused to let Israel go. In the warning we can discern the difference between
God and man. When a mortal harbors the intention to do an injury to an enemy,
he lies in wait for the moment when he can strike an unexpected blow. But God
is outspoken. He warned Pharaoh and the Egyptians in public whenever a plague
was about to descend, and each warning was repeated by Moses for a period of three
weeks, although the plague itself endured but a single week.

As Pharaoh would not lay the warning to heart, the plague announced by Moses
was let loose upon him and his people–the waters were turned into blood. It is
a well-known proverb, “Beat the idols, and the priests are in terror.” God smote
the river Nile, which the Egyptians worshipped as their god, in order to terrify
Pharaoh and his people and force them to do the Divine will.

To produce the plague, Aaron took his rod, and stretched out his hand over
the waters of Egypt. Moses had no part in performing the miracle, for God had
said to him, “The water that watched over thy safety when thou wast exposed in
the Nile, shall not suffer harm through thee.”

Aaron had scarcely executed the Divine bidding, when all the water of Egypt
became blood, even such as was kept in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.
The very spittle of an Egyptian turned into blood no sooner had he ejected it
from his mouth, and blood dripped also from the idols of the Egyptians.

The transformation of the waters into blood was intended mainly as a punishment
for the oppressors, but it was at the same time a source of profit for the oppressed.
It gave the Israelites the opportunity of amassing great wealth. The Egyptians
paid them large sums for their water, for if an Egyptian and an Israelite drew
water from the same trough, the portion carried off by the Egyptian was bound
to be useless, it turned into blood. To be sure, nothing helped the Egyptians
in their distress, for though they drank water from the same cup as an Israelite,
it became blood in their mouth.

However, this plague did not impress Pharaoh as a punishment inflicted in the
name of God, because with the help of the Angels of Destruction the magicians
of Egypt produced the same phenomenon of changing water into blood. Therefore
he hearkened not unto the words of Moses.

The next was the plague of the frogs, and again it was Aaron that performed
the wonder. He stretched forth his hand with his rod over the rivers, and caused
frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. Moses, whose life had been preserved
by the water, was kept from poisoning his savior with the reptiles. At first only
a single frog appeared, but he began to croak, summoning so many companions that
the whole land of Egypt swarmed with them. Wherever an Egyptian took up his stand,
frogs appeared, and in some mysterious way they were able to pierce the hardest
of metals, and even the marble palaces of the Egyptian nobles afforded no protection
against them. If a frog came close to them, the walls split asunder immediately.
“Make way,” the frogs would call out to the stone, “that I may do the will of
my Creator,” and at once the marble showed a rift, through which the frogs entered,
and then they attacked the Egyptians bodily, and mutilated and overwhelmed them.
In their ardor to fulfil the behest of God, the frogs cast themselves into the
red-hot flames of the bake-ovens and devoured the bread. Centuries later, the
three holy children, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were ordered by Nebuchadnezzar
to pay worship to his idols on penalty of death in the burning furnace, and they
said, “If the frogs, which were under no obligation to glorify the Name of God,
nevertheless threw themselves into the fire in order to execute the Divine will
concerning the punishment of the Egyptians, how much more should we be ready to
expose our lives to the fire for the greater glory of His Name!” And the zealous
frogs were not permitted to go unrewarded. While the others were destroyed from
Pharaoh and the Egyptian houses at the moment appointed as the last of the plague,
God saved those in the bake-ovens alive, the fire had no power to do them the
least harm.

Now, although the Egyptian magicians also brought up frogs upon the land of
Egypt through the help of demons, Pharaoh nevertheless declared himself ready
to let the people go, to sacrifice unto the Lord. The difference between this
plague and the first was, that water turned into blood had not caused him any
personal inconvenience, while the swarms of frogs inflicted physical suffering,
and he gave the promise to Moses to let Israel go, in the hope of ridding himself
of the pain he experienced. And Moses in turn promised to entreat God for him
on the following day. It could not be done at once, because the seven days’ term
had not yet elapsed. The prayer offered by Moses in behalf of Pharaoh was granted,
all the frogs perished, and their destruction was too swift for them to retire
to the water. Consequently the whole land was filled with the stench from the
decaying frogs, for they had been so numerous that every man of the Egyptians
gathered together four heaps of them. Although the frogs had filled all the market-places
and stables and dwellings, they retreated before the Hebrews as if they had been
able to distinguish between the two nations, and had known which of them it was
proper to abuse, and which to treat with consideration. Beside sparing the Hebrews
in the land of Egypt, the frogs kept within the limits of the land, in no wise
trenching upon the territory of the neighboring nations. Indeed, they were the
means of settling peaceably an old boundary dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia.
Wherever they appeared, so far extended the Egyptian domain; all beyond their
line belonged to Ethiopia.

Pharaoh was like the wicked that cry to God in their distress, and when their
fortunes prosper slide back into their old, impious ways. No sooner had the frogs
departed from him, his houses, his servants, and his people, than he hardened
his heart again, and refused to let Israel go. Thereupon God sent the plague of
the lice, the last of those brought upon Egypt through the mediation of Aaron.
Moses could have no part in it, “for,” said God, “the earth that afforded thee
protection when she permitted thee to hide the slain Egyptian, shall not suffer
through thine hand.”

The Egyptian magicians having boasted that they were able to produce the first
two plagues,–an empty boast it was, for they did not bring them about with their
enchantments, but only because Moses willed them to do it,–God put them to shame
with the third plague. They tried in vain to imitate it. The demons could not
aid them, for their power is limited to the production of things larger than a
barley grain, and lice are smaller. The magicians had to admit, “This is the finger
of God.” Their failure put an end once for all to their attempts to do as Moses
did.

But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and God spake to Moses, saying, “This wicked
fellow remains hard of heart, in spite of the three plagues. The fourth shall
be much worse than those which have preceded it. Go to him, therefore, and warn
him, it would be well for him to let My people go, that the plague come not upon
him.”

THE PLAGUES BROUGHT THROUGH MOSES

The fourth plague was also announced to the king early in the morning by the
river’s brink. Pharaoh went thither regularly, for he was one of the magi, who
need water for their enchantments. Moses’ daily morning visits were beginning
to annoy him, and he left the house early, in the hope of circumventing his monitor.
But God, who knows the thoughts of man, sent Moses to Pharaoh at the very moment
of his going forth.

The warning of the plague that was imminent not having had any effect upon
Pharaoh, God sent the fourth plague upon Egypt, a mixed horde of wild animals,
lions, bears, wolves, and panthers, and so many birds of prey of different kinds
that the light of the sun and the moon was darkened as they circled through the
air. These beasts came upon the Egyptians as a punishment for desiring to force
the seed of Abraham to amalgamate with the other nations. God retaliated by bringing
a mixture upon them that cost them their life.

As Pharaoh had been the first of the Egyptians to lay evil plans against the
children of Israel, so he was the first upon whom descended punishment. Into his
house the mixed horde of beasts came first of all, and then into the houses of
the rest of the Egyptians. Goshen, the land inhabited by the Israelites, was spared
entirely, for God put a division between the two peoples. It is true, the Israelites
had committed sins enough to deserve punishment, but the Holy One, blessed be
He, permitted the Egyptians to act as a ransom for Israel.

Again Pharaoh expressed his willingness to let the children of Israel sacrifice
unto their God, but they were to stay in the land and do it, not go outside, into
the wilderness. Moses pointed out to Pharaoh how unbecoming it would be for the
Israelites to sacrifice, before the very eyes of his people, the animals that
the Egyptians worshipped as gods. Then Pharaoh consented to let them go beyond
the borders of his land, only they were not to go very far away, and Moses, to
mislead him, asked for a three days’ journey into the wilderness. But, again,
when Moses had entreated God on Pharaoh’s behalf, and the horde of wild beasts
had vanished, the king hardened his heart, and did not let the people go.

The cessation of the fourth plague was as miraculous as the plague itself.
The very animals that had been slain by the Egyptians in self-defense returned
to life and departed from the land with the rest. This was ordained to prevent
the wicked oppressors from profiting by the punishment even so much as the value
of the hides and the flesh of the dead animals. It had not been so with the useless
frogs, they had died on the spot, and their carcasses had remained where they
fell.

The fifth plague inflicted by God upon the Egyptians was a grievous pestilence,
which mowed down the cattle and beasts chiefly, yet it did not spare men altogether.
This pestilence was a distinct plague, but it also accompanied all the other plagues,
and the death of many Egyptians was due to it. The Israelites again came off unscathed.
Indeed, if an Israelite had a just claim upon a beast held by an Egyptian, it,
too, was spared, and the same good fortune waited upon such cattle as was the
common property of Israelites and Egyptians.

The sixth plague, the plague of boils, was produced by Moses and Aaron together
in a miraculous way. Each took a handful of ashes of the furnace, then Moses held
the contents of the two heaps in the hollow of one of his hands, and sprinkled
the ashes tip toward the heaven, and it flew so high that it reached the Divine
throne. Returning earthward, it scattered over the whole land of Egypt, a space
equal to four hundred square parasangs. The small dust of the ashes produced leprosy
upon the skin of the Egyptians, and blains of a peculiar kind, soft within and
dry on top.

The first five plagues the magicians had tried to imitate, and partly they
had succeeded. But in this sixth plague they could not stand before Moses, and
thenceforth they gave up the attempt to do as he did. Their craft had all along
been harmful to themselves. Although they could produce the plagues, they could
not imitate Moses in causing them to disappear. They would put their hands into
their bosom, and draw them out white with leprosy, exactly like Moses, but their
flesh remained leprous until the day of their death. And the same happened with
all the other plagues that they imitated: until their dying day they were afflicted
with the ills they produced.

As Pharaoh had wittingly hardened his heart with each of the first five plagues,
and refused to turn from his sinful purpose, God punished him thereafter in such
wise that he could not mend his ways if he would. God said, “Even though he should
desire to do penance now, I will harden his heart until he pays off the whole
of his debt.”

Pharaoh had observed that whenever he walked on the brink of the Nile, Moses
would intercept him. He therefore gave up his morning walk. But God bade Moses
seek the king in his palace in the early hours of the day and urge him to repent
of his evil ways. Therefore Moses spake to him as follows, in the name of God:
“O thou villain! Thou thinkest that I cannot destroy thee from the world. Consider,
if I had desired it, instead of smiting the cattle, I might have smitten thee
and thy people with the pestilence, and thou wouldst have been cut off from the
earth. I inflicted the plague only in such degree as was necessary to show thee
My power, and that My Name may be declared throughout all the earth. But thou
dost not leave off treading My people underfoot. Behold, to-morrow when the sun
passes this point,”–whereat Moses made a stroke upon the wall–“I will cause
a very grievous hail to pour down, such as will be only once more, when I annihilate
Gog with hail, fire, and brimstone.”

But God’s lovingkindness is so great that even in His wrath He has mercy upon
the wicked, and as His chief object was not to injure men and beasts, but to damage
the vegetation in the fields of the Egyptians, He bade Moses admonish Pharaoh
to send and hasten in his cattle and all that he had in the field. But the warning
fell on heedless ears. Job was the only one to take it to heart, while Pharaoh
and his people regarded not the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord let the hail
smite both man and beast, instead of confining it to the herbs and the trees of
the field, as He had intended from the first.

As a rule, fire and water are elements at war with each other, but in the hailstones
that smote the land of Egypt they were reconciled. A fire rested in the hailstones
as the burning wick swims in the oil of a lamp; the surrounding fluid cannot extinguish
the flame. The Egyptians were smitten either by the hail or by the fire. In the
one case as the other their flesh was seared, and the bodies of the many that
were slain by the hail were consumed by the fire. The hailstones heaped themselves
up like a wall, so that the carcasses of the slain beasts could not be removed,
and if the people succeeded in dividing the dead animals and carrying their flesh
off, the birds of prey would attack them on their way home, and snatch their prize
away. But the vegetation in the field suffered even more than man and beast, for
the hail came down like an axe upon the trees and broke them. That the wheat and
the spelt were not crushed was a miracle.

Now, at last, Pharaoh acknowledged, and said, “The Lord is righteous, and I
and my people are wicked. He was righteous when He bade us hasten in our cattle
from before the hail, and I and my people were wicked, for we heeded not His warning,
and men and beasts were found in the field by the hail, and slain.” Again he begged
Moses to supplicate God in his behalf, that He turn the plague away, and he promised
to let the children of Israel go. Moses consented to do his will, saying, however:
“Think not that I do not know what will happen after the plague is stayed. I know
that thou and thy servants, ye will fear the Lord God, once His punishment is
removed, as little as ye feared Him before. But to show His greatness, I will
pray to Him to make the hail to cease.”

Moses went a short distance out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad
his hands unto the Lord, for he did not desire to pray to God within, where there
were many idols and images. At once the hail remained suspended in the air. Part
of it dropped down while Joshua was engaged in battle with the Amorites, and the
rest God will send down in His fury against Gog. Also the thunders ceased at Moses’
intercession, and were stored up for a later time, for they were the noise which
the Lord made the host of the Syrians to hear at the siege of Samaria, wherefore
they arose and fled in the twilight.

As Moses had foreseen, so it happened. No sooner had the hail stopped than
Pharaoh abandoned his resolve, and refused to let Israel go. Moses lost no time
in announcing the eighth plague to him, the plague of the locusts. Observing that
his words had made an impression upon the king’s counsellors, he turned and went
out from Pharaoh, to give them the opportunity of discussing the matter among
themselves. And, indeed, his servants urged Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and
serve the Lord their God. But, again, when Moses insisted that the whole people
must go, the young and the old, the sons and the daughters, Pharaoh demurred,
saying, “I know it to be customary for young men and old men to take part in sacrifices,
but surely not little children, and when you demand their presence, too, you betray
your evil purpose. It is but a pretense, your saying that you will go a three
days’ journey into the wilderness, and then return. You mean to escape and never
come back. I will have nothing more to do with the matter. My god Baal-zephon
will oppose you in the way, and hinder you on your journey.” Pharaoh’s last words
were a dim presentiment. As a magician he foresaw that on their going forth from
Egypt the children of Israel would find themselves in desperate straits before
the sanctuary of Baal-zephon.

Pharaoh was not content with merely denying the request preferred by Moses
and Aaron. He ordered them to be forcibly expelled from the palace. Then God sent
the plague of the locusts announced by Moses before. They ate every herb of the
land, and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left, and there remained
not any green thing. And again Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, to ask their
forgiveness, both for his sin against the Lord God, in not having hearkened unto
His word, and for his sin against them, in having chased them forth and intended
to curse them. Moses, as before, prayed to God in Pharaoh’s behalf, and his petition
was granted, the plague was taken away, and in a rather surprising manner. When
the swarms of locusts began to darken the land, the Egyptians caught them and
preserved them in brine as a dainty to be eaten. Now the Lord turned an exceeding
strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea.
Even those they were keeping in their pots flew up and away, and they had none
of the expected profit.

The last plague but one, like those which had preceded it, endured seven days.
All the time the land was enveloped in darkness, only it was not always of the
same degree of density. During the first three days, it was not so thick but that
the Egyptians could change their posture when they desired to do so. If they were
sitting down, they could rise up, and if they were standing, they could sit down.
On the fourth, fifth, and sixth days, the darkness was so dense that they could
not stir from their place. They either sat the whole time, or stood; as they were
at the beginning, so they remained until the end. The last day of darkness overtook
the Egyptians, not in their own land, but at the Red Sea, on their pursuit of
Israel. The darkness was not of the ordinary, earthly kind; it came from hell,
and it could be felt. It was as thick as a dinar, and all the time it prevailed
a celestial light brightened the dwellings of the children of Israel, whereby
they could see what the Egyptians were doing under cover of the darkness. This
was of great advantage to them, for when they were about to go forth from the
land, and they asked their neighbors to lend them raiment, and jewels of gold
and jewels of silver, for the journey, the Egyptians tried to deny having any
in their possession. But the children of Israel, having spied out all their treasures
during the days of darkness, could describe the objects they needed with accuracy,
and designate their hiding-places. The Egyptians reasoned that the words of the
Israelites could be taken implicitly as they spoke them, for if they had had any
idea of deceiving them, asking for a loan when they intended to keep what they
laid hands on, they might have taken unobserved during the days of darkness whatever:
they desired. Hence the Egyptians felt no hesitation in lending the children of
Israel all the treasures they asked for.

The darkness was of such a nature that it could not be dispelled by artificial
means. The light of the fire kindled for household uses was either extinguished
by the violence of the storm, or else it was made invisible and swallowed up in
the density of the darkness. Sight, that most indispensable of all the external
senses, though unimpaired, was deprived of its office, for nothing could be discerned,
and all the other senses were overthrown like subjects whose leader has fallen.
None was able to speak or to hear, nor could anyone venture to take food, but
they lay themselves down in quiet and hunger, their outward senses in a trance.
Thus they remained, overwhelmed by the affliction, until Moses had compassion
on them again, and besought God in their behalf, who granted him the power of
restoring fine weather, light instead of darkness and day instead of night.

Intimidated by this affliction, Pharaoh permitted the people to go, the little
ones as well as the men and the women, only he asked that they let their flocks
and their herds be stayed. But Moses said: “As thou livest, our cattle also shall
go with us. Yea, if but the hoof of an animal belongs to an Israelite, the beast
shall not be left behind in Egypt.” This speech exasperated Pharaoh to such a
degree that he threatened Moses with death in the day he should see his face again.

At this very moment the Lord appeared unto Moses, and bade him inform Pharaoh
of the infliction of the last plague, the slaying of the first-born. It was the
first and the last time that God revealed Himself in the royal palace. He chose
the residence of Pharaoh on this occasion that Moses might not be branded as a
liar, for he had replied to Pharaoh’s threat of killing him if he saw his face
again, with the words, “Thou hast spoken well; I will see thy face again no more.”

With a loud voice Moses proclaimed the last plague, closing his announcement
with the words: “And all these thy servants shall come down unto me and bow down
themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out: and all the people that follow thee;
and after that I will go out.” Moses knew well enough that Pharaoh himself would
come and urge him to lead Israel forth with as great haste as possible, but he
mentioned only the servants of the king, and not the king himself, because he
never forgot the respect due to a ruler.

THE FIRST PASSOVER

When the time approached in which, according to the promise made to Abraham,
his children would be redeemed, it was seen that they had no pious deeds to their
credit for the sake of which they deserved release from bondage. God therefore
gave them two commandments, one bidding them to sacrifice the paschal lamb and
one to circumcise their sons. Along with the first they received the calendar
in use among the Jews, for the Passover feast is to be celebrated on the fifteenth
day of the month of Nisan, and with this month the year is to begin. But the computations
for the calendar are so involved that Moses could not understand them until God
showed him the movements of the moon plainly. There were three other things equally
difficult, which Moses could comprehend only after God made him to see them plainly.
They were the compounding of the holy anointing oil, the construction of the candlestick
in the Tabernacle, and the animals the flesh of which is permitted or prohibited.
Also the determination of the new moon was the subject of special Divine teaching.
That Moses might know the exact procedure, God appeared to him in a garment with
fringes upon its corners, bade Moses stand at His right hand and Aaron at His
left, and then, citing Michael and Gabriel as witnesses, He addressed searching
questions to the angels as to how the new moon had seemed to them. Then the Lord
addressed Moses and Aaron, saying, “Thus shall My children proclaim the new moon,
on the testimony of two witnesses and through the president of the court.

When Moses appeared before the children of Israel and delivered the Divine
message to them, telling them that their redemption would come about in this month
of Nisan, they said: “How is it possible that we should be redeemed? Is not the
whole of Egypt full of our idols? And we have no pious deeds to show making us
worthy of redemption.” Moses made reply, and said: “As God desires your redemption,
He pays no heed to your idols; He passes them by. Nor does He look upon your evil
deeds, but only upon the good deeds of the pious among you.”

God would not, indeed, have delivered Israel if they had not abandoned their
idol worship. Unto this purpose He commanded them to sacrifice the paschal lamb.
Thus they were to show that they had given up the idolatry of the Egyptians, consisting
in the worship of the ram. The early law was different from the practice of later
times, for they were bidden to select their sacrificial animal four days before
the day appointed for the offering, and to designate it publicly as such, to show
that they did not stand in awe of the Egyptians.

With a heavy heart the Egyptians watched the preparations of the Israelites
for sacrificing the animals they worshipped. Yet they did not dare interpose an
objection, and when the time came for the offering to be made, the children of
Israel could perform the ceremonies without a tremor, seeing that they knew, through
many days’ experience, that the Egyptians feared to approach them with hostile
intent. There was another practice connected with the slaughter of the paschal
lamb that was to show the Egyptians how little the Israelites feared them. They
took of the blood of the animal, and openly put it on the two side posts and on
the lintel of the doors of their houses.

Moses communicated the laws regulating the Passover sacrifice to the elders,
and they in turn made them known to the people at large. The elders were commended
for having supported the leader at his first appearance, for their faith in Moses
caused the whole people to adhere to him at once. Therefore God spake, saying:
“I will reward the elders for inspiring the people with confidence in Moses. They
shall have the honor of delivering Israel. They shall lead the people to the Passover
sacrifice, and through this the redemption will be brought about.”

The ceremonies connected with the Passover sacrifice had the purpose of conveying
instruction to Israel about the past and the future alike. The blood put on the
two side posts and on the lintel of their doors was to remind them of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob; and the bunch of hyssop for sprinkling the blood on the doors
was to imply that, although Israel’s position among the peoples of the earth is
as lowly as that of the hyssop among the plants, yet this little nation is bound
together like the bunch of hyssop, for it is God’s peculiar treasure.

The paschal sacrifice afforded Moses the opportunity for inducing the children
of Israel to submit themselves to circumcision, which many had refused to do until
then in spite of his urgent appeals. But God has means of persuasion. He caused
a wind to blow that wafted the sweet scents of Paradise toward Moses’ paschal
lamb, and the fragrance penetrated to all parts of Egypt, to the distance of a
forty days’ journey. The people were attracted in crowds to Moses’ lamb, and desired
to partake of it. But he said, “This is the command of God, ‘No uncircumcised
person shall eat thereof,'” and they all decided to undergo circumcision. When
the Lord passed through the land of Egypt, He blessed every Israelite for his
fulfilment of the two commands, the command of the paschal sacrifice and the command
regarding circumcision.”

The Lord performed a great miracle for the Israelites. As no sacrifice may
be eaten beyond the borders of the Holy Land, all the children of Israel were
transported thither on clouds, and after they had eaten of the sacrifice, they
were carried back to Egypt in the same way.

THE SMITING OF THE FIRST-BORN

When Moses announced the slaying of the first-born, the designated victims
all repaired to their fathers, and said: “Whatever Moses hath foretold has been
fulfilled. Let the Hebrews go, else we shall all die.” But the fathers replied,
“It is better for one of every ten of us to die, than the Hebrews should execute
their purpose.” Then the first-born repaired to Pharaoh, to induce him to dismiss
the children of Israel. So far from granting their wish, he ordered his servants
to fall upon the first-born and beat them, to punish them for their presumptuous
demand. Seeing that they could not accomplish their end by gentle means, they
attempted to bring it about by force.

Pharaoh and all that opposed the wishes of the first-born were of the opinion
that the loss of so inconsiderable a percentage of the population was a matter
of small moment. They were mistaken in their calculation, for the Divine decree
included not only the first-born sons, but also the first-born daughters, and
not only the first-born of the marriages then existing, but also the first-born
issuing from previous alliances of the fathers and the mothers, and as the Egyptians
led dissolute lives, it happened not rarely that each of the ten children of one
woman was the first-born of its father. Finally, God decreed that death should
smite the oldest member of every household, whether or not he was the first-born
of his parents. What God resolves is executed. At the exact instant marking the
middle of the night, so precise that only God Himself could determine and discern
it, He appeared in Egypt, attended by nine thousand myriads of the Angels of Destruction
who are fashioned some of hail and some of flames, and whose glances drive terror
and trembling to the heart of the beholder. These angels were about to precipitate
themselves into the work of annihilation, but God restrained them, saying, “My
wrath will not be appeased until I Myself execute vengeance upon the enemies of
Israel.”

Those among the Egyptians who gave credence to Moses’ words, and tried to shield
their first-born children from death, sent them to their Hebrew neighbors, to
spend the fateful night with them, in the hope that God would exempt the houses
of the children of Israel from the plague. But in the morning, when the Israelites
arose from their sleep, they found the corpses of the Egyptian fugitives next
to them. That was the night in which the Israelites prayed before lying down to
sleep: “Cause us, O Lord our God, to lie down in peace, remove Satan from before
us and from behind us, and guard our going out and our coming in unto life and
unto peace,” for it was Satan that had caused frightful bloodshed among the Egyptians.

Among the slain there were, beside the Egyptian first-born, also the first-born
of other nationalities residing in Egypt, as well as the Egyptian first-born dwelling
outside of their own land. Even the long dead of the first-born were not spared.
The dogs dragged their corpses out of their graves in the houses, for it was the
Egyptian custom to inter the dead at home. At the appalling sight the Egyptians
mourned as though the bereavement had befallen them but recently. The very monuments
and statues erected to the memory of the first-born dead were changed into dust,
which was scattered and flew out of sight. Moreover, their slaves had to share
the fate of the Egyptians, and no less the first-born of the captive that was
in the dungeon, for none was so low but he hated the Hebrews, and rejoiced when
the Egyptians decreed their persecution. The female slaves that ground corn between
mill-stones were in the habit of saying, “We do not regret our servitude, if only
the Israelites are gagged, too.

In dealing out punishment to these aliens in the land of Egypt, God showed
that He was at once the Master of the land and the Lord over all the gods of the
nations, for if the slaves and the captives of war had not been smitten, they
would have said, “Mighty is our god, who helped us in this plague.” For the same
reason all the idols of the Egyptians were swept out of existence in that night.
The stone idols were ground into dust, the wooden idols rotted, and those made
of metal melted away, and so the Egyptians were kept from ascribing their chastisement
to the wrath of their own gods. Likewise the Lord God slew the first-born of the
cattle, for the Egyptians paid worship to animals, and they would have attributed
their misfortunes to them. In all these ways the Lord showed them that their gods
were but vanity.

THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPTIAN BONDAGE

Pharaoh rose up in the night of the smiting of the first-born. He waited not
for the third hour of the morning, when kings usually arise, nor did he wait to
be awakened, but he himself roused his slaves from their slumber, and all the
other Egyptians, and together they went forth to seek Moses and Aaron. He knew
that Moses had never spoken an untruth, and as he had said, “I will see thy face
again no more,” he could not count upon Moses’ coming to him. There remained nothing
for him to do but go in search of the Israelitish leader. He did not know where
Moses lived, and he had great difficulty and lost much time in looking for his
house, for the Hebrew lads of whom he made inquiries when he met them in the street
played practical jokes on him, misdirected him, and led him astray. Thus he wandered
about a long time. all the while weeping and crying out, “O my friend Moses, pray
for me to God!”

Meanwhile Moses and Aaron and all Israel beside were at the paschal meal, drinking
wine as they sat and leaned to one side, and singing songs in praise of God, the
Hallel, which they were the first to recite. When Pharaoh finally reached the
door of the house wherein Moses abode, he called to him, and from Moses the question
came back, “Who art thou, and what is thy name?”–“I am Pharaoh, who stands here
humiliated.”–Moses asked again: “Why dost thou come to me thyself? Is it the
custom of kings to linger at the doors of common folk?”–“I pray thee, my lord,”
returned Pharaoh, “come forth and intercede for us, else there will not remain
a single being in Egypt.”–“I may not come forth, for God bath commanded us, ‘None
of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.'” –But Pharaoh
continued to plead: “Do but step to the window, and speak with me,” and when Moses
yielded to his importunities, and appeared at the window, the king addressed these
words to him: “Thou didst say yesterday, ‘All the first-born in the land of Egypt
will die,’ but now as many as nine-tenths of the inhabitants have perished.”

Pharaoh was accompanied by his daughter Bithiah, Moses’ foster-mother. She
reproached him with ingratitude, in having brought down evil upon her and her
countrymen. And Moses answered, and said: “Ten plagues the Lord brought upon Egypt.
Hath evil accrued to thee from any of them? Did one of them affect thee?” And
when Bithiah acknowledged that no harm had touched her, Moses continued to speak,
“Although thou art thy mother’s first-born, thou shalt not die, and no evil shall
reach thee in the midst of Egypt.” But Bithiah said, “Of what advantage is my
security to me, when I see the king, my brother, and all his household, and his
servants in this evil plight, and look upon their first-born perishing with all
the first-born of Egypt?” And Moses returned, “Verily, thy brother and his household
and the other Egyptians would not hearken to the words of the Lord, therefore
did this evil come upon them.

Turning to Pharaoh, Moses said: “In spite of all that hath happened, I will
teach thee something, if thou desirest to learn, and thou wilt be spared, and
thou wilt not die. Raise thy voice, and say: ‘Ye children of Israel, ye are your
own masters. Prepare for your journey, and depart from among my people. Hitherto
ye were the slaves of Pharaoh, but henceforward ye are under the authority of
God. Serve the Lord your God!'” Moses made him say these words three times, and
God caused Pharaoh’s voice to be heard throughout the land of Egypt, so that all
the inhabitants, the home-born and the aliens, knew that Pharaoh had released
the children of Israel from the bondage in which they had languished. And all
Israel sang, “Hallelujah, praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the Name of
the Lord,” for they belonged to the Lord, and no more were the servants of Pharaoh.

Now the king of Egypt insisted upon their leaving the land without delay. But
Moses objected, and said: “Are we thieves, that we should slink away under cover
of the night? Wait until morning.” Pharaoh, however, urged and begged Moses to
depart, confessing that he was anxious about his own person, for he was a first-born
son, and he was terrified that death would strike him down, too. Moses dissipated
his alarm, though he substituted a new horror, with the words, “Fear not, there
is worse in store for thee!” Dread seized upon the whole people; every one of
the Egyptians was afraid of losing his life, and they all united their prayers
with Pharaoh’s, and begged Moses to take the Israelites hence. And God spake,
Ye shall all find your end, not here, but in the Red Sea!”

THE EXODUS

Pharaoh and the Egyptians let their dead lie unburied, while they hastened
to help the Israelites load their possessions on wagons, to get them out of the
land with as little delay as possible. When they left, they took with them, beside
their own cattle, the sheep and the oxen that Pharaoh had ordered his nobles to
give them as presents. The king also forced his magnates to beg pardon of the
Israelites for all they had suffered, knowing as he did that God forgives an injury
done by man to his fellow only after the wrong-doer has recovered the good-will
of his victim by confessing and regretting his fault. “Now, depart!” said Pharaoh
to the Israelites, “I want nothing from you but that you should pray to God for
me, that I may be saved from death.”

The hatred of the Egyptians toward the Israelites changed now into its opposite.
They conceived affection and friendship for them, and fairly forced raiment upon
them, and jewels of silver and jewels of gold, to take along with them on their
journey, although the children of Israel had not yet returned the articles they
had borrowed from their neighbors at an earlier time. This action is in part to
be explained by the vanity of Pharaoh and his people. They desired to pretend
before the world that they were vastly rich, as everybody would conclude when
this wealth of their mere slaves was displayed to observers. Indeed, the Israelites
bore so much away from Egypt that one of them alone might have defrayed the expense
of building and furnishing the Tabernacle.

On their leaving the land only the private wealth of the Egyptians was in their
hands, but when they arrived at the Red Sea they came into possession of the public
treasure, too, for Pharaoh, like all kings, carried the moneys of the state with
him on his campaigns, in order to be prepared to hire a relay of mercenaries in
case of defeat. Great as the other treasure was, the booty captured at the sea
far exceeded it.

But if the Israelites loaded themselves down with goods and jewels and money,
it was not to gratify love of riches, or, as any usurer might say, because they
coveted their neighbors’ possessions. In the first place they could look upon
their plunder as wages due to them from those they had long served, and, secondly,
they were entitled to retaliate on those at whose hands they had suffered wrong.
Even then they were requiting them with an affliction far slighter than any one
of all they had endured themselves.

The plagues did not stay the cruelty of the Egyptian oppressors toward the
Hebrews. It continued unabated until the very end of their sojourn in the land.
On the day of the exodus, Rachel the daughter of Shuthelah gave birth to a child,
while she and her husband together were treading the clay for bricks. The babe
dropped from her womb into the clay and sank out of sight. Gabriel appeared, moulded
a brick out of the clay containing the child, and carried it to the highest of
the heavens, where he made it a footstool before the Divine throne. In that night
it was that God looked upon the suffering of Israel, and smote the first-born
of the Egyptians, and it is one of the four nights that God has inscribed in the
Book of Memorial. The first of the four is that in which God appeared to create
the world; all was waste and void, and darkness brooded over the abyss, until
the Lord came and spread light round about by His word. The second night is that
in which God appeared unto Abraham at the covenant of the pieces. In the third
night He appeared in Egypt, slaying the first-born of the Egyptians with His right
hand, and protecting the first-born of the Israelites with His left. The fourth
night recorded will be that in which the end of the redemption will be accomplished,
when the iron yoke of the wicked kingdom will be broken, and the evil-doers will
be destroyed. Then will Moses come from the desert, and the Messiah from Rome,
each at the head of his flock, and the word of God will mediate between them,
causing both to walk with one accord in the same direction.

Israel’s redemption in future days will happen on the fifteenth of Nisan, the
night of Israel’s redemption from Egypt, for thus did Moses say, “In this night
God protected Israel against the Angels of Destruction, and in this night He will
also redeem the generations of the future.”

Though the actual deliverance from Egypt took place in that night, the Hebrews
did not leave the land until the following day.

During the same night God requited the Egyptians for their evil deeds in the
sight of all the people, the night being as bright as day at the time of the summer
solstice. Not one could escape the general chastisement, for by Divine dispensation
none was absent from home at the time, so that none could fail to see the chastisement.

The angels in heaven learnt what was happening on earth. When they were about
to begin their song of praise to God, He silenced them with the words, “My children
on earth are singing now,” and the celestial hosts had to stop and listen to the
song of Israel.

Great as the joy of the Hebrews was at their deliverance from the Egyptian
bondage, it was exceeded by that of Pharaoh’s people at seeing their slaves depart,
for with them went the dread of death that had obsessed them. They were like the
portly gentleman riding an ass. The rider feels uncomfortable and longs for the
moment of alighting, but his longing cannot compare in intensity with that of
the ass groaning under the corpulent burden, and when their journey’s end is reached,
the ass rejoices more than his master. So the Egyptians were happier to be rid
of the Hebrews than these were to be free.

In general, the Israelites were not in a joyous mood. The strength of men is
readily exhausted, mentally and physically, by the strain of a sudden change from
slavery to freedom. They did not recover vigor and force until they heard the
angel hosts sing songs of praise and joy over the redemption of Israel and the
redemption of the Shekinah, for so long as the chosen people is in exile, the
Shekinah, who dwells among Israel, is also, as it were, in exile. At the same
time, God caused the earth to exhale and send aloft a healing fragrance, which
cured them of all their diseases.

The exodus of the Israelites began at Raamses, and although the distance from
there to the city of Mizraim, where Moses abode, was a forty days’ journey, yet
they heard the voice of their leader urging them to leave the land. They covered
the distance from Raamses to Succoth, a three days’ march, in an instant. In Succoth
God enveloped them in seven clouds of glory, four hovering in front, behind, and
at the two sides of them, one suspended above them, to keep off rain, hail, and
the rays of the sun, and one under them to protect them against thorns and snakes.
The seventh cloud preceded them, and prepared the way for them, exalting the valleys
and making low every mountain and hill. Thus they wandered through the wilderness
for forty years. In all that time no artificial lighting was needed; a beam from
the celestial cloud followed them into the darkest of chambers, and if one of
the people had to go outside of the camp, even thither he was accompanied by a
fold of the cloud, covering and protecting him. Only, that a difference might
be made between day and night, a pillar of fire took the place of the cloud in
the evening. Never for an instant were the people without the one or the other
to guide them: the pillar of fire glowed in front of them before the pillar of
cloud retired, and in the morning the cloud was there before the fire vanished.
The clouds of glory and the pillar of fire were sent for the protection of Israel
alone, for none beside, not for the heathen and not for the mixed multitude that
went up with them; these had to walk outside of the cloud enclosure.

The cavalcade consisted of six hundred thousand heads of families afoot, each
accompanied by five children on horseback, and to these must be added the mixed
multitude, exceeding the Hebrews vastly in number.

So profound was Israel’s trust in the Lord, that they followed Moses unmurmuringly
into the wilderness, without supplying themselves with provisions. The only edibles
they took were the remains of the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs, and these
not to satisfy their hunger, but because they were unwilling to separate themselves
from what they had prepared lovingly at the command of God. These possessions
were so dear to them that they would not entrust them to the beasts of burden,
they carried them on their own shoulders.