In the one hundred and thirtieth year after Israel's going down to
Egypt Pharaoh dreamed that he was sitting upon his throne, and he
lifted up his eyes, and he beheld an old man before him with a balance
in his hand, and he saw him taking all the elders, nobles, and great
men of Egypt, tying them together, and laying them in one scale of the
balance, while he put a tender kid into the other. The kid bore down
the pan in which it lay until it hung lower than the other with the
bound Egyptians. Pharaoh arose early in the morning, and called
together all his servants and his wise men to interpret his dream, and
the men were greatly afraid on account of his vision. Balaam the son of
Beor then spake, and said: "This means nothing but that a great evil
will spring up against Egypt, for a son will be born unto Israel, who
will destroy the whole of our land and all its inhabitants, and he will
bring forth the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand. Now,
therefore, O king, take counsel as to this matter, that the hope of
Israel be frustrated before this evil arise against Egypt."
The king said unto Balaam: "What shall we do unto Israel? We have tried
several devices against this people, but we could not prevail over it.
Now let me hear thy opinion."
At Balaam's instance, the king sent for his two counsellors, Reuel the
Midianite and Job the Uzite, to hear their advice. Reuel spoke: "If it
seemeth good to the king, let him desist from the Hebrews, and let him
not stretch forth his hand against them, for the Lord chose them in
days of old, and took them as the lot of His inheritance from amongst
all the nations of the earth, and who is there that hath dared stretch
forth his hand against them with impunity, but that their God avenged
the evil done unto them?" Reuel then proceeded to enumerate some of the
mighty things God had performed for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he
closed his admonition with the words: "Verily, thy grandfather, the
Pharaoh of former days, raised Joseph the son of Jacob above all the
princes of Egypt, because he discerned his wisdom, for through his
wisdom he rescued all the inhabitants of the land from the famine,
after which he invited Jacob and his sons to come down to Egypt, that
the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen be delivered from the famine
through their virtues. Now, therefore, if it seem good in thine eyes,
leave off from destroying the children of Israel, and if it be not thy
will that they dwell in Egypt, send them forth from here, that they may
go to the land of Canaan, the land wherein their ancestors sojourned."
When Pharaoh heard the words of Jethro-Reuel, he was exceedingly wroth
with him, and he was dismissed in disgrace from before the king, and he
went to Midian.
The king then spoke to Job, and said: "What sayest thou, Job, and what
is thy advice respecting the Hebrews?" Job replied: "Behold, all the
inhabitants of the land are in thy power. Let the king do as seemeth
good in his eyes."
Balaam was the last to speak at the behest of the king, and he said:
"From all that the king may devise against the Hebrews, they will be
delivered. If thou thinkest to diminish them by the flaming fire, thou
wilt not prevail over them, for their God delivered Abraham their
father from the furnace in which the Chaldeans cast him. Perhaps thou
thinkest to destroy them with a sword, but their father Isaac was
delivered from being slaughtered by the sword. And if thou thinkest to
reduce them through hard and rigorous labor, thou wilt also not
prevail, for their father Jacob served Laban in all manner of hard
work, and yet he prospered. If it please the king, let him order all
the male children that shall be born in Israel from this day forward to
be thrown into the water. Thereby canst thou wipe out their name, for
neither any of them nor any of their fathers was tried in this way.[21]