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.[77] 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?[78] 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.[79]
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."