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.[154]
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."[155]
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.[156]
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."[157]
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."[158]
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."[159]
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."[160]
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.[161] 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!"[162] 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,[163] 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."