put into Benjamin’s sack a silver cup. And nobody knew it but the
steward. So early the next morning, with Simeon and Benjamin, off they
started very happily for home, singing as they went. And by and by, they
heard a sound of voices following, and there was Joseph’s steward and
some other men.
And the steward said, “Stop, you thieves, and give me my master’s silver
cup which you have stolen.”
And the brothers stopped, and said, “We are no thieves. We have taken
neither gold nor silver from your master’s palace. Search us, and the
man with whom you find the cup shall die.”
“Very well,” he said, “the man with whom the cup is found shall be my
slave.” So he searched the sacks, beginning with the oldest brother and
ending with the youngest, and in Benjamin’s sack, there was the cup!
And they all cried out in great grief, and tore their clothes, for that
was the custom, and back they went to Joseph’s palace. And Judah, one of
the brothers, spoke to Joseph. “My lord,” he said, “you asked to see our
little brother, and we brought him down. And our father said as we came
away, ‘If mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave,’ and now if we go back without our brother, our
father will die. Let me take his place. I will be your slave; and let
him go.”
And Joseph sent everybody out of the room, except his brothers. And he
said, “I am Joseph. Come near to me, I pray you. I am Joseph your
brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And God has made me ruler of all
Egypt.” And as they were amazed, he said, “Do you not see that I am
indeed your brother? Go back now and bring my father, and all your
flocks and herds, and your wives and children, and come and live with
me.” And he kissed his brothers. And the next day he gave them wagons
for his father and their wives and children, and sent them away.
So Jacob saw his son Joseph, for whom he had mourned as dead. And all
the family moved down to Egypt, and Pharaoh gave them pastures for their
sheep.
IX
THE BURNING BUSH
Joseph and his brothers had many sons and daughters, and they in their
turn had many sons and daughters; and even after they were grown up they
were all called the Children of Israel; for Israel, you remember, was
the new name of their father Jacob.
And years passed, and years passed, and Pharaoh died, and another
Pharaoh reigned in his stead. And the Egyptians forgot how Joseph had
saved their fathers from starving in the seven years of famine. And they
made the Children of Israel their slaves, and sent them into their
fields to work, and set taskmasters over them with whips. And the new
Pharaoh said to his princes, “The Children of Israel are more and
mightier than we. We must keep them from increasing.” So they made a law
that all the boy babies of the Children of Israel should be put to death
as soon as they were born.
Now there was a man and his wife who had two children, a girl of eight
or ten, named Miriam, and a boy of three, named Aaron. And just at the
time of this law, there came a little new boy baby. And his mother hid
him, so that the Egyptians should not take him away and kill him. But it
is very hard to hide a baby. So after three months his mother made a
basket of bulrushes, and put pitch on the inside to keep the water out,
and laid the baby in the basket, and set the basket in the river, near
the bank among the reeds. And she told little Miriam to stay near, and
see what would happen. So Miriam hid herself in the bushes and watched
and waited, and by and by who should come down to the water but the
princess herself, the daughter of Pharaoh. And the princess saw the
basket and sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened it, there was
the baby. And the baby began to cry.
And the princess said, “This is one of the babies of the Children of
Israel.” And she was very sorry.
Then Miriam came and said, “Princess, if you want a good nurse to take
care of the baby for you, I think I can find one.”
And the princess said, “Go, find her, and bring her to me.”
So Miriam went and brought the baby’s mother. And the princess said,
“Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay you.”
So the mother nursed her baby in peace, and when he became a big boy,
she took him to the king’s palace, and he lived there with the princess
as if he had been a prince himself. And his name was Moses.
So years passed, and the boy became a man. The princess had sent him to
school, and he had learned all that the best teachers could tell him. He
was very wise. But he never forgot that he was one of the Children of
Israel. When he saw his people working in the fields, and the
task-masters urging them with whips, he was sad and troubled. One day,
as he passed by, and saw an Egyptian beating one of the Children of
Israel, he could restrain himself no longer. He saved the man and killed
the Egyptian. Then he found that the thing was known, and that Pharaoh
had discovered that he was really on the side of the Children of Israel.
And he had to run away to save his life.
Now the land which was next to Egypt was called Arabia, and to Arabia
went Moses, and there he found a well. And flocks of sheep were feeding
by it, some of them tended by men and some by women. But the men were
very unkind to the women and kept them from drawing water for their
sheep. And as Moses sat by the well, there came seven sisters with a
flock of sheep, and the shepherds would not let them get any water. But
Moses stood up and drove away the shepherds, and drew water for the
seven sisters, and watered their flocks himself.
So the sisters went home to their father, and he said, “How is it that
you are come so soon to-day?” They said, “An Egyptian beat the
shepherds, and watered our sheep.”
Their father said, “Where is the man? Why did you not bring him home to
dinner?”
So they found Moses, and brought him home, and when they knew that he
had no place in which to stay, they asked him to live with them. And
pretty soon he married one of the seven sisters.
One day, as Moses kept the flock of his father-in-law, and led them here
and there for pasture, he came to a high mountain, and at the foot of
the mountain he saw a fire. There was a bush burning, and yet, as he
watched it, the bush was not burnt. And he said to himself, “I will turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” And as he
came near, he heard a voice; and the voice said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he answered, “Here I am.”
And the voice said, “I am the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.
I have seen the sorrows of my people, the Children of Israel, how the
Egyptians make them work, and whip them. Come now, return to Egypt, and
tell
[Illustration: MOSES BY THE BURNING BUSH]
Pharaoh to let my people go that they may meet me here at this
mountain.”
But Moses said, “Pharaoh will not hear me.”
And God said, “I will make Pharaoh hear you.”
Then Moses said, “I am no speaker.”
And God answered, “Look, who is that coming?” And Moses looked, and
there was his brother Aaron. And he ran to meet him and kissed him. And
God said, “Aaron shall go with you and speak for you.”
So Moses went back to his father-in-law and told him what had happened
at the burning bush. And the next day, Moses and Aaron started for
Egypt. There they found the Children of Israel working very hard, and
the taskmasters beating them with whips to make them work harder. And
Moses and Aaron said to the people, “God spoke to us in Arabia, and sent
us to tell you to meet him there beside a mountain. He has seen your
affliction and has promised to help you.” And the people were very
glad.
X
THE TEN PLAGUES
One day, as Pharaoh the king was sitting in his palace, in came one who
said, “Two of the Children of Israel are at the door, and would like to
speak with you.”
And Pharaoh said, “Let them come in.”
And in came Moses and Aaron. “Pharaoh,” they said, “we have a message
for you from our God. He wishes you to give the Children of Israel a
holiday, that they may go out into the country, and meet Him at a
mountain in Arabia.”
Then Pharaoh was very angry. “Who is your God,” he said, “that I should
obey Him? There is work to be done: there are cities to be built; this
is our busy season; this is no time for a holiday.” And Pharaoh sent
away Moses and Aaron, and called for the taskmasters who had charge of
the Children of Israel, and said, “These people have asked for a
holiday. They are idle. Give them more work.”
Now the Children of Israel were making brick and building the walls of
houses and towers; and the way to make brick was to take clay and mix it
with straw and bake it; and the taskmasters provided the straw. But the
taskmasters heard what Pharaoh said, and they stopped the supply of
straw. “You must get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it: but
you must make just as many bricks as you made before.” And when the
Children of Israel could not do it, they were beaten with whips. So they
cried out against Moses, saying, “You have done us harm instead of
good.”
Then Moses and Aaron went again to Pharaoh, and Aaron had a rod in his
hand, and he threw it on the floor at the king’s feet, and the rod
became a serpent. But Egypt was a great place for tricks of magic.
Pharaoh had magicians at his court, who performed before him every day.
So he called for two magicians, and in came Jannes and Jambres, each
with a rod, and they cast their rods on the floor, and in a moment there
were two more wriggling serpents fighting with Aaron’s serpent. And
although Aaron’s serpent chased these two and ate them up, Pharaoh only
laughed, and would not let the people go.
But the next morning, when the king went down to the river, there was
Moses waiting for him. And Moses said, “Pharaoh, if you will not let the
people go, God will make this river red like blood, so that nobody may
drink out of it.”
And so it was. That great river, the Nile, which flows through the midst
of Egypt, was red like blood, for a whole week. But when it cleared
again, Pharaoh said, “I have seen it like that many a time, after the
spring rains.” And he would not let the people go.
Then Moses called again upon the king, and said, “Pharaoh, if you still
refuse, God will bring frogs out of the river till they cover all the
land.” And so it was. The frogs came: first, along the bank; then,
across the road so that nobody could go that way; then in crowds and
crowds, crawling and hopping and skipping, up the streets and up the
lanes and up the steps of houses. And at night, there were frogs in the
bed; and in the morning, at breakfast, there were frogs on the table.
And Pharaoh said, “This is more than I can bear. Take away the frogs,
and I will do whatever you wish.”
But after the frogs had gone back into the river, Pharaoh said, “That
was not so very bad. Almost every year, we have a plague of frogs.” And
he would not let the people go.
Then, week after week, all kinds of dreadful things came one upon
another. Once there were lice, like the dust of the ground; then there
were such swarms of flies that nobody could eat or sleep; after that,
the horses and cattle were all sick. Then people had boils; and there
was a very grievous hail, and thunder and lightning so that fire ran
along upon the ground. The locusts came, blown by the east wind, and ate
all the leaves and the grass. And after the locusts there was a storm of
sand, and for three days it was so dark, that people could feel it with
their hands. And every time, when the trouble was worst, Pharaoh said to
Moses, “Take it away, and I will let the people go.”
But when the plague was over, Pharaoh said, “I don’t believe that God
did it. It was only the weather or the wind.” And he broke his promise.
Thus there were nine plagues. Then Moses said to the Children of Israel,
“The tenth plague is at hand. This very night, Pharaoh will beg you to
go. Get yourselves ready. There is a long journey before you. Let every
family prepare supper. Kill a lamb and roast it, and bake bread. But the
time is short; you cannot wait for the bread to rise; make it without
leaven” (or, as we say, without yeast). “Do not even sit down at the
table: stand up, with your coats and hats on, and eat in haste. For
to-night, God will send a sudden sickness upon the Egyptians, and in
every house there will be one dead. You must mark your houses. Take of
the blood of the lamb and strike it on the upper post and on the two
side posts of your doors. Then God will pass over you when He comes to
punish the Egyptians.”
And at midnight so it was. And there was a great cry through all the
land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. “This is the
end,” he said; “get you gone out of the land, you and all your people.”
And the Egyptians hurried them. “Quick!” they said, “go out of Egypt
before we all die.”
But the Children of Israel said, “Shall we go with empty hands after all
the work which we have done for you? What will you give us?”
And the Egyptians gave them jewels of gold and jewels of silver. So they
departed. There was a full moon that night, and in the light of it they
made their way out of all the cities where they lived, and they turned
their faces toward Arabia. But now they went not only to meet God at the
mountain, but to be a new nation, and never again to live as slaves in
Egypt.
XI
THE RED SEA
In the middle of the night, under the round moon, the Children of Israel
started on their journey. The fathers and mothers carried the babies,
the boys and girls ran and danced beside them, and they drove their
flocks and herds before them. And as they went, they talked about the
ten plagues, and especially about the last and worst of all, when the
firstborn died in every house in Egypt. “Except our houses,” they said.
“God passed over our houses, and saved our lives, and brought us out.”
And they said, “We must keep the memory of this night forever. When we
have a land of our own, and are settled there, then every year when the
spring is green and the moon is shining full, we will have a supper of
roast lamb and bread unleavened, such as we had to-night, and when the
children say, ‘Why do we have this supper and eat unleavened bread?’ we
will reply, ‘Children, this is the feast of the Lord’s Passover, when He
passed over our houses, and saved us from our slavery in Egypt.’”
So they journeyed all that night and all the next day. But in the
meantime, the Egyptians had begun to recover from their fear. “Yes,”
they said, “we have indeed been stricken by a fearful pestilence. There
is hardly a house in which there is not one dead. And Moses says that
this is a punishment upon us because we would not let the Children of
Israel go. But we are not so sure of that. How do we know that the
Children of Israel or their God had anything to do with it? We were
foolish to be frightened and let them go. Now there is nobody left to do
our work. All our carpenters and masons, all our brick-makers and
bricklayers, all our hired men, have gone away: and all our cooks and
washerwomen have gone with them. What shall we do? Come, let us go after
them, and bring them back.” And Pharaoh sent for his chariot in which he
rode when he went to war, and ordered his captains to bring up six
hundred other chariots, the best that there were in Egypt. And there was
a great clattering of horses’ hoofs, and a great clashing of swords and
battle-axes, in the street before the king’s palace. And Pharaoh came
out, and away they went, as fast as they could go, after the Children of
Israel.
Now the Children of Israel, after a long day’s march, were very tired,
and they stopped to rest by the Red Sea. On the other side of the sea
was the land of Arabia, where they were going to meet God beside a
mountain. And on the morrow, they expected to walk around the head of
the sea, and so reach the other side. But suddenly, in the far distance,
as the sun was setting, there was a gleam of light, and they knew that
it was the shining armor of the Egyptian soldiers. And there they were,
the poor Children of Israel, with the soldiers behind them and the sea
before them, and no way of escape to either right or left. And they
cried out against Moses, and said, “Why did you bring us here to die?
Were there not graves in Egypt? Did we not tell you that we did not want
to come? Oh, that we had stayed in our slavery! That was bad enough, but
this is worse.”
But Moses said, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see what God will
show you. God is on your side, and not an Egyptian shall be able to hurt
you.” So the sun went down, and night came on. And with the night came
the fog, and the moon, and the wind. And the fog settled down on the
Egyptians so that they could not see the Children of Israel. And upon
the sea the strong wind from the east blew and blew, so that it drove
away the fog from the Children of Israel, and the clear moon shone upon
them. So it was like a pillar of cloud behind them, and a pillar of fire
before them. And harder and harder blew the strong wind upon the shallow
sea, till clear across from shore to shore there was a place where they
could see the bottom, like a narrow path of land across the sea. And
Moses cried, “Go forward!” And into the sea marched the Children of
Israel, along the path of land, in the great gale of wind, with water on
the left and water on the right, and the spray dashing upon them.
And when the Egyptian army got out of the fog, and came in sight of the
sea, there were the Children of Israel more than half across. And the
captains commanded the drivers of the chariots, and in they went, as
fast as the horses could carry them, chasing the Children of Israel. But
it was a bad road for chariots. Deeper and deeper, the wheels sank in
the mud. And then, as day began to dawn, the wind changed. Instead of
blowing from the east, it blew from the west, and the water came back
with it, and the path was covered, and the sea returned to its strength.
And when the sun arose, there were the Children of Israel safe on the
shore of Arabia, but the Egyptians were nowhere to be seen. The sea had
covered them. They had sunk like lead in the mighty waters.
And on the shore the Children of Israel sang a song of praise and
thanksgiving. Moses led the voices of the men, and Miriam and all the
women, with timbrels in their hands, joined in the chorus. “Sing ye to
the Lord,” they sang, “for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and
his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” Thus God overthrew the Egyptians
in the midst of the sea, and the Children of Israel were saved from
their enemies.
XII
THE GOLDEN CALF
After the great adventure of the Red Sea, the Children of Israel started
on their way to the Mountain of the Burning Bush. They had never been
away from home before, and they did not know how to behave. So when they
were uncomfortable, as people are likely to be on a long journey,
instead of taking it cheerfully, they complained and cried.
One time, they were very thirsty, and there was no water. And they all
said, “Oh, that we had stayed in Egypt, where there was plenty of
water!” And they said to Moses, “Why did you not let us alone? You have
brought us into this desert to kill us with thirst.” But Moses found a
spring of water coming out of a great rock, and gave them to drink.
Another time, they were very hungry, and there was nothing to eat. And
they cried out against Moses, and said, “Oh, that we had stayed in
Egypt, by the fleshpots! You have brought us into this desert to kill us
with hunger!” But Moses said, “Be patient. God is taking care of you.
He will feed you.” And when they waked up the next morning, the ground
was covered with something which looked like frost. And they gathered
it, and ground it, and baked it, and it was very nice to eat. And the
name of it was manna.
So they ate the manna, and they liked it so much that they said it was
good enough even for angels. But as day after day passed and there was
manna for breakfast, and manna for dinner, and manna for supper, and
nothing else, they came to hate the sight of it. Again they wished that
they were back in Egypt. “When we were in Egypt,” they said, “we had
fish to eat, and cucumbers to eat with it, and melons and leeks and
onions and garlic. Now we have nothing but manna.” So they went on their
way complaining, and Moses had a very hard time with them.
But at last they came to the mountain where they were to meet God. And
there they pitched their tents, and put out their flocks and herds to
pasture. And on the morning of the third day, there was a great storm of
thunder and lightning, and the mountain, which was called Sinai, was
covered with black clouds, and smoked like a volcano, and out of the
smoke and cloud came a sound like the blowing of a mighty wind, and like
the rolling of thunder, and like the voice of a loud trumpet. And the
Children of Israel were exceedingly afraid. But Moses said, “I am going
to climb the mountain. I am going up into the cloud and smoke and
thunder. God told me that He would speak to us in this place. I am going
up to meet Him.” And he took with him a young man named Joshua.
“You wait,” he said to the people, “till I come back and tell you what
God says.”
So Moses and Joshua climbed up the steep side of the mountain, and the
black cloud hid them from the people’s sight. And the storm increased in
fury. The lightning flashed its fires of red and green, the rain came
down in torrents, and louder and louder pealed the voice of the wind and
the thunder and the trumpet. And as the people stood watching and
waiting, they trembled so that their knees knocked together. But night
came, and Moses did not return. All the next day they waited, but he did
not appear. And the days grew into weeks, and the weeks into a month,
till the people said, “Moses is dead. He lost his way, or he fell over a
cliff, or he was struck by lightning. What shall we do? What shall we
do?” And they made Aaron their leader.
Now the people of Egypt, among whom the Children of Israel had lived so
long, had strange ideas about God. They thought that God lived in
certain animals. And they
[Illustration: IT SOUNDS TO ME LIKE SINGING]
said their prayers to these animals, and made images of them to put in
their churches. And as years passed and years passed, till the time of
Joseph was as far away from them as the time of Columbus is from us, a
good many of the Children of Israel, being slaves in Egypt, forgot the
religion of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and became like the Egyptians.
So now they said to Aaron, “Make us an image of God.” And Aaron said,
“Give me your earrings.” Now all the men and women wore gold earrings,
and they gave them to Aaron, and he melted them together and made a
golden calf. And the people said, “This is our God.” And they began to
pray to it, and to dance and sing around it.
But all this time, Moses was speaking with God. God told Moses what He
wished the people to do. And these things were put in the Ten
Commandments, and were written on two smooth tables--or, as we say,
tablets--of stone. And Moses took the Ten Commandments, and started down
the mountain.
And on the way he heard a noise; and he said to Joshua, “What is that
noise?”
And Joshua said, “It sounds like shouting. There must be a battle.”
But Moses said, “It sounds to me like singing.”
So they came in sight of the camp. And there was the Golden Calf, and
all the people singing and dancing around it. And Moses was so angry
that he took the tables of stone and threw them down the mountain, and
they broke in pieces. And the people were ashamed and afraid. And he
told them what a foolish and wicked thing they had done. “God,” he said,
“has just been telling me that we must not worship images.” And he
destroyed the Golden Calf.
Then he went again upon the mountain, and asked God to forgive his
people. And God gave him the Ten Commandments over again. Thus the
Children of Israel met God at the mountain, and were told what they must
do, and were ready at last to start upon their journey to the Promised
Land.
XIII
THE PROPHET AND THE KING
Once upon a time, when the world was younger than it is at present, and
people believed that all the animals could speak Hebrew if they only
would, a man was riding on an ass along a country road.
Sometimes the way went between wide farms which stretched out over the
flat land. Sometimes it lay between vineyards, and had a stone wall on
the right and on the left. Sometimes the man hastened the ass, striking
her with a stick; because he had been sent for by the king and was in a
hurry. Sometimes he let the ass take her own time, and she strayed now
on this side of the road and now on that, cropping the thistles;
because, although the man had been sent for by the king, he was not
quite sure whether he ought to go or not.