thousand footmen, besides women and children which were innumerable, and
an huge great multitude of beasts of divers kinds. The time that the
children of Israel had dwelt in Egypt was four hundred years. And so
they departed out of Egypt, and went not the right way by the
Philistines, but our Lord led them by the way of desert which is by the
Red Sea. And the children descended out of Egypt armed. Moses took with
him the bones of Joseph for he charged them so to do when he died. They
went in the extreme ends of the wilderness, and our Lord went tofore
them by day in a column of a cloud, and by night in a column of fire and
was their leader and duke; the pillar of the cloud failed never by day,
nor the pillar of fire by night tofore the people. Our Lord said to
Moses, I shall make his heart so hard that he shall follow and pursue
you, and I shall be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his host, the
Egyptians shall know that I am Lord. And anon it was told to Pharaoh
that the children of Israel fled, and anon his heart was changed, and
also the heart of his servants, and said: What shall we do, shall we
suffer the children to depart and no more to serve us? Forthwith he took
his chariot and all his people with him. He took with him six hundred
chosen chariots, and all the chariots and wains of Egypt, and the dukes
of all his hosts and he pursued the children of Israel and followed them
in great pride. And when he approached, that the children of Israel saw
him come, they were sore afraid and cried to our Lord God, and said to
Moses: Was there not sepulchre enough for us in Egypt but that we must
now die in wilderness? Said we not to thee: Go from us and let us serve
the Egyptians: It had been much better for us to have served the
Egyptians than to die here in wilderness. And Moses said to the people:
Be ye not afraid, stand and see ye the great wonders that our Lord shall
do for you this day. The Egyptians that ye now see, ye shall never see
them after this day. God shall fight for you, and be ye still. Our Lord
said then to Moses: What criest thou to me? Say to the children of
Israel that they go forth. Take thou and raise the rod, and stretch thy
hand upon the sea, and depart it that the children of Israel may go dry
through the middle of it. I shall so indurate the heart of Pharaoh that
he shall follow you, and all the Egyptians, and I shall be glorified in
Pharaoh, and in all his host, his carts and horsemen. And the Egyptians
shall know that I am Lord when I shall so be glorified. The angel of God
went tofore the castles of Israel, and another came after in the cloud
which stood between them of Egypt and the children of Israel. And the
cloud was dark that the host of Israel might not come to them of all the
night. Then Moses stretched his hand upon the sea, and there came a wind
blowing in such wise that it waxed dry, and the children of Israel went
in through the midst of the Red Sea all dry foot; for the water stood up
as a wall on the right side and on the left side. The Egyptians then
pursuing them followed and entered after them, and all the carts,
chariots and horsemen, through the middle of the sea. And then our Lord
beheld that the children of Israel were passed over and were on the dry
land, on that other side. Anon turned the water on them, and the wheels
on their carts turned up so down, and drowned all the host of Pharaoh,
and sank down into the deep of the sea. Then said the Egyptians: Let us
flee Israel; the Lord fighteth for them against us. And our Lord said to
Moses: Stretch out thine hand upon the sea, and let the water return
upon the Egyptians, and upon their chariots and horsemen. And so Moses
stretched out his hand and the sea returned in to his first place. And
then the Egyptians would have fled, but the water came and overflowed
them in the midst of the flood, and it covered the chariots and
horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh, and there was not one saved of
them. And the children of Israel had passed through the middle of the
dry sea and came a-land.
Thus delivered our Lord the children of Israel from the hand of the
Egyptians, and they saw the Egyptians lying dead upon the brinks of the
sea. And the people then dreaded our Lord and believed in him, and to
Moses his servant. Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song
to our Lord: Cantemus domino magnificatus est, Let us sing to our Lord,
he is magnified, he hath overthrown the horsemen and carmen in the sea.
And Miriam the sister of Aaron, a prophetess, took a timpane in her
hand, and all the women followed her with timpanes and chords, and she
went tofore singing Cantemus domino. Then Moses brought the children of
Israel from the sea into the desert of Sur, and walked with them three
days and three nights and found no water, and came into Marah, and the
waters there were so bitter that they might not drink thereof. Then the
people grudged against Moses, saying: What shall we drink? And he cried
unto our Lord which showed to him a tree which he took and put into the
waters, and anon they were turned into sweetness. There our Lord
ordained commandments and judgments, and there he tempted him saying: If
thou hearest the voice of thy Lord-God, and that thou do is rightful
before him, and obeyest his commandments, and keep his precepts, I shall
not bring none of the languors ne sorrows upon thee that I did in Egypt.
I am Lord thy saviour. Then the children of Israel came in to Elim,
where as were twelve fountains of water, and seventy palm trees, and
they abode by the waters. Then from thence went all the multitude of the
children of Israel into the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and
Sinai, and grudged against Moses and Aaron in that wilderness, and said:
Would God we had dwelled still in Egypt, whereas we sat and had plenty
of bread and flesh; why have ye brought us into the desert for to slay
all this multitude by hunger? Our Lord said then to Moses: I shall rain
bread to you from heaven, let the people go out and gather every day
that I may prove them whether they walk in my law or not; the sixth day
let them gather double as much as they gather in one day of the other.
Then said Moses and Aaron to all the children of Israel: At even ye
shall know that God hath brought you from the land of Egypt, and to-morn
ye shall see the glory of our Lord. I have well heard your murmur
against our Lord, what have ye mused against us? what be we? and yet
said Moses; Our Lord shall give you at even flesh for to eat and to-morn
bread unto your fill, for as much as ye have murmured against him; what
be we? Your murmur is not against us but against our Lord. As Aaron
spake to all the company of the children of Israel they beheld toward
the wilderness, and our Lord spake to Moses in a cloud and said: I have
heard the grudgings of the children of Israel; say to them: At even ye
shall eat flesh and to-morn ye shall be filled with bread, and ye shall
know that I am your Lord God. And when the even was come there came so
many curlews that it covered all their lodgings, and on the morn there
lay like dew all about in their circuit. Which when they saw and came
for to gather, it was small and white like to coriander. And they
wondered on it and said: Mahun, that is as much to say, what is this? To
whom Moses said: This is the bread that God hath sent you to eat, and
God commandeth that every man should gather as much for every head as is
the measure of gomor, and let nothing be left till on the morn. And the
sixth day gather ye double so much, that is two measures of gomor, and
keep that one measure for the Sabbath, which God hath sanctified and
commanded you to hallow it. Yet some of them brake God's commandment,
and gathered more than they ate and kept it till on the morn, and then
it began to putrify and be full of worms. And that they kept for the
Sabbath day was good and putrified not. And thus our Lord fed the
children of Israel forty years in the desert. And it was called Manna.
Moses took one gomor thereof and put it in the tabernacle for to be kept
for a perpetual memory and remembrance.
Then went they forth all the multitude of the children of Israel, in the
desert of Sin in their mansions and came, to Rephidim, where as they had
no water. Then all grudging they said to Moses, Give us water for to
drink. To whom Moses answered: What grudge ye against me, why tempt ye
our Lord? The people thirsted sore for lack and penury of water saying:
Why hast thou brought us out of Egypt for to slay us and our children
and beasts? Then Moses cried unto our Lord saying: What shall I do to
this people? I trow within a while they shall stone me to death. Then
our Lord said to Moses: Go before the people and take with thee the
older men and seniors of Israel, and take the rod that thou smotest with
the flood in thy hand, and I shall stand tofore upon the stone of Oreb,
and smite thou the stone with the rod and the waters shall come out
thereof that the people may drink. Moses did so tofore the seniors of
Israel and called that place Temptation, because of the grudge of the
children of Israel, and said: Is God with us or not? Then came Amalek
and fought against the children of Israel in Rephidim. Moses said then
to Joshua: Choose to thee men, and go out and fight against Amalek
to-morrow. I shall stand on the top of the hill having the rod of God in
my hand: Joshua did as Moses commanded him, and fought against Amalek.
Moses, Aaron, and Hur ascended into the hill, and when Moses held up
his hands, Israel won and overcame their enemies, and when he laid them
down then Amalek had the better. The hands of Moses were heavy; Aaron
and Hur took then a stone and put it under them, and they sustained his
hands on either side, and so his hands were not weary until the going
down of the sun. And so Joshua made Amalek to flee, and his people, by
strength of his sword. Our Lord said to Moses: Write this for a
remembrance in a book and deliver it to the ears of Joshua; I shall
destroy and put away the memory of Amalek under heaven. Moses then
edified an altar unto our Lord, and called there on the name of our
Lord, saying: The Lord is mine exaltation, for this is the hand only of
God, and the battle and God shall be against Amalek from generation to
generation.
When Jethro the priest of Midian, which was cousin of Moses, heard say
what our Lord had done to Moses and to the children of Israel his
people, he took Zipporah the wife of Moses, and his two sons, Gershom
and Eleazar and came with them to him into desert, whom Moses received
with worship and kissed him. And when they were together Moses told him
all what our Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel,
and all the labor that they endured and how our Lord had delivered them.
Jethro was glad for all these things, that God had so saved them from
the hands of the Egyptians and said: Blessed be the Lord that hath
delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and hath
saved his people; now I know that he is a great Lord above all gods,
because they did so proudly against them. And Jethro offered sacrifices
and offerings to our Lord. Aaron and all the seniors of Israel came and
eat with him tofore our Lord. The next day Moses sat and judged and
deemed the people from morning unto evening, which, when his cousin saw,
he said to him: What doest thou? Why sittest thou alone and all the
people tarry from the morning until evening? To whom Moses answered: The
people came to me demanding sentence and the doom of God; when there is
any debate or difference among them they come to me to judge them, and
to show to them the precepts and the laws of God. Then said Jethro: Thou
dost not well nor wisely, for by folly thou consumest thy self, and the
people with thee; thou dost above thy might, thou mayst not alone
sustain it, but hear me and do there after, and our Lord shall be with
thee. Be thou unto the people in those things that appertain to God,
that thou tell to them what they should do, and the ceremonies and rites
to worship God, and the way by which they should go, and what work they
shall do. Provide of all people wise men and dreading God, in whom is
truth, and them that hate avarice and covetise, and ordain of them
tribunes and centurions and deans that may in all times judge the
people. And if there be of a great charge and weight, let it be referred
to thee, and let them judge the small things; it shall be the easier to
thee to bear the charge when it is so parted. If thou do so, thou shalt
fulfil the commandment of God, and sustain his precepts, and the people
shall go home to their places in peace. Which things when Moses had
heard and understood, he did all that he had counselled him, and chose
out the strongest and wisest people of all Israel and ordained them
princes of the people, tribunes, centurions, quinquagenaries, and deans,
which at all times should judge and deem the people. And all the great
and weighty matters they referred to him, deeming and judging the small
causes. And then his cousin departed and went into his country.
The third month after the children of Israel departed out of Egypt, that
same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and there about the
region of the mount they fixed their tents. Moses ascended into the hill
unto God. God called him on the hill and said: This shalt thou say to
the house of Jacob and to the children of Israel. Ye yourselves have
seen what I have done to the Egyptians, and how I have borne you on the
wings of eagles and have taken you to me. If ye therefore hear my voice
and keep my covenant, ye shall be to me in the reign of priesthood and
holy people. These be the words that thou shalt say to the children of
Israel. Moses came down and gathered all the most of birth, and
expounded in them all the words that our Lord had commanded him. All the
people answered: All that ever our Lord hath said we shall do,
When Moses had showed the people the words of our Lord, our Lord said to
him: Now I shall come to thee in a cloud that the people may hear me
speaking to thee, that they believe thee ever after. Moses went and told
this to the people, and our Lord bade them to sanctify the people this
day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready the
third day. The third day our Lord shall descend tofore all the people on
the mount of Sinai. And ordain to the people the marks and terms in the
circuit. And say to them: Beware that ye ascend not on the hill ne touch
the ends of it. Whosoever touched the hill shall die by death, there
shall no hand touch him, but with stones he shall be oppressed and with
casting of them on him he shall be tolben; whether it be man or beast,
he shall not live. When thou hearest the trump blown then ascend to the
hill. Moses went down to the people and sanctified and hallowed them,
and when they had washen their clothes he said to them: Be ye ready at
the third day and approach not your wives; When the third day came, and
the morning waxed clear, they heard thunder and lightning and saw a
great cloud cover the mount, and the cry of the trump was so shrill that
the people were sore afraid. When Moses had brought them forth unto the
root of the hill they stood there. All the mount of Sinai smoked, for so
much as our Lord descended on it in fire, and the smoke ascended from
the hill as it had been from a furnace. The mount was terrible and
dreadful, and the sound of the trump grew a little more and continued
longer. Moses spake and our Lord answered him. Our Lord descended upon
the top of the mount of Sinai, even on the top of it, and called Moses
to him, which when he came said to him: Go down and charge the people
that they come not to the terms of the hill for to see the Lord, for if
they do, much multitude shall perish of them. The priests that shall
come let them be sanctified lest they be smitten down. And thou and
Aaron shall ascend the hill. All the people and priests let them not
pass their bounds lest God smite them. Then Moses descended and told to
the people all that our Lord hath said. After this our Lord called Moses
and said: I am the Lord God that brought you out of Egypt and of
thraldom. And gave him the Commandment first by speaking and many
ceremonies as be rehearsed in the Bible, which is not requisite to be
written here, but the ten commandments every man is bounden to know. And
ere Moses received them written, he went up into the mount of Sinai, and
fasted there forty days and forty nights ere he received them. In which
time he commanded him to make many things, and to ordain the laws and
ceremonies which now be not had in the new law. And also as doctors say,
Moses learned that time all the histories tofore written of the making
of heaven and earth, of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of Joseph
with his brethren. And at last delivered to him two tables of stone,
both written with the hand of God, which follow.
The first commandment that God commanded is this. Thou shalt not worship
no strange ne diverse gods.
The second commandment is this, that thou shalt not take the name of
God in vain, that is to say, thou shalt not swear by him for nothing.
The third commandment is that thou have mind and remember that thou
hallow and keep holy thy Sabbath day or Sunday. These three commandments
be written in the first table and appertain only to God.
The fourth commandment is that thou shalt honor and worship thy father
and mother, for thou shalt live the longer on earth.
The fifth commandment is that thou shalt slay no man.
The sixth commandment is, thou shalt not do adultery.
The seventh commandment is that thou shalt do no theft.
The eighth commandment is that thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbor.
The ninth commandment is that thou shalt not desire the wife of thy
neighbor, nor shalt not covet her in thine heart.
The tenth commandment is that thou shalt not covet nothing that is, or
longeth to, thy neighbor.
These be the ten commandments of our Lord, of which the three first
belong to God, and the seven other be ordained for our neighbors. Every
person that hath wit and understanding in himself, and age, is bound to
know them and to obey and keep these ten commandments aforesaid or else
he sinneth deadly.
Thus Moses abode in the hill forty days and forty nights and received
of Almighty God the tables with the commandments written with the hand
of God; and also received and learned many ceremonies and statutes that
God ordained, by which the children of Israel should be ruled and
judged. And whiles that Moses was thus with our Lord on the mount, the
children of Israel saw that he tarried and descended not, and some of
them said that he was dead or gone away, and would not return again, and
some said nay; but in conclusion they gathered them together against
Aaron, and said to him: Make to us some gods that may go tofore us, we
know not what is befallen to Moses. Then Aaron said: Take the gold that
hangeth in the ears of your wives and your children, and bring it to me.
The people did as he bade, and brought the gold to Aaron, which he took
and molt it and made thereof a calf. Then they said: These be thy gods,
Israel, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Then the people made
an altar tofore it, and made great joy and mirth, and danced and played
tofore the calf, and offered and made sacrifices thereto. Our Lord spake
to Moses, saying: Go hence and descend down, thy people have sinned whom
thou hast brought forth from the land of Egypt. They have soon forsaken
and left the way which thou hast showed to them. They have made to them
a calf blown, and they have worshipped it, and offered sacrifices
thereto, saying: These be thy gods, Israel, that have brought thee out
of the land of Egypt, Yet said our Lord to Moses: I see well that this
people is of evil disposition, suffer me that I may wreak my wrath on
them, and I shall destroy them. I shall make thee governor of great
people.
Moses then prayed our Lord God saying: Why art thou wroth, Lord, against
thy people that thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt in a great
strength and a boisterous hand? I beseech thee, Lord, let not the
Egyptians say that their God hath locked them out for to slay them in
the mountains. I pray thee Lord that thy wrath may assuage, and be thou
pleased and benign upon the wickedness of thy people. Remember Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob thy servants, to whom thou promisedst and swaredst by
thyself saying: I shall multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and
the universal, land of which I have spoken I shall give to your seed,
and ye shall possess and have it ever. And with these words our Lord was
pleased that he would do no harm as he had said unto his people; and
Moses returned from the mount, bearing two tables of stone, written both
with the hand of God. And the scripture that was in the tables were the
ten commandments as fore be written. Joshua hearing the great noise of
the children of Israel said to Moses: I trow they fight beneath, which
answered and said: It is no cry of exhorting men to fight, ne noise to
compel me to flee, but I hear the noise of singing. When he approached
to them he saw the calf and the instruments of mirth, and he was so
wroth that he threw down the tables and brake them at the foot of the
hill, and ran and caught down the calf that they had made, and burnt
and smote it all to powder, which he cast into water and gave it to
drink to the children of Israel. Then said Moses to Aaron: What hath
this people done to thee that thou hast made to sin grievously? To whom
he answered: Let not my lord take none indignation at me, thou knowest
well that this people is prone and ready to sin. They said to me: Make
us gods that may go tofore us; we know not what is fallen to this Moses
that led us out of Egypt. To whom I said: Who of you that hath gold give
it me; they took and gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and
thereof came out this calf. And then said Moses: All they that be of
God's part and have not sinned in this calf let them join to me; and the
children of Levi joined to him, and he bade each man take a sword on his
side and take vengeance and slay every each his brother, friend, and his
neighbor that have trespassed. And so the children of Levi went and slew
thirty-three thousand of the children of Israel. And then said Moses: Ye
have hallowed this day your hands unto our Lord, and ye shall be
therefore blessed. The second day Moses spake to the people and said: Ye
have committed and done the greatest sin that may be. I shall ascend
unto our Lord again, and shall pray him for your sin. Then Moses
ascended again, and received afterward two tables again, which our Lord
bade him make. And therein our Lord wrote the commandments. And after,
our Lord commanded him to make an ark and a tabernacle: in which ark was
kept three things. First the rod with which he did marvels, a pot full
of manna, and the two tables with commandments. And then after Moses
taught them the law; how each man should behave him against other and
what he should do, and what he should not do, and departed them into
twelve tribes, and commanded that every man should bring a rod into the
Tabernacle. And Moses wrote each name on the rod, and Moses shut fast
the tabernacle. And on the morn there was found one of the rods that
burgeoned and bare leaves and fruit, and was of an almond tree. That rod
fell to Aaron.
And after this, long time, the children desired to eat flesh and
remembered of the flesh that they ate in Egypt, and grudged against
Moses, and would have ordained to them a duke for to have returned into
Egypt. Wherefore Moses was so woe that he desired of our Lord to deliver
him from this life, because he saw them so unkind against God. Then God
sent to them so great plenty of curlews that two days and one night they
flew so thick by the ground that they took great number, for they flew
but the height of two cubits. And they had so many that they dried them
hanging on their tabernacles and tents. Yet were they not content, but
ever grudging, wherefore God smote them and took vengeance on them by a
great plague and many died and were buried there. And then from thence
they went into Hazeroth and dwelt. After this Miriam and Aaron, brother
and sister of Moses, began to speak against Moses, because of his wife
which was of Ethiopia, and said: God hath not spoken only by Moses,
hath he not also spoken to us? Wherefore our Lord was wroth. Moses was
the humblest and the meekest man that was in all the world. Anon then,
our Lord said to him, and to Aaron and to Miriam: Go ye three only unto
the tabernacle; and there our Lord said that there was none like to
Moses, to whom he had spoken mouth to mouth, and reproved Aaron and
Miriam because they spake so to Moses, and being wroth, departed from
them, and anon, Miriam was smitten and made leper and white like snow.
And when Aaron beheld her and saw her smitten with leprosy, he said to
Moses: I beseech the Lord that thou set not the sin on us which we have
committed follily, and let not this our sister be as a dead woman, or as
born out of time and cast away from her mother, behold and see, half her
flesh is devoured of the leprosy. Then Moses cried unto our Lord,
saying: I beseech thee Lord that thou heal her; to whom our Lord said:
If her father had spit in her face should she not be put to shame and
rebuke seven days? Let her depart out of the castles seven days, and
after she shall be called in again. So Miriam was shut out of the
castles seven days, and the people removed not from the place till she
was called again.