the battle, but the attempt failed; and the future remained closed
to him. But Zepho, full of confidence, led the combined army against
the Egyptians, repulsed them at every point, and drove them back upon
the camp of the Hebrews. Then the Israelites charged the advancing
forces flushed with victory, who, little expecting such a determined
onslaught, were thrown into confusion, and routed with great loss.
The Hebrews pursued them to the confines of Ethiopia, cutting them
down all along the way, and then they desisted and returned: and on
numbering their band--they were but a handful--they found that they had
not lost one man. They now looked out for their allies, the Egyptians,
and found that they had deserted and fled; therefore, full of wrath,
they returned to Goshen in triumph, and slew the deserters, with many
words of contempt and ridicule.[454]
Thus the Hebrews were puffed up with pride, regarding themselves
as invincible; and the Egyptians were filled with dread, lest this
small people should resolve on seizing upon the supremacy, and should
subjugate them.
Therefore the reigning Pharaoh and his council assembled to consult
what should be done; and this was decided:--“The cities Pithom and
Rameses (Tanis and Heliopolis) are not strong enough to withstand a
foe, therefore they must be strengthened.” And a royal decree went
forth over all the land of Egypt and Goshen, commanding all the
inhabitants, both Egyptians and Hebrews, to build. Pharaoh himself set
the example by taking trowel and basket in hand, and putting a brick
mould on his neck. Whoever saw this hastened to do likewise, and all
who were reluctant were stimulated by the overseers with these words,
“See how the king works. Will you not imitate his activity?”
Thus the Israelites went to the work, and laid the mould upon their
necks, little suspecting the guile that was in the hearts of the king
and his councillors.
At the close of the first day, the Hebrews had made a large number of
bricks; and this number was now imposed upon them as the amount of
their daily task.
Thus passed a month, and by degrees the Egyptian workmen were
withdrawn, yet the Hebrews were paid the regular wage.
When a year and four months had elapsed, not an Egyptian was to be seen
making bricks and building; and the wage was stopped for the future,
but the Hebrews were kept to their work.
The harshest and most cruel men were appointed to be their overseers,
and if one of the Israelites asked for his wage, or fainted under his
burden, he was beaten or put in the stocks.
When Pithom and Rameses were walled, the Israelites were employed to
strengthen with forts all the other cities of Egypt, then to build
storehouses and pyramids, to dig canals for the Nile, and to rear dykes
against the overflow. They were also employed to dig and plough the
fields, to garden and prune the fruit-trees, and to exercise trades.
They were engaged from early dawn till late at night, and because the
way from their homes was often far, they were forced to sleep in the
open air, upon the bare ground.[455]
As the life of the Israelites became embittered to them, they called
the king Meror, “the embitterer,” instead of Melol, “the grinder,”
though that was appropriate enough, one would have supposed.[456]
But matters grew worse; the Edomites and Hittites again threatened
Egypt, and Pharaoh ordered a closer guard to be kept, and heavier tasks
to be laid upon the Hebrews.
Notwithstanding all attempts to crush the spirit of this unfortunate
people and to diminish their numbers, they were sustained by hope in
God, for a voice was heard from heaven, “This people shall increase
abundantly, and multiply.”
Whilst the men of Israel slept exhausted after their unspeakable
oppression of mind and body, the faithful women labored to relieve and
strengthen them. They hastened to the springs to bring pure water to
their husbands to drink, and, by the mercy of the All Merciful, it fell
out that their pitchers were found, each time, to contain half water
and half fish.
These gentle and diligent women dressed the fish, and prepared other
good meats for their husbands, and they sought them at their work with
the food, and with their cheerful words of encouragement. This loving
attention of the women soothed the hearts of the men, and gave them
fresh energy.
When 125 years had elapsed since Jacob came into Egypt, the
fifty-fourth year after Joseph’s death, the elders and councillors of
Egypt presented themselves before Pharaoh, and complained to him that
the people increased and multiplied and became very great in the land,
so that they covered it like the bushes in the wood; and two of the
king’s councillors, of whom one was Job of Uz, said to Pharaoh, “It
was well that heavy tasks were laid upon the Hebrews, but that doth
not suffice; it is needful that they should be diminished in number as
well as enslaved. Therefore give orders to the nurses to kill every
male child that is born to the Hebrews, but to save the women children
alive.”
This council pleased the king well; and what Job had advised was put in
operation.
Pharaoh summoned the two Hebrew midwives before him; they were
mother and daughter; some say their names were Jochebed and Miriam,
but others Jochebed and Elizabeth. Now, Miriam was only five years
old, nevertheless she was of the greatest assistance to her mother
in nursing women. Both showed the utmost kindness to the new-born
children, washed and brushed them up, said pretty things to them, and
strengthened the mothers with cordials and tonic draughts. To their
care the Israelites were indebted for the graceful and vigorous forms
of their children; and the two women were such favorites with the
people, that they called the one Shiphrah (the soother or beautifier)
and the other Puah (the helper).
When they appeared before the king, and heard what he designed,
Miriam’s young face flushed scarlet, and she said, in anger, “Woe to
the man! God will punish him for his evil deed.”
The executioner would have hurried her out, and killed her for her
audacity, but the mother implored pardon, saying, “O king! forgive her
speech; she is only a little foolish child.”
Pharaoh consented, and assuming a gentler tone, explained that the
female children were to be saved alive, and that the male children
were to be quietly put to death, without the knowledge of the mothers.
And he threatened them, if they did not obey his wishes, that he would
cast them into a furnace of fire. Then he dismissed them. But the two
midwives would not fulfil his desire.
And when Pharaoh found that the men-children were saved alive, he shut
up the two midwives, that the Hebrew women might be without their
succor. But this availed not. And God rewarded the midwives; for of the
elder Moses was born.
Five years passed, and Pharaoh dreamed that, as he sat upon his throne,
an old man stood before him holding a balance. And the old man put the
princes, and nobles, and elders of Egypt, and all its inhabitants into
one scale, and he put into the other a sucking child, and the babe
outweighed all that was in the first scale.[457]
When Pharaoh awoke, he rehearsed his dream in the ears of his wise
men and magicians and soothsayers, and asked them the interpretation
thereof.
Then answered Balaam, who, with his sons Jannes and Jambres, was at
the court, and said, “O king, live forever! The dream thou didst see
has this signification. A child shall be born among the Hebrews who
shall bring them with a strong hand out of Egypt, and before whom all
thy nations shall be as naught. A great danger threatens thee and all
Egypt.”
Then said Pharaoh in dismay, “What shall we do? All that we have
devised against this people has failed.”
“Let the king suffer me to give my advice,” said Jethro, one of his
councillors. And when Pharaoh consented, he said, “May the king’s days
be multiplied! This is my advice; the people that thou oppressest is a
great people, and God is their shield. All who resist them are brought
to destruction; all who favor them prosper. Therefore, O king, do thou
withdraw thy hand, which is heavy upon them; lighten their tasks, and
extend to them thy favor.”
But this advice pleased not Pharaoh nor his councillors; and his anger
was kindled against Jethro, and he drove him from his court and from
the country. Then Jethro went with his wife and daughter, and dwelt in
the land of Midian.
Then said the king, “Job of Uz, give thy opinion.”
But Job opened not his lips.
Then rose Balaam, son of Beor, and he said, “O my king, all thy
attempts to hurt Israel have failed, and the people increase upon you.
Think not to try fire against them, for that was tried against Abraham
their father, and he was saved unhurt from the midst of the flames. Try
not sword against them, for the knife was raised against Isaac their
father, and he was delivered by the angel of God. Nor will hard labor
injure them as thou hast proved. Yet there remains water, that hath not
yet been enlisted against them; prove them with water. Therefore my
advice is--cast all their new-born sons into the river.”[458]
The king hesitated not; he appointed Egyptian women to be nurses to the
Hebrews, and instructed them to drown all the male children that were
born; and he threatened with death those who withstood his decree. And
that he might know what women were expecting to be delivered, he sent
little Egyptian children to the baths, to observe the Hebrew women, and
report on their appearance.
But God looked upon the mothers, and they were delivered in sleep
under the shadow of fruit-trees, and angels attended on them, washed
and dressed the babes, and smeared their little hands with butter
and honey, that they might lick them, and, delighting in the flavor,
abstain from crying, and thus escape discovery. Then the mothers on
waking exclaimed:--“O most Merciful One, into Thy hands we commit our
children!” But the emissaries of Pharaoh followed the traces of the
women, and would have slain the infants, had not the earth gaped, and
received the little babes into a hollow place within, where they were
fed by angel hands with butter and honey.
The Egyptians brought up oxen and ploughed over the spot, in hopes of
destroying thereby the vanished infants; but, when their backs were
turned, the children sprouted from the soil, like little flowers, and
walked home unperceived. Some say that 10,000 children were cast into
the Nile. They were not deserted by the Most High. The river rejected
them upon its banks, and the rocks melted into butter and honey around
them and thus fed them,[459] and oil distilled to anoint them.
This persecution had continued for three years and four months, when,
on the seventh day of the twelfth month, Adar, the astrologers and
seers stood before the king and said, “This day a child is born who
will free the people of Israel! This, and one thing more, have we
learnt from the stars, _Water_ will be the cause of his death;[460] but
whether he be an Egyptian or an Hebrew child, that we know not.”
“Very well,” said Pharaoh; “then in future all male children, Egyptians
as well as Hebrews, shall be cast indiscriminately into the river.”
And so was it done.[461]
2. THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF MOSES.
Kohath, son of Levi, had a son named Amram, whose life was so saintly,
that death could not have touched him, had not the decree gone forth,
that every child of Adam was to die.
He married Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, his aunt, and by her he had
a daughter Miriam; and after four years she bore him a son, and he
called his name Aaron.
Now when it was noised abroad that Pharaoh would slay all the sons
of the Hebrews that were born to them, Amram thrust away his wife,
and many others did the same, not that they hated their wives, but
that they would spare them the grief of seeing their children put to
death.[462] After three years, the spirit of prophecy came on Miriam,
as she sat in the house, and she cried, “My parents shall have another
son, who shall deliver Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians!” Then
she said to her father, “What hast thou done? Thou hast sent thy wife
away, out of thine house, because thou couldest not trust the Lord God,
that He would protect the child that might be born to thee.”
Amram, reproved by these words, sought his banished wife; the angel
Gabriel guided him on his way, and a voice from heaven encouraged
him to proceed. And when he found Jochebed, he led her to her home
again.[463]
One hundred and thirty years old was Jochebed, but she was as fresh and
beauteous as on the day she left her father’s house.[464] She was with
child, and Amram feared lest it should be a boy and be slain by Pharaoh.
Then appeared the Eternal One to him in a dream, and bade him be of
good cheer, for He would protect the child, and make him great, so that
all nations should hold him in honor.
When Amram awoke, he told his dream to Jochebed, and they were filled
with fear and great amazement.
After six months she bore a son, without pain. The child entered this
world in the third hour of the morning, of the seventh day of the month
Adar, in the year 2368 after the Creation, and the 130th year of the
sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. And when he was born, the house was
filled with light, as of the brightest sunshine.
The tender mother’s anxiety for her son was increased when she noted
his beauty,--he was like an angel of God,--and his great height and
noble appearance. The parents called him Tobias (God is good) to
express their thankfulness, but others say he was called Jokutiel (Hope
in God). Amram kissed his daughter, Miriam, on the brow, and said, “Now
I know that thy prophecy is come true.”[465]
Jochebed hid the child three months in her chamber where she slept. But
Pharaoh, filled with anxiety, lest a child should have escaped him,
sent Egyptian women with their nurslings to the houses of the Hebrews.
Now it is the custom of children, when one cries, another cries also.
Therefore the Egyptian women pricked their babes, when they went into a
house, and if the child were concealed therein, it cried when it heard
the Egyptian baby scream. Then it was brought out and despatched.
Jochebed knew that these women were coming to her house, and that, if
the child were discovered, her husband and herself would be slain by
the executioner of Pharaoh.
Moreover they feared the astrologers and soothsayers, that they would
read in the heavens that a male child was concealed there. “Better can
we deceive them,” said Amram, “if we cast the child into the water.”
Jochebed took the paper flags and wove a basket, and pitched it with
pitch without, and clay within, that the smell of the pitch might not
offend her dear little one; and then she placed the basket amongst the
rushes, where the Red Sea at that time joined the River Nile.
Then weeping and wailing, she went away, and seeing Miriam come to meet
her, she smote her on the head, and said, “Now, daughter, where is thy
prophesying?”
Miriam followed the little ark, as it floated on the wash of the river,
and swam in and out among the reeds; for Miriam was wondering whether
the prophecy would come true, or whether it would fail. This was on the
twenty-first of the month Nisan, on the day, chosen from the beginning,
on which in after times Moses should teach his people the Song of
Praise for their delivery at the Red Sea.[466]
Then the angels surrounded the throne of God and cried, “O Lord of
the whole earth, shall this mortal child fore-ordained to chant, at
the head of Thy chosen people, the great song of delivery from water,
perish this day by water?”
The Almighty answered, “Ye know well that I behold all things. They
that seek their salvation in their own craftiness and evil ways shall
find destruction, but they who trust in Me shall never be confounded.
The history of that child shall be a witness to My almighty power.”
Melol, king of Egypt, had then only one daughter, whom he greatly
loved; Bithia (Thermutis or Therbutis)[467] was her name. She had
been married for some time to Chenephras, prince of a territory near
Memphis, but was childless. This troubled her greatly, for she desired
a son who might succeed her father upon the throne of Egypt.
At this time God had sent upon Egypt an intolerable heat, and the
people were affected with grievous boils.[468] To cure themselves, they
bathed in the Nile. Bithia also suffered, and bathed, not in the river,
but in baths in the palace; but on this day she went forth by the Nile
bank, though otherwise she never left her father’s palace. On reaching
the bathing-place she observed the ark lodged among the bulrushes, and
sent one of her maids to swim out and bring it to her; but the other
servants said, “O princess, this is one of the Hebrew children, who are
cast out according to the command of thy royal father. It beseems thee
not to oppose his commands and frustrate his will.”
Scarcely had the maidens uttered these words than they vanished from
the surface of the earth. The angel Gabriel had sunk them all, with the
exception of the one who swam for the ark, into the bosom of the earth.
But the eagerness of the princess was so great, that she could not wait
till the damsel brought her the basket, and she stretched forth her arm
towards it, and her arm was lengthened sixty ells, so that she was able
to take hold of the ark and draw it to land, and lift the child out of
the water.
No sooner had she touched the babe, than she was healed of the boils
which afflicted her, and the splendor of the face of the child was
like that of the sun.[469] She looked at it with wonder, and admired
its beauty. But her father’s stern law made her fear, and she thought
to return the child to the water, when he began to cry, for the angel
Gabriel had boxed his ears to make him weep, and thus excite the
compassion of the princess. Then Miriam, hid away among the rushes, and
little Aaron, aged three, hearing him cry, wept also.
The heart of the princess was stirred; and compassion, like that of a
mother for her babe, filled her heart. She felt for the infant yearning
love as though it were her own. “Truly,” said Bithia, “the Hebrews are
to be pitied, for it is no easy matter to part with a child, and to
deliver it over to death.”
Then, fearing that there would be no safety for the babe, if it were
brought into the palace, she called to an Egyptian woman who was
walking by the water, and bade her suckle the child. But the infant
would not take the breast from this woman, nor from any other Egyptian
woman that she summoned; and this the Almighty wrought that the child
might be restored to its own mother again.
Then Miriam, the sister, mingled with those who came up, and said to
Bithia, with sobs, “Noble lady! vain are all thine attempts to give
the child the breast from one of a different race. If thou wouldst
have a Hebrew woman, then let me fetch one, and the child will suck at
once.”[470]
This advice pleased Bithia, and she bade Miriam seek her out a Hebrew
mother.
With winged steps Miriam hastened home, and brought her mother,
Jochebed, to the princess. Then the babe readily took nourishment from
her, and ceased crying.
Astonished at this wonder, the king’s daughter said, but unawares, the
truth, for she spake to Jochebed, “Here is thy child; take and nurse
the child for me, and the wage shall be two pieces of silver a day.”
Jochebed did what she was bidden, but better reward than all the silver
in Pharaoh’s house was the joy of having her son restored to his
mother’s breast.
The self-same day the soothsayers and star-gazers said to Pharaoh, “The
child of whom we spake to thee, that he should free Israel, hath met
his fate in the water.”
Therefore the cruel decree ordering the destruction of all male infants
was withdrawn, and the miraculous deliverance of Moses became by this
means the salvation of the whole generation. In allusion to this, Moses
said afterwards to the people when he would restrain them (Numbers
xi.): “Verily ye number six hundred thousand men, and ye would all
have perished in the river Nile, but I was delivered from the water,
and therefore ye are all alive as at this day.”
After two years Jochebed weaned him, and brought him to the king’s
daughter. Bithia, charmed with the beauty and intelligence of the
child, took him into the palace, and named him Moses (he who is drawn
out of the water). Lo! a voice from heaven fell, “Daughter of Pharaoh!
because thou hast had compassion on this little child and hast called
him thy son, therefore do I call thee My daughter (Bithia). The
foundling that thou cherishest shall be called by the name thou gavest
him--Moses; and by none other name shall he be known, wheresoever the
fame of him spreads under the whole heaven.”
Now, in order that Moses might really pass for the child of Bithia, the
princess had feigned herself to be pregnant, and then to be confined;
and now Pharaoh regarded him as his true grandchild.
On account of his exceeding beauty, every one that saw him was filled
with admiration, and said, “Truly, this is a king’s son.” And when he
was taken abroad, the people forsook their work, and deserted their
shops, that they might see him. One day, when Moses was three years
old, Bithia led him by the hand into the presence of Pharaoh, and the
queen sat by the king, and all the princes of the realm stood about
him. Then Bithia presented the child to the king, and said, “Oh, sire!
this child of noble mien is not really my son; he was given to me in
wondrous fashion by the divine river Nile; therefore have I brought him
up as my own son, and destined him to succeed thee on thy throne, since
no child of my body has been granted to me.”
With these words Bithia laid the boy in the king’s arms, and he pressed
him to his heart, and kissed him. Then, to gratify his daughter, he
took from his head the crown royal, and placed it upon the temples of
Moses. But the child eagerly caught at the crown, and threw it on the
ground and then alighting from Pharaoh’s knee, he in childish fashion
danced round it, and finally trampled it under his feet.[471]
The king and his nobles were dismayed. They thought that this action
augured evil to the king through the child that was before them. Then
Balaam, the son of Beor, lifted up his voice and said, “My lord and
king! dost thou not remember the interpretation of thy dream, as thy
servant interpreted it to thee? This child is of Hebrew extraction,
and is wiser and more cunning than befits his age. When he is old he
will take thy crown from off thy head, and will tread the power of
Egypt under his feet. Thus have his ancestors ever done. Abraham defied
Nimrod, and rent from him Canaan, a portion of his kingdom. Isaac
prevailed over the king of the Philistines. Jacob took from his brother
his birthright and blessing, and smote the Hivites and their king
Hamor. Joseph, the slave, became chief in his realm, and gave the best
of this land to his father and his brethren. And now this child will
take from thee the kingdom, and will enslave or destroy thy people.
There is no expedient for thee but to slay him, that Egypt become not
his prey.”
But Pharaoh said, “We will take other counsel, Balaam, before we decide
what shall be done with this child.”
Then some advised that he should be burnt with fire, and others that he
should be slain with the sword. But the angel Gabriel, in the form of
an old man, mingled with the councillors, and said, “Let not innocent
blood be shed. The child is too young to know what he is doing. Prove
whether he has any understanding and design, before you sentence him. O
king! let a bowl of live coals and a bowl of precious stones be brought
to the little one. If he takes the stones, then he has understanding,
and discerns between good and evil; but if he thrusts his hands towards
the burning coals, then he is innocent of purpose and devoid of
reason.”[472]
This advice pleased the king, and he gave orders that it should be as
the angel had recommended.
Now when the basins were brought in and offered to Moses, he thrust
out his hand towards the jewels. But Gabriel, who had made himself
invisible, caught his hand and directed it towards the red-hot coals;
and Moses burnt his fingers, and he put them into his mouth, and burnt
his lips and tongue; and therefore it is that Moses said, in after
days, “I am slow of lips and slow of tongue.”[473]
Pharaoh and his council were now convinced of the simplicity of Moses,
and no harm was done him. Then Bithia removed him, and brought him up
in her own part of the palace.
God was with him, and he increased in stature and beauty, and Pharaoh’s
heart was softened towards him. He went arrayed in purple through the
streets, as the son of Bithia, and a chaplet of diamonds surrounded his
brows, and he consorted only with princes. When he was five years old,
he was in size and knowledge as advanced as a boy of twelve.