people, and the land of Egypt; and if thou canst free the land from
them, I will acknowledge that it is the power of the God of the
Hebrews, and will let the people go to do sacrifice unto the Lord, who
hath commanded and sent for them."
Then Moses answered the king--
"The Lord shall be entreated as thou desirest; and thou, O king, shalt
set the time, lest thou shouldst say I consulted a favorable aspect of
the stars. Choose when I shall entreat for thee to remove this plague
from the land, the people, and their houses."
"To-morrow," answered Thothmeses.
"Be it according to thy word," answered Moses; "and when thou seest
the plague removed at the time appointed by thee, know it is God's
gracious act, and not our sorcery. To-morrow the frogs in all the land
of Egypt shall be found in the river only."
What a scene did Egypt present the next morning! The land was covered
with dead frogs; and it took all the people of Egypt that day and
night to gather them into heaps and cast them into the river: for they
threatened a pestilence.
When Pharaoh saw that his wish was granted at the time he named, and
that there was a respite, he said--"This was by my voice and my
power, and not by their God, that the frogs died on the morrow I
named! The glory over Moses shall indeed be mine, as he hath said!"
Ceasing to speak, he sent orders to the taskmasters to increase the
burdens of the Hebrews, refusing to keep his promise to Moses and
Aaron.
Then the Lord again sent them before Pharaoh, and in his presence
Aaron stretched forth his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, when
all the dust of the earth became alive, and rested upon man and beast
in the form of lice!
Then, in a rage, Pharaoh called his enchanters, but they could not
perform this miracle, and said plainly to the king--
"This is beyond our power. This is the finger of their God."
Upon hearing this, Pharaoh drove both his magicians, and Moses and
Aaron forth from his palace. The next day no sacrifice was offered, no
temple open in all Egypt; for on the priests were lice, and no one
could perform an official act with any insect upon his person, being
thereby made unclean. The Egyptians were enraged, both with the
Hebrews and with their king--but, shut up in his palace, he refused to
consent to the demands of Moses.
Three days afterwards, by the command of God, given at the well of
Jacob,--where, in a bright cloud like a pillar of fire, He descended
to speak with Moses, and seemed to be now every day present in Egypt,
in communion with his holy servant,--the two brothers again sought the
presence of the king, as he was entering his galley. Reiterating their
usual demand, Moses continued--
"The Lord hath said unto me, 'Stand before Pharaoh when he comes forth
to the water, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, 'Let my people
go; else, if thou wilt not let my people go, I will send swarms of
flies upon thee and thy servants, and upon thy people, and the houses
of the Egyptians shall be filled with them, and also the ground; and I
will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell,
that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end that thou mayest
know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a
division between my people and thy people; and to-morrow shall this
sign be!'"
Pharaoh, in fear and anger, commanded his galley to leave the shore,
heeding none of the words spoken by Moses. The next day when I awoke,
lo! the air was darkened with flies. They covered the city like a
cloud, and their noise was like the roar of the sea after a storm.
When the sun was well risen, they descended and alighted upon the
dwellings, and soon filled the houses, and rooms, and every place they
could penetrate. It was impossible to hear for their hum, or to see
for their number, as they would alight upon the face, seek the corners
of the eyes and the edges of the eyelids, and inflict their bite. In a
few hours the Egyptians became frantic under the plague, as it was
impossible to keep them off; and if driven away, they would
pertinaciously return to the attack. All employment in Egypt ceased.
Eating and sleeping were impracticable. I fled in my chariot towards
Goshen! My horses, stung to madness, flew like the wind. Hundreds of
women, and children, and men were pressing in the same direction, for
safety and relief. I crossed the great canal which divides the
province, and not a fly followed me nor my horses across the aerial
and invisible barrier God had set as their bounds. All Goshen was free
from the plague, and the Hebrews were extending favors to the
Egyptians who sought shelter among them.
The next day, Pharaoh, unable to endure the plague, and finding his
magicians could neither remove nor cause it, sent for Moses and Aaron,
who immediately answered his summons.
"Go," he cried, when he beheld them,--"go, sacrifice to thy God in
this land; for He is a mighty God, and may not be mocked!"
"It is not meet, O king," answered Moses, "that we should sacrifice to
our God in the land of Egypt. We Hebrews sacrifice bulls and rams,
sacrifices abominable to the Egyptians, who call them their gods! Lo!
shall we sacrifice the gods of the Egyptians to our God, before their
eyes, and will they not stone us? If we sacrifice, we will go three
days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God
as He shall command us."
Seeing the resolute purpose of the terrible Hebrew, Pharaoh consented
to his demand, only adding, "Ye shall not go very far away! Now go and
entreat your God for me, for the removal of these flies!"
While this discourse was passing between them, the fan-bearers of the
king, with all their diligence, could not protect his face from the
stings of the flies, which plagued him sorely; while upon Aaron and
Moses not one alighted.
"To-morrow," answered Moses, as he went out, "the Lord, whom I will
entreat for thee, shall remove this plague also. But deal not
deceitfully, O king, any more, in not letting the people go."
When, the next day, Pharaoh saw that the flies were removed, so that
not one remained, he repented that he had given his promise, and
resolved not to keep it with Moses.
Once more God sent his servants, the two Hebrews, to the king,
demanding the release of the children of Jacob from their yoke of
bondage, menacing him with a murrain upon all the cattle, horses,
camels, and beasts of Egypt, if he resolved to hold them still in the
land. The king, however, who seemed after every demand to grow more
obstinate when the evil had passed, refused, and sent them away with
threats of vengeance. Indeed, it is surprising, my dear father, that
he hath not slain them before this; and I have no doubt he is
miraculously restrained from doing so, by the Almighty God, whose
faithful and holy servants they are.
On the morrow, according to the word of Moses, a fatal pestilence
seized upon the oxen, the bulls, and cows of Egypt, so that all the
cattle in the land died. When the priests of the sacred ox, Mnevis,
came rushing from their temple to the palace, crying that their god
was dead with the murrain; when at midnight came before him the
priests of Apis, exclaiming that the sacred bull was also dead, then
Pharaoh began to know and feel that the God of the Hebrews was greater
than the gods of Egypt. Early in the morning, when he rose, hearing
that not one of the cattle of the Israelites was dead, instead of
repenting and trembling, he became enraged, acting like a man blinded
by the gods, when they would destroy him by his own acts.
Judge, my dear father, of the patience and forbearance of the God of
the Hebrews towards him who still refused to acknowledge His power.
Behold the firmness and steadiness of purpose of Moses and
Aaron,--their courage and independence! What a sublime spectacle--two
private men contending successfully with the most powerful king on the
earth! What a painful sight to see this most powerful king of the
earth measuring the strength of his feeble will against the power of
the God of the universe!
Upon the refusal of Pharaoh to let Jehovah have His people, that they
might serve Him, God commanded Moses in a vision of the night, beside
the fountain of Jacob, where He talked with him as in the burning
bush, to take the ashes of a human sacrifice, to be immolated by
Pharaoh the next day, and sprinkle it towards heaven upon the winds.
He did so; and instead of protecting the places wheresoever its atoms
were carried, they broke out in boils upon man and beast, breaking
forth with painful blains. The magicians and sorcerers, essaying to
recover their credit with the king, attempted to do the same miracle;
but the boil broke forth upon them also so heavily, that they could
not stand before Moses, and fled with pain and cries from his
presence. Yet Pharaoh remained obdurate, and grew more hardened and
defiant; for the boils touched not his own flesh.
That night, the Lord appeared unto Moses, and commanded him again to
make his demand upon Pharaoh for His people. Then stood Moses and
Aaron in the morning before the king, who was walking up and down in
the corridor of his palace, ill at ease; for all his public works were
stopped by the sufferings of the Egyptians; and his soldiers in the
fourscore garrisons at On, and Memphis, and Bubastis, and Migdol, were
unfit for military duty. There was not a well man in all Egypt, save
in Goshen.
"What now, ye disturbers of Egypt and enemies of the gods?" he called
aloud, as he saw them approach and stand before him.
"Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews," answered Moses: "'Let my
people go, that they may serve me.'"
"The same words! Thou shalt never have thy wish,--thou nor thy God!
Who is the Lord? Will no man rid me of this Moses and Aaron? Speak!
What more?"
"Thus saith the Lord, 'If thou, O king, refusest to let Israel go, I
will send all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy people, that
thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth! For this
cause, O Pharaoh, have I created thee and raised thee up on the throne
of Egypt, that in thee I may show my power; and that by my dealings
with thee, My name may be declared throughout all the earth. All
nations shall behold My works with thee, and My vengeance on thy gods,
and shall know that I am the Lord, and God of all gods! Thou art My
servant to show forth My glory! Thy proud heart exaltest thyself above
Me, and against My people, and thou wouldst contend with Me! Thou
shalt know I am God, ere thou shalt be cut off from the earth; and
that the heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool, and
none can say, What doest Thou? Behold, to-morrow I will darken the
heavens with clouds, and send hail upon the earth, and every man and
beast in the field shall die by the hail.' If thou regardest the life
of thy servants," continued Moses, "send, therefore, for all thou hast
in the field."
This threat was made known everywhere in a few hours, and those who
fear the word of the Lord have made their servants and cattle flee
into the houses prepared for them; but those who regard not the
warning have left them in the field. What will to-morrow bring forth?
Farewell, dear father.
Warned by Aaron, I depart at once for the sheltering skies of Goshen.
Your loving son,
REMESES OF DAMASCUS.
LETTER X.
CITY OF THE SUN.
MY DEAR FATHER:
Scarcely had I reached the confines of Goshen, after the threatened
judgment of God upon Pharaoh, when I heard, as it were in the air, a
voice speaking, which I knew to be the voice of Moses; and behind me I
heard, instantly, loud thunders uttering their voices, and the earth
shook beneath my chariot-wheels. To the right of me, at the same
moment, I beheld Moses and Aaron standing, side by side, on the tower
of the ruined fountain of Jacob, beneath which I was driving; the
former stretching forth his hands, and his rod therein, northward
towards the city of Pharaoh, upon the obelisks of which the sun was
then brilliantly shining, and was also reflected in splendor from the
shield of gold upon the lofty tower of the temple of Osiris. Leaping
from my chariot, and leaving it with my servants, whom I commanded to
hasten further into the land of the Hebrews, I drew reverently near
the men of God, feeling greatly awed by their presence, but assured
that near them was safety,--though they were the visible sources of
God's terrible wrath upon Egypt. I stood not far off, and beheld, with
expectation. Moses, his rod extended, and waving eastward, and
northward, and westward, stood with a majestic and fearful aspect, his
eyes raised to the heavens, which were already answering his voice by
far-off thunderings. He continued, as I drew near, in these words:
"And let thunder, and hail, and fire, O Egypt, descend out of heaven
from God upon thee, and let the fire mingle with the hail, and smite
throughout all the land of Egypt, all that is in the field, both man
and beast, and every herb in the field, and break every tree! Only in
the land of Goshen let there be no hail."
No language, my dear father, can convey to you any idea of the
terrible power and godlike authority with which he spake. To his
words, Aaron pronounced a loud "A-men,"--the Hebrew word for
expressing full assent and confirmation.
Then I looked, with expectant awe, towards the land of Egypt, over
which the thunders rolled without a cloud; when, lo! from the north
came rolling onward a black wall of darkness, which I perceived was a
mighty cloud from the great sea. It advanced with the swiftness and
roar of ten thousand war-chariots rushing to battle. Out of it shot
forth lightnings, and its increasing thunders shook Egypt. In a moment
it had filled half the heavens, and still onward it rolled. Beneath it
moved its shadow, dark as itself, extinguishing the light upon
obelisk, tower, and pylon. I am told that Pharaoh, from the top of his
palace, witnessed this scene also. Directly the sun was blotted out,
and the city of On became invisible. Then I saw fire pour down upon
the earth out of the cloud, as if lightnings could not fast enough
exhaust its angry power; and I heard the voice of falling hail like
the voice of the sea when lashed by a storm. A million of Hebrews, who
had gathered in Goshen, stood and beheld what I did. The roads, the
fields, the plain were covered with people flying from the terror
towards Goshen.
Onward marched this awful servant of the Almighty, more terrible than
an army with banners. Fire ran along the ground before it, and red
forked lightnings shot far out beyond its advancing edge athwart the
blue sky, while, in a moment afterwards, the cloud of blackness rolled
beneath, like the sulphurous smoke that the priests of Egypt say
forever rolls above the fiery regions of Typhon!
Each instant it enlarged its compass, until from east to west it
enveloped Egypt, while fire, mingled with hail, ran along the earth
beneath it. Now behold, my father, the power of God! The vast pall
which Jehovah had thus begun to draw over Egypt, no sooner had reached
in the height of heaven over the borders of Goshen, casting its very
shadow, and pouring its stones of hail, and sending its tongues of
fire almost to the foot of the tower whereon Moses stood, than it
ceased to move! It became stationary in the air a mile high, and there
hung beetling over the verge of Goshen like a crag, its edge working
and agitated by the wildest commotion, and shooting its lightnings
into the blue calm sky over Goshen, but restrained from advancing
further by the power of Him who commandeth the heavens, who maketh the
clouds His chariot, and who keepeth the lightnings in His quiver!
At length the darkness became so dense, that it seemed a wall, between
Egypt and Goshen, from the ground up to the cloud. Over the latter the
sun,--oh, what a sublime contrast!--shone with unclouded brightness,
the winds slept peacefully, the fields waved with the ripened flax and
full-eared barley, the birds sang their songs of gladness, and the
children of God dwelt in security, under the protection of His gentle
love and terrible power.
Surely Pharaoh must perish if he dare any longer madly to resist the
God of the Hebrews, who has now shown that He is God of heaven as well
as of the earth, and that He is God alone, and there is none else! If,
my dear father, your early instructions had not made known to me the
God of Noah, who is the God of the Hebrews, I should, ere this last
manifestation of His awful majesty and terror, have prostrated myself
before Him and acknowledged Him as _my_ God. Wonderful that He, who
dwells in heaven, should stoop to behold things on the earth, and make
such displays of His glory, and majesty, and strength, for the sake of
a poor, enslaved people like the Hebrews. But, as the holy Moses
taught me the other day, when I was humbly sitting at his feet, and
hearing him discourse on these mighty events (for which he takes to
himself no honor or merit, but only seems the more meek and lowly the
more he is intrusted with power by God), these displays of God's
majesty have a threefold end: first, to prove to the trembling and
heart-crushed Israelites that He who is so terrible in power, doing
wonders, is _their_ God, as He was the God of Abraham, and has power
to deliver them from Pharaoh; as well as to teach them that if He can
so punish the Egyptians, He can punish them also, with equal
judgments, if they rebel and do wickedly: secondly, to punish Pharaoh
for the oppression of His people, to afflict the land upon which they
have groaned so many generations, and to show the Egyptians that He
alone is God, that their gods are as stubble in His hand, "that there
is none like Him in all the earth;" and thus bring them to acknowledge
Him, and to fear and worship Him: and, thirdly, that the word of His
mighty deeds and wonders done in Egypt, going abroad to the ears of
kings and princes, priests and lords, and people of all nations upon
the earth, may give _them_ the knowledge of the true God, prove to
them the impotency of their idols, and the supremacy of the God of the
Hebrews, in heaven, and on earth, and over kings and people.
"Therefore, and for these ends," continued the divine Moses, "that He
might not leave Himself without a witness before men, and that He
might declare His power to all His creatures, and His care for the
oppressed, and His judgment upon kings who reign by cruelty, has He
permitted, not only the bondage of our nation, but raised up such a
man as Pharaoh, in whom to show forth His power and judgments, as He
said to this king, 'And in very deed, for this cause have I raised
thee up, to show in thee my power, and that my Name may be declared
throughout all the earth.' Therefore did the Lord God say to me in the
beginning, when He sent me before Pharaoh, 'I am sure that the king of
Egypt will not let you go, no not until I stretch out my hand with
mighty power, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do; and
after that he will let you go!' I did not understand this all at the
first," said Moses, "but now I perceive the mind of God, and that He
will do His will upon Pharaoh, and send yet more terrible punishments;
after which, humbled, and acknowledging God to be the Lord, he will
let the people go!"
What a wonderful mystery is passing before us, O my father! How
dreadful is this God! How wonderful, how glorious is His majesty! In
His presence, and before Him, what is man but dust, breath, vanity? I
humble myself before Him, and feel that I am a worm, and no man! Yet
Thothmeses, like a madman, stands and defies this living God!
Not all the horror of the plague of hail and fire, of the lightnings
and thunderings, moved him to let Israel depart. When the judgment of
God was at its height, driven to the interior of his palace,--from the
tower upon which he had ascended "to see what Moses and Aaron would
do," as he said,--he remained there three days, until, unable longer
to bear the terrors of the scene, and the cries of his people, he sent
for Moses and Aaron. No messenger could be found to go but Israelisis,
your former page, who, since he returned to Egypt, is a servant of the
king, greatly devoted to him, and from whom I have obtained much
interesting information of the effects of these divine judgments upon
him. Three couriers, one after the other, had been struck down by the
hail. But the Hebrew walked forth fearlessly and unharmed, and moved
through the showers of ice, as if he bore a charmed life. This alone
should have proved the power of God to be with the Hebrew servant, and
against Pharaoh and his servants.
Moving through the darkness, amid the fire upon the ground, and the
hail and scalding rain, the man arrived, and told Moses and Aaron that
the king had repented, and prayed them both to hasten to him, for he
knew their God would defend them from injury on the way.
The king is represented as having received the Hebrew brothers in his
bath-room, with his physicians around him, his face ghastly with fear,
and anxiety, and an indefinable dread. It is also said that his manner
was servile rather than humble, and that his speech was mingled with
lamentations and accusations. When they entered, he said:
"It is enough, O men of God, it is enough! Entreat the Lord your God
for me, that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail, and I will
let you go, and without any longer delay."
As he spoke, the palace shook to its foundations, and the water in the
fountain swayed to and fro with violence, as in an earthquake, while
the hail, descending with a great noise into the outer courts, was
piled many cubits in height against the columns, the sculptured work
of which, struck off in every exposed part, fell to the earth mingled
with the hail-stones.
"As soon as I am gone out of the city I will spread abroad my hands
unto the Lord," said Moses, "and the thunder shall cease, and the
hail, that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord's. But, O
king, as for thee and thy lords, I know that ye will not _yet_ fear
the Lord God. Has He not mocked the power of your pretended goddess,
Isis, over the heavens, and seasons, and winds? Who hath known a rain
and hail in Egypt in this month? or hath seen the winds blowing clouds
from the sea? God is God, and Isis is no god; or if a god, where is
her power? Entreat her to remove this _chamsin_ of heaven, such as
earth never before felt upon her bosom."
"God is God, and entreat Him for me," answered the king, with a feeble
gesture of impatience, doubtless humbled, and yet angry at being
compelled to consent to lose six hundred thousand working-men from the
mines and great works he is carrying on; for though he fears the
number of the Hebrews, he would rather retain them, keeping them under
by increased oppression, than release them, and thereby be relieved
from the apprehensions to which their unparalleled increase has given
rise.
When Moses had left the city of On behind him, he spread abroad his
hands towards heaven unto his God; and the thunders, and rain, and
hail, and lightnings ceased.
Anticipating the removal of the judgment, I had been standing for some
hours by the tower and fountain of Jacob. Suddenly the awful mass of
ebony-black cloud, which, for three days, had never ceased to utter
its voices of thunder, and send forth its lightnings, hail, and fire
upon the earth beneath, began to roll itself up, like a scroll,
towards the north. The thunder ceased. The lightnings were no more
visible. The hail fell no more. And, as the cloud receded, the shadows
upon the land--now smitten and desolate--moved with it. Gradually the
whole landscape reappeared; first I saw the walls of On, then its
towers, then the obelisks caught the light, and all at once the
effulgent sun poured, from the clear sky above it, the splendor of his
beams, which the shield of Osiris caught and again reflected with its
former brilliancy. Slowly, but with awful majesty, the cloud of God's
anger descended the horizon, and finally disappeared in the north. And
I thought that mayhap its dark volume would be seen passing over the
sea, even from Tyre, to your consternation and wonder.