returned to On! The fields of flax and barley were smitten and
consumed; the trees were broken and stripped of their leaves, either
by the fire or hail; the houses and villages of the plain were
devastated; in all the fields were dead corpses; and cattle and horses
which had escaped the former plague, or been purchased from the
Hebrews, were lying dead everywhere with their herdsmen. Chariots and
their riders, overtaken in flight from On, lay upon the highways; and
death, desolation, and horror reigned!
Entering the city, I saw soldiers that had been struck dead at their
posts by the hail, still lying where they fell; and the streets filled
with the dead and wounded, and with heaps of hail; while the sun shone
down upon a scene of universal wailing and woe!
I passed on to the palace of Pharaoh, my position and rank having at
all times given me free access to his presence. I found him at a
banquet, as for three days and nights he had scarcely tasted food for
terror and confusion, neither he, nor his lords, nor servants. They
were feasting and drinking wine, and the king's face was flushed with
strong drink; for, seizing the present moment of security, he
revelled, striving to forget the past terrors. As I entered, his
singers were singing a hymn to his gods; and when it was ended,
Pharaoh, with his cup in his hand, cursed the God of the Hebrews who
had sent such terrors upon his land, for hitherto he had said it was
the gods of Egypt who had done these things, forced thereto by the
powerful enchantments of the Hebrew brothers.
I turned away from his hall, refusing to go in, when Moses and Aaron
passed me, and entered his presence. Upon seeing them, Pharaoh's heart
was hardened against them and their God, and he and his lords rose up
in fear and anger.
"Are ye come again before me, ye Hebrews?" he cried, in his wrath and
wine. "I will not let Israel go! Not a foot nor hoof shall stir from
the land! I have sworn it by the life of Pharaoh, and by the gods of
Egypt!"
Then Moses answered the king, and said--
"Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, O Pharaoh: 'Let my people go!
How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Let my people
go, that they may serve me; else on the morrow will I bring the
locusts into thy coasts, and they shall cover the face of the earth,
and devour what remaineth in the field, and shall fill thy houses, and
the houses of all the Egyptians, even as hath not been upon the earth
unto this day!'"
"We have seen locusts in Egypt, O Hebrew, and fear them not," answered
Pharaoh, with a laugh of derision. "Go tell your God that Pharaoh and
his gods defy Him and His locusts!"
Then Moses turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. But the lords of
Egypt feared, and said unto their king--
"How long shall this man be a snare unto us and the evil destiny of
Egypt? Let the men of the Hebrews go, that they may serve their mighty
and dreadful God, as He commandeth them. Knowest thou not, O king,
that Egypt is destroyed; and the locusts will destroy the wheat and
the rye which are just bursting out of the ground, and the leaves that
are putting forth?"
Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, who had not yet reached the
gate of the palace, and when they again stood before him, he said--
"For the sake of these, and for Egypt's sake, which thy sorcery has
nearly destroyed, I yield to thy demand, not because I fear thy God.
Go, serve the Lord your God; but who are they that shall go?"
And Moses answered, and said firmly and fearlessly--
"We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with
our daughters; with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we
must hold a feast unto the Lord, and a sacrifice unto our God."
Then Pharaoh answered, in great anger--
"Let the Lord look to you, not to me, for his sacrifices, as if I will
let you go, and your little ones, that you may feast to Him! Look to
it! Provoke not my wrath, for evil is before you! Ask not so. Go now,
ye that are men and serve the Lord, since that is what ye ask! Now
leave my presence! Ye are become the curse of Egypt. What! Do ye
linger to ask more? Drive the men forth from the palace!"
The guards followed for some paces, but drew not near them for fear;
and with calm dignity of demeanor, the divine brothers went out of the
palace, and left the city. When we had departed from the presence of
Pharaoh--for I had joined their holy companionship--he stretched forth
his rod over the land eastward, and invoked the new judgment of God
that he had threatened. Immediately a strong east wind arose, and blew
all that day, and all the night, each hour increasing; and in the
morning, when I waked at a great cry of the people, I looked forth,
and beheld the heavens dark with a strange aspect, wholly unlike a
cloud, yet moving like one, or, rather, like a great ocean-wave
rolling along the sky. It was attended in its approach, which was from
the direction of the Arabian Sea, by a confused humming, like the wind
sweeping through the tall cedars on Libanus. As it drew near, it
covered half the heavens, and appeared many hundred feet in thickness,
the lower surface being not far from the earth. I soon perceived, from
the cries around me, that it was the threatened plague of locusts
coming upon Egypt, loosed from the open palm of God's hand. My
position was at a window in the house of Aaron, and not far from the
line between Goshen and the rest of Egypt. I saw them, as they passed
over the plains, and fields, and city, and villages, descend in
showers like flakes of snow, hundreds and thousands at a time, until
the whole earth was brown with them. Thus the flight continued all
that day, and all night, and all the next day and next night,--an
endless cloud, darkening the sun by day and the stars by night. The
surface of Egypt seemed agitated and alive like the sea after a storm,
restless, and in continual motion in every part; while the noise made
by the wings of the locusts was incessant,--a monotone awful to hear,
without variation or diminution, till the ear became weary of hearing,
and in vain sought relief from the deep, angry bass of this voice of
vengeance of the Hebrews' God! In crossing the Nile, myriads fell into
it, and covered its surface,--galleys, barges, men, and sails; and the
water was defiled by their presence. At noon-day there was a dreadful
twilight prevailing, for the beams of the sun could not penetrate this
living cloud. They covered the whole face of Egypt, and their voracity
left not a bud, or leaf, or any green thing on the trees, which were
just putting out again; or in the herbs of the field, which had sprung
up since the hail; for much seed was in the ground, which came up
after the hail, only to be destroyed by the locusts.
Then the people, in despair, besieged the palace of Pharaoh with great
cries. Though the Egyptians regard their king as their priest, and as
a god, and are proverbially submissive to his will and power, they had
now lost all fear, being driven to despair by this last plague.
Nothing but famine and death were before them, and their wives, and
little ones! Pharaoh also became alarmed at the endless power of the
God of the Hebrews! He had long since given his magicians, Jambres and
Jannes, to death, because they failed to keep pace with Moses and
Aaron, and he evidently felt that this was the power of a God he could
no longer compete with. He therefore sent for Moses and Aaron in
haste. When they came into his presence they beheld him in a closed
room, lighted by the seven golden lamps which Osirtasen captured from
the king of Nineveh; for the locusts made it necessary to close every
shutter, and turn day into night, in every house. He was reclining
upon a lounge covered with Tyrian purple, and adorned with
needle-work; and was surrounded by the ladies of his palace, who were
imploring him, as the Hebrew brothers entered, to let Israel go! Even
his son, the careless and gay Prince Amunophis, was kneeling before
him, and urging him to abide by his resolution, to grant the demand of
the God of the Hebrews. When he beheld the tall and majestic persons
of Moses and Aaron enter, he rose from his couch, and cried--
"I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now,
therefore, O Moses and Aaron, forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this
once, and entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this
death only!"
This confession seemed to be made with a certain frankness and
sincerity, and a show of deep humility; and Moses answered--
"The Lord forgive thee, according to what is in thy heart. I will
entreat the Lord for thee, and the plague shall be removed from thee
and thy people."
Then Moses went out from the presence of Pharaoh; and when he had come
into Goshen he ascended the tower of Jacob, and entreated the Lord for
Pharaoh. Immediately the cloud of locusts became tossed as with a
whirlwind; and the wind, changing from the east to the west, blew
strongly, and pressed back the mass of locust-clouds, sweeping those
that were on the earth into the air, and rolling the whole body of
winged creatures eastward. This wind blew all night, and all the next
day, and the next night, a mighty wind, and on the following morning
not a living locust was visible in all the coasts of Egypt.
Moses now sent messengers all through Egypt, calling upon the children
of Israel to leave whatever they might be occupied in, and assemble
themselves in the land of Goshen, with their wives, and children, and
flocks, and all that they had. He had previously sent men into Upper
Egypt and to the mines; and, what is wonderful, the Hebrews in the
mines were permitted to go forth from thence by their keepers, for the
fear of Moses had reached their ears, and they gladly let them go! The
messengers whom Moses now sent everywhere, from Migdol to Syene, were
Hebrews, and were nowhere molested as they went; for a fear and
reverence of them, as the people of the mighty God of Moses, had taken
the place, in the minds of the great body of the Egyptians, of their
former contempt: nay, every one was willing to do them a kindness.
Now, my dear father, you are prepared to read that Pharaoh, according
to his word, permitted the children of Israel to depart from his
dominions. But Thothmeses IV. is no ordinary man! Probably, such a
character as his is unknown in the history of kings. Such a union of
opposite qualities is rarely encountered in one individual.
Superstitious, yet sacrilegious! cowardly, yet braving death! faithful
to his oath to his gods, yet a perjurer of himself to men!
tender-hearted as a woman to his own children and family, yet cruel as
a tiger and relentless as a lion to the Hebrews and their little ones!
Treacherous, sycophantic, malicious, and ironical, he is twofold in
speech, and double-minded in secret intention; he promises when in
danger, and revokes his word in security! Despising his foes, yet
fearing them, he flatters, smiles upon, and deceives them! Trembling
under judgment, he denies his terrors when they are past! convinced of
the truth, yet opposing it! confessing the power of God, yet defying
it! These qualities, God, who reads the character in the heart, saw in
Pharaoh, and knew from the beginning what he would do, and how he
would receive Moses, far better than we can know how our well-known
friends would act under supposed circumstances. It was perhaps,
therefore, on account of the peculiar character of this Pharaoh, that
God chose the time and the man for showing His power, glory, majesty,
and terror to Egypt, to Israel, and to the world! Under such a queen
as Amense, or such a prince as the mild Thothmeses II., the first
miracle of the serpent swallowing the rods of the magicians, would
have drawn their consent to let Israel go. Where then would have been
the manifestation of the power of God, that the earth is now
witnessing with awe and fear? God, therefore, knowing what was in the
man, chose this Pharaoh as the person in whom, through the natural
agency of his obdurate heart, He might make manifest His name as the
God of heaven and earth, whose power neither man nor gods can resist.
Thus Pharaoh, unwittingly, through the perversity of his own will, and
the instability of his character, is actually carrying out God's
ultimate designs, glorifying Him in His greatness, and drawing forth
these stupendous manifestations of His Almighty power over earth, and
air, and skies! Yet is he no less guilty before God; for he does not
intend His glory, but, on the contrary, denies and defies Him in its
every successive manifestation!
Pharaoh, therefore, did not stand to his word now, dear father. When
left to himself, he forgot all that had gone before, and sent word to
Moses and Aaron not to attempt to remove the Hebrews, as he would not
let them go; for Egypt was devastated, and nearly ruined in every
part, and he must first have the labors of the Hebrews to restore the
dikes and canals, and the terraces and gardens of the lakes, and then
he would let them go.
Then Moses and Aaron went at noon-day and sought the Lord as
aforetime, in the silence and loneliness of the well of Jacob, where
they ever prayed unto Him, and where He spake unto them all the words
He commanded them to speak before Pharaoh. And when they had ended
their prayers and supplications before their great and terrible God,
whose name they never spake but with the profoundest awe, the Lord
said unto Moses:
"Stretch forth thine hand towards heaven, that there may be darkness
over the land of Egypt, even darkness that may be felt."
Obeying the command, Moses ascended the tower of Jacob, and stretched
forth his hand towards heaven.
Then followed a scene, my dear father, of solemn terror. The
atmosphere became the color of blood. The sun disappeared as if
extinguished. A thick and instant darkness fell upon the earth. The
birds ceased their songs; the cattle lowed; the wail of Egypt went up
in one great cry! Though On is several miles distant, the cry of the
city reached the ears of the children of Israel in Goshen. But with
them all was light, and joy, and beauty. The sun shone; there was
light in every dwelling; the birds sang; the green harvests waved in
the joyous sunshine; the verdant fields and leafy trees danced in the
soft breeze; for no plague had come nigh the Hebrews, their fields,
foliage, or dwellings. The darkness stood, like a great wall of black
mist rising high as heaven, between Goshen and Egypt.
Its sudden descent upon Egypt caught the Egyptians on the road, in the
fields, upon the Nile, in the streets, temples, and palaces, as they
chanced to be; and where it fell upon them, there they were compelled
to remain. No flame could burn in the thick, black fog, which felt
slimy to the touch. I would have entered it for a moment after
touching it, but Aaron warned me not to tempt God; that safety was
alone in the sunlight of Goshen. Out from the black abyss came, now
and then, a fearful cry of some desolate wayfarer, and the Hebrews
answered kindly back, and so by their shouts directed the wanderer in
the darkness how to move towards the light. During this darkness, the
Hebrews, by the command of Moses, were collecting their flocks, and
preparing to depart to sacrifice to their God: also, those who had not
been circumcised now received the rite.
This horrible night continued without change--without moon or star to
lend it a ray--until the third day, when Pharaoh, unable longer to
hold out in this unequal combat against God, sent two Hebrews, born in
his house, to Moses; for only the Hebrew could walk through this night
of God as in the light. Without a word of impatience or doubt, Moses
and Aaron rose up and disappeared in the awful veil of darkness, in
response to the summons of the king. No sooner did Pharaoh behold
them, than he cried out, in a voice of mingled complaint and
condescension--
"Go ye, Moses and Aaron, ye and yours, only let your flocks and herds
stay in the land; for hast thou not destroyed," he added with
bitterness, "whatsoever parteth the hoof in all the land of Egypt?
Your little ones may also go with you." This was spoken in a tone of
condescension.
And Moses answered and said:
"Thou must suffer our flocks and herds to go with us, O king, that we
may have sacrifices and burnt-offerings wherewith to sacrifice unto
the Lord our God. Our cattle, therefore, must also go with us. There
shall not a hoof be left behind."
When Pharaoh heard Moses speak thus firmly and boldly to him, abating
nothing from his first demand, he seemed to lose his reason with rage.
Casting his sceptre from his hand at the two brothers, he cried--
"Get ye from me, ye destroyers and curse of Egypt! Take heed to
thyself, O Moses, and see my face no more, for in that day thou seest
my face thou shalt die!"
Then Moses answered, with calm and severe majesty:
"Thou hast spoken well, O Pharaoh. I will see thy face no more. But
hear thou the word of the Lord, which, knowing thy heart, He hath
spoken unto me to say now before thee: 'I will bring yet one plague
more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. About midnight will I go out into
the midst of Egypt, and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall
die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even
unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and
all the first-born of beasts: and all these thy servants shall bow
down themselves unto me, saying--"Get thee out, and all the people
that follow thee; and thy lords, and high captains, and governors, and
great men, and all who serve thee, shall come down to me, to urge me
to go forth out of Egypt: after that I will go out."' These, O king,
are the words of the Lord against thee. Thou hast cast thy sceptre at
my feet. As I step my foot upon it, so shall the Lord place his foot
upon Egypt!"
Thus speaking, Moses went out from Pharaoh in great anger. As he left
the palace, the Egyptians prostrated themselves before him, and sought
his favor, and some cried, "He is a god! Let this god, who is mightier
than Osiris and greater than Serapis, be our god!"
"But Moses sternly rebuked them," said Aaron, who related to me all
that had passed, "and felt deeply grieved and humbled at so great a
sin, and called upon them to worship God in heaven, whose servant only
he was, with no power in himself to do these wonders which they had
witnessed."
Farewell, my dear father. My next letter, without doubt, will convey
to you the victory of the Lord God over Pharaoh and his gods, and the
deliverance of the Hebrews from their bondage.
Your affectionate son,
REMESES OF DAMASCUS.
LETTER XI.
REMESES OF DAMASCUS TO SESOSTRIS.
WRITTEN IN THE WILDERNESS OF ARABIA, BY THE SEA.
MY DEAR FATHER:
The events which have transpired since I last wrote to you, mock my
pen by their sublimity and infinite grandeur. Upon a rock for a
tablet, the desert around me, the Sea of Edom before me, I desire to
record, while they are vivid in my memory, the stupendous scenes of
the past six days. The millions of Israel have come forth out of
Egypt! The Sea of Suphim is between them and the land of their
bondage! But I have so much to write, such wonders to relate, that I
will not anticipate your curiosity, but proceed to send you a
narrative of each event in due order. Let all the earth say that the
Lord God of the Hebrews is the only God: besides Him there is no God!
The day that Moses and Aaron departed from the presence of
Pharaoh-Thothmeses, in truth to see his face no more, the Lord
commanded them to call together the elders and people of the Hebrews,
and instruct them to take a male lamb, or a kid without blemish, one
to each household, keep it till the fourteenth day of the month, which
day was just at hand, and kill it on the evening thereof, sprinkling,
with a bunch of hyssop, the lintel and door-posts of their houses
dipped in its blood, and roasting the flesh, eat it at night, leaving
none until morning. "And ye shall eat it," said the Lord, "in haste,
with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in
your hand; for it is the Lord's passover, who will the same night pass
through the land of Egypt, and smite all the first-born of the land of
Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will
execute judgment! I am the Lord: and this day shall be a memorial to
you forever."
Then Moses did as the Lord commanded. Moreover on the day of the night
on which the lamb, that had been selected from the flocks three days
before, was to be slain, he said to the elders of Israel, whom he
called, together, "Thus saith the Lord your God, 'Let none of you go
out at the door of his house until the morning; for this night the
Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the
blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, the Lord will _pass
over_ the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your
houses to smite you.'" There were also other ordinances of bread
unleavened established, which bread they were commanded to eat for
seven days, at the "feast of unleavened bread."
And when Moses had proclaimed these and other ordinances, the people
bowed their heads and worshipped God, and said they would do all that
the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron to say unto them.
Then, my dear father, followed a scene of the deepest interest! It was
three millions of people preparing to break their bondage of
generations, and to go forth from under the cruel sceptre of the king
of Egypt forever. The mighty miracles of Moses had, long since,
silenced the murmurs and doubts of the elders, openly uttered at the
beginning, when Pharaoh in revenge against Moses and Aaron, increased
their burdens, and denied them straw for their bricks. At each
successive miracle they had gained confidence in their powerful
advocate before Pharaoh; and when they saw that he could not be
equalled by the magicians, they became vain and proud of him, whom
before they had condemned; and waited, with wonder and expectation,
their mighty deliverence. At the occurrence of the sixth miracle they
threw up all work, and no Egyptian had the heart to say, "Go to your
tasks!" for they saw that God was with them. Thus from all parts of
Egypt, drawn by curiosity, hope, wonder, and a desire to behold this
mighty leader whom God had raised up, they flocked to Goshen, until
the land was filled with their vast numbers! The houses and huts could
not contain them, and they slept by thousands in the fields, and by
the wayside. When they perceived that the darkness, and the locusts,
and the hail approached not their land, the most timid and desponding
took courage, and lifted their voices to the God of their fathers, in
hope and gratitude. Indeed, after the awful plague of darkness,
thousands of the most ignorant Hebrews shouted that he was a god, and
the Egyptians of all classes were ready to acknowledge him as Osiris
or Thoth! And in some of the temples, the day after the darkness
passed, the priests waved incense to Osiris by the name of Musæusiris,
or Osiris-Moses: and, I doubt not, divine honors will be paid him in
Egypt for generations to come! Yet this mighty servant of God moves
among the people, as unassuming and self-forgetful as the humblest of
his brethren, quietly giving his directions for the greatest movement
earth was ever to behold--a nation marching in one day from bondage to
freedom!
I moved in and out, everywhere among them. There was a strange joy
lighting up every face. Old men looked calm and happy; young men were
noisy with hope; maidens were full of joy; mothers smiled with
delight, as they clasped their babes to their bosoms, in the certainty
that they would not grow up in servitude to Pharaoh. All eyes were
turned to Moses and Aaron, as they passed to and fro, and many fell on
their knees, and worshipped them; while others shouted, as the only
way they could express their emotions. How must the heart of the
servant of God have swelled with gratitude to his Creator, as he
beheld the happiness around him! And how deeply he must have realized
his responsibility, as he reflected that the hopes of three millions
of people, whom he had assembled in Goshen, with the promise of
deliverance from the sceptre of Pharaoh, hung upon his single arm, but
which was, for the time, the arm of God!