soft and hypocritical speeches. Fifty-four years had passed since the
death of Joseph.
Joseph had had the good fortune to acquire the favour of Mechron, the
son and successor of that Pharaoh who had raised him from the dungeon to
be second in the kingdom. Almost all the inhabitants of Egypt had loved
Joseph; only a few voices were raised in murmurs at a foreigner
exercising such extensive powers.
The successors of the patriarchs mingled among the people of the land
and learned their ways; and many of them abandoned the rite of
circumcision, and spoke the language of Mizraem.
Then God withdrew His protection for a while; and the former love of the
Egyptians towards the Hebrews was turned into implacable hatred. By
degrees the privileges of the children of Israel were encroached upon,
and they were oppressed with heavy taxes, from which hitherto they had
been held exempt.
Afterwards the king exacted from them their labour without pay; he built
a great castle, and required the Hebrews to erect it for him at their
own cost.
Twenty-two years after the death of Joseph, Levi died, who had outlived
all his other brothers.
Fields, vineyards, and houses, which Joseph had given to his brethren,
were now reclaimed by the natives of Egypt, and the children of Israel
were enslaved.
The Egyptians, effeminate, and hating work, fond of pleasure and
display, had envied the prosperity of the Hebrews, who had thriven in
Goshen, and whose wives bore sometimes six and sometimes twelve infants
at a birth.
They also feared lest this people, increasing upon them, should become
more numerous than they, and should seize upon the power, and enslave
the native population.
Nine years after the death of Joseph, King Mechron died, and was
succeeded by his son Melol.
But before pursuing the history of the oppression of the Hebrews, we
must relate some events that had occurred before this time.
When the body of Jacob, according to his last will, had been taken to
the cave of Machpelah, Esau and his sons and a large body of followers
hastened to oppose the burial of Jacob. After the death of Isaac, Esau
and Jacob had come to an agreement, by which all the moveable property
of the father was made over to Esau, and all that was immoveable,
especially the burial cave, was apportioned to Jacob. But now Esau
desired to set aside this agreement, and, as first-born, to claim the
tomb as his, trusting that the sons of Jacob could not prove the
agreement.
But no sooner had he raised this objection, than Naphtali, who was swift
of foot, ran into Egypt, and returned in a few hours with the writing of
agreement.
Esau, seeing himself baffled, had recourse to arms: and a fight took
place, in which Esau was killed, and his followers put to flight or
taken as captives to Egypt, where they became the slaves of the
Israelites. Amongst these captives was Zepho, son of Eliphaz, son of
Esau.
Even in Joseph’s lifetime, the Edomites made incursions into Egypt to
recover their captive relatives, but their attempts led to no other
result than the tightening of the chains which bound the captives.
Later, however, Zepho succeeded in effecting his escape, and he took
refuge with Angias, king of Dinhaba (Ethiopia), who made him chief
captain of his host.
Zepho persuaded the king to make war upon Egypt. Among the servants of
Angias was a youth of fifteen, named Balaam, son of Beor, very skilful
in the arts of witchcraft. The king bade the youthful necromancer divine
who would succeed in the proposed war. Balaam formed chariots and horses
and fighting men of wax, plunged them in water, which he stirred with
palm twigs; and it was seen by all who stood by, that the men and horses
representing the Egyptians and Hebrews floated, whereas those
representing the Ethiopians sank.
Angias, deterred by this augury, refused to have anything to do with a
war against Egypt. Then Zepho left him, and betook himself to the land
of the Hittites, and he succeeded in combining that nation, the
Edomites, and the Ishmaelites together in making an invasion of Egypt.
To repel them, the Hebrews were summoned from the land of Goshen, but
the Egyptians would not receive their allies into the camp, fearing lest
they should unite with their kindred nations, and deliver them up to
destruction.
Zepho now asked Balaam, who had followed him, to divine the end of 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 laboured 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 counsel 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 favourites 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
succour. 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 for ever! 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 favour them prosper. Therefore, O king, do thou
withdraw thy hand, which is heavy upon them; lighten their tasks, and
extend to them thy favour.”
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 labour 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 flavour, 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 couldst 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 honour.
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 splendour 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.”