was withdrawn, and the miraculous deliverance of Moses became by this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 this 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.
Masters were brought for him from all quarters, and he was instructed in
all the wisdom and learning of the Egyptians; and the people looked upon
him with hope as their future sovereign.[474]
3. THE YOUTH AND MARRIAGE OF MOSES.
Moses, as he grew older, distinguished himself from all other young men
of Egypt by the conquest which he acquired over himself and his youthful
passions and impetuous will. Although the life of a court offered him
every kind of gratification, yet he did not allow himself to be
attracted by its pleasures, or to regard as permanent what he knew to be
fleeting. Thus it fell out, that all his friends and acquaintances
wondered at him, and doubted whether he were not a god appeared on
earth. And, in truth, Moses did not live and act as did others. What he
thought, that he said, and what he promised, that he fulfilled.
Moses had reached the summit of earthly greatness; acknowledged as
grandson to Pharaoh, and heir to the crown. But he trusted not in the
future which was thus offered to him, for he knew from Jochebed, whom he
frequently visited, what was his true people, and who were his real
parents. And the bond which attached him to his own house and people was
in his heart, and could not be broken.
Moses went daily to Goshen to see his relations; and he observed how the
Hebrews were oppressed, and groaned under their burdens. And he asked
wherefore the yoke was pressed so heavily on the neck of these slaves.
He was told of the advice of Balaam against the people, and of the way
in which Pharaoh had sought the destruction of himself in his infancy.
This information filled Moses with indignation, and alienated his
affections from Pharaoh, and filled him with animosity towards
Balaam.[475] But, as he was not in a position to rescue his brethren, or
to punish Balaam, he cried, “Alas! I had rather die than continue to
behold the affliction of my brethren.” Then he took the necklace from
off him, which indicated his princely position, and sought to ease the
burden of the Israelites. He took the excessive loads from the women and
old men, and laid them on the young and strong; and thus he seemed to be
fulfilling Pharaoh’s intentions in getting the work of building sooner
executed, whereas, by making each labour according to his strength,
their sufferings were lightened. And he said to the Hebrews, “Be of good
cheer, relief is not so far off as you suppose—calm follows storm, blue
sky succeeds black clouds, sunshine comes after rain. The whole world is
full of change, and all is for an object.”
Nevertheless Moses himself desponded; he looked with hatred upon Balaam,
and lost all pleasure in the society of the Egyptians. Balaam seeing
that the young man was against him, and dreading his power, escaped with
his sons Jannes and Jambres to the court of Ethiopia.
The young Moses, however, grew in favour with the king, who laid upon
him the great office of introducing illustrious foreigners to the royal
presence.
But Moses kept ever before his eyes the aim of his life, to relieve his
people from their intolerable burdens. One day he presented himself
before the king and said, “Sire! I have a petition to make of thee.”
Pharaoh answered, “Say on, my son.”
Then said Moses, “O king! every labourer is given one day in seven for
rest, otherwise his work becomes languid and unprofitable. But the
children of Israel are given no day of rest, but they work from the
first day of the week to the last day, without cessation; therefore is
their work inferior, and it is not executed with that heartiness which
might be found, were they given one day in which to recruit their
strength.”
Pharaoh said, “Which day shall be given to them?”
Moses said, “Suffer them to rest on the seventh day.”
The king consented, and the people were given the Sabbath, on which they
ceased from their labours; therefore they rejoiced greatly, and for a
thousand years the last day of the week was called “The gift of
Moses.”[476]
As the command to destroy all the male children had been withdrawn the
day that Moses was cast into the Nile, the people had multiplied
greatly, and again the fears of the Egyptians were aroused. Therefore
the king published a new decree, with the object of impeding the
increase of the bondsmen.
He required the Egyptian task-masters to impose a tale of bricks on
every man, and if at evening the tale of bricks was not made up, then,
in place of the deficient bricks, even though only one brick was short,
they were to take the children of those who had not made up their tale,
and to build them into the wall in place of bricks.[477] Thus upon one
misery another was piled.
In order that this decree might be executed with greater certainty, ten
labourers were placed under one Hebrew overseer, and one Egyptian
task-master controlled the ten overseers. The duty of the Hebrew
overseers was to wake the ten men they were set over, every morning
before dawn, and bring them to their work. If the Egyptian task-masters
observed that one of the labourers was not at his post, he went to the
overseer, and bade him produce the man immediately.
Now one of these overseers had a wife of the tribe of Dan, whose name
was Salome, daughter of Dibri. She was beautiful and faultless in her
body. The Egyptian task-master had observed her frequently, and he loved
her. Then, one day, he went early to the house of her husband, and bade
him arise, and go and call the ten labourers. So the overseer rose,
nothing doubting, and went forth, and then the Egyptian entered and
concealed himself in the house. But the overseer, returning, found him,
and drew him forth, and asked him with what intent he had hidden himself
there; and Moses drew nigh. Now Moses was known to the Hebrews as
merciful, and ready to judge righteously their causes; so the man ran to
Moses, and told him that he had found the Egyptian task-master concealed
in his house.
And Moses knew for what intent the man had done thus, and his anger was
kindled, and he raised a spade to smite the man on the head and kill
him.
But whilst the spade was yet in his hand, before it fell, Moses said
within himself, “I am about to take a man’s life; how know I that he
will not repent? How know I that if I suffer him to live, he may beget
children who will do righteously and serve the Lord? Is it well that I
should slay this man?”
Then Moses’s eyes were opened, and he saw the throne of God, and the
angels that surrounded it, and God said to him, “It is well that thou
shouldst slay this Egyptian, and therefore have I called thee hither.
Know that he would never repent, nor would his children do other than
work evil, wert thou to give him his life.”
So Moses called on the name of the Most High and smote; but before the
spade touched the man, as the sound of the name of God reached his ears,
he fell and died.[478]
Then Moses looked on the Hebrews who had crowded round, and he said to
them, “God has declared that ye shall be as the sand of the sea-shore.
Now the sand falls and it is noiseless, and the foot of man presses it,
and it sounds not. Therefore understand that ye are to be silent as is
the sand of the sea-shore, and tell not of what I have this day done.”
Now when the man of the Hebrews returned home, he drove out his wife
Salome, because he had found the Egyptian concealed in his house, and he
gave her a writing of divorcement, and sent her away. Then the Hebrews
talked among themselves at their work, and some said he had done well,
and others that he had done ill. There were at their task two young men,
brothers, Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, of the tribe of Reuben,
and they strove together on this subject, and Dathan in anger lifted his
hand, and would have smitten Abiram. Then Moses came up and stayed him,
and cried, “What wickedness art thou doing, striking thy comrade? It
beseems you not to lay hands on each other.”
Boldly did Dathan answer: “Who made thee, beardless youth, a lord and
ruler over us? We know well that thou art not the son of the king’s
daughter, but of Jochebed. _Wilt thou slay me as thou didst the Egyptian
yesterday?_”
“Alas!” said Moses, “now I see that the evil words, and evil acts, and
evil thoughts of this people will fight against them, and frustrate the
loving-kindness of the Lord towards them.”
Then Dathan and Abiram went before Pharaoh, and told him that Moses had
slain an Egyptian task-master; and Pharaoh’s anger was kindled against
Moses, and he cried, “Enough of evil hath been prophesied against thee,
and I have not heeded it, and now thou liftest thy hand against my
servants!”
For he had, for long, been slowly turning against Moses, when he saw
that he walked not in the ways of the Egyptians, and that he loved the
king’s enemies, and hated the king’s friends. Then he consulted his
soothsayers and his councillors, and they gave him advice that he should
put Moses to death with the sword. Therefore the young man, Moses, was
brought forth, and he ascended the scaffold, and the executioner stood
over him with his sword, the like of which was not in the whole world.
And when the king gave the word, the headsman smote. But the Lord turned
the neck of Moses into marble, and the sword bit not into it.
Instantly, before the second blow was dealt, the angel Michael took from
the executioner his sword and his outward semblance, and gave to the
headsman the semblance of Moses, and he smote at the executioner, and
took his head from off his shoulders. But Moses fled away, and none
observed him. And he went to the king of Ethiopia.[479]
Now the king of Ethiopia, Kikannos (Candacus) by name, was warring
against his enemies; and when he left his capital city, Meroe, at the
head of a mighty army, he left Balaam and his two sons regents during
his absence.
Whilst the king was engaged in war, Balaam and his sons conspired
against the king, and they bewitched the people with their enchantments,
and led them from their allegiance, and persuaded them to submit to
Balaam as their king. And Balaam strengthened the city on all sides.
Sheba, or Meroe, was almost impregnable, as it was surrounded by the
Nile and the Astopus. On two sides Balaam built walls, and on the third
side, between the Nile and the city, he dug countless canals, into which
he let the water run. And on the fourth side he assembled innumerable
serpents. Thus he made the city wholly impregnable.
When King Kikannos returned from the war, he saw that his capital was
fortified, and he wondered; but when he was refused admission, he knew
that there was treason.
One day he endeavoured to surmount the walls, but was repulsed with
great slaughter; and the next day he threw thirty pontoons across the
river, but when his soldiers reached the other side, they were engulfed
in the canals, of which the water was impelled with foaming fury by
great mill-wheels. On the third day he assaulted the town on the fourth
side, but his men were bitten by the serpents and died. Then King
Kikannos saw that the only hope of reducing the city was by famine; so
he invested it, that no provisions might be brought into it.
Whilst he sat down before the capital, Moses took refuge in his camp,
and was treated by him with great honour and distinction.
As the siege protracted itself through nine years, Kikannos fell ill and
died.
Then the chief captains of his army assembled, and determined to elect a
king, who might carry on the siege with energy, and reduce the city with
speed, for they were weary of the long investment. So they elected Moses
to be their king, and they threw off their garments and folded them, and
made thereof a throne, and set Moses thereon, and blew their trumpets,
and cried “God save King Moses!”[480]
And they gave him the widow of Kikannos to wife, and costly gifts of
gold and silver and precious stones were brought to him, but all these
he laid aside in the treasury. This took place 157 years after Jacob and
his sons came down into Egypt, when Moses was aged twenty-seven years.
On the seventh day after his coronation came the captains and officers
before him, and besought of him counsel, how the city might be taken.
Then said Moses, “Nine years have ye invested it, and it is not yet in
your power. Follow my advice, and in nine days it shall be yours.”
They said, “Speak, and we will obey.”
Then Moses gave this advice, “Make it known in the camp that all the
soldiers go into the woods, and bring me storks’ nests as many as they
can find.”
So they obeyed, and young storks innumerable were brought to him. Then
he said, “Keep them fasting till I give you word, and he who gives to a
stork food, though it were but a crumb of bread, or a grain of corn, he
shall be slain, and all that he hath shall become the king’s property,
and his house shall be made a dung-heap.”
So the storks were kept fasting. And on the third day the king said,
“Let the birds go.”
Then the storks flew into the air, and they spied the serpents on the
fourth side of the city, and they fell upon them, and the serpents fled,
and they were killed and eaten by the storks or ever they reached their
holes, and not a serpent remained. Then said Moses, “March into the city
and take it.”
And the army entered the city, and not one man fell of the king’s army,
but they slew all that opposed them.
Thus Moses had brought the Ethiopian army into possession of the
capital. The grateful people placed the crown upon his head, and the
queen of Kikannos gave him her hand with readiness. But Balaam and his
sons escaped, riding upon a cloud.
Moses reigned in wisdom and righteousness for forty years, and the land
prospered under his government, and all loved and honoured him.
Nevertheless, some thought that the son of their late king ought to
ascend the throne of his ancestors;—he was an infant when Moses was
crowned, but now that he was a man, a party of the nobles desired to
proclaim his right.
They prevailed upon the queen to speak; and when all the princes and
great men of the kingdom were assembled, she declared the matter before
all. “Men of Ethiopia,” said she, “it is known to you that for forty
years my husband has reigned in Sheba. Well do you know that he has
ruled in equity, and administered righteous judgment. But know also,
that his God is not our God, and that his faith is not our faith. My
son, Mena-Cham (Minakros) is of fitting age to succeed his father;
therefore it is my opinion that Moses should surrender to him the
throne.”
An assembly of the people was called, and as this advice of the queen
pleased them, they besought Moses to resign the crown to the rightful
heir. He consented, without hesitation, and, laden with gifts and good
wishes, he left the country and went into Midian.[481]
Moses was sixty-seven years old when he entered Midian. Reuel or
Jethro,[482] who had been a councillor of Pharaoh, had, as has been
already related, taken up his residence in Midian, where the people had
raised him to be High Priest and Prince over the whole tribe. But Jethro
after a while withdrew from the priesthood, for he believed in the one
True God, and abhorred the idols which the Midianites worshipped. And
when the people found that Jethro despised their gods, and that he
preached against their idolatry, they placed him under the ban, that
none might give him meat or drink, or serve him.
This troubled Jethro greatly, for all his shepherds forsook him, as he
was under the ban. Therefore it was, that his seven daughters were
constrained to lead and water the flocks.[483]
Moses arrived near a well and sat down to rest. Then he saw the seven
daughters of Jethro approach.
The maidens had gone early to the well, for they feared lest the
shepherds, taking advantage of their being placed under ban, should
molest them, and refuse to give their sheep water. They let down their
pitchers in turn, and with much trouble filled the trough. Then the
shepherds came up and drove them away, and led their sheep to the trough
the maidens had filled, and in rude jest they would have thrown the
damsels into the water, but Moses stood up and delivered them, and
rebuked the shepherds, and they were ashamed.
Then Moses let down his pitcher, and the water leaped up and overflowed,
and he filled the trough and gave the flocks of the seven maidens to
drink, and then he watered also the flocks of the shepherds, lest there
should be evil blood between them.
Now when the maidens came home, they related to their father all that
had taken place; and he said, “Where is the man that hath shown kindness
to you?—bring him to me.”
So Zipporah ran—she ran like a bird—and came to the well, and bade Moses
enter under their roof and eat of their table.
When Moses came to Raguel (Jethro), the old man asked him whence he
came, and Moses told him all the truth.
Then thought Jethro, “I am fallen under the displeasure of Midian, and
this man has been driven out of Egypt and out of Ethiopia; he must be a
dangerous man; he will embroil me with the men of this land, and, if the
king of Ethiopia or Pharaoh of Egypt hears that I have harboured him, it
will go ill with me.”
Therefore Raguel took Moses and bound him with chains, and threw him
into a dungeon, where he was given only scanty food; and soon Jethro,
whose thoughts were turned to reconciliation with the Midianites, forgot
him, and sent him no food. But Zipporah loved him, and was grateful to
him for the kindness he had showed her, in saving her from the hands of
the shepherds who would have dipped her in the watering-trough, and
every day she took him food and drink, and in return was instructed by
the prisoner in the law of the Most High.[484]
Thus passed seven, or, as others say, ten years;[485] and all the while
the gentle and loving Zipporah ministered to his necessities.
The Midianites were reconciled again with Jethro, and restored him to
his former position; and his scruples about the worship of idols abated,
when he found that opposition to the established religion interfered
with his temporal interests.
Then, when all was again prosperous, many great men and princes came to
ask the hand of Zipporah his daughter, who was beautiful as the morning
star, and as the dove in the hole of the rock, and as the narcissus by
the water’s side. But Zipporah loved Moses alone; and Jethro, unwilling
to offend those who solicited her by refusing them, as he could give his
daughter to one only, took his staff, whereon was written the name of
God, the staff which was cut from the Tree of Life, and which had
belonged to Joseph, but which he had taken with him from the palace of
Pharaoh, and he planted it in his garden, and said, “He who can pluck up
this staff, he shall take my daughter Zipporah.”
Then the strong chiefs of Edom and of Midian came and tried, but they
could not move the staff.
One day Zipporah went before her father, and reminded him of the man
whom he had cast into a dungeon so many years before. Jethro was amazed,
and he said, “I had forgotten him these seven years; he must be dead; he
has had no food.”
But Zipporah said meekly, “With God all things are possible.”
So Jethro went to the prison door and opened it, and Moses was alive.
Then he brought him forth, and cut his hair, and pared his nails, and
gave him a change of raiment, and set him in his garden, and placed meat
before him.