with the light of heaven shining upon him, prayed and gave thanks to
God; and seeing the staff, whereon was written the name of the Most
High, he went to it and took it away, and it followed his hand.
When Jethro returned into the garden, lo! Moses had the staff of the
Tree of Life in his hand; then Jethro cried out, “This is a man called
of God to be a prince and a great man among the Hebrews, and to be
famous throughout the world.” And he gave him Zipporah, his daughter, to
be his wife.[486]
One day, as Moses was tending his flock in a barren place, he saw that
one of the lambs had left the flock and was escaping. The good shepherd
pursued it, but the lamb ran so much the faster, fled through valley and
over hill, till it reached a mountain stream; then it halted and drank.
Moses now came up to it, and looked at it with troubled countenance, and
said,—
“My dear little friend! Then it was thirst which made thee run so far
and seem to fly from me; and I knew it not! Poor little creature, how
tired thou must be! How canst thou return so far to the flock?”
And when the lamb heard this, it suffered Moses to take it up and lay it
upon his shoulders; and, carrying the lamb, he returned to the flock.
Now whilst Moses walked, burdened with the lamb, there fell a voice from
heaven, “Thou, who hast shown so great love, so great patience towards
the sheep of man’s fold, thou art worthy to be called to pasture the
sheep of the fold of God.”[487]
4. MOSES BEFORE PHARAOH.
One day that Moses was keeping sheep, his father-in-law, Jethro, came to
him and demanded back the staff that he had given him. Then Moses cast
the staff from him among a number of other rods, but the staff ever
returned to his hand as often as he cast it away. Then Jethro laid hold
of the rod, but he could not move it. Therefore he was obliged to let
Moses retain it. But he was estranged from him.
Now Pharaoh was dead. And when the news reached Moses in Midian, he gat
him up, and set his wife Zipporah and his son Gershom on an ass, and
took the way of Egypt.
And as they were in the way, they halted in a certain place; and it was
cloudy, and cold, and rainy. Then they encamped, and Zipporah tried to
make a fire, but could not, for the wood was damp.
Moses said, “I see a fire burning at the foot of the mountain. I will go
to it, for there must be travellers there; and I will fetch a brand away
and will kindle a fire, and be warm.”
Then, he took his rod in his hand and went. But when he came near the
spot, he saw that the fire was not on the ground, but at the summit of a
tree; and the tree was a thorn. A thorn-tree was the first tree that
grew, when God created the herb of the field and the trees of the
forest. Moses was filled with fear, and he would have turned and fled,
but a voice[488] called to him out of the fire, “_Moses, Moses!_” And he
said, “_Here am I._” And the voice said again, “_Put off thy shoes from
off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground._” This
was the reason why he was bidden put off his shoes; they were made of
asses’ hide, and Moses had trodden on the dung of his ass as he followed
Zipporah and Gershom.
Then God gave Moses his commission to go into Egypt, and release His
captive people. But Moses feared, and said, “I am of slow lips and
tongue!” for he had burnt them, with his finger, when he took the live
coal before Pharaoh, as already related. But God said to him, “I have
given thee Aaron thy brother to speak for thee. And now, what is this
that thou hast in thy hand?”
Moses answered, “This is my rod.”
“And to what purpose dost thou turn it?”
“I lean on it when I am walking, and when I come where there is no
grass, I strike the trees therewith, and bring down the leaves to feed
my sheep withal.” And when he had narrated all the uses to which he put
the staff, God said to him, “With this staff shalt thou prevail against
Pharaoh. Cast it upon the ground.” And when he cast it down, it was
transformed into a serpent or dragon, and Moses turned his back to run
from it; but God said, “Fear not; take it up by the neck;” and he caught
it, and it became a rod in his hands. Then said the Most Holy, “Put thy
hand into thy bosom.” And he did so, and drew it forth, and it was
white, and shining like the moon in the dark of night.
Then Moses desired to go back to Zipporah his wife, but the angel
Gabriel retained him, saying, “Thou hast higher duties to perform than
to attend on thy wife. Lo! I have already reconducted her to her
father’s house. Go on upon thy way to Pharaoh, as the Lord hath
commanded thee.”
The night on which Moses entered Egyptian territory, an angel appeared
to Aaron in a dream, with a crystal glass full of good wine in his hand,
and said, as he extended it to him:—
“Aaron, drink of this wine which the Lord sends thee as a pledge of good
news. Thy brother Moses has returned to Egypt, and God has chosen him to
be His prophet, and thee to be his spokesman. Arise, and go forth to
meet him!”
Aaron therefore arose from his bed and went out of the city to the banks
of the Nile, but there was no boat there by which he could cross.
Suddenly he perceived in the distance a light which approached; and as
it drew nearer he saw that it was a horseman. It was Gabriel mounted on
a steed of fire, which shone like the brightest diamond, and whose
neighing was hymns of praise, for the steed was one of the cherubim.
Aaron at first supposed that he was pursued by one of Pharaoh’s
horsemen, and he would have cast himself into the Nile; but Gabriel
stayed him, declared who he was, mounted him on the fiery cherub, and
they crossed the Nile on his back.
There stood Moses, who, when he saw Aaron, exclaimed, “Truth is come,
Falsehood is passed.” Now this was the sign that God had given to Moses,
“_Behold he cometh to meet thee._”[489] And they rejoiced over each
other.
But another account is this: Moses entered Memphis with his sheep,
during the night. Now Amram was dead, but his wife Jochebed was alive.
When Moses reached the door, Jochebed was awake. He knocked at the door;
then she opened, but knew him not, and asked, “Who art thou?”
He answered, “I am a man from a far country; I pray thee lodge me, and
give me to eat this night.”
She took him in, and brought him some meat, and said to Aaron, “Sit down
and eat with the guest, to do him honour.” Aaron, in eating, conversed
with Moses and recognized him.
Then the mother and sister knew him also. And when the meal was over,
Moses acquitted himself of his mission to Aaron, and Aaron answered, “I
will obey the will of God.”[490]
Moses spent the night, and the whole of the following day, in relating
to his mother the things that had befallen him.
And on the second night, Moses and Aaron went forth to Pharaoh’s palace.
Now the palace had four hundred doors, a hundred on each side, and each
door was guarded by sixty thousand fighting men. The angel Gabriel came
to them and led them into the palace, but not by the doors.
When they appeared before Pharaoh, they said: “God hath sent us unto
thee to bid thee let the Hebrews go, that they may hold a feast in the
wilderness.”
But Pharaoh said, “_Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let
Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go._”[491]
Tabari tells a different story. Moses and Aaron sought admittance during
two years. Now Pharaoh gave himself out to be a god.
But Moses and Aaron, when they spake at the door with the porters, said,
“He is no god.” One day the jester of Pharaoh heard his master read the
history of his own life, and when he came to the passage which asserted
he was a god, the jester exclaimed, “Now this is strange! For two years
there have been two strangers at thy gate denying thy divinity.”
When Pharaoh heard this, he was in a fury, and he sent and had Moses and
Aaron brought before him.
But to return to the Rabbinic tale. Moses and Aaron were driven out from
the presence of Pharaoh; and he said, “Who admitted these men?” And some
of the porters he slew, and some he scourged.
Then two lionesses were placed before the palace, to protect it, and the
beasts suffered no man to enter unless Pharaoh gave the word.
And the Lord spake to Moses and Aaron, saying, “When Pharaoh talketh
with you, saying, Give us a miracle, thou shalt say to Aaron, Take thy
rod and cast it down, and it shall became a basilisk serpent; for all
the inhabitants of the earth shall hear the voice of the shriek of Egypt
when I destroy it, as all creatures heard the shriek of the serpent when
I stripped it, and took from it its legs and made it lick the dust after
the Fall.”[492]
On the morrow, Moses and Aaron came again to the king’s palace, and the
lionesses would have devoured them. Then Moses raised his staff, and
their chains brake, and they followed him, barking like dogs, into the
house.[493]
When Moses and Aaron stood before the king, Aaron cast down the rod
before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent, which
opened its jaws, and it laid one jaw beneath the throne, and its upper
jaw was over the canopy above it; then the servants fled from before it,
and Pharaoh hid himself beneath his throne, and the fear it caused him
gave him bowel-complaint for a week. Now before this Pharaoh was only
moved once a week, and this was the occasion of his being lifted up with
pride, and giving himself out to be a god.[494]
Pharaoh cried out from under the throne, “O Moses, take hold of the
serpent, and I will do what you desire.”[495]
Moses took hold of the serpent, and it became a rod in his hands. Then
Pharaoh crawled out from under his throne, and sat down upon it. And
Moses put his hand into his bosom, and when he drew it forth, it shone
like the moon.
The king sent for his magicians, and the chief of these were Jannes and
Jambres. He told them what Moses had done.
They said, “We can turn a thousand rods into serpents.”
Then the king named a day when Moses and Aaron on one side should strive
with Jannes and Jambres[496] and all the magicians on the other; and he
gave them a month to prepare for the contest.
On the day appointed—it was Pharaoh’s birthday—all the inhabitants of
Memphis were assembled in a great plain outside the city, where lists
were staked out, and the royal tent was spread for the king to view the
contest.
Moses and Aaron stood on one side and the magicians on the other.
The latter said, “Shall we cast our rods, or will you?”
Moses answered, “Do you cast your rods first.”
Then the magicians threw down a hundred ass-loads of rods, tied the rods
together with cords, and by their enchantment caused them to appear to
the spectators like serpents, leaping and darting from one side of the
arena to the other.
And all the people were filled with fear, and the magicians said, “We
have this day triumphed over Moses.”
Then the prophet of God cast his rod before Pharaoh, and it became a
mighty serpent. It rolled its tail round the throne of the king, and it
shot forth its head, and swallowed all the rods of the enchanters, so
that there remained not one.
After that all had disappeared, Moses took the serpent, and it became a
rod in his hand again, but all the rods of the magicians had vanished.
And when the magicians saw the miracle that Moses had wrought, they were
converted, and worshipped the true God. But Pharaoh cut off their hands
and feet, and crucified them; and they died. Pharaoh’s own daughter
Maschita believed; and the king in his rage did not spare her, but cast
her into a fire, and she was burnt. Bithia was also denounced to him,
and she was condemned to the flames, but the angel Gabriel delivered
her. The Mussulmans say that he consoled her by telling her that she
would become the wife of Mohammed in Paradise, after which he gave her
to drink, and when she had tasted, she died without pain.
Then Moses and Aaron met Pharaoh in the morning as he went by the side
of the river, and Moses said to the king, “_The Lord of the Hebrews hath
sent me unto thee, saying, Let My people go, that they may serve Me in
the wilderness._”
But Pharaoh would not hearken to him. Then Aaron stretched out his rod
over the river, and it became blood.
All the water that was in the vessels also became blood, even the
spittle that was in the mouth of the Egyptians. The Rabbi Levi said that
by this means the Israelites realized large fortunes; for if an
Israelite and an Egyptian went together to the Nile to fetch water, the
vessel of the Egyptian was found to contain blood, but that of the
Israelite pure water; but if an Israelite brought water to the house of
an Egyptian and sold it, it remained water.[497]
But Pharaoh’s heart was hard; and seven days passed, after that the Lord
had smitten the river.
Then went Moses and Aaron to him. But the four hundred doors of the
palace were guarded by bears, lions, and other savage beasts, so that
none might pass, till they were satisfied with flesh. But Moses and
Aaron came up, collected them together, drew a circle round them with
the sacred staff, and the wild beasts licked the feet of the prophets
and followed them into the presence of Pharaoh.[498]
Moses and Aaron repeated their message to Pharaoh, but he would not
hearken to them, but drove them from his presence. Aaron smote the
river; but Moses on no occasion smote the Nile, for he respected the
river which had saved his life as a babe.[499] Then the Lord brought
frogs upon the land, and filled all the houses; they were in the beds,
on the tables, in the cups. And the king sent for Moses and said:
“_Intreat the Lord, that He may take the frogs from me and from my
people._” So the Lord sent a great rain, and it washed the frogs into
the Red Sea.
The next plague was lice.[500]
The fourth plague was wild beasts.
The fifth was murrain.
The sixth was boils and blains upon man and beast.[501]
The seventh was hail and tempest. Now Job regarded the word of Moses,
and he brought his cattle within doors, and they were saved; but Balaam
regarded it not, and all his cattle were destroyed.[502]
The eighth was locusts; these the Egyptians fried, and laid by in store
to serve them for food; but when the west wind came to blow the locusts
away, it blew away also those that had been pickled and laid by for
future consumption.[503]
The ninth plague was darkness.
The tenth was the death of the first-born.
The Book of Jasher says that, the Egyptians having closed their doors
and windows against the plagues of flies, and locusts, and lice, God
sent the sea-monster Silinoth, a huge polypus with arms ten cubits long,
and the beast climbed upon the roofs and broke them up, and let down its
slimy arms, and unlatched all the doors and windows, and threw them open
for the flies and locusts and lice to enter.[504]
But the Mohammedans give a different order to the signs:—(1) the rod
changed into a serpent; (2) the whitened hand; (3) the famine; (4) a
deluge, the Nile rose over the land so that every man stood in water up
to his neck; (5) locusts; (6) anommals,—these are two-legged animals
smaller than locusts; (7) blood; (8) frogs; (9) every green thing
throughout the land, all fruit, all grain, eggs, and everything in the
houses were turned to stone.[505]
After the plague of the darkness, Pharaoh resolved on a general massacre
of all the children of the Hebrews. The Mussulmans put the temporary
petrifaction of all in the land in the place of the darkness. The Book
of Exodus says that during the darkness “_they saw not one another,
neither rose any from his place_;” but the Arabs say that they were
turned to stone. Here might be seen a petrified man with a balance in
his hand sitting in the bazaar; there, another stone man counting out
money; and the porters at the palace were congealed to marble with their
swords in their hands.[506] But others say that this was a separate
plague, and that the darkness followed it.
And now Gabriel took on him the form of a servant of the king, and he
went before him and asked him what was his desire.
“That vile liar Moses deserves death,” said Pharaoh.
“How shall I slay him?” asked Gabriel.
“Let him be cast into the water.”
“Give me a written order,” said the angel. Pharaoh did so.
Then Gabriel went to Moses and told him that the time was come when he
was to leave Egypt with all the people, for the measure of the iniquity
of Pharaoh was filled up, and the Lord would destroy him with a signal
overthrow.
5. THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.
The Israelites had made their preparations to depart out of Egypt a
month before the call came to escape.
And when all was ready, Moses called together the elders of the people
and said to them, “When Joseph died, he ordered his descendants to take
up his bones, or ever they went out of the land, and to bear them to the
cave of Machpelah, where lie the bones of his father Jacob. Where are
the bones of Joseph?”
The elders answered him, “We do not know.”
Now there was an old Egyptian woman, named Miriam, and she believed in
the Lord. She said to Moses, “I will show thee where is the tomb of
Joseph, if thou wilt swear unto me that thou wilt take me with thee from
Egypt, and that thou wilt ask the Most High to admit me into Paradise.”
Moses said, “I will do these things that thou askest.”
Then the woman said, “The tomb of Joseph is in the middle of the river
Nile, which flows through Memphis, at such a spot.”
Moses prayed to God, and the water fell till the bed of the river was
left dry; and then he and the woman went into it, and came on the tomb
of Joseph; it was a sarcophagus of marble without joints.[507]
Moses made preparations for departure, and said to the children of
Israel, “God will destroy the Egyptians, and will give you their
precious things.”
Then every one among the Hebrews who had an Egyptian neighbour said to
him, if he was rich: “I am going to a feast in the country, I pray thee
lend me jewels of gold and silver to adorn my wife and children.”
The Egyptians lent their precious things, and the Israelites by this
means found themselves possessed of borrowed jewels in great abundance.
Then Moses said, “We will leave Egypt this night when the Egyptians are
asleep. Let every housekeeper softly desert his house, and bring with
him his precious things, and meet outside the town. And let every one
slay a lamb, and sprinkle with the blood the lintel and door-posts of
the house, that the neighbours may know, when they see the blood, that
the house is empty.”
When the middle of the night was passed, the Israelites were assembled
outside Memphis, at the place which Moses had appointed. Then the host
was numbered, and it contained six hundred thousand horsemen, not
including those who were on foot, the women, the children, and the aged.
All who were under twenty were accounted infants, and all who were over
sixty were accounted aged.
After that, Moses placed Aaron in command of the first battalion, and he
said to him, “March in the direction of the sea, for Gabriel has
promised to meet me on its shores.” At that time one branch of the Nile
(the Pelusiac branch) flowed into the Red Sea, which extended over where
is now sandy desert to Migdol.
Moses made the host follow Aaron, troop by troop, and tribe by tribe;
and he brought up the rear with a strong guard of picked men.
It was dawning towards the first day of the week when Israel escaped out
of Egypt.
And when day broke, behold, they were gone away. Then the Egyptians came
and told Pharaoh. He sent to search all the houses of the Israelites,
but they were all empty, only their lamps were left burning. Pharaoh
said, “We will pursue them.” The Egyptians said, “They have borrowed our
jewels; we must follow after them, and recover what is our own.”
Now Moses had used craft touching these ornaments, in order that the
Egyptians might be constrained to follow. For if the Israelites had gone
without these, the Egyptians would have rejoiced at their departure. But
because they had borrowed of the Egyptians, therefore the Egyptians went
after them to recover their ornaments, and by this means rushed into
destruction.
And Israel marched all day through the wilderness protected by seven
clouds of glory on their four sides: one above them, that neither hail
nor rain might fall upon them, nor that they should be burned by the
heat of the sun; one beneath them, that they might not be hurt by
thorns, serpents, or scorpions; and one went before them, to make the
valleys even, and the mountains low, and to prepare them a place of
habitation.[508]
Also, when the morning dawned, there was not a house in all Egypt in
which there was not a first-born dead. And this delayed the people from
pursuing after the Israelites; for they were engaged in bewailing their
dead, and in digging graves for them. Thus they were not at leisure to
follow after their former slaves, till they had escaped clean away.
Also that night was every metal image in Egypt molten, and every idol of
stone was broken, and every idol of clay was shattered, and every idol
of wood was dissolved to dust.[509]
The same day Pharaoh sent into all the cities of Egypt and collected an
army. When even was come the whole army was assembled about the king,
and Pharaoh said to Dathan and Abiram, who had remained behind,[510]
“The Israelites are few in number, _they are entangled in the land, the
wilderness hath shut them in_.” For all the way was full of marshes and
canals of water and desert tracts. “They have acted wrongly by us, for
they have carried away the ornaments and jewels of our people; and
Moses, by magic, has slain all our first-born, so that there is not a
house in which there is not one dead.”
On the morrow—it was the second day of the week—the army was reviewed,
and Pharaoh numbered the host, and he had six hundred chosen chariots,
and two million foot soldiers, and five million horsemen, and, in
addition, there were one million seven hundred thousand horses, and on
these horses were black men.
When the sun rose on the third day, Pharaoh marched out of Memphis, and
he pursued for half a day with forced marches. At noon, Pharaoh had come
up with Moses, and the fore-front of Pharaoh’s army thrust the
rear-guard of the army of Moses. Then the children of Israel cried unto
the Lord, and they said to Moses, “_Because there were no graves in
Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast
thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?_”
They were divided into four opinions. One set said, “Let us fling
ourselves into the sea.” Another set said, “Let us return and surrender
ourselves.” The third set said, “Let us array battle against the
Egyptians.” The fourth recommended, “Let us shout against them, and
frighten them away with our clamour.”[511]
And Moses said unto the people, “_Fear ye not, stand still, and see the
salvation of the Lord. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold
your peace._”[512]
Then Moses raised his rod over the sea, and it divided, and let twelve
channels of dry land appear traversing it, one for each of the twelve
tribes. “When Moses had smitten,” says the Koran, “the sea divided into
twelve heaps, and left twelve ways through it, and each heap was as a
great mountain.”[513]
The Israelites hesitated to enter; for they said, “O Moses! the bottom
of this sea is black mud, and when we place our feet on it we shall sink
in and be swallowed up.”
But Moses prayed to God, and He sent a wind and the rays of the sun, and
the wind and the sun dried the mud, and it became as sand.
Then Gabriel and Michael appeared to Moses, and said, “Pass on, and lead
the people through. As for us, we have orders to tarry for Pharaoh.” So
Moses galloped forward into the sea, crying, “In the name of the
merciful and glorious God!” and all the people went in after him. But as
they marched by twelve ways, and there were walls of water between, they
could not see each other, and they were in fear; therefore Moses prayed
to the Lord, and the Lord made the water-heaps rise and arch over them
like bowers, and shelter them from the fire of the sun; and He made the
watery walls so clear they were as sheets of glass, and through them the
columns of the advancing army were visible to each other.
Moses traversed the sea in two hours, and he came forth with all the
people on the other side.
Then Pharaoh and his host came to the water’s side, but he feared to
enter in. Now Pharaoh was mounted on an entire horse of great beauty. He
reined in his steed and would not go forward, for he thought that this
was part of the enchantment of Moses.