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iv. J. T. Chenoweth

Jno. F. Chenoweth,

Men of the Bible,
Their Lives and Times.

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Abraham. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A.
Daniel. By Rev. H. Deane, B.D.
David. By Rev. "W. J. Dean, M.A.
Elijah. By Prof. W. Milligan, D.D.
Ezra and Nehemiah. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson.
Gideon and Judges. By Rev. J. M. Lang, D.D.
Isaac and Jacob. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson.
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Jeremiah. By Rev. Canon Cheyne, D.D.
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Moses. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson, M.A.
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flDen of tbe Bible
MOSES
HIS LIFE AND TIMES

George Rawlinson, M.A.
Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford, and
Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Turin ;
Author of u The Five Great Monarchies of the
Ancient Eastern World," Etc., Etc.

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York Chicago Toronto
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PREFACE.

The materials for a life of Moses are found chiefly In the four
later Books of the Pentateuch. The New Testament also con
tributes some valuable notices, especially Acts vii. and Hebrews
xi. Next to them in value, but next at an interval that is scarcely
measurable, come the accounts given by Josephus and Philo.
Moses is the hero of Josephus's Second, Third, and Fourth Books,
which present to us the circumstances of his life with a con
siderable amount of detail, but do not add very much to the
scriptural narrative, except at the two extremes of Moses'
career, his early years and his decease. Different estimates
may be formed of the degree of credit to be attached to
these portions of Josephus's history, and it requires, beyond a
doubt, much critical acumen to deal with them properly, neither
accepting nor rejecting them en bloc. The same may be said
of the notices to be found in the writings of Philo. Philo
has left us a work entitled, " The Life of Moses " (Ifcpi Biov
Mufflue), which contains interesting accounts of his education
and personal appearance ; and in several of his other treatises
he gives estimates of Moses' character and abilities. A passage
of Artapanus, preserved by Eusebius, is entitled to consideration.
Many legends have clustered round the name of Moses, some
Jewish, others Mahometan ; but these are almost wholly worth
less, and throughout the following pages, excepting in a single
instance, no notice has been taken of them. The writer's strong
conviction has been that it is from Scripture, almost entirely, if
not entirely, that we must learn the facts of Moses' life, and
deduce our estimate of his character. He believes that in the
four later Books of the Pentateuch we have an actual, though
rot an intentional, autob:ography. Without going the length
of saying that the whole of Deuteronomy is the composition of
Moses, he regards it as a faithful report of discourses held by
Moses during the later portion of his life, collected after his

iv PREFACE.
death by Joshua or Eleazar into a volume. And he has not
the slightest doubt that Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, were
written, almost as we have them, by Moses himself. Moses is
thus portrayed to us by his own hand in these three Books, and
in Deuteronomy by the hand of a contemporary ; and the truth
concerning him is best arrived at by a close scrutiny of the
scriptural narrative.
Materials for a description of the " times " of Moses exist
now in enormous quantities through the interpretation of the
hieroglyphic inscriptions, and of the other native Egyptian
documents. They are contained in the works of Lepsius,
Wilkinson, Rosellini, Mariette, Brugsch, Birch, Chabas, Stuart
Poole, and others. The difficulty here has been that of selection.
In a work limited to two hundred pages, the author found it
necessary to contract within a painfully narrow space his notices
of the contemporary history of the manners, customs, and re
ligion of Egypt ; while of the grand buildings executed by the
Egyptian monarchs, amongst which Moses was brought up, he
could only allow himself the briefest and most general de
scription. Similarly, with respect to Moses' life in the wilderness,
and to the geographical problems involved in the wanderings,
he found it impossible within the limits assigned him to enter
into details, or to attempt more than some general portraiture
of the Sinaitic region, and the life of its ancient inhabitants.
For this portion of his essay he is largely indebted to the
labours of Stanley, Tristram, Robinson, Trumbull, Porter, and
the travellers whose works have been published under the
auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Recent com
mentaries, as the " Speaker's," the " Pulpit Commentary," and
that sanctioned by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, have
also been laid under contribution, and have afforded valuable
aid. Among general histories of the time, he has derived the
greatest assistance from the late Dean Stanley's " History of
the Jewish Church," which, though not faultless, is a work of
sterling merit. Ewald's History seems tohim far inferior ; and
the other accounts given of Moses in Cyclopaedias and Biblicai
Dictionaries add nothing of any value to the researches and
reflections of the two above-mentioned writer*.
Oxford, g> r
February 27, 1887.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER L
Israel in Egypt .......... i
Jacob's descent into Egypt : Joseph's position : Circumstances of
Egypt at the time — Joseph's Pharaoh, Apepi — Israel after Joseph's
death — Commencement of the severe oppression ; its nature-
Edict issued to destroy all the male infants.
CHAPTER II.
Birth of Moses  • .... 13
Moses' parents ; their position ; their place of abode — His sister,
Miriam — His elder brother, Aaron — Aaron's birth had not needed
to be concealed — Concealment of the birth of Moses — Plan to
save him when further concealment was impossible — The plan
skilfully carried out CHAPTER IIL
Moses' Childhood  . . * . ai

/Name given to the saved child — His early life at the Court — Im-
/pressions made on him by bis surroundings — His intercourse
' with his own family — Story told of his trampling on the
' Pharaoh's crown — His beauty, spirit, and intelligence.
CHAPTER IV.

Education

The physical training of Moses — Egyptian athletic games — Early
instruction — Reading and writing — Egyptian writing involved a
training in art — Arithmetic — Music and rhythm — Later instruc
tion — University of Heliopolis — Subjects of the University course
— Geometry — Literature — Astronomy — Law— Medicine — Philo
sophy of Symbolism — Position of Moses among the students.

vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V
Earlt Manhood of Moses .... . . • 4>
Anomalous position of an adopted foundling at the Egyptian
Court — Annoyances to which Moses would be subjected — Courses
of life which would naturally be open to him — The official life—
The literary life— The life of a soldier ; its attractions at the time
— Grounds for concluding that Moses adopted the military life —
Training which it involved — Moses in the Hittite wars — Account
given by Josephus of Moses' successes against the Ethiopians —
The account criticized.
CHAPTER VI
The Great Decision  51
Prospects of Moses after the Ethiopian expedition — His leaning
towards his brethren — His " tour of inspection "' — His remon
strances in high quarters ineffectual — Two possible courses open
to him — The great decision — Moses casts in his lot with his breth
ren — His efforts to help them — His hasty homicide — His danger
— His flight eastward — His arrival in Midian.
CHAPTER VII.
Moses in Midian  ...61
Country occupied by the Midianites — Position of Reuel among
them — Position of Moses— Character of the Sinaitic region —
Desolation — Silence — Occasional sand-storms — Silence of the
nights — Moses' life in the desert a preparation for his subsequent
career — Few circumstances of his life known to us — Names of
his sons and explanation of them — Egyptian story of Saneha
illustrates this part of the history of Moses.
CHAPTER VIII
The Return to Egypt  ....7a
Events in Egypt during the absence of Moses — Peace made with
the Hittites— Peace cemented by an intermarriage — Attention of
Ramesses II. turned to the construction of great works — Increased
sufferings of the Israelites — Death of Ramesses II. — His cha
racter — Menephthah continues the oppression — God's appearance
to Moses in the bush — His call — His resistance to the call— The
Sunishment of his resistance — The ground of it — Relations of
loses with Jethro — He is allowed to depart, but lingers  Picture
of his departure — His dangerous illness and its consequences 
His meeting with Aaron.

CHAPTER IX.
The Long Struggle with Pharaoh .

8|

The two brothers convene the elders of Israel — Their mission
accepted— Their first appearance before Pharaoh, and the risk

CONTENT . vil
rAGi
they ran — The demand and its rejection — Pharaoh Increases
the oppression — Moses" appeal to God and God's answer — Second
interview betwen the two brothers and the king — Contest with the
magicians begins — The First Plague : Pharaoh unmoved by it —
The Second, or Plague of Frogs : Pharaoh relents, but recovers
himself — The Third, or Plague of Lice : the magicians give way,
but the Pharaoh is unmoved — The Fourth, or Plague of Beetles :
Pharaoh gives permission, but retracts it — The Fifth, or Plague
of Murrain — The Sixth, or Plague of Boils — The Seventh, or
Plague of Hail : Pharaoh again yields, but retracts — The Eighth,
or Plague of Locusts — The Ninth, or Plague of Darkness — The
Tenth, or Death of the First-born — Pharaoh drives Israel out

CHAPTER X. !
The Passage of the Red Sea .. ~ .... 119
The gathering — The number that came together— The halt at
Succoth— Change in the direction of the march — Encampment at
Migdol — Peril of the position and faith of Moses — Regret of
Pharaoh — His pursuit of Israel — Terror of the Israelites — Move
ment of the Pillar of the Cloud — Passage of the sea by Israel —
The Egyptians pursue — Their difficulties — Destruction of the entire
army — Completeness of the deliverance — Credit which attaches
to Moses in respect of it — Moses' Song of Triumph.

CHAPTER XL
The Struggle with Amalak  • . 13a
The Sinaitic Peninsula— Its geography— Its population in the
early Egyptian period — Its early history — The population in
Moses" time — The Kenites— The Amalekites — Natural hostility of
the latter to Israel— Their guerilla warfare— The great fight at
Rephiditn— Part taken by Moses— Results of the victory, and com
memoration of it

CHAPTER XII.
MOSES AT SlNAI 

Sinai ; its geographical feature — God's manifestation of Himself 143
to Israel there, directly, through the elders, and through Moses —
Abiding proof of the last-named manifestation in the light that
shone from Moses' countenance — Purpose of the manifestations —
The legislation of Sinai, not from, but only through Moses— Indi
viduality of Moses strongly marked in his conduct at Sinai— His
reverence— His care for the people — His indignation at their
apostasy — His severe punishment of it — His subsequent interces
sion for his people— His stupendous act of self-devotion and its
consequences, to the people, to himself— Exaltation of the cha
racter of Moses after Sinai.

viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII PAGB
Hebrew Abt in Moses' Time • • • *5S
Hebrew Art more advanced than might have appeared probable-
Possible derivation of some of it from Chaldea— Artificers needed
by nomadic tribes— Advances which Hebrew Art would naturally
have made in Egypt— Egyptian and Hebrew Metallurgy— Car
pentry — Textile industry — Embroidery — Tanning and dyeing of
leather — Gem-cutting and gem-engraving — Confection of spices
and unguents— General Egyptian character of Hebrew Art in
Moses' time — Exceptions — Hebrew eclecticism.
CHAPTER XIV.
Moses as Ruler . . . . ;  167
Difficulties of the situation — Disorganization— Judges appointed
by the advice of Jethro — Perversity of the Israelites — Their con
stant murmurings — Moses but little helped by his subordinates —
Conduct of Aaron and Miriam — Relations of Moses with Joshua
and Phinehas — The true support of Moses, the Theocracy — Its
nature — Mildness and unselfishness of Moses.
CHAPTER XV.
Later Years of Moses ......... 174
Departure of the Israelites from Sinai — Route to Kadesh-Barnea
— Kibroth-hattaavah and the troubles there— Hazeroth and the
sin of Miriam — First arrival at Kadesh — The spies and their re
port — The sin of the people, and the sentence on it — Israel
smitten by Amalek — The thirty-eight years of penal wandering —
Israel hardened and braced by them — Rebellion of Korah and
its consequences — Return to Kadesh — Death of Miriam — Sin of
Moses and Aaron, and death of Aaron — War with Arad — War
with the Amorites — Sihon — Og— Conquest of the Trans-jordanic
region — War with Midian and Moab — Part taken in it by Balaam
— Moses at Abel-Shittim — He exhorts the people — His appoint
ment of Joshua as his successor — His injunctions respecting the
Book of the Law — His last words — The Song of Warning — The
Song of Blessing — Extracts. CHAPTER XVI.
Moses' Death  ....19S
The ascent of Pisgah — The view from it — Hebrew legend of the
circumstances of Moses' death— Actual circumstances unknown-
Place of sepulture unknown— Chief characteristics of Moses— His
faithful service of God — His '* meekness " — His trust in God 
His unselfishness — Conclusion.

CHAPTER L
ISRAEL IN EGYPT.
Jacob's descent Into Egypt : Joseph's position : Circumstances of Egypt
at the time — Joseph's Pharaoh, Apepi — Israel after Joseph's death —
Commencement of the severe oppression ; its nature — Edict issued to
destroy all the male infants.
The circumstances of the birth and early life of Moses, and his
position in Egypt, cannot be set forth intelligibly without some
previous consideration of the historical antecedents whereby
those circumstances were brought about, and that position
rendered possible. The historical antecedents were strange
and abnormal. Three hundred and fifty years before Moses
was born, there had arrived in Egypt a band of immigrants
from Palestine, amounting to several hundreds, or perhaps to
some thousands, who had been permitted to become permanent
settlers. Their advent was not unexpected. The great
minister of a great Egyptian king had received instructions
from the monarch to invite into Egypt his father, his eleven
brothers, and their households (Gen. xlv. 17, 18). He had
done so, and they had taken advantage of the invitation, and
traversed the desert which divides Palestine from Egypt in a
huge caravan, bringing with them their flocks and their herds,
their asses, their tents and their tent-furniture, their women and
their children, their bond-slaves, and "all that they had." It
is not an unreasonable calculation of Dean Payne Smith's,
that they numbered altogether three thousand souls.' The
"household" (fapA), according to the Hebrew idea, included
• " Bampton Lectures," p. 80.

2 MOSES.
not merely wife and children, but men-servants and maid-
servants, dependents and retainers, even hirelings who might
quit the service and go elsewhere when it pleased them. The
household of Abraham, when he went in pursuit of Chedor-
laomer, comprised three hundred and eighteen adult males,
capable of bearing arms, who had all been "born in his house"
(Gen. xiv. 14). His taph must altogether have exceeded twelve
hundred persons. Jacob's is not likely to have been less ; and
if we allow his eleven sons, who were all grown up and had
families, an average of two hundred a-piece, their taphs would
have amounted to two thousand two hundred, giving a total for
the immigrants of three thousand four hundred. That so large
a body should be favourably received need not excite surprise.
Egypt was always open to refugees from foreign lands, and the
circumstances of the time were such as secured this particular
body of immigrants a warm welcome.
The chief of these circumstances was their kinsman's,
Joseph's, position. Joseph had been recognized by the Pharaoh
of the time as "a man in whom the Spirit of God was" (Gen.
xii. 38) — a man " discreet and wise " above all others (verse 39).
He had not only been granted the highest honours that the
Egyptian monarchs ever allowed to a subject, but he had been
made actual ruler of the whole land under the king. He had
employed his extraordinary powers wisely and well, had made
provision for carrying Egypt safely through a period of extreme
difficulty, and had greatly enriched the royal treasury by his
arrangements. There was scarcely any favour within reason
able bounds that the successful minister could ask which the
king was likely to refuse to him. He " was a father to Pharaoh,
and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of
Egypt " (Gen. xlv. 8). Moreover, it is perhaps not too much to
say, that personal intercourse with his minister had produced a
real feeling of friendliness and attachment between the two, and
had disposed the Pharaoh to make spontaneous efforts to afford
gratification to his loved and trusted adviser. In the particular
case of which we are speaking, Joseph was not actually obliged
to prefer any petition. He expressed to his brethren his desires
respecting them, and his words having been reported to the
Court, the Pharaoh came forward voluntarily, without being
asked, and proposed to his minister that he should send his
brethren to fetch their father and their households, adding of

ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 3
his own account the suggestion, that they should be supplied
with wheeled vehicles for the conveyance of their wives and
" little ones " (Gen. xlv. 19). So anxious was he to please his
minister and anticipate his wishes.
The condition of Egypt was also such that a body of immi
grants from the quarter from which the family of Jacob came
could not be otherwise than welcome. Egypt had been con
quered, some centuries before the time of Joseph, by a nomadic
race from Asia, of pastoral habits. The conquest had been
accompanied with extreme cruelty and violence ; wherever the
nomads triumphed, the males of full age had been massacred,
the women and children reduced to slavery, the cities burnt,
the temples demolished, the images of the gods thrown to the
ground. An oppressive and tyrannical rule had been established.
The old Egyptians, the native African race, were bowed down
beneath the yoke of unsympathetic aliens. Although by
degrees the manners of the conquerors became softened,
and, as so often happens, the rude invaders conformed them
selves more and more, in language, habits, and methods of
thought, to the pattern set them by their more civilized
subjects, yet, so far as feelings and sentiments were concerned,
a wide gulf still separated the two. Like the Aryan Persians
under the rule of the Parthians, like the native Chinese under
the Mantchu Tartars, the Egyptians groaned and repined in
secret, and persistently nurtured the hope of one day re-asserting
their independence. Nor were their foreign masters unaware
of these feelings. They knew themselves to be detested ; they
were conscious of the volcano under their feet ; they lived in
expectation of an outbreak, and were always engaged in making
preparations against it. In this condition of affairs, each band
of immigrants from Asia, especially if of nomadic habits, was
regarded as an accession of strength, and was therefore
welcomed and treated with favour. Shepherds were "an
abomination" to the real native Egyptians. To the Hyks6s
kings, who held the dominion of Egypt, shepherds were con
genial, and Asiatic shepherds, more or less akin to their own
race, were viewed as especially trustworthy and reliable.
Hence the warmth of Pharaoh's welcome. When Joseph
introduced his brethren to the monarch, and, in answer to the
question, " What is your occupation ? " they replied — " Thy
servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers, thy servants'

4 HOSES.
trade has been about cattle from our youth even until now — for
to sojourn in the land we are come ; for thy servants have no
pasture for their flocks ; now therefore, we pray thee, let thy
servants dwell in the land of Goshen," the Pharaoh's words
to Joseph were—" Thy father and thy brethren are come unto
thee ; the land of Egypt is before thee ; in the best of the land .
make thy father and thy brethren to dwell ; in the land of
Goshen let them dwell; and if thou knowest any men of
activity amongst them, then make them rulers over my cattle "
(Gen. xlvii. 5, 6).
The particular king, moreover, who at the time of Jacob's
entrance into Egypt occupied the throne, had reasons for being
especially drawn towards the nomadic tribe, which under their
sheikh, Jacob, solicited his favour. George the Syncellus tells
us, that there was a universal consensus of historians with re
spect to the fact, that the monarch who raised Joseph to power
was the Shepherd King, Apepi. He does not say, as some
have made him say,' that the synchronism was generally agreed
upon by the ecclesiastical historians ; but that it was "agreed
upon by all " *¦ — i.e., by all the historians with whose works he
was acquainted. Among these were certainly Abydenus,
Apollodorus, Eratosthenes, Alexander Polyhistor, the friend
of Sulla, Zosimus of Panopolis, Africanus, Annianus, and
Panodorus, possibly also many others, some Christian, some
heathen, some writers on Church subjects, some authors of
purely secular histories. The tradition, thus strongly sup
ported, receives confirmation from Egyptian chronology, which
places an interval of four hundred years between the time of
Apepi and a late year in the reign of the second Ramesses,3
while Hebrew chronology places an interval of four hundred
and thirty years between Jacob's entrance into Egypt and the
Exodus, which belongs to the reign of Rame? ses the Second's
son. But if Apepi was the king to whom Joseph owed his elevation,
there would have been in his religion a fresh bond between him
and his minister, and a fresh ground for his sympathizing
warmly with the new immigrants. Apepi was a monotheist.
One peculiarity of the Hyksos period, belonging especially td
« Bunsen, " Egypt's Place in Universal History, '¦ vol. ii. p. 438.
• " Chronographia," p. 62, B ; p. 69, C.
s •' Records of the Past," voL iv. p. 36.

ISRAEL IN EGYPT. j
Its later portion, is to be found in the religious views professed,
proclaimed, and enjoined upon subject princes. Apepi, accord
ing to the MS. known as 'the First Sallier Papyrus,' made a
great movement in Lower Egypt in favour of monotheism.
Whereas previously the Shepherd Kings had allowed among
their subjects, if they had not even practised themselves, the
worship of a multitude of gods, Apepi 'took to himself a
single god for lord, refusing to serve any other god in the
whole land. According to the Egyptian writer of the MS., the
name under which he worshipped his god was Sutech ; and
some writers have supposed that he chose this god out of the
existing Egyptian Pantheon, because he was the god of the
North, where his own dominion lay. But Sutech, though
undoubtedly he had a place in the Egyptian Pantheon from
very ancient times, seems to have been essentially an Asiatic
god, the special deity of the Hittite nation, with which there is
reason to believe that the Shepherd Kings were closely con
nected. Apepi, moved by a monotheistic impulse, selected
Sutech, we should suppose, rather out of his own gods than out
of the Egyptian deities, and determined that, whatever had
been the case previously, henceforth he would renounce poly
theism, and worship one only lord and god, the god long known
to his nation, and to his own ancestors, under the name above
mentioned. Apepi's monotheism was a bond of union be
tween him and the family of Joseph, and may well have
been among the grounds of the especial favour which he
accorded to them.
Apepi placed the Israelites " in the best of the land — in the
land of Goshen " — probably the alluvial district on the eastern
side of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which verged upon the
desert, and was a good pasturage country, where the royal
cattle were pastured (Gen. xlvii. 6). At first the Israelites
would occupy but a small portion of the district ; but as they
began to "multiply exceedingly" (Gen. xlvii. 27), they must
have spread further and further to the west and south, favoured
still by Apepi, and even after his death protected by the pres
tige of Joseph, whose prudent and successful administration of
the country could not easily have been forgotten, and who, if
deposed by Apepi's successor, must still have been a power
and an influence in the country. The weight and consideration
that attached to Joseph until his death, and even afterwards, is

6 MOSES.
indicated in the Scriptural narrative by the contrast drawn
between the earlier and the later period of the Egyptian sojourn,
after a " king arose, which knew not Joseph."
But the change in the condition and treatment of the Israelites
by the rulers of the country was probably very slow and gradual.
According to the Hebrew text of Exod. xii. 40, 41, a space of
nearly four centuries and a half intervened between the entrance
of the children of Israel into Egypt and their exodus under the
leadership of Moses ; and, although the real duration of the
period is disputed,1 the balance of probability is in favour of
this long term rather than of a shorter one. The growth of a
tribe, numbering even three thousand persons, into a nation of
above two millions, abnormal and remarkable if it took place
within a period of four hundred and thirty years, would be
still more strange and astonishing if the space of time were
seriously curtailed. The ten generations between Jacob and
Joshua (1 Chron. vii. 22-27), who was a grown man at the
time of the Exodus, require a term of four centuries rather
than one of two. Egyptian chronology also favours the longer
period. Adopting it, we must divide the Egyptian sojourn into
three portions — one of about seventy years, during which the
Israelites enjoyed the powerful protection of Joseph ; a second
of about two hundred and sixty years, during which they
were " afflicted," but did not suffer any very severe oppression j
and a third of about a century, throughout which their "lives
were made bitter, and all their service, wherein the Egyptians
made them serve, was with rigour " (Exod. i. 14).
The chief event of the first period must have been the death
of Apepi, or his expulsion from Egypt by the great founder of
the eighteenth dynasty, Aahmes. Apepi, in his later years,
alarmed at the growing power of Thebes under the Ra-Sekenens,
picked a quarrel with the reigning Theban monarch, Taa-ken,
and engaged in a war with the native Egyptians of the Upper
Country, in which he ultimately suffered complete defeat. He
had to retire upon his frontier city, Auaris, where he was at
tacked by Taa-ken's successor, Aahmes, who after a time took
the city, and drove out the entire body of the invaders (or, rather,
of their descendants), who had made themselves masters of
Egypt under Saites. It would be interesting to know whether
the Israelites were called upon to take part in this war, and, if
• See Mr. Deane's " Abraham : His Life and Times," pp. 81-84.

ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 7
so, what response they made to the call ; but unluckily history
is silent on these points, and we are left to conjecture. One
thing alone is evident. They did not throw in their lot with the
Hyks6s. Engaged under them in the quiet pursuits of pasturing
cattle, and perhaps to some extent of agriculture, they were
probably unwilling to take up arms, and perhaps were not even
called upon to do so. Hence, they did not suffer expulsion
The victorious party under Aahmes left the harmless shepherds
in possession of their rich pasturages, and Goshen continued
to be inhabited by the descendants of Jacob. As time went on
and they multiplied, Goshen must have become more and more
thickly peopled ; Vat the land was rich, the shepherds prospered,
and in any times o, :;rrVrilty they had a great and powerful pro
tector in Joseph.
The death of Joseph, which ushered in the second period,
must have at once sensibly affected the position of the descen
dants of Jacob. They had no longer an advocate among the
great of the land, to look after their interests, intervene on
their behalf when needful, and call the attention of those in
power to any grievance of which they might have to complain.
Joseph's position must have been high, even to the end of his
life, as we see by the long continuance of his memory (Exod. i. 8).
But his position was not inherited by either of his sons, or by
any descendant, though Ephraim and Manasseh, as grandsons
of a High Priest of On, must certainly have been persons of
some consideration, even after their father's decease. The old
Egyptian prejudice against shepherds would cause the Israelites
to be looked down upon and shunned, while their foreign des
cent and the fact that they had been the protdgis of the Hyksos
would also tend to lower them in the public esteem. It was
probably not very long after Joseph's death that the "affliction,"
or ill-usage, commenced which had been foretold to Abraham
(Gen. xv. 13). The Israelites began to be treated by their rulers
and by the upper classes of the Egyptians much as the fellahin
of the present day are treated by their Turkish masters. They
were despised, regarded as of small account, tyrannized over,
struck upon occasions. As they grew in numbers Goshen be
came too small for them, and they were compelled to take up
their abode in the great towns, or to emigrate into the neigh
bouring districts, where they had to work as common labourers
on the land of others, or else to occupy themselves in handi

8 MOSES.
crafts. Egypt was very flourishing at the time, and they would
have had little difficulty in finding employment ; but the passage
from the independent nomadic life to a settled abode in towns,
or even to a hired service in a country district, is always grievous
to those who have enjoyed the freedom of the pastoral state,
and is viewed as a degradation. The Israelites did not probably
suffer from the wars of the period, for a foreign subject race
would not be pressed into the Egyptian service, and the dynasty
was so successful in its military expeditions that Egypt had
never in its turn to suffer invasion ; so that, on the whole, the
"affliction" was, thus far, perhaps more sentimental than
physical, affecting minds rather than bodies, and consisting
more in diminished consideration than in any very tangible
grievances, except occasionally, when the poorer and weaker
members of the race came into contact with Egyptian aristocrats.
In one respect the time was marked by an extraordinary
degree of prosperity. It was during the two hundred and sixty
years of the second period that " the children of Israel were
fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed
exceeding mighty ; and the land was filled with them" (Exod. i. 7).
The population increased from twenty thousand to (probably)
above a million, and became thus so numerous as to alarm the
native Egyptians, who did not perhaps themselves number more
than six or seven millions. Rapid increase of numbers is, how
ever, an advantage only under certain circumstances — i.e., when a
tribe or a people has a large unoccupied territory, or when com
merce or manufactures offer practically unlimited employment
to any multitude of applicants. But the circumstances of Egypt
were not such as to afford these facilities ; and the result must
have been a difficulty in obtaining subsistence on the part ol
the Israelites, unless they consented to a low wage or to occu
pations which were generally distasteful. Towards the close of
the second period we may be tolerably sure that a large number
of them were forced to submit to both these inconveniences ;
that the lowest kinds of employments were eagerly accepted by
thousands of Hebrews who found the struggle for existence a
hard fight, and that these persons worked at wages which were
barely sufficient to keep the wolf from their doors.
The third period now arrived, " A king arose up over Egypt
who knew not Joseph " (Exod. i. 8). The memory of benefits
received, however great, dies out after a time. Within fourteen

ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 9
years of Salamis the Athenians banished Themistocles ; within
seventeen years of Waterloo the Duke of Wellington was
obliged to protect the windows of Apsley House from the attacks
of the London mob by cast-iron shutters. We ought perhaps
rather to admire the fidelity of the Egyptians to the memory of a
former benefactor, and the tenacity of their attachments, than
blame them for fickleness, or hold them up to opprobrium fol
ingratitude. After two hundred and sixty years they may be
pardoned if they had forgotten. The king intended, who is
called "a new king," was probably Seti I., the founder, or quasi-
founder, of a dynasty — one wholly unconnected with the preced
ing occupants of the throne, who, if he had heard of Joseph
at all, had heard of him only as "the shadow of a mighty
name''— a great statesman of the past, perhaps a real "hero,"
perhaps a myth — and who failed to realize it as a fact, that
either the Egypt of his time, or he himself individually, was in
any way indebted to so remote and shadowy a personage. The
king looked to the condition of Egypt with the dry, hard gaze
of shrewd, practical common sense, and saw in the position of
things at his accession great cause for anxiety. Egypt was
threatened by a formidable enemy upon her north-eastern
frontier. Three centuries from the death of Apepi brings us in
Egyptian history to the close of Manetho's eighteenth dynasty,
and the accession of his nineteenth, a critical period in the
Egyptian annals, and one of much interest. Egypt had at this
time lost all those Asiatic possessions which had been gained
under the earlier kings of the eighteenth dynasty — Thothmes I.,
Thothmes III., and Amen-hotep II., and had retired within her
own natural borders. South-western Asia had fallen under the
dominion of the Khita or Hittites, who had gradually extended
their dominion from the Cappadocian highlands to the low
regions of Philistia and Western Arabia. In alliance with the
other Canaanite nations, with the Philistines, and even with the
Arabs (Shasu), the Hittites threatened an invasion of Egypt,
which, it was felt, might have the most disastrous consequences.
What, if this contingency actually occurred, would be the part
taken by the Israelites ? Might it not be that they would "join
themselves to Egypt's enemies, and fight against the Egyptians"
(Exod. i. 10), and so either help to bring them under subjection
to the Hittites, or else " get themselves up out of the land " ?
The Israelites occupied the portion of Egypt which the Hittites

IO MOSES.
would first enter ; if they joined the enemy they would deliver
into his hands a large tract of most valuable territory, and put
him in a position from which he would threaten the most im
portant of the Egyptian cities— Tanis, Heliopolis, Bubastis,
Memphis. Reflecting upon this, the Pharaoh of the time— Seti I.,
according to our view — deemed it incumbent on him to take
such measures as should seriously weaken and depress his
1 sraelite subjects, crush their aspirations, destroy their physical
v igour, and by degrees diminish their numbers.
The first step was to deprive them of their freedom. The
sovereign of Egypt, an irresponsible despot, absolute master of
the lives and liberties of all his subjects, had full power to reduce
at any time any individual among them, or any class of them,
to the slave condition. The pyramid builders had done this on
a large scale in the days of old. The Pharaoh, who at the time
of which we are speaking occupied the throne, made public
slaves of the Israelites. Without perhaps any proclamation of
their change of status, he practically established it by sending
his agents into the districts which they inhabited, and impressing
into his service as forced labourers all the males of full age, who
were not incapacitated by infirmity or sickness. The main em
ployment which he assigned to them was in connection with
his buildings. He was a builder of cities, especially of store-
cities, or magazine-cities, and needed for their construction a
constant supply of hundreds of thousands of bricks. All the
outer enclosures of cities, of temples, and of tombs, all the
houses, all the walls of magazines and of public buildings
generally, except temples and palaces, were built of this mate
rial ; even the mounds upon which cities were ordinarily em-
placed, to raise them above the level of the inundation, were of
the same substance. The Israelites were taken from their free
trade of shepherds, lazily tending their flocks and herds in the
open pastures of Goshen, to the close confinement of the brick
field, where, under taskmasters who exacted from them a certain
fixed quantity of work, they dug the stiff clay, mixed and
kneaded it with hands or feet, shaped it carefully into the proper
form by means of a mould, and at the end of the day produced
their " tale of bricks " before the taskmaster. The labour was
heavy and incessant, carried on under a hot sun, continued from
morning to night, and performed under fear of the rod, which
was at once freely applied to the back and shoulders of any one

ISRAEL IN EGYPT. II
who was thought to be insufficiently exerting himself. Another
task to which they were set was "service in the field" (Exod. i. 14),
probably " such as we still see along the banks of the Nile,
where the peasants, naked, under the burning sun, work through
the day like pieces of machinery in drawing up the buckets of
water from the level of the river for the irrigation of the fields
above." * The service was made purposely harder than it need
have been, since the object was to break down the people
morally and physically, to exhaust -their vital power by over
work, and so to shorten their lives. " The Egyptians made the
children of Israel to serve with rigour ; and they made their
lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in
all manner of service in the field : all their service wherein they
made them serve, was with rigour" (Exod. i. 13, 14).
It was hoped that this over-work, this constant drudgery of
toil, this deep " affliction," aggravated as it was by continual blows
from the taskmasters, would have the effect, at any rate, of stop
ping any further increase in the numbers of the people, even if
it failed to produce an actual reduction of their numbers. And this
would have been the natural result, had Divine Providence not
interfered, but allowed the ordinary laws which govern the ebb
and flow of a population to have free course and work themselves
out unchecked. But such was not the Divine will. God, who
had promised Abraham that his seed should increase and mul
tiply until it became as "the stars of the heaven, and as the sand
which is upon the seashore" (Gen. xxii. 17) for multitude, did not
submit to have his purpose baffled by the machinations of human
adversaries. By suspending the operation of the laws, or by
counteracting it, he brought it to pass that the rate of increase
which had hitherto prevailed in the Hebrew population of Egypt
should rise rather than fall under the changed circumstances:
" The more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multipliea
and grew j and the Egyptians were grieved because of the
people of Israel" (Exod. i. 12).
A despotic monarch does not readily allow his designs to be
defeated and set aside. The Pharaoh who had thought to " deal
wisely " with the Hebrews, and had therefore devised the plan
of crushing them and preventing them from multiplying by en
gaging them in continuous hard labour, finding his craft of no
avail, had recourse to violence. Egypt possessed a guild 01
1 Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church," voL i. p. 85.

12 MOSES.
midwives, one portion of which was assigned the dut> of minis-
lering to the necessities of the Hebrew women in their confine
ments. Pharaoh issued secret orders to the two chief midwives,
and through them to the others, that, when they performed their
office, they should take care to destroy all the male children,
and only suffer the female children to live. Infanticide was a
common practice among many ancient nations, as the Romans,
L'ue Spartans, and others, but in Egypt it was accounted a crime;
and though the Pharaoh was reckoned a sort of divine being
by his subjects, yet it was not felt that he could dispense with
the laws of moral obligation. The midwives "feared God"
(Exod. i.17) more than they feared the king, and, though profess
ing a willingness to carry out his will, practically disobeyed his
orders. The male children were spared by them, with the result
that " the people multiplied " more than ever, and '* waxed very
mighty" ( ver. 20). Then, at length, the king left off his
attempts to '' deal wisely," craftily, and secretly, with the difficult
circumstances in which he considered himself to be placed ; he
openly issued a proclamation to his subjects generally, requiring
them to put to death the male Hebrew children by drowning
them in the Nile (ver. 22). Perhaps he represented the cruel
requirement as given by the command of the Nile-god, who
needed to be propitiated by human sacrifices; perhaps he found
some other mode of justifying himself. At any rate the order
went forth, and was doubtless acted upon, though perhaps not
very generally. The Egyptians had no quarrel with their
Hebrew neighbours, and would not care to act as executioners ;
but government officials would be employed to see the king's
ord ers carried out, and nodoubtfor several years many thousands
of innocent lives were sacrificed. Still, however, the king's
purpose was not effected. Had the edict been rigorously enforcedj
the people would have been extinguished before the date of the
Exodus. But it had then reached to a total of above two million
souls (Exod. xii. 37). Either, therefore, the edict must have been
revoked after a while, or it must gradually have sunk into oblivion.
In one way or another God's will triumphed over man's, and the
people, doomed to extinction by the highest human power which
existed on earth at the time, was preserved by God's providence
through all the perils which threatened it, to become, according
to the promise given to Jacob (Gen. xxxv. 11), "a nation and a
company of nations."

CHAPTER II.
BIRTH OF MOSES.
Moses' parents ; their position ; their place of abode — His sister, Miriam—
His elder brother Aaron — Aaron's birth had not needed to be concealed —
Concealment of the birth of Moses — Plan to save him when further con
cealment was impossible — The plan skilfully carried out,
The father of Moses is first introduced to us as " a man of the
house of Levi" (Exod. ii. i). We are subsequently told that his
name was Amram, and that he was of the family of the Kohath-
ites, who were descended from Kohath, Levi's second son (Exod.
vi. 16-20). He took to himself a wife of the same tribe, a woman
named Jochebed, who was " his father's sister." Such marriages
were common among the Egyptians, and, not having been as yet
forbidden by any positive enactment, seem to have been regarded
as lawful by the Hebrews. The parents of Moses were persons
in humble circumstances. No special dignity as yet attached
to the Levites among the children of Israel, or to the Kohathites
among the Levites ; and the circumstances of the Hebrews since
the death of Joseph had been such as rapidly to exhaust ancestral
wealth, and bring the whole nation down to an almost dead level
of uniformity. The writer of the Pentateuch enters into few
details; but we gather from his narrative, that Amram's house
hold was a simple and a modest one, where the main duties were
discharged by the house-mother and the house-daughter, whose
appearance was such that they could, without impropriety, be
asked to perform menial service and accept "wages " (Exod. ii. 9).
The abode occupied by the modest household was in or near
the capital city of the time, where the Court resided. The capital
was situated on the Nile, or on one of its branches, and was
most probably Memphis. Memphis occupied nearly the site

14 MOSES.
on which now stands the great city of Cairo, one of the most
salubrious residences and one of the most picturesque cities in
the world. It was a lordly and magnificent town. Built, according
to the tradition, by the most ancient of all the Egyptian kings,
M'na or Menes, on the left or western bank of the river, which
washed its eastern wall, and reflected in its waves temple, tower,
and palace, tall obelisk, and huge colossus, and frowning gate
way, the city of Menes was, as its name implied, " a Good," or
" Pleasing Abode," a favourite residence of the monarchs, and,
in the earlier years covered by the nineteenth dynasty, the place
where the Court was commonly held. Its great pride and glory
was the Temple of Phthah. Coeval with the city, founded, that
is to say, by Menes, the Temple of Phthah, consisting of a grand
central edifice, surrounded by pillared courts, and adorned by
colossal statues, by pictured representations of the great deeds of
kings, by sphinxes, inscriptions, tablets, perhaps by obelisks, stood
up like a great cathedral, in the centre of the lordly town, the work
of many kings and of many ages, telling a thrilling tale of by
gone history to those who had skill to read the past in its archi
tecture, or in its records. Here was the nucleus of the building,
the cell or shrine of Phthah originally set up by Menes; there,
towards the north, was the great portal erected by Amenemhat
III., or Moeris; in front of the grand entrance were colossi
attributed to Usurtasen III., the Greek Sesostris ; all around were
spread out the white arms of colonaded courts, the work of this
or that Pharaoh. In other parts of the town were numerous
temples, erected to other deities. On the eastern edge of the city,
washed on one side by the river, was the citadel, or " White
Castle," as the Greeks in after times called it, a strong fortress,
girt with a lofty rampart made of the light yellow limestone
which the neighbouring desert furnishes.
Opposite Memphis, towards the west, standing out in clear
outline against the pale sky, was its vast and wonderful neoo
polis. Stretching north and south a distance of nearly twenty
miles, but with its populous centre immediately behind Memphis,
this strange "City of the Dead" confronted the living city,
drawing the eye by the sharp points of its sixty pyramids * and
especially challenging attention by those huge monuments of
kingly vanity, which have never elsewhere been equalled, the
works of monarchs anterior to Abraham, which defy time ta
1 Stuart Poole. " Cities of Egypt," p. 26

BIRTH OF MOSES. 15
efface them. The household of Amram dwelt under the shadow
of the three Great Pyramids. On the edge of the western
horizon, as often as they lifted their eyes towards it, they would
see those giant forms, those " artificial mountains," the most
impressive monuments that have ever been raised by human
hands, stupendous memorials of their builders' egotism, and of
;he misery of the people by whom they were built.
Before the birth of Moses the family was one comprising four
persons only, Amram, the paterfamilias, probably well advanced
in years ; whether handicraftsman, or field labourer, or otherwise
employed, we cannot say, but a man at any rate of small account
among those among whom his lot was cast; Jochebed, his aunt
and wife, the materfamilias, tender and loving house-mother;
and two children, Miriam the elder, a grown-up girl, some fifteen
or sixteen years of age, or perhaps more, and Aaron, a boy, an
infant not yet three years old. Miriam, the first of all the Marys
of whom history tells, is a soft and pleasing figure in the narra
tive. Brightly she rises up before us as the " house-angel," the
mother's deft and ready help, the father's pride, gifted with
precious gifts, as those of music and of song (Exod. xv. 20), yet
quiet and domestic, content to keep her gifts hidden, and to do
the common work of a common Hebrew household. Aaron was,
we must conclude, born before the cruel edict of the reigning
Pharaoh had been issued, so that his birth had not needed to
be concealed ; his life had been spared by the God-fearing
midwives; or his mother had been so strong and healthful that
in the hour of her travail she had not required their care (Exod.
i. 19). As the eldest son of the house he would have been its
embryo priest, and would have been set apart, from the womb
probably, with some form of consecration. He would also have
been especially welcome, as the first man-child always was in a
Hebrew household, as securing the continuance of the family in
the male line, or, at any rate, giving a reasonable prospect of such
continuance. We are told nothing of his appearance, but may
presume that he too was, like his brother, "a goodly child '¦
Exod. ii. 2), of a physique that fitted him for the grand and lofty
position which he afterwards occupied. He was as yet, however,
but a boy, a happy, careless boy of three years' old, ignorant of
the weight of responsibility that was about one day to fall upon
him, the delight of the house probably, causing general cheer
fulness by his chatter and his laughter.

l6 MOSES.
upon this, as on most other Hebrew households, the intelligence
ot the Pharaoh's barbarous edict fell like a blast of chill air.
Jochebed was still of age to bear children, and she either knew
when the edict was issued, or became aware soon afterwards,
that she was once more about to give birth to a child. Would
it be a male child, or a female one? In the former case, how
r ould she bear to have the tender clinging babe torn from her
loving arms and breast, carried off by rude hands out of her
sight, to be plunged in the cold stream, that flowed so near, and
suffocated by the cruel waves, or devoured by the huge jaws of
crocodiles ? How could she bear to have her home thus dese
crated, her mother's heart thus rent with grief, her soul tortured
and agonized ? She felt that she could not bear it. But what
resource was there? Could it be hoped that a mother's tears
and prayers would move the heart of a stern and fierce king,
and that, if she thrust herself into his presence, or otherwise ob
tained an interview, she would prevail on him to relent and
spare one at any rate of the doomed victims? Or could she
look »o make an impression on the king's myrmidons, and, when
they came to snatch her child from her embrace, induce them
to refrain, and let her keep him ? Such thoughts must often
have passed through the mind of Jochebed, as she pondered
during all the long weary months on the fate of the child that
she carried in her womb ; and they must have become aggra
vated and intensified to an inexpressible degree, when the time
came for her confinement, and she was delivered of a male child,
and looking on him saw that he was a " goodly infant." Mothers
have been known to favour especially the least beautiful among
their offspring : but when was there one who could look upon
her new-born babe, if it possessed the gift of a rare beauty,
without a thrill of delight and a more than ordinary affection ?
So it was with Jochebed. She might perhaps have yielded up
her child to the hard fate commanded by the king, had he been
an infant of the common stamp, with nothing attractive about
him save his innocence and his helplessness ; but he was
"goodly" (Exod. ii. 2), "proper "(Heb. xi. 23), " exceeding fair "
(Acts vii. 20), of a beauty that seemed almost divine, and hence,
when she looked upon him, she felt nerved to defy the monarch
and his myrmidons, and resolved to preserve her darling in despite
of them. The first steps were comparatively easy to accomplish.
For three months the small intruder might be hid — his father's

BIRTH OF MOSES. 17
house would shelter him — neighbours, if they knew of the birth,
would not be likely to acquaint the civil authorities — if they
were Hebrews they would keep the secret through sympathy ;
if Egyptians, they would do so out of pity, and because there
was no call upon them to turn " informers." But, as time went
on, concealment would become a more and more difficult task.
Egypt, like other civilized countries, would have its " informers ''
— eyes and ears of the king, as they would be called, to gloss ovei
the meanness of their office. The tax-gatherer might make one
of his periodical calls unexpectedly, and see or hear the infant.
With deep reluctance, but with a feeling that there was no help
for it, no other course possible to take, Jochebed came to the
conclusion that her home could no longer afford her child a safe
refuge. He must be disposed of elsewhere. But who would
receive him ? Who would risk incurring the king's displeasure ?
Who, even if willing, would have power to protect the young
ife so inexpressibly dear to her? Jochebed had to pause,
to reflect, to call all her female wit and cleverness to her aid,
in order to devise a plan that had, at any rate, a chance of
succeeding. The plan which she devised was the following. She knew
the place where a daughter of the reigning Pharaoh was accus
tomed from time to time to come down to the bank of the sacred
stream and bathe herself in its waters. She knew perhaps the
character and circumstances of the princess, who, according to
Artapanus1 and Philo,3 was married, childless, and extremely -
desirous of having children. She would place her child in this
princess's way, in such a manner as would naturally excite her
compassion, and would trust that the compassion so aroused
might lead her to extend her protection over the unfortunate
infant. A princess might venture on steps that no one of in
ferior rank would dare to take ; and might be able confidently
to count on her father's pardoning her indiscretion. To bring
her child to the princess's notice, Moses's mother constructed a
little " ark," or boat, " of bulrushes " — i.e. of the papyrus, and.
having made it waterproof by means of a coating of bitumen,
she put her child in it, carried him to the water's edge, and laid
the ark gently among the flags that grew along the stream near
its brink. The papyrus was commonly used as a material foi
boats in Egypt, and was regarded as a protection against croco
1 Ap. Euseb. " Pranp. Ev." ix. 27. '"Vit. Mosis,'' i. 4.
3

1 8 MOSES.
diles, though it may be doubted whether this belief was any.
thing but a superstition. The little boat was laid among the
flags to prevent it from floating down ^he stream, and keep it
within sight of the place where the princess was accustomed to
bathe. The time at which she would arrive could notbe exactly
calculated, and, had the ark been allowed to move with the
current, it might have floated off long before she made her ap
pearance. Miriam, Moses's sister, was set to watch the ark
until the princess should arrive, that no one might interfere with
it, or thrust it out further into the stream.
The scheme, skilfully contrived, was effectively carried out,
and had a complete success. Pharaoh's daughter, Thermuthis,
if we accept the tradition of Josephus,1 or Merrhis, if we prefer
to follow Artapanus, came down with a long train of maidens
about the time expected, and proceeded along the river bank to
the bathing-place. On her way, she espied the ark among the
flags, and sent her chief attendant to draw it out of the water,
and bring it to her, that she might see what it contained. On
opening it, for it was covered up, " she saw the child ; and
behold, the babe wept." Hungry perhaps, or chilled by near
proximity to the water, or frightened, as young children so often
are when left alone, the poor babe was bemoaning its lot, and
had given way to tears. The heart of the princess was at once
stirred with pity. Something in the surroundings or in the look
of the infant caused her to divine the truth, and she exclaimed,
"This is one of the Hebrews' children." No mother would
have deserted and exposed such a child who was not compelled
to do so by some dire necessity (such would be her thoughts).
Was there any such necessity laid upon any mothers at the
time? Ah 1 yes. Her own father's edict had gone forth against
the male children of the Hebrews, and Hebrew mothers
throughout the land were everywhere in the direst straits—
must be everywhere seeking if by any means they could preserve
or prolong the lives of their newly-born sons. Evidently, the
child belonged to this class. Complexion, tint of hair, cast of
countenance, unusual features in the attire or in its arrangement,
may have in an instant caught her eye, and strengthened her
conviction ; but her conviction did not change her purpose.
Miriam saw the look of favour with which she still regarded the
babe, and coming forward at the right moment, cried out,
' "Ant.Jud."ii. 9, §5.

BIRTH OF MOSES. la
" Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that
she may nurse the child for thee ?" A Hebrew child, she meant
to say, must surely need a Hebrew nutse, to understand it, to
conform herself to its ways, to know how it was best that it
should be treated during infancy, how it should be fed, dressed,
played with, dandled, tossed, talked to. And the princess felt
the excellency of the suggestion. " Go," she replied, with the
simple brevity characteristic of the antique manners, " Go."
The one word was enough. Away sprang the light-footed
Hebrew lass to fetch her mother, who was no doubt in hiding
near at hand, anxiously awaiting the result of the scheme which
she had so cleverly contrived ; and the fond mother at once
came to her daughter's call, and stood silent before the princess.
Pharaoh's daughter, no doubt, carefully scanned her face, and
noted her general appearance ; then, seeing in both nothing but
what was pleasing and suitable, she declared her will. " Take
this child away," she said, " and nurse it for me, and I will give
thee thy wages."
There was much expressed in this short speech. " Take this
child away " — i.e. take it with thee to thine own abode ; do not
bring it after me to my palace ; let it have the nurture and
treatment which it would have received naturally in the paternal
mansion ; " nurse it," but " nurse it for me " — remember, it is
henceforth mine — mine as much as if it had been born in my
household — mine as much as if I had borne it myself — " nurse
it for me" and, at the proper time, restore it to me, and then
" I will give thee thy wages " — I will repay the care and trouble
that has been spent on my adopted son by a suitable largess.
Jochebed " took the child " and withdrew, and carried it to her
home, and there " nursed it."
Did the princess suspect nothing ? Did she not see through
the drama that had been acted under her eyes ? Had Miriam
seemed to her nothing but an ordinary passer-by ? Uninterested
in the events, except as a stranger might be interested in what
was intrinsically so pathetic ? Did she fail to note any eager
ness in Jochebed's tones or glances, or anything peculiar in her
handling of the child when it was put into her arms, any con
vulsive clutch, or tender pressure, or long lingering kiss? Surely,
the mother could scarcely have contained herself when she saw
her child rescued from impending death, rendered safe and
secure under the patronage of a great princess, and once more

20 MOSES.
entrusted to her own loving care. The deep thrill of delight
which must have passed through her maternal heart can
scarcely have failed to paint itself on her countenance, even if
it did not find a vent in word or action, in exclamation of " God
be thanked," or convulsive embrace, or warm kiss, or tears of
joy. To us it seems almost impossible that the princess did not
thoroughly comprehend the whole scene, the relation of the
parties each to each, the clever arrangements that had been
made by mother and daughter to carry out their scheme, &c,
and lend herself to the satisfactory completion of the business.
Of course, it was necessary to dissemble. A daughter of the
reigning sovereign could not openly admit that she was en
couraging and assisting one of her father's subjects to disobey
her father's commands. The princess therefore kept her own
counsel and affected not to recognize the positions of the several
actors in the drama, while she did her best to carry out their
wishes and designs. She let the mother have her child to suckle
till the natural time for weaning him arrived, while enabling her
to meet all inconvenient inquiries with the reply, that it was
the princess's adopted child, which she had been hired to nurse
during his infancy.

CHAPTER III.
MOSES'S CHILDHOOD.
Name given to the saved child — His early life at the Court — Impressiioi
made on him by his surroundings — His intercourse with his own family
— Story told of his trampling on the Pharaoh's crown — His beauty,
spirit, and intelligence.
The name which Moses received has been variously explained.
An Egyptian root, mes or meses, is common as an element in
names, where it has the force ofscn" or "child," as in Aahmes,
" child of the moon," Ramesses, "child of the sun," Amonmes or
AmonmesesT8 child of Ammon," and the like. Strictly speaking,
the word probably means " born from," or " sprung from," and
is equivalent of the Latin words natus, ortus, satus, &c. Etymo-
logically it perhaps signified " drawn out," and referred to the
act of deliverance by a midwife. It has been thought that this
word " meses " was the real name which the Egyptian princess
gave to her foundling, and that in giving it she only meant to
recognise him as her " child." Josephus, however, supplies an
entirely different account. According to him, the meaning of
the word " Moses " is " saved from the water," the first syllable
mo, moaning, "water" in Egyptian, and the remainder of the
vt ord, ses, or uses, meaning " saved." * The derivation has in its
favour the fact, that mo-ushe would in Coptic have the meaning
assigned, and the further fact that one of the words for water
in the ancient Egyptian was certainly mo. From these two
accounts that suggested in Exod. ii. 10 wholly differs, since it
makes the name Hebrew, and derives it from the Hebrew root
1 " Ant. Jud." ii. 9, { tj

2 2 MOSES
mdshdh, " to extract, draw forth." Philo Judaeus appears to have
taken much the same view as Josephus ; but he is less exact,
since he gives the word one root only, instead of two, and mis
represents that one, declaring that the Egyptian word for water
was mSs, which it certainly was not. Altogether, it is perhaps
most probable that Josephus gave the true account, and that
"Moses" — more correctly Moyses, as in the Septuagint Version,
or Moysus, as in Artapanus * — meant " taken from the water,"
and thus the name which he bore commemorated the circum
stances under which the great prophet was saved by the princess.
Transferred from the humble abode of his father to the palace
of the princess, Moses was brought up in the Egyptian fashion.
As a child, he probably went about, like other Egyptian boys,
without clothes, and with his hair shaved off, except a single lock,
which depended on one side of the head. He would be waited
on by numerous attendants, would be carefully and delicately
fed, kept scrupulously clean, and taught the refined manners of
the highest circles. His main life would be a Court life. He
would live chiefly in the apartments of his mother, which would
probably be a portion of the royal residence, and would be fur
nished with every luxury. At first his attendants would be his
mother's handmaids ; but ere long the assistance of male in
structors would be called in, and his education, in the common
sense of the word, would commence. But there is an earlier
education than that derived from instructors. The bent and
bias of a character is often formed, is always strongly affected,
by the individual's earliest surroundings, which unconsciously
form his mind and fashion his temper. The sights and sounds
presented to us in infancy and early childhood sink into our
souls, and constitute a substratum upon which the whole per
sonality of the man is afterwards built. What then were those
that the impressible mind of the young Moses first took in from
the circumstances of his environment, while he dwelt with his
mother in her portion of the royal palace ?
There is reason to believe that the Court, at the time, was
held during the greater part of the year at Memphis. The
situation and appearance of Memphis have been already dwelt
upon. Moses would see from the terraces of the royal resi
dence, whither he would be taken to enjoy the cool northern
breeze in the summer evenings, the great city of Phthah spread
•Ap. Euseb. "Prsep. Ev." ix. vj.

MOSES'S CHILDHOOD. 23
before him in all its wealth of architectural ornament, in all its
populousness, in all its busy movement of trade and commerce,
of pleasure and religion. Noisy crowds would be thronging its
streets and squares, heavily-laden vessels would be' ascending
and descending its mighty river, bright painted sails would be
glassing themselves in the calmer reaches of the stream, boats
would be darting about, here and there processions with sacred
arks lifted up on high would be wending their way through the
temple precincts or through the streets of the town, strains of
music would be floating in the air, mixed with shouts and cries
of all kinds from chariot-drivers, and vendors of wares, and
boatmen. Against the orange glow still lighting up the western
sky would be seen, silhouetted in sharpest outline, the purple
forms of the " Three Great Pyramids," grand monuments, the
tombs of mighty kings, sentinels on the edge of that broad desert
tract, where life ceased and the kingdom of the dead began.
The vastnesa of the scene around would necessarily impress any
intelligent boy with a sense of awe, of wonder, and of mystery ;
the life and movement of the city would arouse curiosity and the
desire to be up and doing ; the contrast between the city's stir
and the still silence of the western ridge would evoke uneasy
thoughts, and perhaps bring the riddle of existence before the
just awakening mind.
As he grew older, the boy's acquaintance with Memphis, and
the life within its walls, would increase. He would be taken into
the streets, probably in a wheeled vehicle, and would see near
at hand the moving crowd, which he had hitherto contemplated
from a distance. He would, perhaps, occasionally be allowed a
sail in a pleasure-boat upon the river. He would be taken to
the great Temple of Phthah, and shown the mysterious figures
upon the walls, and the strange hieroglyphic writing, covering
almost every space from which the figures were absent ; and the
broad courts, and the solemn corridors, and the calm Osirid
images, and perhaps an image of Phthah, grotesque and hideous.
Processions of priests, clad in white garments of linen or cotton,
and wearing sandals made of the papyrus plant, chanting
litanies to Phthah or Ra, would meet him in the courts, and
compel him and his attendants to stand aside for them to pass.
Or he would see the priests offering sacrifices and prayers, or
pouring libations, to the images ; or burning incense before them,
in their honour. Now and then he might meet the sacred bull,

24 MOSES.
Apis, as he was called, being led in a festive procession through
the main streets of the town, that the inhabitants might see him,
and come forth from their dwellings, and make obeisance 'to
the incarnation of Phthah. The Egyptian religion delighted in
openly manifesting itself, in setting itself everywhere and at all
times before the eyes of the people, in challenging and compel
ling their attention. All the grandest edifices were temples ;
next to the king, the persons most considered were the priests ;
religious festivals, involving great gatherings and long proces
sions, were frequent ; men, women, and even children ' attended
them ; Moses must have been early familiar with the external
aspect, at any rate, of the Egyptian worship, and must have
frequently witnessed the revolting rites of the prevalent idolatry.
But there was another phase of the early life of Moses at
Memphis of a softer character. It is impossible to suppose that
the princess, who had employed his mother to suckle him, at
once on his adoption broke off the connection between her
adopted child and his real family. The princess did not, as
Philo imagines,3 pretend that he was actually her son. His
Hebrew origin was known, both to himself (Exod. ii. n) and to
the Egyptians.3 Must we not conclude that the connection be
tween Moses and his family was continued after he became an
inmate of the royal residence, and that, from time to time, he
was taken to see his relatives, or that they were allowed to
come and see him at the palace? Had Jochebed been merely
Moses's foster-mother, she would have been permitted a cer
tain familiarity, according to the ideas of the East. As his
real mother, her claim was greater, and cannot have been dis
allowed. We must regard Moses, therefore, as partly under the
influence of the princess and the Court, partly under that of his
father and mother, his brother and sister, during the whole^
period of his early residence in Egypt. His intercourse with his
family was of the highest importance, as respected his religious I
belief and his sympathy with his countrymen. But for it, he j
would naturally have been brought up a believer in the Egyptian
polytheism and an idolater ; he would probably have cared little
for his " brethren," even if he were not ashamed of acknow-
ledging them. As it was, the principles of the patriarchal re
ligion were impressed upon him while he was still a child, and
• Herod, ii. 60. « " Vit. Mosis." i. p. 83.
• Joseph. 'Ant. Jud." ii. 9, $ 7.

MOSES'S CHILDHOOD. 25
he grew up a firm adherent of monotheism, a believer in the pro
mises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and a contemner of
idols and idolatry. He also kept touch with his countrymen,
felt sorrow for their sufferings, and hoped in time to ameliorate
their lot. Instead of being wholly, he was only half, Egyptianized.
He had that substratum of Hebrew feeling and Hebrew training
which fitted him to be a leader of his nation, whose confidence
would never have gone out to one wholly reared and taught by
their oppressors.
According to Josephus, while Moses was still a young child,
he escaped another peril as great as that which had menaced
him in his infancy. The princess, Thermuthis, as he calls her,
had taken her adopted son with her to her father's apartments,
wishing to exhibit before him the boy's beauty and cleverness,
and with some hope of inducing him to designate the child as
his successor. She put her treasure into her father's arms, with
a little speech, in which she called attention to his more than
human loveliness, and his high and generous spirit, at the same
time revealing the ambitious hopes which she ventured to cherish
on his behalf. The monarch, wishing to gratify her by a show
of willingness to entertain her request, took his crown off his
own head, and put it on the head of the child ; whereupon the
child got down from his lap, took off the crown to examine it,
and then placing it on the ground, put his feet upon it and
tried to stand up. A sacred scribe, who, a little before the birth
of Moses, had prophesied that a Hebrew child was about to be
born who would lay low the power of Egypt, happened to be
standing by, and, seeing what the child had done, he cried with
a loud voice, and said : " This, O King, is the child, whom the
gods told us to kill for our own security. See the witness which
he bears to the prophecy — he has put thy sovereignty beneath
him, and is trampling thy crown under his feet. Slay him, then ;
and cause the Egyptians to cease from their fears, and the
Hebrews from their hopes." Thermuthis, on hearing the speech,
sprang to the child, and snatching him up bore him away. The
king declined to follow the scribe's advice; and thus Moses
escaped this second danger.'
There is an allusion in this narrative, and elsewhere impor
tant testimony is borne, to the extreme beauty of Moses, not only
as an infant, but as a boy and youth. Philc tells us that his
• " Ant lud." ii. 9, f. 7.

26 MOSES.
appearance was at once beautiful and noble, full of modesty and
yet full also of dignity.1 Josephus says that there was no one,
however careless about a child's looks, who was not struck with
astonishment at his loveliness on first beholding him. As he
passed along the streets many of those whom he met would turn
their heads to look after him, and labouring men would forget
their occupations and stand to gaze.3 He is also said to have
been remarkably tall for his age, full of spirit, strong, and cap
able of enduring hard work. As for his intelligence, it was
extraordinary, and showed itself in every subject to which his
attention was turned. The general feeling was that there was
something more than human about the boy ; and while the
Hebrews took courage and felt hope revive in their breasts
through the promise of future greatness which they discovered
in him, the Egyptians generally looked upon him with an eye of
suspicion, as one whom they had reason to dread, should he grow
to manhood. "VitMosfa,"p.83. ' "Ant.Jud."H.9,f.fc

CHAPTER IV.
EDUCATION.
1T»t physical training of Moses — Egyptian athletic games— Early Instruc
tion — Reading and writing — Egyptian writing involved a training in
art — Arithmetic — Music and rhythm — Later instruction — University of
Heliopolis — Subjects of the University course — Geometry — Literature
— Astronomy — Law — Medicine — Philosophy of Symbolism — Position
of Moses among the students.
It would seem that in Egypt, as in most civilized countries,
education was regarded as including a course of training, both
for the mind, and also for the body. The Egyptians had a
variety of games, of which a considerable number were gym
nastic or athletic. One of the chief of these was wrestling. The
monuments depict wrestlers in all manner of attitudes, preparing
to engage, taking their first hold, intertwined, clutching at each
other's arms and legs, one forcing the other to the ground, both
on the ground, yet still continuing the struggle. " The two com
batants," says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, " generally approached
each other, holding their arms in an inclined position before the
body ; and each endeavoured to seize his adversary in the
manner best suited to his mode of attack. It was allowable to
take hold of any part of the body, the head, neck, or legs ; and
the struggle was frequently continued on the ground, after one
or both had fallen ; a mode of wrestling common also to the
Greeks, by whom it was denominated Anaclinopald. I do snot
find that they had the same sign of acknowledging their defeat
in this game as the Greeks, which was by holding up a finger in

28 MOSES.
token of submission ; it was probably done by the Egyptians
with a word." '
Another exercise was fighting with single-sticks. The left arm
was defended by a sort of shield strapped round it from the
wrist to the elbow, and could thus be used to turn off or inter
cept blows. The right hand had the protection of a basket or
guard, projecting over the knuckles. The sticks employed were
somewhat short, not more than about thirty inches in length.
The combatants had no defence for the head, beyond the wig
ordinarily worn by men of the well-to-do classes ; but it was
perhaps a law of the game that neither combatant should strike
at the head of his adversary.
The game of ball, so much practised by the Romans, was
also a favourite amusement in Egypt, especially among females.
It consisted, however, so far as appears, simply in tossing the
ball and catching it, the Egyptians having nothing that resem
bled fives, or rackets, or tennis, or hockey. On this subject Sir G.
Wilkinson tells us that " the game of ball was not confined to
children, or to either sex, though the mere amusement of throw
ing and catching it appears to have been considered more par
ticularly adapted to females. They had different methods of
playing. Sometimes a person unsuccessful in catching the ball
was obliged to suffer another to ride on her back, who continued
to enjoy this post until she also missed it — the ball being thrown
by an opposite party, mounted in the same manner, and placed
at a certain distance, according to the space previously fixed by
the players. . . . Sometimes they showed their skill in catching
three or more balls in succession, the hands occasionally crossed
over the breast ; and the more simple mode of throwing it up to
a height and catching it, known to the Greeks as urania, was
common in Egypt. They had also the game described by Homer
as having been played by Halius and Laodamas before Alcinoiis,'
in which one party threw the ball as high as he could, and the
other, leaping up, caught it on its fall, before his feet again
touched the ground." 3
A game, in which strength and dexterity were about equally
balanced, was one wherein two opponents contended in throw
ing knives or daggers, so as to remain fixed in a block of hard
1 "Ancient Egyptians," edition of 1878 ; vol. ii. pp. 72, 73.
¦ Horn. " Odyss." ix. L 374.
3 Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians," voL ii. p. 67.

education. 39
wood ; the contention being which of the two could strike nearest
to the centre, or to the edge, as agreed beforehand. One, where
strength alone was tested, consisted in lifting heavy bags of
sand, and swinging them at arms' length over the head. The
person who could swing the heaviest bag was the victor.
These, and other games of a similar character, were among
the ordinary amusements of children and youths in Egypt, and
were regarded as at once promoting health by the exercise of
the body and refreshing the mind by pleasant entertainment.
Moses would naturally be required to take his part in such
exercises, and that he did so is implied by Philo, who says that
he soon conceived a distaste for such amusements,1 and showed
himself superior to them, preferring more serious occupations.
It may be doubted, however, whether Philo, in thus writing, is
not rather following out his own views of how the perfect man
ought to act in his youth, than delivering to us any Egyptian or
Jewish tradition on the subject. Philo's leanings are towards
asceticism, and he would fain persuade us that the great lawgiver
of his nation held the same views ; but it is at least doubtful
whether he had any trustworthy authority for his statements.
Moses is likely to have been of a serious turn as boy and youth ;
but his Egyptian instructors would regard the training of the
body as scarcely less necessary than the training of the mind,
and would see that he passed through the ordinary course ot
gymnastic exercises, and that his bodily vigour was as well
developed as that of any of his contemporaries.
Parallel, even with the earliest physical training, would be a
certain amount of instruction, directed to the development of
the intellect. Like other children, Moses had to begin by
learning to read and write. In Egypt these accomplishments
were not very easy of acquirement The Egyptians had at the
time two forms of writing, one known to the Greeks as the
hieroglyphic, and the other as the hieratic. In the hieroglyphic,
articulate sounds were represented by pictures of objects, which
expressed, sometimes letters, sometimes syllables, sometimes
whole words, occasionally ideas. The number of the signs
used was very large, probably not less than a thousand.
Several of them expressed more than one sound, while one and
the same sound was sometimes expressed by several symbols.
To learn the Egyptian alphabet was nearly as difficult as to
' "Vit. Mosis," p. 83.

30 MOSES.
learn the Chinese, and must have occupied many months, if not
years. To read, it was necessary to know, not only what
articulations each symbol had, but which of them was appropri
ate in the connection in which each symbol occurred. Writing
was still more difficult ; for as all the signs were objects, it was
necessary, in order to write, to be able to draw a vast variety
of objects with distinctness and accuracy. Among the most
ordinary characters were the eagle, which expressed aj the
owl, which expressed m; the chicken, which expressed uj the
duck, which expressed saj the hawk, which expressed harj and
the vulture, which expressed mut. Hieroglyphic writing, to be
intelligible, had to mark unmistakably which bird was meant,
out of these many ; and indeed there were others also in the
hieroglyphic list, as the swallow and the ibis. Animals had to
be drawn with equal frequency, as the lion, the wild-goat, the
ox, the crocodile, the jackal, the hare. It has been well
observed by Mr. R. S. Poole, that to write Egyptian required
" a training in art." * Some training of the kind was requisite
in all cases, but, in the case of those who were receiving the
best education, much more was necessary ; for they were
expected to " draw beautifully," depicting each bird, and
animal, and insect, and flower, with a firm sure hand, rapidly
and artistically. Nor was the other form of writing known to
the Egyptians in the age of Moses much easier of acquisition.
The hieratic was a cursive writing based on the hieroglyphic,
and scarcely to be learnt or read apart from it. Whether a
knowledge of it was included in the general scheme of a liberal
education, is unknown to us. But even if it were, the student's
burthen would not have been much lightened, for the hieratic
forms are not less numerous than the hieroglyphic, and in
many cases so closely resemble each other as to lead to infinite
difficulty and confusion.
it is said that, about the time of Moses, another language
besides Egyptian was taught to students. " The documents of
the scribes of that age not only show by their accurate trans
literation of Semitic words that the writers had a mastery of the
foreign sounds they wrote ; but more than this, it was the
fashion at this time to introduce Semitic words into the Egyp
tian language."3 As all educated Romans in the days of Cicero
learnt Greek, and all Russians in the time of Alexander I. were
1 R. Stuart Poole, " Cities of Egypt,"' p. 141. » Ibid. p. 143.

EDUCATION. 31
taught French, so in the days of Moses all educated Egyptians
had to be familiar with a Semitic dialect, which, if not exactly
Hebrew, was at any rate closely akin to it. Here Moses must
have had an advantage over his Egyptian contemporaries, for
Hebrew was his mother tongue, which he had begun to speak
before his mother gave him back to the princess, and had
thenceforth used in his intercourse with the members of his
family. After reading and writing, or rather in conjunction with them,
long before they were fully mastered, would come arithmetic.
A knowledge of numbers, to a certain extent, is needed for the
common business of life. The Egyptians were good arithme
ticians. They invented the signs, which we call Arabic, and
which we still use, for one, two, three, and four ; they carried
numeration as far, at any rate, as millions ; our common multi
plication table is thought to have been of Egyptian origin.1
They dealt not only with whole numbers, but with fractions, for
which they had a peculiar notation, and which they added or
subtracted without difficulty. The higher operations of arith
metic were probably unknown to them ; and it may be suspected
that they indulged in mystical speculations on the virtues and
qualities of particular numbers, which were purely fanciful and
incapable of leading to any useful result.
Philo says,3 that among the early acquirements of Moses was
a knowledge of music, both vocal and instrumental, of harmony,
and of rhythm. That the Hebrews had some musical knowledge
when they quitted Egypt is apparent from the account, which is
given in Exodus xv., of Miriam, and the women who were her
companions, after the passage of the Red Sea. That Moses
was skilled in rhythm is evident, both from his "song" in
the same chapter, and from the splendid poem which occupies
the greater part of Deut. xxxii. There is thus no reason to
question Philo's assertion, which may have been derived from
tradition, or possibly from his knowledge of the general- plan of
education among the ancient Egyptians. Music was certainly
known and practised in Egypt from a very remote period. In
ancient tombs near the Pyramids, probably belonging to about
the time of their construction, we see bands of five, six, and
even eight performers, some of whom sing, while others play
* Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians," vol. ii. p. 492.
» " Vit. Mosis," 1. s. c.

32- MOSES.
upon various instruments. The harp, the lyre, the flute, the
double pipe, the guitar, and the tambourine are the instruments
most frequently represented. No Egyptian musical scores
have come down to us ; and it is thus impossible to say what
were the ideas prevalent on the subject of harmony, or of
melody ; but perhaps, if their ideas were ascertained, we should
not find them to be very different from our own.
The proficiency of Moses in rhythm, to which Philo testifies,
and of which his works give evidence, was, doubtless, in the
main, derived from a knowledge of the Egyptian poetry. The
Egyptians were great lovers of song. Almost all workmen sang
at their tasks; and at the vintage and," the harvest-time there
were specially favourite melodies, which rang through the air
in the country districts, and were probably known to every
one. Epic poems recorded the exploits of monarchs ; lyrical
songs declared the praises of the gods ; dirges were recited
at funerals, merry roundelays at feasts. We may gather from
Philo that something like a scientific study of rhythm was a
part of the education of boys, who were inducted into the
mysteries of the various Egyptian metres, as our own youth
are into the intricacies of sapphics and iambics, of alcaics,
asclepiads, and hendecasyllables.
The boyish education of Moses was most likely conducted at
the Court, under a paedagogue or tutor, assisted by various
masters ; but as he approached towards manhood, he would be
sent to one of the two great universities. No otherwise could
he have become " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians "
(Acts vii. 22) ; no otherwise would his training have befitted his
rank and station. The seats of learning at the time were
Heliopolis and Hermopolis, the one on the eastern verge of the
Delta, about twenty miles north of Memphis ; the other in the
lower Nile valley, half-way between Memphis and Thebes. The
tradition says that Heliopolis wa? the university chosen. It
was much nearer to Memphis than Hermopolis, and would have
a special attraction for any Hebrew youth from the connection
between its priestly house and the patriarch Joseph (Gen. xii.
45). Heliopolis, or On, was one of the most ancient of the
Egyptian cities, and was famous on two accounts — it was a
great seat of learning, and it was the principal centre of the
worship of the sun. The description of it given by Dean
Stanley is so graphic that we shall venture to transfer it to out

EDUCATION. 33
pages. " It stands on the edge of the cultivated ground. The
vast enclosure of its brick walls still remains, how almost pow
dered into dust, but, according to the tradition of the Septuagint,
the very walls built by the Israelite bondmen. Within the
enclosure, in the space now occupied by tangled gardens, rose
the great Temple of the Sun, which gave its name and object
to the city. How important in Egypt was that worship may
be best understood by remembering that from it were derived
the chief names by which kings and priests were called —
' Pha-raoh,' ' The Child of the Sun,' • ' Po-ti-phe-rah,' ' The Ser
vant of the Sun.' And what its aspect was in Heliopolis may
be known partly from the detailed description which Strabo has
left of its buildings, as still standing in his own time ; and yet
more from the fact that the one Egyptian temple which to this
day retains its sculptures and internal arrangements almost
unaltered, that of Ipsambul, is the temple of Ra, or the Sun.
In Heliopolis, as elsewhere, was the avenue of sphinxes leading
to the great gateway, where flew, from gigantic flagstaff's, the
red and blue streamers. Before and behind the gateway stood,
two by two, the petrifactions of the sun-beam, the obelisks,
of which one alone now remains to mourn the loss of all its
brethren. Close by was the sacred Spring of the Sun, a rare
sight in Egypt, and therefore the more precious, and probably
the original cause of the selection of this remote corner of Egypt
for so famous a sanctuary. This, too, still remains, almost
choked by the rank luxuriance of the aquatic plants which have
gathered over its waters. Round the cloisters of the vast courts
into which these gateways opened, were spacious mansions,
forming the canonical residences, if one may so call them, of
the priests and professors of On : for Heliopolis, we must
remember, was the Oxford of ancient Egypt, the seat of its
learning in ancient times ; the university, or perhaps rather the
college, gathered round the Temple of the Sun, as Christ
Church round the old cathedral or shrine of S. Frideswide. . . .
In the centre of all stood the Temple itself. Over the portal,
we can hardly doubt, was the figure of the Sun-god, not in the
sublime indistinctness of his natural orb, nor yet in the beautiful
impersonation of the Grecian Apollo, but in the strange gro
tesque form of the hawk-headed monster. Enter : and the
1 This derivation is now questioned, that of Per-aa, " the .Great House, '
being preferred. 4

34 MOSES.
dark temple opens and contracts successively into its outer
most, its inner, and its innermost hall ; the Osirid figures in
their placid majesty support the first, the wild and savage
exploits of kings and heroes fill the second, and in the
furthest recess of all, underneath the carved figure of the
Sun-god, and beside the solid altar, sate in his gilded cage
the sacred hawk, or lay crouched upon his purple bed the
sacred black calf, Mnevis or Urmer ; each the living, almost
incarnate, representation of the deity of the temple. Thrice
a day before the deified beast the incense was offered, and
once a month the solemn sacrifice." *
There are reasons for questioning the latter part of this de
scription. No sacred animal was housed in the inmost sanctuary
of the Sun-god at Heliopolis, since that sanctuary was ordin
arily kept closed, sometimes with a seal upon the doors.* The
animals, of which there were several, must have occupied
some other position, and most probably had their separate
houses, in different parts of the precinct. Besides the black
bull, Mnevis, there were maintained in the temple a lion and
lioness, a cat, and a specimen of the bennu, a kind of crane,
which was regarded as representing the mythical phcenix.
Heliopolis was the locality to which especially belonged the
phcenix legend. The bird came from Arabia once in five hun
dred years, carrying the body of his father enclosed in a ball of
myrrh, and deposited it in the Temple of the Sun. In form he
much resembled the eagle ; but his plumage was in part red, in
part golden.3 Herodotus remarks, with some naivete", that he
had never seen him — a privation which, however, he must have
shared with other travellers.
We have no picture of university life in Heliopolis, either in
the time of Moses or at any other period ; but we have some
knowledge of the character of the instruction which was there
imparted to students. Geometry was certainly taught. The
science originated in Egypt, where it was a primary necessity
on account of the fact that every year the inundation obliterated
many of the landmarks and made a fresh mensuratipn and de
marcation of properties imperative. The mensuration of land
led on to general surveys, which could scarcely be executed
except trigonometrically, and the science of trigonometry must,
' " Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. L pp. 87-90.
• " Records of the Past,' voL ii. p. 98. 1 Herodotus, II. 73.

EDUCATION. 35
therefore, it would seem, have been cultivated to some extent."
If the intended height of a pyramid was determined from the
first, the angle of the slope of the sides might be definitely
fixed by trigonometrical calculation, but scarcely otherwise.
The higher branches of mathematics were, of course, unknown
to the Egyptians ; and even geometry was but little elaborated
until the time of Euclid. It is noticeable, however, that the
Greek who first did much for geometry was an Alexandrian
Greek, and the suspicion arises that he may have derived much
of his improved science from Egyptian sources.
Other branches of knowledge cultivated and taught at Helio
polis in Moses' time were literature, especially poetry, astro
nomy, law, medicine, and " the philosophy of symbols." It
was an object with all persons of the higher ranks in Egypt to
acquire a clear and elegant style. For this purpose the master
pieces of antiquity, whether in poetry or prose, were carefully
studied, and composition was regularly practised under the
guidance of instructors. Epistolary correspondence was a
branch of composition which received special attention, and the
model letters of the best authors were set before the student for
imitation. It is not clear whether the students were practised
in composing poetry ; but on the whole it is most probable that
the curriculum included verse as well as prose writing.
The Egyptians received at an early date some astronomical
knowledge from the Babylonians, and afterwards made con
siderable advances in the science of astronomy themselves.
Astronomy was necessary for the construction of the calendar,
and was closely connected with religion. The Egyptian astro
nomers succeeded in determining, with a near approach to
exactness, the solar year, which they made to consist of 363 X
days. They knew that the moon derived its light from the sun,
that the sun was the centre of our system, and that the revolu
tion of the earth upon its axis was the cause of day and night.
There was an observatory at Heliopolis in the time of Strabo,
which had probably come down from a high antiquity, since
astronomical observations were recorded on the temple walls at
Thebes at a very remote period. The Egyptians paid special
attention to eclipse's, both of the sun and the moon ; to occulta
1 Dr. Birch says, " A geometric and arithmetic papyrus, now in the
British Museum, has a portion devoted to the mensuration and triangula-
turn of fields."

36 MOSES.
tions of the planets ; to the motions of the planets, and the
determination of their periodic and synodic times ; and to the
construction of tables of the fixed stars and the mapping of them
out into constellations. They were acquainted with the obli
quity of the ecliptic to the equator, and found a way of deter
mining an exact meridian line. It has been supposed that they
were acquainted with the procession of the equinoxes ; but the
evidence on this point is insufficient. Altogether their astro
nomy must be pronounced not very advanced, and rather em
pirical than scientific, rather practical than speculative. Dr.
Brugsch says of it : "Astronomy with the Egyptians was not
that mathematical science which calculates the movements of
the stars through the construction of grand systems of the
heavens. It was rather a collection of the observations which
they had made on the periodically recurring phenomena of
earth and sky in Egypt, the bearings of which upon each other
could not long escape the notice of the priests, who in the
clear Egyptian nights observednhe brilliant luminaries of their
firmament. Their astronomical knowledge was founded on the
base of empiricism, and not on that of mathematical inquiry."1
Such however as their astronomical knowledge was, the
students at Heliopolis had the benefit of it, and were perhaps
as much advanced in the science as the bulk of those who in
modern times enjoy the advantages of a university training.
It is a reasonable conclusion of Egyptologists that the prin
ciples and practice of law must have been taught at Heliopolis.'
The Egyptians had a large body of written laws forming a por
tion of some of their sacred books, and believed to have emanated
originally from a Divine source. These laws were, for the most
part, admirable, and were administered by trained judges, who
were in no case allowed to depart from them or call them in
question, since such conduct would have been rebellion against
the Deity. The kings, though despotic in the sense that there
were no means of calling them to account, had not the right,
and did not even claim the right, of setting aside the law ; and
the courts throughout the kingdom heard and decided ordinary
causes without any interference from any superior authority.
The class of judges was large ; and those who aimed at the
career must have qualified themselves for it by some previous
1 " Histoire d'Egypte," part i. p. 39.
¦ R. Stuart Poole, " O'ties of Egypt,'" p. 143.

EDUCATION. 37
course of study. That the place where they studied was Helio
polis cannot be said to be proved, but is, at any rate, in the
highest degree probable.
The same must be said with regard to medicine and its sub
ordinate science, chemistry. Medicine engaged the attention
of the Egyptians from the earliest ages, and was pursued with
ardour and success. The whole country was subject to sanitary
regulations, the kings themselves not being exempted from
obedience to them. Very ancient works on medicine existed, and
were regarded with extreme respect, being attributed either to the
god Thoth, or to one or more of the ancient kings. The import
ance of anatomy was recognized, and the dissection of the human
subject allowed and practised. In the time of Herodotus
specialism seems to have prevailed, and to have been carried,
indeed, to a ridiculous extent,1 but we have no evidence that
this system was followed in the earlier times. The medical
school of Heliopolis is not to be taxed with any sanction of the
principle that " each physician should treat only one disorder."
Science, however, was probably regarded at Heliopolis as a
secondary and inferior part of education ; the main object of
study was religion, the full understanding of the Egyptian
sacred books. The professors of the university were also the
priests of the great temple, and the colleges of students were
under their control, the studies under their superintendence.
The youths who came to Heliopolis with the mere vague notions
on the subject of religion which were to be gathered from
attendance in the various temples and participation in the
various festivals, and who must have therefore been, like the
mass of the common people, idolaters and polytheists, had to
be taught by their religious instructors the deep truths that
underlay the external popular religion, the realities shadowed
forth by the grotesque imagery of hawk-headed, cow-headed,
and ibis-headed idols, of sacred goats and sacred bulls and
sacred crocodiles, of processions of the Boat of the Sun, of Osiris
myths, of Nile worship, and the like. Philo says that one of the
subjects in which Moses received instruction from his Egyptian
instructors was " the philosophy of symbolism " ; and this would
exactly express the enlightenment which those persons received
who passed from the crowd of the uninitiated and uninstructed
into the select number of the fully instructed in religion. Foi
' See Herodotus, ii 84.

38 MOSES.
the entire external aspect of the Egyptian religion was a con*
plicated and multitudinous symbolism. "The various deities,"
as Sir Gardner Wilkinson long ago pointed out,1 "were mere
emblematic representations of the One and Sole God ; for the
priests who were initiated into, and who understood the mys
teries of their religion, believed in one Deity alone, and, in per
forming their adorations to any particular member of their
Pantheon, addressed themselves directly to the sole ruler of
the universe, through that particular form. Each form (whether
called Ptah, Amen, or any other of the figures representing
various characters of the Deity) was one of His attributes ; in
the same manner as our expressions, ' the Creator,' ' the Omni
potent,' ' the Almighty,' or any other title, indicate one and the
same Being." Or, as I have myself observed elsewhere,3 " the
gods of the popular mythology were understood, in the esoteric
religion, to be either personified attributes of the Deity or parts
of the nature which He had created, considered as informed
and inspired by Him. Num or Kneph represented the creative
mind, Phthah the creative hand, or act of creating ; Maut
represented matter, Ra the_sun, KJimnsjhejnopn, Seb the earth,
Khem the generative power in nature, Nut the upper hemisphere
of heaven, Athor the lower world, or under hemisphere ; Thoth
personified the Divine wisdom, Ammon perhaps the Divine
mysteriousness or incomprehensibility, Osiris (according to
some) the Divine goodness. It is difficult in many cases to
fix on the exact quality, act, or part of nature intended ;
but the principle admits of no doubt. No educated Egyptian
priest certainly, probably no educated layman, conceived of the
popular gods as really separate and distinct beings. All knew
that there was but One God, and understood that when worship
was offered to Khem, or Kneph, or Phthah, or Maut, or Thoth,
or Ammon, the One God was worshipped in some one of His
forms, or in some one of His aspects. It does not appear that in
more than a very few cases did the Egyptian religion, as con
ceived of by the initiated, deify created beings, or constitute a
class of secondary gods who owed their existence to the
Supreme God. Ra was not a Sun-Deity with a distinct and
separate existence, but the Supreme God acting in the sun,
making His light to shine on the earth, warming, cheering, and
• "Ancient Egyptians," vol. ii. p. 476.
¦ " History of Ancient Egypt," vol. i. pp. 315, 316.

EDUCATION. 39
blessing it ; and so Ra might be worshipped with all the highest
titles of honour, as, indeed, might any god, except the very few
which are more properly called genii, and which corresponded
to the angels of the Christian system."
Symbolism was the one and only key to the Egyptian religion ;
but it was a key of a most complicated kind, and it required a
long course of instruction to enable the neophyte to use it pro
perly. It had to be applied to the animal worship, to the various
forms and ceremonies of the religion, to the Osirid myth, and
to the other sagas. There must have been a large field for it in
the explanation of the Ritual, or Book of the Dead, which is
a long composition of the most obscure and mystic character.4
Probably the priests alone, or those who were intended for the
priesthood, pursued their study of symbolism to the furthest
possible point, so as to understand exactly the esoteric meaning
of each word and phrase of the Ritual Ordinary lay students
may have been merely taught the general principle, and left to
themselves to apply it. The more curious and intelligent of
such students may have been carried somewhat further, but are
not likely to have been able to devote to this single study the
time requisite for obtaining a thorough mastery of it.
The question here naturally arises, whether Moses was among
the lay, or among the priestly, students. According to some
authorities, he was an actual priest, and bore a priestly name in
addition to his name of Moses, which, if we trust Chaeremon,3
was Tisithen, if we trust Manetho,3 Osarsiph. But it is scarcely
conceivable that Moses really entered the Egyptian priesthood,
even if we take the most favourable view of the inner meaning
of the Egyptian religion. The priests had invented, and main
tained the outward polytheism and idolatry, as the only religion
suitable to the mass of the people ; they inculcated it ; they
administered its rites ; they sanctioned its grossness, its licen
tiousness, its lowering and debasing materialism. If Moses, as
we have supposed, learnt the religion of his forefathers from the
members of his own family, and adhered to it, even though a
resident at the Pharaoh's Court, he would necessarily have
shrunk from the priestly office with its responsibilities, even if
the priests would have been willing to admit him to it. But,
according to Josephus,4 there was from first to last an antagon-
• " History of Ancient Egypt," p. 137. * Ap. Joseph. " C. Apion.'' i. 33
' Ibid. i. 26, 28, 31. * " Ant. Jud." ii. 9, 10.

4© MOSES.
ism between him and the priests, who constantly laid plots
against his life, and were so far from considering him one of
themselves, that they looked upon him as a dangerous rival and
enemy. We must therefore regard Moses at Heliopolis as a lay
student, not in favour with the authorities, doubtless admitted
freely to whatever instruction was given in secular subjects, but
taught the customary explanations of the established religious
practices and of the sacred texts with some reserve — perhaps
obtaining his knowledge of these subjects rather from his fellow
students than the University professors.

CHAPTER V.
EARLY MANHOOD OF MOSES.
Anomalous position of an adopted foundling at the Pharaonle Court-
Annoyances to which Moses would be subjected — Courses of life which
would naturally be open to him — The official life — The literary life—
The life of a soldier ; its attraction at the time — Grounds for con
cluding that ? loses adopted the military life — Training which it
involved — Moses in the Hittite wars — Account given by Josephus of
Moses' successes against the Ethiopians — The account criticized.
His university education concluded, Moses must have returned
to the Cburt, and have resumed his position in his mother's
household. But the question must now have presented itself to
his mind, which presents itself to almost all sooner or later.
What was he to do with his life, how was he to employ the
talents and the acquirements which were his by nature and
training ? The position of an adopted foundling at the Court
of an Egyptian king, and that foundling a foreigner, was an
anomalous, and can scarcely have been a pleasant, one. The
threatened assassinations, of which Josephus speaks, are pro
bably fictions, and the extreme aversion in which Moses was
held by the priests is no doubt exaggerated ; but jealousies, we
may be sure, were awakened by the favour shewn to an alien
interloper, and an atmosphere of suspicion and ill-will was
created around him. There could be no one among the
courtiers who would really truly sympathize with his feelings
when he was vexed or hurt, since there was no one who occupied
anything like the same position. He may have had some
hangers-on and flatterers, but he can scarcely have had a friend.
The courtiers generally would look down upon him on account

43 MOSES.
of his birth, envy him in respect of the high favour with which
he was regarded by the Princess, and dislike him as one who
in creed and race and tone of thought was quite different from
themselves. The result would be a series of slights and imperA
tinences on the part of the jeunesse dote'e of the period, which!
would sting and annoy the recipient, without giving him sufficient
cause for serious complaint or remonstrance, and these would
produce a growing sense on Moses' part of injury and isolationJ
To hang about the Court from year to year as a mere idler,
one of the useless class, fruges consumere nati, must have
been in any case abhorrent to a man of the temperament of
Moses, and in his peculiar position must have seemed to him
specially undesirable. We may assume that it was not long
after quitting Heliopolis that he seriously placed before himself
the courses of life open to him, and considered carefully theit
several attractions. The most obvious life, to a person circum
stanced as he was, would have been the official life. " Egypt
swarmed with a bureaucracy — a bureaucracy which was power
ful, numerous, and cleverly arranged in such a graduated series,
that the most bureaucratic countries of the modern world may
with reason be said to have had nothing superior to it.1 Partly
in the capital, partly scattered about the country, were hundreds,
or rather thousands, of official personages, nomarchs, toparchs,
governors of towns, judges, magistrates, collectors of taxes,
superintendents of storehouses, treasurers, registrars, and the
like ; all of them receiving their appointments from the Crown,
and occupying a high and honourable position. Nothing would
have been easier for Moses than to have asked the Princess who
had adopted him, to obtain for him from the reigning Pharaoh,
her father or her brother, one of these civil appointments, by
means of which he would have set his foot on the first rung of
the official ladder, and might have risen through the many
gradations to the highest rung of all. But the official life, in
Egypt as elsewhere, was probably monotonous ; it involved,
during many years, complete subordination and much unin
teresting drudgery ; it may have required an occasional, or a
constant acknowledgment, of the idolatry everywhere established
and maintained as the religion of the State. Naturally enough,
Moses was not attracted by it. Could he have mounted per
" Lenormant, " Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient," vol. i. p. 487 j Birch,
" Egypt from the Earliest Times," p. xix.

EARLY MANHOOD OF MOSES. 43
saltum, like Joseph, to the highest place (Gen. xii. 39-44), he
would perhaps have overcome his repugnance, and have become
a distinguished Egyptian civilian ; but the prospect of toiling
from grade to grade did not tempt him, and he decided that the
official life would not satisfy his aspirations.
The literary life may next have presented itself to his thoughts.
It was, to a considerable extent, connected with the official life,
to which in a great number of instances it served as a stepping-
stone. Proficiency in letters attracted public attention, and the
literary man — the " scribe," as he was called — often received
offers of civil employment, and commonly accepted them. But
literature was also pursued by many as their only occupation,
and was recognized as containing within itself many attractions
and delights. "Love letters as thy mother," says an early
Egyptian author ; " it is a greater possession than all employ
ments." And again — " Consider that there is not an employment
destitute of superior ones, except the scribe's, which is the first."
The literary man was held in high honour ; he was invited
everywhere, even to the royal table. " Truly no scribe," exclaims
the writer above quoted, " is without eating the things of the royal
palace of the King." * Such men as Pentaour, Anna, Kakabu,
Hor, Amen-em-api, Bek-en-ptah, Pan-bas, not only had the
entrde to good society, but lived on intimate terms with the
highest personages in the land. Moses, with his great literary
talents, his strong if undeveloped poetic powers, might well have
aspired to join the noble company of authors, which formed one
of the main glories of the times wherein he lived. But the
literary life would have afforded no scope for the exercise of his
practical energies, and, however respectable, would perhaps at
the time have scarcely been thought worthy of a scion, albeit an
adopted one, of the royal stock. Moses, at any rate, was not
attracted by it. Though " learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians" (Acts vii. 22), he was not content to take up the
rSle of a mere man of learning, or to pass his life in celebrating
the deeds of others, without doing anything which should make
him worthy of being celebrated himself. — "~
But if neither the literary life nor the life of a government
official was sufficiently attractive to content the aspirations of
the young Hebrew, taking his first outlook upon the world
wherein he had to play his part, what other possibilities were
¦ " Records of the Past," vol. viii. pp. 148, 153, 156.

44 MOSES.
there, what other lines of occupation? Merely professional
careers, the life of a physician, or a lawyer, or an artist, were
even less eligible than those which we have supposed him to
have contemplated and rejected. Moses cannot be imagined to
have given them so much as a thought. Though of humble
birth, he held the position of a prince, and no occupation could
be suitable to him, which was not recognized by public opinion
as princely. Rank has its obligations. Royal Highnesses
find but few walks in life open to them. They cannot accept
a metropolitan practice, or become lawyers in a provincial
town. There remained, however, one life which we have not yet
passed under review — a life royal, princely, which the king
himself led. This waAjke_iifg-^_a^oh*jcr. Every Egyptian
monarch of the ancient dynasties led out his army in person,
and fought at its head. Egypt, since the times of Apepi and
Joseph, had been engaged in a perpetual series of hostilities,
either with neighbouring, or with distant, nations. The Thoth-
meses and Amenhoteps of the eighteenth dynasty had not been
content, like former kings of Egypt, to defend their frontiers,
repulse invaders, and enlarge the limits of the empire by
tttaching to it here and there a small province. While the
Hebrews were quietly feeding their flocks and herds in Goshen,
and growing from a family into a tribe, and from a tribe into a
nation, they had commenced a career of aggression, had marched
their bands of disciplined troops into Asia, had overrun and
conquered all Syria and Western Mesopotamia, had made raids
into Assyria, passed the Tigris, plundered Nineveh, and crossed
swords with the great Assyrian monarchs, who then held their
Court at Kileh-Sherghat, or Asshur. Thothmes I. had begun
these distant conquests. He'had marched an army through Pales
tine and Syria, crossed the Euphrates into Mesopotamia',engaged
the natives in a long series of battles and defeated them more
than once with great slaughter. Thothmes 1 1 1., " the Alexander
of Egyptian history,"1 had not only invaded Syria and Western
Mesopotamia, but conquered them, had established a strong
military post at Arban on the river Khabour, and from this post
had carried his arms across the Tigris into Assyria Proper, and
forced the Assyrian monarch to pay him a tribute. He had
warred in Phoenicia, in Cilicia, and in Commagene ; he had
« Brugsch, " History of Egypt," voL L p. 31&

EARLY MANHOOD OF MOSES. 4J
collected a fleet and reduced Cyprus ; he had marched with his
troops from Nubia to the Taurus range, and from Cyrenetobeyond
Nineveh ; he had borne off from the subject countries 11,000
captives, 1,670 chariots, 3,639 horses, 4,491 of the larger cattle,
above 35,000 goats, silver to the amount of 3,940 pounds, and gold
to the amount of 9,054 pounds, besides enormous quantities of
corn and wine, together with incense, balsam, honey, ivory,
ebony, and other rare woods, lapis-lazuli and other precious
stones, furniture, statues, vases, dishes, basins, tent-poles, bows,
habergeons, fruit-trees, live birds and monkeys. Amen-hotep
II., son of Thothmes III., had, after the death of his father,
recovered the various countries subdued by him, which had
revolted on his decease. Other kings, notably Ramesses I.,
the founder of the nineteenth dynasty, and Seti I., his son and
successor, had contended in Asia with a new enemy, the Khita
or Hittites, and had won fame and glory by their victories.
Moses had, it is probable, been growing up while the later of
these successes were being obtained, and had witnessed the
enthusiasm with which Seti was welcomed back to Egypt by
thousands upon thousands of his subjects; when he returned in
triumph from some of his Asiatic expeditions. He may have
heard the acclamations which greeted the victorious monarch
as he re-entered his capital, and listened to the first singing of
that song of triumph, which was afterwards engraved on the
walls of the great temple of Karnak.1
" Pharaoh is a jackal, which rushes leaping through the Hittite land ;
He is a grim lion, frequenting the hidden paths of all regions ;
He is a powerful bull with a pair of sharpened horns.
Pharaoh has stricken the Asiatics down to the ground ;
He has overthrown the Khita ; he has slain their princes."
The military glories of Egypt, thus revived by the monarch of
the time, and echoed from mouth to mouth among men of all
ranks and stations, occupying more or less the thoughts of all,
and forming the general subject of conversation, would naturally
stir the spirit of one so circumstanced as Moses, and would
point out to him a path and an occupation, which none could
regard as unworthy of him, which would give employment to all
his energies, and might lead to the highest distinction. Pro
motion in the Egyptian army depended mainly, if not wholly
upon merit Moses would have that self-reliance which is
1 Brugsch, " History of Egypt," vol. ii. p. 16,

46 MOSES.
characteristic of all truly great men ; and he would feel that, if
interest were needed, he would have in his mother a " friend at
Court," on whom he might rely implicitly. Thus the military
life would present itself to him in glowing colours, and he would
feel drawn to it, rather than to any other.
Tradition here steps in and declares to us that the military
life was the one actually adopted by Moses, and that it led him
to the distinction which we may be sure he coveted. Both Jose
phus and Artapanus relate that, in a great war, which was waged
between Egypt and Ethiopia, Moses commanded the Egyptian
army, and led an expedition into Ethiopia, which was crowned
with complete success. It seems impossible to suppose that the
story, however fanciful in its details, is a pure fiction. We are
estopped, moreover, from such a conclusion by the fact that
St. Stephen, speaking before the Sanhedrim, mentioned it as a
thing generally known, that Moses, before casting in his lot with
his own nation, " was mighty in words and in deeds " (Acts
vii. 22). A private inHividual could scarcely at tmrrime be
"mighty in deeds" otherwise than by following the career of
arms and distinguishing himself in war. Moses, moreover,
could not have marshalled the host of the Israelites as he did
(Exod. xiii. 18), on their exodus from Egypt, without military
knowledge and skill of an advanced kind. It seems therefore to
be, on the whole, reasonable to conclude that during the space of
nearly twenty years, which must have intervened between the
termination of his university training, at about the age of
twenty, and his flight into Midian, when he was " fully forty "
(Acts vii. 23), Moses was engaged in the Egyptian military
service, first learning the trade of a soldier, and then exercising
it, originally in the lower, and ultimately in the higher, grades.
The life of a soldier, in its earlier stages, was one of consider
able hardship. "At an early age, the youth destined for the
profession of arms was sent to the military school or barracks j
and his miseries there are described by a contemporary of
Ramesses II., as also the additional ones of the warrior of a
chariot, who underwent instruction in taking to pieces and re
adjusting his chariot, and driving it." * The importance of drill
was fully recognized, and the young soldier was carefully in
structed by the drill-sergeant for months, until he acquired
complete proficiency. To keep step exactly, to carry arms in
1 Dr. S. Birch in Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," vol. i. p. 187.

EARLY MANHOOD OF MOSES. 47
exactly the same way, to dress the line to perfection, to move all
as one man, to fire volleys of arrows at a signal all at once, were
among the lessons to be learnt ; and the drill-sergeant had
power to enforce his instructions with a stick, though he would
scarcely venture to use it when drilling a young officer of the
rank of Moses. Even after drill was over, the recruit was not
left to himself ; severe exercise was required of him, and (accord
ing to Diodorus Siculus) even Sesostris was obliged, like the
other recruits who were trained with him, to run a distance of
above twenty miles every morning before breakfast.' If for
"twenty" we substitute "two," the fact may have been as stated.
Athletic sports and games formed also a part of the soldiers'
training, and mock-fights, wrestling, leaping, cudgelling, and
numerous feats of strength and agility, were constantly practised
under the superintendence of skilled persons. After the earlier
drill was completed, there was a special training for the chariot
service, the chariot warrior having to learn how to mount into the
chariot and descend from it while it was in motion, how to
manage the steeds, in case any chance deprived him of his
charioteer, and even how to take his chariot to pieces and put it
together again.
If Seti I. was, as we have supposed, the Pharaoh who began
the severe oppression, the youth and early manhood of Moses
must have fallen into the period of the joint reign of Seti with
his son, the Great Ramesses.3 These monarchs were engaged,
separately or conjointly, in a continued series of military expedi
tions. Invasion from the Hittites was feared, and while strong
defensive measures were taken against it, a hugh wall being
built to protect the north-eastern frontier, and " store-cities "
constructed (Exod. i. 2) as military magazines, where arms and
food might be accumulated, it was also thought most prudent to
carry the war into the enemy's country, and to prevent him from
marching his troops beyond his borders by giving him ample
employment for them at home. We cannot say whether or no
Moses fleshed his maiden sword in these conflicts. On the one
hand, Josephus certainly writes as if he thought that the Ethio-
1 Diod. Sic. i. 53.
¦ Seti associated Ramesses when he was ten years old, probably in his
own eleventh or twelfth year. They reigned conjointly after this for eighteen
or twenty years. Moses was probably born about the fifth or sixth year
of Seti.

4 8 MOSES.
pian expedition was the first one in which Moses was engaged
On the other, it seems incredible that he should have been
selected for a post of the highest importance at a time of extreme
danger, whether the selection was made by the king himself of
his own free will, or whether it was enjoined upon him by the
priests, if he was an untried officer, wholly undistinguished, not
known to possess any, even the smallest, military talent Neither
the king nor the priests can be supposed to have regarded Moses
at this time as possessing superhuman powers, and therefore
sure to succeed against an enemy by the Divine aid that would
be vouchsafed him. Moses had as yet exhibited no such powers
He can only have been selected because he was believed to he
a good general. Whence had that belief arisen ? To us it ap
pears that the only possible answer is this — he had exhibited
courage, conduct, and the other qualities necessary for a com
mander, in other previous wars ; and these, if he lived at the
time which we have ventured to assign to him, would almost
certainly be the Hittite wars of Seti, or of his son Ramesses.
The circumstances of the Ethiopian expedition, according to
Josephus, were the following : — The Ethiopians, neighbours of
the Egyptians upon the south, were in the habit of making in
roads into their territory, and ravaging it from time to time.
After a while they provoked the Egyptians to retaliate, and the
latter marched an army into the land of the Ethiopians, tc
punish them for their insolence. But the Ethiopians gathered
their forces together, and, engaging the Egyptians in the open
field, completely defeated them, slaughtering a vast number, and
forcing the rest to make a hasty and disgraceful retreat into
their own country. It was now the turn of the Ethiopians to
take the offensive. Following up the flying foe, they crossed the
border, and, not content with ravaging, proceeded to seize and
occupy large portions of Southern Egypt. The inhabitants did
not venture on resistance ; and, little by little, the invaders crept
on towards the north, till they reached Memphis, and even the
Mediterranean coast, without a single city having held out
against their attack. Reduced to the depths of despair, the
Egyptians had recourse to their oracular shrines, and inquired
of them what it would be best for them to do. The reply given
oy the oracles, i.e. by the priests, who had the control of them,
was—" Use the Hebrew as your helper." No one doubted that
by "the Hebrew" was meant Moses, or that the "help" to be

EARLY MAKHOOD OF MOSES. 49
required of him was that he should take the conduct of the war.
Moses accordingly was invested with the sole command, and at
the head of the Egyptian troops he marched into the enemy's
country, got rid of the serpents which infested it by an importa
tion of ibises, and defeated the army which was sent against him
in a decisive battle. He then went on, and took city by city, every
where overcoming the resistance that was offered to him, and
slaying large numbers of the enemy. His troops, whom their
reverses had disheartened, took courage so soon as they found
that their new general could lead them to victory, and showed
themselves excellent soldiers, ready to endure alike toil and
danger. Penetrating at last to the very heart of the country,
they laid siege to the capital, Saba, afterwards called Meroe,
which lay on the Nile, almost surrounded by a bend of the river,
and further guarded by a strong wall and by the two streams of
the Astaboras and the Astacus. Numerous assaults were made
on the defences without any result, though the gallantry of Moses
and his cleverness were alike conspicuous ; until at last the king's
daughter, Tharbis, attracted by his doughty deeds, fell in love
with him, and persuaded her father to come to terms with his
assailants. It was agreed that the city should be surrendered
on condition that Moses made Tharbis his wife, and that a
treaty of peace should at the same time be concluded between
the two nations on terms that are not stated. The agreement
was carried out : the marriage between Moses and Tharbis was
celebrated ; and the Hebrew general, with his army, returned
to Egypt in triumph.1
There are many points in this narrative which the critical
historian reasonably rejects or questions. First, the power of
Ethiopia at the time is greatly over-stated, the conquest of Egypt
city by city, the fall of Memphis, and the approach of the in
vader to the Mediterranean Sea, being apparently taken from
the actual history of six centuries later, when more than one
Ethiopian conqueror humiliated Egypt in the way described.
Next, the episode of the serpents and the ibises is plainly an
embellishment, since ibises do not need to be imported into
Ethiopia, where they are as common as in Egypt, and since in
no country have serpents ever been known to be so numerous
as seriously to impede the march of an army. Further, the
'Josephus, "Ant.Jud." ii. 10. Compare Artapanus in the "Fragm. Hist.
Gr." of C. Muller, vol. iii. p. 220, Fr. 14.
5

JO MOSES.
Egyptian successes are probably as much exaggerated as the
previous successes of the Ethiopians, since there is no appear
ance in the monuments of the Egyptian authority having ever
been extended into the region mentioned, that where the Nile is
joined by the tributaries which flow into it from the Abyssinian
highlands. The manner, moreover, in which the war ended, and
the marriage between Moses and Tharbis, are probably fictions,
nothing else being known of Tharbis, and Moses being free to
marry Zipporah not long afterwards.
But the exaggerations and the embellishments do not affect
the general credit of the narrative — or at any rate of that which
is of most importance in it — the elevation of Moses to the
position of commander-in-chief of an Egyptian army at a time
of danger, his conduct of a campaign against the Ethiopians, •
and the successful issue of his expedition. These points seem
worthy of our belief, since it is scarcely conceivable that they
should be pure inventions, and yet be related as facts by two
authors of repute, one a Jew, having access to the archives of
his nation, and well versed in its traditions ; the other a Greek
of Alexandria, likely to be familiar with Egyptian no less than
with Jewish records.

CHAPTER VL
THE GREAT DECISION.
Prospects of Moses after the Ethiopian expedition— His leaning towards his
brethren — His " tour of inspection " — His remonstrances in high
quarters ineffectual — Two possible courses open to him — The great
decision — Moses casts in his lot with his brethren — His efforts to help
them — His hasty homicide — His danger — His flight eastward — His
arrival in Midian.
Moses had returned from Ethiopia covered with glory. What-|
ever enmities or jealousies he may previously have aroused/
must have died away, or hid themselves, when it had to b(
generally acknowledged that the whole country was beholden t<
him and owed him a debt of gratitude. A tempting prospect o
court favour, high employments, sounding titles, and rich emolu
ments, must have lain before him. In Egypt the Court was apt
to accumulate its rewards on the favourite of the time being, and
to think no amount of seemingly incompatible offices ill-bestowed
upon the man who was recognized as deserving. An individual,
named Ptah-ases, who lived under the old empire, was at one
and the same time prophet of Phthah, of Sokari, and of Athor,
priest of the temple of Sokari, and of that of Phthah at Mem
phis, prophet of Ra-Harmachis, of Ma, and of Horus, as well
as overseer of the public granaries, royal secretary, chief of the
mines, and "chief of the house of bronze."1 A subject undei
the last Ramesses held in combination the offices of high-priest
of Ammon at Thebes, chief of Upper and Lower Egypt, royal son
of Kush, fan-bearer on the right hand of the king, chief architect,
1 De Rouge, " Recherches sur les Monuments des six premieres Dyrasties, "
pp. 68-73.

52 MOSES.
and administrator of the granaries.1 The system of pluralities
was an established one, and was rendered possible by the
separation of emoluments from duties, the nominal holder
receiving the high stipends attached to the several offices, while
such duties as they involved were discharged by ill-paid deputies.
rMoses might have confidently looked forward to some such a
| position under Ramesses II. as Ptah-ases had held under Ases-
jkaf, or as Her-hor afterwards held under the last Ramesses, had
he been content to make no change in the character of his life,
but simply to continue in the rank and condition in which the
circumstances of his birth and breeding had, without any effort
af his own, placed him.
i^JuTunderneath the smooth current of his life hitherto— a life
| of alternate luxury at the Court, and comparative hardness in the
camp and in the discharge of his military duties — there had
i lurked, from childhood to youth, from youth to manhood, a
I secret discontent, perhaps a secret ambition. Moses, amid all
his Egyptian surroundings, had never forgotten, Ead never wished
to forget, that he was a Hebrew. The tale that Tri his~eariier
infancy he had refused the milk of Egyptian nurses, and
starved himself till he could suck nutriment from a Hebrew
breast,2 though a pure myth, is valuable, as indicative of his
unceasing attachment to the race from which he was sprung.
The more credible tradition that, while at Heliopolis, he always
performed his prayers, according to the custom of his fathers,
outside the walls of the city, in the open air, turning towards the
sun-rising,3 shows that he refused to conceal, under trying cir
cumstances, either his nationality or his religion. To the honour
of the Hebrew people it must be said that they have at all times,
and under all circumstances, unless perhaps sometimes where
persecution was the cruellest, made open avowal of their faith,
and submitted to the consequences of such avowal without
shrinking. Moses had done this, but as yet he had not thrown
in his lot with his people — he had remained an outsider — he had
not even, it would seem, made himself acquainted with their
actual condition, or had more than a vague knowledge of theii
sufferings. But the time was now come when he felt it incum
bent on him to do more. He had attained a position of some
authority. His voice had become of some weight in the counsels
1 Brugsch, " History of Egypt," voL ii. p. 191.
•Josephus, "Ant. Jud." ii. 9, j 3. 3 Josephus, " Contr. Apion.," ii 2.

THE GREAT DECISION. 53
of the State. He might expect that any representations which
he might make would command attention.
So he resolved on a tour of inspection. " He went out unto his
brethren, and looked upon their burdens" (Exod. ii. ii). Alone,
or accompanied by a few attendants, he passed through the
portion of Egypt occupied by the Israelites, and by personal
eye-witness made himself familiar, in every detail, with the con
dition of his people. And what was that condition ? One
portion were working in the brickfields. Some were digging the
stiff clay out of the hot pits, where no shade was possible, and
no breath of air could touch them. Some were kneading the
stiff clay into suppleness with their hands or with their feet, and
mixing it with the straw which was required to bind together
the soft material. Some were shaping the clay into bricks by
means of a mould or form, into which the material was pressed,
and from which it was subsequently turned out in the shape de
sired. Some were carrying heavy burdens of bricks upon their
backs, either in baskets or by means of a yoke slung across the
shoulders. Finally, some were arranging the bricks into stacks,
where the drying would be completed, and whence they would
be carried off by those employed in building.
Another portion utilized the bricks which had been made by
their brethren. The " store-cities " of Pithom and Ramesses
(Raamses), with their huge walls, their magazines and granaries,
their temple-enclosures, their streets and squares, their mansions
and residences, were the work of Israelite hands, which dug
the foundations, emplaced the bricks, spread the mortar, and
gradually raised up the walls and buildings to the prescribed
height. Taking our stand on the mound of Tel-es-Maskoutah,
and looking round about on the great massive wall enclosing it,
940 yards long, eight yards broad, and from fifteen to twenty
feet high, on the tangle of store-chambers and other buildings
spread over it, and the temple occupying its south-western
angle, we see the actual works in which the Israelites of Moses'
time were engaged, and in our wanderings may stand where he
stood to consider, and weigh in the scales of truth, the heaviness
of the burdens imposed upon them. The work of the builders
was scarcely so severe as that of the brick-makers. It is, how
ever, described as both unhealthy and unpleasant by Egyptian
authors. " I tell you also of the builder of precincts," says one ;
" disease seizes on him (literally, ' tastes turn ' ), for he is always

54 MOSES.
in draughts of air ; he builds in slings, tied to the pillars of the
house. His hands are worn with labour ; his clothes are out of
order ; he washes himself but once [in the day] ; for bread he
eats his fingers." *
A section of the Israelites, if we may credit Philo,' was
employed in digging canals. In all countries this is heavy and
dreary work ; but in Egypt it is not only wearisome, but also
unhealthy. To dig for long hours under a blazing sun, with the
feet in wet mud or in water, is trying to any man : to ill-fed and
ill-cared-for labourers it is often fatal. Neco, we are told, caused
the death of 120,000 men by his attempt to re-open the canal
between the Nile and the Red Sea.3 Ten thousand men
perished under Mehemet Ali in the construction of the canal of
Alexandria. The great work of M. Lesseps is believed to
have proved fatal to a much larger number. Where deaths are
numerous, cases of severe suffering short of death are countless ;
and we may conclude therefore that Moses would see, in the
condition of such Israelites as were engaged in canal-digging, an
intensified form of the " service with rigour," which prevailed
generally. One other occupation is mentioned as included in the oppres
sion of Israel ; viz., labour " in the field " — employment, that is,
in agriculture. At first sight, there might seem to be nothing
very severe in this, since agricultural employment is the lot of
the bulk of mankind everywhere. But there is an enormous
difference between the kind of work done by free labourers in
a land of liberty, and that exacted from forced labourers in
countries where slavery is a recognized institution. Negro
emancipation in the West Indies and in the Southern States of
America, was brought about very much through the representa
tions made by eye-witnesses of the severe drudgery and toil
actually imposed on the slaves employed in the cultivation of
the cotton-plant and the sugar-cane. In Egypt, as in most other
countries, slaves worked under the lash. "The little labourer
having a field," says an Egyptian writer of about Moses' time,
" passes his life among the beasts ; he is worn down for vines
and figs, to make his kitchen of what his fields have. His
clothes are a heavy weight ; he is bound as a forced labourer ;
f he goes forth into the air, he suffers— he is bastinadoed with
• " Records of the Past," vol. viii. pp. 149, jjjq. \
¦ "Vit Mosis," p. 85. 3 Herodotus, ii. 158.

THE GREAT DECISION. 55
a stick on his legs— perhaps he seeks to save himself ; but shut
against him is the hall of every house, closed are the chambers." *
Any stoppage, any cessation from toil, any rest, such as we see
our own labourers freely taking as often as they require it, is
punished, where the serf works under a task-master armed with
a whip or stick, by a sharp blow on the legs, or arms, or back,
which often raises a wheal or brings the blood to the surface.
Blows may be infrequent ; but the fear of a blow is perpetual ;
and the labour is thus constant, unceasing, such as taxes the
strength beyond endurance, the fear of the stick causing the
labourer to work till he drops. Then, probably, he is kicked,
and left lying on the ground in the hot sunshine, until he can
crawl home to the wretched shed or cabin which is his resting-
place at night
When Moses " went out unto his brethren, and looked upon
their burdens " "(Exod! ii. u), such were the sights that he would
see, such the images that he would carry back from his tour of
inspection, burnt into his memory, to be reproduced in his
thoughts over and over again, as he lay on his couch of down in
his apartments at the Court. And then would arise in his mind
the question — Could he do nothing to help his brethren — to
ameliorate their condition — to lessen their sufferings ? Probably
the first course that would suggest itself would be remonstrance
with those who were at the head of affairs — a representation to
them of the guilt which- they incurred, according to the laws of
Egyptian morality, in conniving at the cruelties which he had
witnessed. Egyptian morality required men to " resist the op
pressor, to put a stop to violence, to shield the weak against the
strong," to be kind-hearted and generally benevolent. Moses,
if he occupied the high position which we have supposed, may
have expected that his words would have weight, that attention
would be paid to his remonstrances, that, if he was not allowed
to direct, he might at any rate be permitted to modify, the policy
of the empire. " Why," he might urge, "should the Israelites
be singled out for suspicion and hatred ? Were they not his
brethren, and had not he shown unmistakably the good-will
that animated him towards Egypt ? What had they done to
deserve their hard usage ? Had they not been quiet subjects,
useful servants of the king (Gen. xlvii. 6), an addition to the
strength of Egypt ? " But Moses would argue to minds blocked
1 " Records of the Past," vol. viii. p. 149.

56 MOSES.
against his reasonings by prejudice, impervious to argument by
reason of long-engrained prepossessions, and unaccustomed to
changes of policy, unless when one dynasty was superseded by
another (Exod. i. 8), and a " new king " introduced new modes of
action. Thus, it would soon become plain to Moses that his
words were making no impression on those who heard them,
and that, if he was to be of any service to his brethren, he must
adopt some other method.
But what method was possible? As an Egyptian, it was
evident that he could do nothing. If he remained an Egyptian,
if he clung to his Court life, if he maintained his position as the
adopted son of a princess, he must be content to resign the hope
of being ever his brethren's deliverer (Acts vii. 25), or of in any
way ameliorating their life. The alternative was for him to cast
in his lot with them, to make himself one of them, to ingratiate
himself with them so that they should accept him as their leader,
and then, when occasion offered, to put himself at their head,
and break the Egyptian yoke from off their shoulders.
The time had arrived, as it arrives to most of us in the course
of our careers on earth, to make the great decision, for God
and conscience, or against them. On the one side were all the
temptations that the world and the flesh can offer — first, " the
treasures of Egypt " (Heb. xi. 26) — not the mere gold and silver
that would naturally fall to his lot, if he lived on as a prince in
the royal palace — but the luxury, the culture, the enjoyments of
the Court — dainty fare, and grand banquets, and the charms of
music, painting and statuary — and sports and hunting parties,
fishing and fowling, the chase of the lion and the antelope — and
soft sofas and luxurious couches, and rich apparel, and chains
and collars, proofs of the king's good- will — and all the outward
signs which mark off those on whom society smiles from the
crowd of those who are of small account ; and, secondly, beyond
all these, "the pleasures of sin for a season" (Heb. xi. 25)— the
seductive charms of a Court circle not over strict in its morals,
the feasts that turned into orgies, the sacred rites that ended in
debauchery — all these spread their tempting array before the
lower nature of the prince, now in manhood's full vigour, and
drew him towards the life of ease, of pleasure, of softness. On
the other side were conscience, and honour, and natural affection,
and patriotism, and that keen longing for the higher and the
nobler life, which is an essential part of all great natures, and

THE GREAT DECISION. 57
makes itself felt in crises with an irresistible force. The path
of self-sacrifice will always attract the heroic portion of humanity,
and the choice of such men will always be "the choice of
Hercules." " To scorn delights and live laborious days" is the
instinctive resolve of every strong and noble character.
Moses is said to have made his choice " by faith " (Heb. xi. 23).
Are we to gather from this that a revelation had been already
made to him that he was Israel's destined deliverer, or is it only
meant that he trusted God would bless his resolution to his own
and his brethren's advantage, as godly men may always trust
that their efforts will be blest, when with an honest and true
heart they seek to do the best they can ? Perhaps this latter
view is the more probable, though the other has sometimes been
taken. At any rate, whatejw^he ground of his trust, and what
ever the reasons for his hf^sf delayed so long, Moses at length
" by faith " made his choice, " refused to be called " any longer
"the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (ver. 25), and "chose rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God " (ver. 26). He quitted
the palace, gave up whatever offices he held, returned probably
to his father's house, and therein once more took up his abode,
so making it clear to all that he renounced his Egyptian citizen
ship, and would henceforth only be known as one of the outcast
Hebrews, one of the oppressed, down-trodden nation, which had
for above forty years been suffering the bitterest and most cruel
persecution. But he was not long to continue in this retirement. With a
heart burning with indignation at the wrongs of his countrymen,
he went about the neighbourhood of Memphis, observing their
treatment, perhaps remonstrating with those who ill-used them,
and endeavouring to shame them into the adoption of milder
methods. He may have been to some extent successful; but
an occasion came when the oppressor turned a deaf ear to
remonstrance, and persisted in his ill-usage of an unfortunate
Hebrew labourer, despite all that Moses could say to him. Then
the pent-up fire which was consuming him burst forth. Moses
raised his hand and smote the Egyptian and slew him, It was
a hasty and rash act, the result of a violent access of indignation,
which made him strike with a force which he had not intended,
and produced a result that he had not anticipated. The deed
done could not be acknowledged and justified — it wa'i necessary
to conceal it. So Moses, after scraping a hole in the sand, which

58 MOSES.
in Egypt always creeps up to the edge of the cultivated ground,
buried the corpse in it.
The homicide might have remained unknown, had not the
Hebrew on whose behalf Moses had interfered informed his
countrymen of the circumstances under which he had been
rescued from the hands of his oppressor. We may well believe
that he did this with no evi1 intent, but rather with the object of I
extolling his benefactor, and venting his own sense of obligation.
But a secret once divulged ceases to be a secret; and it was not
long before Moses found that his homicide was bruited abroad.
*' When he went out the second day, behold, two men of the
Hebrews strove together ; and he said unto him that did the
wrong — Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow ? And he said, Who
made thee a prince and a judge over us ? Intendest thou to kill
me as thou killedst the Egyptian ? And Moses feared, and said,
Surely this thing is known" (Exod. ii. 13, 14). Known it was,
and not only to his own people, but to the Egyptians also; and
the Egyptians who heard it carried the news to the king,
Ramesses II., who by this time was reigning alone. What the
feelings of the monarch had been towards Moses hitherto is
wholly uncertain, the hostility, the fear, and the envy ascribed
to him by some writers being in a high degree improbable.
Ramesses had gained too many victories himself to be jealous
of a subject because he had been successful in a single expedi
tion, and was far too confident in the security of his position to
fear a rebellion against his authority. But such an act as that
which Moses had perpetrated was an offence against the law,
which could not well be condoned ; and we cannot be surprised
that the Pharaoh, when he heard of the thing, " sought to slay
M oses " (Exod.ii. 15), or, at any rate, sought to have him arrested
His arrest would under the circumstances have been, beyond a
doubt, followed by his execution ; since he had no legal right to
strike the Egyptian at all, and if a man unlawfully wounds
another with malice prepense, and the consequences are fatal,
he is held in all civilized countries to be guilty of a crime which
may in strict justice be punished with death. Moses took a
correct view of the situation, and "fled from the face of
Pharaoh," feeling that his only chance of safety lay in making
his escape from Egypt, and betaking himself to some country
which was beyond the reach of the Egyptian influence.
Treaties of extradition were not unknown at the period, but

THE GREAT DECISION. 59
they were rare and unusual. Once beyond the Egyptian border,
he would easily reach a land where he would incur no risk of
being surrendered or even demanded.
A fugitive from Egyptian justice, starting from Memphis,
would almost necessarily set his face towards the east. He
could not escape by travelling northward, for in that direction
the dominion of the Egyptian monarch reached to the shores of
the sea ; it was hopeless to proceed southward, for the frontier
on that side was 700 miles away ; to the west was nothing but
uninhabited sandy desert, without food, or water, or shade. The
eastern desert was, on the contrary, to some extent peopled ; it
had trees and wells in places, and thus was traversable ; though
reckoned to Egypt, it was scarcely under Egyptian rule, and the
writ of the Pharaoh scarcely ran in its recesses. Moses, having
provided himself with a bag of meal and a water-bottle, would
enter on the desert within a few hours of quitting Memphis, and
would gradually thread its valleys, always making towards the
east, until he passed the head of the Gulf of Suez, and found
himself in Arabia. Even there, however, he was not wholly
safe. The Egyptians in the time of Ramesses II. had perma
nent settlements in the Wady Magharah and at Sarabit-el-
Khadim in the Sinaitic peninsula, where they worked the mines
of copper and turquoise which then abounded in those districts.
To communicate with these settlements they must have had a
line of fortified posts, extending from their frontier at or near
Suez to the valleys in which the mines were situated. It was
the aim of Moses to place himself beyond the sphere of
Egyptian influence altogether ; and to do this he had to reach
the more eastern portion of the peninsula, a region at that time
inhabited by the Midianites, and known as "the land of
Midian " (Exod. ii. 15). The route which he took was probably
very much the same as that by which he afterwards led the
Israelites to mount Sinai. It ran nearly parallel with the eastern
coast of the Gulf of Suez, but did not skirt the shore excepting
for a short distance. It avoided the Egyptian posts and settle
ments, and brought the traveller, after the lapse of some weeks,
to the vicinity of the Elanitic Gulf, or eastern arm of the Red
Sea, which seems in early times to have been the proper
country of the southern Midianites.
Having reached this remote district, weary, thirsty, and travel-
stained, Moses sate himself down upon the margin of a well,

60 MOSES.
and iought to recruit his strength by a short rest The well
was one of considerable repute, so that it is called "the well"
(Exod. ii. 15)— around it were " troughs," or tanks, prepared for
the watering of their flocks by the Bedouin herdsmen of the
neighbourhood. As Moses sate and contemplated the scene
around him, a band of seven maidens drew near, bringing with
them their father's flock, and began to draw water from the
well, and to fill the troughs, a work in which Moses, with natural
politeness, assisted them (Exod. ii. 19). But, as the animals
were beginning to drink, and before they had half satisfied their
thirst, some of the Bedouin herdsmen came up, and proceeded
to drive the maidens and their flock away, in order to water
their own beasts first. Then " the chivalrous spirit which had
already broken forth" in Moses "on behalf of his oppressed
countrymen, broke forth again on behalf of the oppressed
maidens." * He " delivered " the maidens from the shepherds,
drove them off by threats or blows, and enabled his protegees
to complete their watering without further molestation. The
brave action naturally led to the damsels' father inviting
Moses into his tent, to " eat bread " with him, in the homely
phrase of the time (Exod. ii. 20). And the acquaintance thus
formed brought the wanderings of the fugitive to an end ; for
he was content to take service under the Midianite to whom
chance had thus introduced him and to remain his dependent for
a period, which St. Stephen roughly estimates (Acts vii. 30) at
" forty years."
• Dean Stanley, in Smith's ' Dictionary of the Bible," vol. U. p. 4*6.

CHAPTER VII.
MOSES IN MIDIAN.
Country occupied by the Midianites — Position of Renel among them —
Position of Moses —Character of the Sinaitic region — Desolation —
Silence — Occasional sand-storms — Silence of the nights — Moses' life in
the desert a preparation for his subsequent career — Few circumstances
of his life known to us — Names of his sons and explanation of them —
Egyptian story of Saneha illustrates this part of the history of Moses.
The Midianites were a rich and a powerful people. A portion
of them were settled in cities (Numb. xxxi. 10) ; but the greater
number led a nomadic life, passing from district to district over
a large extent of ground in continual search of fresh pastures
for their flocks and herds. In the later life of Moses, their most
important settlement was within the territory generally assigned
to Moab, on the eastern and northern shores of the Dead Sea
(Numb. xxiv. 1-4). Their tribes, however, did not confine
themselves to this locality, but wandered as their fancy led
them over the entire tract between Palestine and Egypt, while
they spread also into Arabia Proper, occupying the eastern no
less than the western coast of the Elanitic Gulf, and even build
ing cities there.
At the time of the flight of Moses from Egypt, the Midianitish
sheikh of most authority in the south-eastern portion of the
Sinaitic peninsula was a certain Reuel or Raguel, who was at
once priest and king of his tribe. This Reuel was the father
of the maidens whom Moses had championed, and the person
who had received him into his tent, and with whom he took
service. It does not at all militate against this view of the rank
of Reuel that his daughters watered their father's flock ; for, in

62 MOSES.
the simplicity Df ancient times, chiefs' daughters, and even prin
cesses, condescended to such an occupation (Gen. xxiv. 15-20).
Reuel's position was like that of Melchisedek (Gen. xiv. 18),
only that Melchisedek was a city king, while Reuel exercised
his authority over a tribe of nomads. He was the chief man
in the parts to which Moses had come, and it was a fortunate
circumstance for the latter that his wanderings had conducted
him to the residence of so important a person. Reuel's friend
liness at once placed him above want, and secured him a life of
peace, freedom, and dignity.
It has been said that Moses was Reuel's " slave," ' but this
is entirely to misapprehend his position. He was a refugee
whom an Arab sheikh had taken under his protection and re
ceived into his household out of compassion and kindness. He
naturally placed his services at the disposal of his benefactor,
and employed himself as his benefactor suggested. But he
continued a free agent. He might at any time have resumed
his wanderings if it had so pleased him, or have transferred his
services elsewhere. But self-interest and affection alike retained
him where he was. Reuel after a time gave him one of his
daughters to wife, and having thus become a member of the
tribe and of the family, it was natural that he should make his
permanent home in the tents of his new kindred. His employ
ment was, of course, shepherding, as that was the general
occupation of the tribe ; and he probably moved with the tribe at
different periods of the year into different parts of the peninsula.
The pastoral life of the desert is wonderfully peaceful and
wonderfully elevating, more especially when the desert has the
character which attaches to the region in which the lot of Moses
was now cast. All around is stillness. Great bare mountain?,
scarred and seamed, raise their bald heads into the azure sky,
casting broad shadows at morn and eve over the plains or valleys
at their base, at noonday searched and scorched by the almost
vertical sun, which penetrates into every recess and spreads
everywhere a glare of quivering light, except where some over
hanging rock casts a grateful but scanty shade. The herbage
in the valleys and plains is short, but sweet and nourishing.
Trees are rare ; but low shrubs and bushes, chiefly camel-thorn
and acacia, abound ; while here and there a clump, or even a
grove, of palms affords the eye a welcome variety. The moun-
« Stanley, in Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible,'' vol. ii. p. 436.

MOSES IN MIDIAN. 63
tains "combine grandeur with desolation'" — in this respect,
"their scenery is absolutely unrivalled. They are the Alps of
Arabia, but the Alps planted in the desert, and therefore stripped
of all the clothing which goes to make up our notions of Swiss
or English mountains ; stripped of the variegated drapery of
oak, and birch, and pine, and fir ; of moss, and grass, and fern,
which to landscapes of European hills are almost as essential
as the rocks and peaks themselves. Of all the charms of Swit
zerland, the one which most impresses a traveller recently re
turned from the East, is the breadth and depth of its verdure.
The very name of " Alp " is strictly applied only to the green
pasture lands enclosed by rocks or glaciers — a sight in the
European Alps so common, in these Arabian Alps so wholly
unknown. The absence of verdure, it need hardly be said, is
due to the absence of water — to those perennial streams which
are at once the creation and the life of every other mountain
district." And the silence, partly owing to this absence of running water,
is complete. No song of birds enlivens the Sinaitic solitudes,
no hum of insect life breaks the deathlike stillness. The bleat
of a goat is heard at the distance of half a mile. Now and then
a mysterious sound, half ghostly, half musical, suddenly fills
the air, and then passes away, leaving the stillness stiller than
before. It is caused by some slip of sand upon the mountain
side, or by some expansion or contraction of the rocks through
change of temperature. Otherwise, the silence is unbroken.
Thunder and lightning, storm and tempest, are rare visitants of
the region ; but when they occur, they have a marked character
of their own ; and it is one of peculiar impressiveness.
The Sinaitic peninsula, though composed chiefly of rock
and gravel, is in certain localities liable to sand-storms. Dean
Stanley tells us of one that he experienced, which lasted all
day. " Imagine," he says, " all distant objects entirely lost to
view, the sheets of sand fleeting along the surface of the desert
like streams of water ; the whole air filled, though invisibly,
with a tempest of sand, driving in your face like sleet. Imagine
the caravan toiling against this, the Bedouins, each with his
shawl thrown completely over his head, half of the riders sitting
backwards ; the camels, meantime, thus virtually left without
guidance, though from time to time throwing their long necks
1 Stanley, "Siaai and Palestine," p. 13.

64 MOSES.
sideways, to avoid the blast, yet moving straight onwards with
a painful sense of duty truly edifying to behold. . . . Through
this tempest, this roaring and driving tempest, we rode on the
whole day." *
Such s:enes, however, are rare. For the most part, the
Sinaitic region is one of unvarying calm and stillness. By day
the sun rises through a dull haze in the east, then springs into
a clear and speckless sky, through which it slowly moves hour
after hour in constant unclouded majesty, bathing the earth
in an unvarying flood of light, until, towards evening, it begins
to sink into the purple haze that lies along the west, and, turning
it for a few minutes into an ensanguined sea, drops down below
the horizon and is hid. Night at once closes in— the glow in
the west rapidly fades away— darkness descends upon the face
of the earth, and with darkness a hush of silence, even deeper
than that of the day. One by one the stars come out in the
solemn, blue-black sky, till all their hosts are marshalled, but
only to look with many-coloured eyes — yellow, and red, and white,
and violet — without noise and without motion on the sleeping
earth beneath them. Even when the yellow glory of the moon
rises above the horizon and walks, or rather floats, in the soft
ness of the limpid firmament, there is little stir of life, or sound,
or movement. Bats perhaps come out and flutter their wings ;
the cry of a hyaena or a jackal is heard in the distance ; but
such sights and sounds are " few and far between," and when
they occur, seem rather to intensify the stillness than break it.
r*""The pastoral life is always one that favours contemplation.
I In the East, the shepherd rises with the early dawn, and leads
forth his flock from the rough sheep-folds in which they have
passed the night, going before them, and guiding them to the
pastures whereon he intends them to browse during the ensuing
day. The docile flock follow him, and seldom need a word of
chiding ; for they soon understand whither he is about to take
them, and know they may trust to his guidance. When he has
brought them to the spot where he intends them to graze, they
scatter themselves, while he seats himself and rests on some
convenient knoll, or bank, or stone, whence he can command
a view of the beasts under his care, and see that they do not
wander away too far. He has but little to do, except to main
tain this watch, which he does almost mechanically, while his
• Stanley, " Sinai and Palestine," pp. 67, 68.

MOSES IN MIDIAN. 65
thoughts go far a-field, imagining the future, or recalling the
past, or straying into those speculative inquiries concerning
God, and man, and nature, and the mystery of life, which have
always had charms for Oriental minds, and given them unending
occupation. Moses could perhaps not be always quite alone
while he was shepherding ; for as a head herdsman, to whonj
a considerable portion of the flock of a great sheikh was in
trusted, he would have subordinates to help him in his task,
and would have to give them orders and see to their execution.
But still there would be long hours during each day when
practically he would be by himself, face to face with nature and
with God, unconsciously drinking in the influences of his sur
roundings, gaining mental strength and vigour from his contact
with the simplicity and solemnity of nature. At the same time
he would be disciplining his body by spare and simple meals,
by much walking in the open air, by sleep on the ground,
short nights, and early risings ; while he invigorated his whole
character by communing with himself and with God, by deep
" searchings of heart," sharp questionings of conscience, reflec
tions upon his past life, repentance of his sins, and good reso
lutions with respect to the future. A long spell of solitude, or
comparative solitude, is of the highest value for the formation
of a high, a noble, and a commanding personality. Elijah's
life was chiefly passed in the wilds of Gilead, far away from the
haunts of men. John the Baptist " was in the deserts " from
the time of his early childhood " till the day of his showing
unto Israel " (Luke i. 80), when he was fully thirty years of age.
St Paul, after his conversion and baptism, withdrew for fjirge_
years into Arabia (Gal. i. 17, 18). The saints of God generally |
have found the advantage of long periods of retirement from
the bustle of active life, and have refreshed and recruited their
souls by removing into deserts, or hermitages, or convents^and
there passing months or years.
Had Moses during these years any presentiment of his future,
and did he consciously seek to prepare himself for it ? Our
answer must be negative. Unless Divinely warned, Moses could
have no expectation of what was about to befall him, and there
is no reason to think that he was Divinely warned. When the
time for his call came, it came upon him as a new thing, utterly
strange to his thoughts, utterly unexpected — "Who am I that I
should go unto Pharaoh?" (Exod. iii. 11). No I He was net
6

66 MOSES.
preparing himself during these many years for the leadership
of a difficult and dangerous enterprise which would tax all his
powers to the utmost ; but the providence of God was preparing
• him for it. Divine foreknowledge, which sees the end from the
beginning, and knows the best means to employ, was directing
and shaping his life in the way that was most apt to fit him foi
the coming enterprise, to strengthen his resolution, to ripen his
powers, to draw him into that constant close communion with
God which is the only sure support and stay of the soul under
the strain and pressure of extreme difficulties. As the healthy
air of the desert, pure and dry, untainted by human defilements,
braced his physical nature, so that when he died at the age of
one hundred and twenty years, " his eye was not dim, neither
his natural force abated " (Deut. xxxiv. 7), so the spiritual at
mosphere in which he lived kept his soul braced for doing and
for suffering, qualifying him for his high post and for those
arduous duties which would have overtaxed the strength of any
one unsustained by heavenly influences.
In the quiet round of unceasing daily duties, the life of Moses
must have slipped almost imperceptibly away. With a reticence
characteristic of the truly great, who are almost always humble-
minded, he passes over with scant notice the " forty years '' of
his Midianite sojourn, allowing us but a few fleeting glimpses
either of his daily life or of his thoughts and feelings. From
j slight and scattered notices we gather : first, that after a while
Reuel died, and was succeeded in the headship of the tribe by
his son, Jether, or Jethro, who continued in the priestly office
held by his father, and was a monotheist, worshipping the same
j God as Moses with sacrifice and praise (Exod. xviii. 10-12).
f ethro would thus be Moses' brother-in-law,' not his " father-
in-law," as the Authorized Version makes him ; but, as head of
the tribe, would hold towards Moses almost the same position
\as his father. Moses continued to "keep the flock," which had
been Reuel's and was now Jethro's, in the wilderness of Sinai.
He moved from one part of the wilderness to another (Exod.
iii. 1), according to the time of year or the condition of the
pasturage. His home was probably a tent of the better class ;
¦ So Ranke (" Pentateuch," H. 8) and others. It is generally allowed
that the word 17)11, like the Greek yapfipos, may mean " father-in-law,"
" brother-in-law,'' or " son-in-law."

MOSES IN MIDIAN. 6?
and here he dwelt, near the sheep-folds, with his Midianitish
wife, the Zipporah whom Reuel had given to him in marriage
soon after he arrived in his country (Exod. ii. 21). Zipporah
bore him two sons, but apparently no other children. It is in
recording the names of these two sonSj the props of his house,
that Moses gives the only indications, which he allows to appear,
of the feelings that stirred his heart during his exile. To his
firstborn, borne to him by Zipporah while the grief of being an
exile was still fresh to him and rankled in his mind, he gave
the name of Gershom — " a stranger there " — " for he said, I
have been a stranger in a strange land." Surely there is pathos
here 1 Months, years have gone by, he is welcomed, honoured,
received into a chiefs family, trusted, loved ; but he still feels
that he is among strangers, not among " his own people," far
from parents, and brother, and sister, and kinsfolk, and
countrymen, and old friends — a stranger, an alien. The land
is foreign to him. It is not the land on which his eyes have
been accustomed to look from infancy to youth, and from youth
to middle age. All is new and strange in it How different
the awful blood-red rocks from the green plains of the Delta I
How unlike the parched and dried-up watercourses to the
abounding stream of the Nile 1 It is a strange land, and a
strange people. What sharper contrast possible than that be
tween the elaborate, formalized, thoroughly artificial civilization
of Egypt, and the simple, unsophisticated — it may be, somewhat
rude life of the desert ? One a land of cities, and temples, and
palaces, and canals, and ships, and active bustle — the other
calm, silent, without buildings, almost without inhabitants !
Without any longing for "the fleshpots of Egypt," or any undue
hankering after the pleasures and-'freasures (Heb. xi. 25, 26)
which he had foregone, Moses nfay well have felt the sadness
of exile, and have regretted the separation from all that he had
fo: so many years held dear. \^
The name which Moses gave to his seeond-born was Eli-ezer
— " my God hath holpen me." Now^nas come a reaction in
his feelings. He no longer complains, but rejoices. He has
become conscious that in his fomner querulousness there was
ingratitude to the God who had orcnsred all his life,had saved him
in infancy from an untimely death, had caused him to be cared
for and educated, had preserved him Mom the perils of war, and
had finally delivered him from the Pharaoh who sought his life.

68 MOSES.
He~named his second son Eli-ezer, " because," he said, " the God
of my father was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of
Pharaoh" (Exod. xviii. 4). The Pharaoh had " sought to slay
him " (Exod, ii. 15), when he fled, had probably sent emissaries
after him, to arrest him, or kill him if he resisted, But God
had been his helper — not by his own strength, or caution, or
wisdom, or cunning, had he escaped the danger that threatened
him, but by God's goodness and protecting care. The recogni
tion of God's goodness in the past must have thrown the light
of hope upon the future, and have enabled the exile to take a
more cheerful view of his position and prospects than he had
taken previously — must have, at any rate, made him content to
bear his burdens, such as they were, patiently, and leave the
future to be determined for him by the will of the most gracious
and All-wise Ruler of all things.
There is among the Egyptian novelettes a tale which offers,
in some respects, a curious parallel to this portion of the history
of Moses. It is called " The Story of Saneha." * Saneha, a
courtier in the time of Usurtasen I., having conceived a dis
gust at the Court life, and a desire for a position of greater
independence and freedom, sets out secretly upon his travels
without the leave of the Pharaoh. With some difficulty he
passes the Eastern boundary, and proceeds on foot through
the desert. There he suffers agonies from thirst, until his wants
are relieved by a native of the region which he is traversing, a
keeper of cattle, who, though recognizing him as an Egyptian
(Exod. ii. 19), supplies him both with water and milk. Saneha
continues his journeying, and is brought on "from place to
place," till he reaches Atima (Edom). There the chief of the
country, or of one adjoining, sends for him, receives him into
his household, questions him concerning his past, and ends by
giving him his daughter in marriage. " He placed me over his
children," Saneha says ; " he married me to his eldest daughter ;
he endowed me with a part of his land, of the choicest which
belonged to him." Saneha enjoyed now the liberty which he
had desired. " Licence," he says, " was conferred on me of
1 The "Story of Saneha," first published by Lepsius in his "Denk-
maler '' (vol. vi. pis. 104 et seq.), has been translated into French by M.
Chabas ("Les Papyrus Hieratiques de Berlin, recits d'il y a quatre milla
ans," Paris, 1863), and into English by Mr. C. W. Goodwin (" Records of
ihe Past," vol. vi. pp. 135-150).

MOSES IN MIDIAN 69
going wherever I chose." In this honourable and prosperous
condition Saneha tells us that he " passed many years."
During this period "children were born to him ; they became
strong, each one a valiant ruler over his servants." A still
higher degree of prosperity follows — the king, or sheikh, " was
satisfied with him, loved him, made him the chief of his chil
dren." But, while thus externally flourishing, and surrounded
by all that the heart of man commonly desires, Saneha was
discontented, unhappy. Nothing could be a compensation to
him for what he had left in his own land. So, after a time, his
longing is to return home, to see once more the land where he
.was born. And the result for which he so ardently longs is
brought about. A way is opened for his return to Egypt, the
sheikh gives his consent, and the fugitive returns to the
Pharaoh's court, and is once more numbered among his coun
sellors. It is not pretended that the parallel between this tale
and the history of Moses is close ; but the position of Moses is
illustrated in several points, and the movements of a refugee
from the Pharaonic court, and the possibility of a return after
long years of absence, are put before us in a lively and graphic
way, which gives them a certain interest.

CHAPTER VIII,
THE RETURN TO EGYPT.
Events In Egypt during the absence of Moses — Peace made with tha
Hittites — Peace cemented by an intermarriage — Attention of Ramesses
II. turned to the construction of great works — Increased sufferings of
the Israelites — Death of Ramesses II. — His character — Menephthah
continues the oppression — God's appearance to Moses in the bush—
His call — His resistance to the call — The punishment of his resistance
— The ground of it — Relations of Moses with Jethro — He is allowed
to depart, but lingers — Picture of his departure — His dangerous ill
ness and its consequences — His meeting with Aaron.
: During the absence of Moses in Midian — a period of between
j thirty and forty years, according to the Jewish tradition — the
oppression of the children of Israel in Egypt had continued,
and had become more and more severe. Ramesses II. was
upon the throne, ruling singly after his father's decease, and
applying all his vast energies to the construction of enormous
works, partly ostentatious, partly defensive, in various parts of
his empire. The days of his great military expeditions were
over. He had, after a long and bloody struggle, terminated his
differences with the Hittites by a solemn treaty and an inter
marriage. An agreement had been drawn up and signed, and
engraved upon a plate of silver, whereby Khitasir, his great
antagonist, and himself covenanted to be thenceforth friends
and allies — they, and their sons, and their sons' sons, for ever.
The high contracting powers were in all respects placed on
terms of equality. Khitasir, the puissant, son of Marasar, the
puissant, and grandson of Saplal, the puissant, undertook to be
a good friend and brother to Ramesses-Meriamen, the puissant,

THE RETURN TO EGYPT. Jl
son of Seti-Menephthah, thepuissant, and grandson of Ramesses-
Ramenpehti, the puissant, and Ramesses-Meriamen, the puis
sant, &c, undertook to be a good friend and brother to Khitasir,
the puissant, &c Khitasir engaged under no circumstances to
invade the land of Egypt, to carry away anything from it, for
ever ; and Ramesses engaged under no circumstances to invade
the land of Khita, to carry away anything from it, for ever.
Each bound himself, if the other were attacked, either to come
in person, or to send his forces to the other's assistance. Each
pledged himself to the extradition both of criminals fleeing
from justice and of any other subjects wishing to transfer their
allegiance. Each, at the same time, stipulated for an amnesty
of offences in the case of all persons thus surrendered. The
treaty was placed under the protection of the gods of the two
countries, who were invoked respectively to protect observers
and punish infringers of it.1
Some years later the friendship was cemented by an inter
marriage. Ramesses seems to have proposed and the Hittite
monarch to have given his consent to the connection. The
daughter of Khitasir, who on her marriage exchanged her
Hittite name for the Egyptian one of Ur-maa-nefru-ra, was
conducted by Khitasir himself, " clad in the dress of his coun
try," to the palace of the Egyptian monarch ; the nuptials were
celebrated ; Ur-maa-nefru-ra was proclaimed as Queen Consort
of her royal spouse, and Khitasir, after receiving hospitable
entertainment, returned to his own land.3 The two contiguous
empires were thus brought into perfect harmony and agree
ment ; peace was secured, at any rate for some considerable
space ; and Ramesses was able to turn his thoughts to those
gigantic works which mainly occupied his later years.
These works were of various kinds. Some were temples,
either built in the ordinary way of huge blocks of hewn stone,
or else carved out of the solid rock, as that of Ipsambul in
Nubia. Others were palaces for his own abode, with corridors,
and courts, and pillared halls, and huge colossi representing
his own august person, and internally ornamented with coloured
bas-reliefs commemorative of his own actions. A consider
able number were cities, either begun by his father and com
pleted by himself, or entirely of his own construction, as Pa-Tum
» " Records of the Past,'' voL iv. pp. 27-32.
» Brugsch, " History of Egypt,'' vol. ii. p. 75.

J2 MOSES.
(or Pithom), Pa-Ramessu (Raamses), Pa- Phthah, Pa-Ra, Pa-
Ammon, &c. Among them were also his Great Canal, and his
Great Wall, the former connecting the Nile with the Red Sea,
and running from near Bubastis by way of Pithom to the Bitter
Lakes, and thence to Suez— the other earned from a point near
Pelusium across the Isthmus to the inner recess of the western
arm of the Red Sea. It was in the execution of these works
that the Israelites suffered the main portion of their afflictions.
Pithom and Pa-Ramessu, begun by Seti, but completed by
Ramesses II., were certainly the work of their hands ; and they
were not improbably employed also in building the other cities.
Or, if they did not build them, they at any rate made the bricks
for them. And they probably were largely employed in the
construction of the Great Canal and the Great Wall. The
Great Wall skirted the edge of their special country, Goshen,
which lay along the eastern frontier, between the Pelusiac
branch of the Nile and the Desert ; the Great Canal was in
their immediate neighbourhood, and passed close to Pithom—
one of the cities which they are expressly stated to have built.
Ramesses had, no doubt, an enormous command of human
labour by reason of the multitude of prisoners taken in his
many wars ; but still his constructions were so vast and so nume
rous, that this multitude would not have sufficed had not their
services been supplemented by that of the subject races dwelling
in Egypt — Hebrews, Shartana, and others.
And the motive, which had originally lain at the root of the
Israelite oppression, was still .active and vigorous, still one that
ruled the policy of Egypt, and was regarded in governmental circles
as of constraining force. The Hebrew people were still viewed
as a danger, their multiplication as a thing to be checked, their
aspirations and energies as needing repression. Philo tells us *
that the taskmasters continually became more and more savage,
that many of them were " wild beasts in human shape, as cruel
as poisonous snakes and carnivorous tigers, with hearts as hard
as steel or adamant, utterly pitiless, and unwilling to make
allowance for any shortcoming, whatever its cause." And he
declares that the result was a great mortality among the op
pressed people, who perished in heaps, as though they had been
stricken by some fearful plague, and were not even allowed
burial, but were cast out beyond the borders of the land, to
« "Vit. Mosis," pp. 86, 87.

THE RETURN TO EGYPT. 73
moulder away on the bare sand, or to be devoured by vultures
and jackals.
" In process of time," however, the king, who had inflicted all
this misery— of whom a modern writer says, that " there was not
a stone in his monuments which had not cost a human life" * —
went the way of all flesh, sickened and died (Exod. ii. 23). He
had reached the age of seventy-seven years, one rarely attained
by Egyptian monarchs, and was in the sixty-seventh year of his
reign, counting from the time when he was associated upon the
throne by his father. In person, tall and handsome, with a good
forehead, a large, well-formed, slightly aquiline nose, a well-
shaped mouth, lips that are not too full, a small delicate chin,
and eyes that are thoughtful and pensive ; he had well trained
himself in warlike exercises, and was physically a perfect type
of the most highly-bred, partly Semitized, Egyptian. In his
early wars he greatly distinguished himself, and the " Epic
Poem " of Pentaour, engraved upon the walls of more than one
of his temples, is an undying commemoration of his martial
exploits. He seems not to have been wanting in natural affec
tion, and both towards his father and towards his eldest son he
expresses himself upon his monuments with tenderness. But all
this promise, all these natural advantages and endowments, were
marred and spoilt by an overweening vanity and arrogance, fos
tered by the circumstances of his life, by his father's too partial
fondness, by his own successes, by the flattery and adulation
that surrounded him, and increasing ever more and more as
time went on, until it became an absorbing and impious egotism .
Notwithstanding his professed regard for his father, Ramesses
in his later years showed himself his father's worst enemy, by
erasing his name from the monuments upon which it had been in
scribed, and in many instances substituting his own. Amid a great
show of regard for the deities of his country, and forthe ordinances
of the established worship, he contrived that the chief result of
all that he did for religion should be the glorification of himself.
Other kings had arrogated to themselves a certain qualified
divinity, and after their deaths had sometimes been placed by
some of their successors on a par with the real national gods ;
but it remained for Ramesses II. to associate himself during
his lifetime with such leading deities as Ra and Turn, as Phthah,
Ammon, and Horus, and to claim equally with them the religious
1 Lenormant, " Manuel d'histoire Ancienne," vol. i. p. 433.

74 MOSES.
regards of his subjects. As vanity made him trench on the
prerogatives of the gods, so it made him careless of the lives
and sufferings of men. To obtain the glory of being, as he is,
indisputably the greatest of Egyptian builders, he utterly disre
garded the cries and groans of those over whom he ruled ; he
exacted forced labour from all the subject races within his
dominions pitilessly. As M. Lenormant observes : " It is not
without a feeling of absolute horror that one can picture to one
self the thousands of captives who must have died under the rod
of the taskmasters, or victims of excessive fatigue and of priva
tions of all sorts, while they were erecting by their forced labour
the gigantic constructions in which the insatiable vanity of the
Egyptian monarch took a delight." '
Ramesses, however, was dead — the God, of whom he had
made himself the rival, and whose people he had used so cruelly,
had called him to his last account — and the unfortunate wretches
employed upon the public works in progress may have momen
tarily breathed more freely, and felt a sense of relief. Princes
are always popular on their coronation day ; and the son who
had succeeded Ramesses II., a weak prince, not credited with
much ambition, might have seemed unlikely to continue his
father's policy of severe and cruel oppression. But.it soon be
came apparent, that Menephthah had neither the goodness of
heart nor the strength of character that would lead him to initiate
a change. Though, comparatively speaking, unambitious, and
free from any desire to astonish posterity by vast constructive
works of any kind, he was yet inclined to carry on various con
structions left incomplete by his father, and even to set others
on foot in different parts of the empire. Thus, any expectations
which the Israelites may have formed of their sufferings being
alleviated in consequence of his accession, were disappointed,
" The king of Egypt died ; and the children of Israel " still
" sighed by reason of the bondage ; and they cried, and their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage." The affliction
continued equally bitter, the labour equally hard ; the task
masters still plied their sticks (Exod. iii. 7) ; the Israelites
"groaned" (Exod. ii. 24) ; and their cry went up to heaven.
Under these circumstances God once more "came down"
(Exod. iii. 8), not, however, this time to investigate,' but to de-
1 Lenormant, " Manuel," vol. i. p. 423.
' As when the Tower of Babel was built (Gen. xi. 5), and when Sodom
was about to be punished (Gen. xviii. aj)

THE RETURN TO EGYPT. , 75
liver. " He had seen, He had seen the affliction of His people
which were in Egypt " — He " had heard their groaning " (Exod,
ii. 24), and remembered His covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac, and with Jacob ; He had determined within Himself that
the time was come both for vengeance and for deliverance, and
had settled what should be the method of the deliverance, and
who should be the deliverer. It remained that He should execute
His purposes.
The first step was to recall Moses from the land of Midian to
Egypt, and formally to give him a commission to deliver the
people. " Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his brother-in-law,
the priest of Midian ; and he led the flock to the hick
of the wilderness" — far from the shores of the Red Sea,
where Jethro seems to have dwelt, " and came to the mountain
of God, even to Horeb" (Exod. iii. 1). We do not know the
precise place ; but " a tradition, reaching back to the sixth cen
tury of the Christian era, fixes it in the same deep seclusion as
that to which in all probability Moses afterwards led the Israel
ites. The convent of Justinian is built over what was supposed
to be the exact spot where the shepherd was bid to draw his
sandals from off his feet." * This spot is on the right flank of
Sinai, in a narrow valley, called the Wady Shoaib, which runs
south-eastward from the great plain in front of the Ras-Sufsafeh,
whence it is almost certain that the Law was delivered,
and the narrower plain of the Wady-Sebayeh at the eastern
foot of the Jebel Mousa. Here, or at any rate in this neighbour
hood, as Moses walked with his flock, pasturing it, there sud
denly appeared to him, a little out of his direct path (Exod. iii.
4), a wonderful sight. Upon the mountain-side was a well-
known shittim, or acacia, tree— "the thorn-tree of the desert,
spreading out its tangled branches, thick-set with white thorns,
over the rocky ground."8 This tree, as Moses approached,
appeared to him all ablaze with light, as if on fire ; but instead
of the branches crackling and shrivelling up, as they would have
done naturally had the fire been real, the whole tree remained
unconsumed, the flames merely playing about it. Then said
Moses : " I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why
the bush is not burnt " (Exod. iii. 3). Accordingly, he ascended
the hill-side, and approached the phenomenon to examine it,
• Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 107.
* Stanley, in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," vol. ii. p. 427.

76 MOSES.
when a voice called to him from the midst of the flames, and he
at once understood that he was the object of a Divine manifes
tation. First he was addressed by name like Samuel (i Sam.
iii. io), and St. Paul (Acts ix. 4), the voice calling out, " Moses,
Moses." Then he was bidden not to draw too near, and warned,
that, as the place was holy, it became him to loose his sandals
from off his feet, as Orientals do when they enter a .place of
worship. Finally, he was told who it was that addressed him,
and what he was required to do.
No angel had been sent to speak to him ; but God had come
down Himself—" the God of his father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (ver. 6) — the same
that had appeared and spoken with the patriarchs on so many
occasions— doubtless, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity,
the Word or Son of God, the Mediator between God and man,
the " Messenger of the Covenant." So Moses " hid his face ;
for he was afraid to look upon God." Prostrate in worship he
listened while Jehovah spake and said : " I have seen, I have
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters ; for I know their
sorrows ; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand
of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a
good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey,
unto the place of the Canaanites. . . . Now, therefore, behold,
the cry of the children of Israel has come unto Me ; and I have
also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
Come now, therefore, and / will send thee unto Pharaoh, that
thou mayesl bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt" (vers. 7-10). The mission was clear, plain, unmistak
able — the people were to be delivered, to be led out of Egypt
into Palestine ; Moses was to be their leader, and, as a first
step, he was to go and to plead their cause before Pharaoh.
But Moses was unwilling. He distrusted his fitness for the
task. Unlike Isaiah, whose prompt response to God's call was,
" Here am I— send me " (Isa. vi. 8), but like Jeremiah, who, when
appointed to be a prophet, exclaimed : " Ah, Lord_GodJ_  Be
hold, I cannot speak ; for I am a child "~(Jer. i. 6), Moses was
reluctant to undertake the task assigned him. " Who am I," he
said, " that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt ?" (Exod. iii. 1 1). Pro
bably he thought that his long sojourn in the wilderness, his

THE RETURN TO EGYPT. 77
shepherd's life, his comparative rusticity, and his oblivion of the
habits of courts, unsuited him for the part which he was now
called upon to play, and made it almost certain that he would
fail. He may also have regarded his age, since he was not far
short of eighty years old, as disqualifying him for the active
duties which under the circumstances would, it might have
seemed, have to be discharged by a deliverer. He was diffident,
also, as appears later (Exod. iv. 10), of his powers as a speaker,
and thought that he would be unable, with his " slow speech"
and " slow tongue," to persuade either Pharaoh or his own
countrymen. Moses, therefore, like Jeremiah, sought to decline
the task set him, preferring to remain in the obscurity in which
he had now lived for nearly forty years. But the purpose of God
is unchangeable. " Certainly," came the reply out of the midst
of the glowing flame, " certainly I will be with thee ; and this
shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou
hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God
upon this mountain" (Exod. iii. 12). It might have seemed that
such a promise and such an assurance — "/will be with theej"
" When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt " —
would, with a God-fearing man, have overcome any reluctance,
and produced a willing acceptance of the mission assigned. But
it was not so. _The diffidence of Moses was deep seated, invin
cible. In spite bTthe-Divine promise and assurance, objection
after objection rises to his lips ; the people will ask him for the
name of the God who has sent him, and he will not know what
to reply (ver. 13) ; they will not believe that God has ap
peared to him at all, or given him any commission (Exod. iv.
1) ; his slowness of speech will make his mission a failure if he
undertakes it (ver. 10). To each of these excuses God con
descends to make reply. The Name which he is to announce
as that of the God who has sent him is to be Jehovah "the Self-
Existent" — a new name and yet an old one — old, in that it has
been hitherto one out of the many names of the Almighty (Gen.
xxii. 14) ; new, in that it is to be henceforth God's proper name,
and to be understood as asserting «^-existence : incredulity in
his mission he is to meet by a display of miracles, three of which
he is empowered to work at his pleasure (Exod. iv. 3-9) ; his
want of natural eloquence will be supplied by God, who will
" be with his mouth, and teach him what he shall say " (ver.
12). Thus met at every point, and having nothing more

78 MOSES.
that he can urge, Moses yields, but even now with an ill grace
and grudgingly : " Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom
thou wilt send " — not " make any one Thine apostle so that it be
not me ; " * but " Do Thy pleasure — send any one, even, if it so
please Thee, me ' — i.e., I resist no longer — I will go ; but I go
under compulsion, not seeing the fitness of the choice, not ex
pecting to succeed, but simply because I am forced to submit to
Thy will.
I Then was "the anger of Jehovah kindled against Moses'"
[(ver. 14). Only twice in the whole course of the history is Moses
said to have angered God, on this occasion and at the waters
of Meribah (Num. xx. 10-13 5 Deut. i. 37, &c). Strangely
enough, while there his fault was arrogance and an undue as
sumption of plenary power, here he sinned by an undue and
obstinate diffidence. Self-will may perhaps be said to have '.ain
at the root of both errors ; but in the one case it was self-willed
assumption, in the other, self-willed renunciation and false
humility.' Each time the fault of" Moses drew down upon him
a temporal punishment. On the present occasion he was taken
at his word. As he declined the sole leadership, he was de
prived of the sole leadership. Aaron was appointed to share
the office of leader with him, and when speech was needed, had
to be the chief speaker (Exod. iv. 14). " In all outward appear
ance," as Dean Stanley observes, " as the chief of the tribe of
Levi, at the head of the family of Amram, as the spokesman
and interpreter, as the first who ' spake to the people and to
Pharaoh all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses,'
and did the signs in the sight of the people, as the permanent
inheritor of the sacred rod or staff, the emblems of rule and
power, Aaron, not Moses, must have been " — in the eyes of the
Egyptians — "the representative and leader of Israel."3 More
over, by his persistent diffidence, Moses lost the possession of
high gifts which God was ready to confer upon him. The pro
mise, " I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt
say," was equivalent to a declaration that God would make him
eloquent, though he was not so by nature ; and had the faith of
Moses been sufficiently strong to overcome his self-distrust,
he would have added eloquence and persuasive speech to his
* Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol i. p. 113.
• Compare the iBiKoraintvoippoavvri of St. Paul (CoL ii. 18).
» "Lectures oa the Jewish Church," vol. i. pp. 115, 116.

THE RETURN TO EGYPT. 79
other splendid endowments. As it was, he had to yield prece
dence in these respects to his otherwise far less gifted brother,
and to share with him the fame which might have been all
his own, of being the people's leader and deliverer (Micah vi. 4).
The question has been asked, What was the deficiency of
which Moses complained, and which caused his self-distrust ?
Was it mere shyness — the difficulty, which meets almost every
speaker at first, of maintaining his self-possession when he
attempts to address an audience, of collecting and commanding
his thoughts, finding words to express them, and a ready power
of giving his words utterance ? Or, was it something quite
different from this, such as "a natural impediment owing to
defect in the organs of speech," as Kalisch thinks ? * A Jewish
tradition is alleged in support of this latter view — a tradition
that Moses had a difficulty in pronouncing the labials, b, v, m,
ph, p. But the expressions used by Moses himself — " not a
man of words," " slow of speech," " of a slow tongue," " of
uncircumcised lips '' — seem rather to indicate mere unreadiness,
want of an easy flow of words ; an inability like that of Crom
well rather than like that of Demosthenes — not a stammer, or
a stutter, or a lisp, or a difficulty in the pronunciation of any
letter, but a slowness to find appropriate words for the expres
sion of his thoughts, a want of facility in the use of the weapon
of speech. Such a defect is not unusual in those who ultimately
become great speakers ; it belonged to Luther, to John Knox,
perhaps even to St. Paul, whose early efforts at preaching were,
according to his detractors (2 Cor. x. 10), "contemptible."
Without any miracle, Moses might have been led on in course
of time, by use and practice, to the eloquence of which he pro
nounced himself destitute — with God's special grace assisting
him, he might have attained to it. if not suddenly, yet at any
rate rapidly.
At length, with whatever reluctance, Moses had yielded him
self to the Divine will, and was prepared, in conjunction with
Aaron, to undertake the great and ilfficult task assigned him.
But, before setting out on his journey to return to Egypt, he
must at least, in common politeness, announce his intention to
Jethro ; he must deliver up the charge of Jethro's flock, which
he had undertaken ; it may even havu been necessary that he
should obtain Jethro's consent to his departure. It is not un-
1 See his Commentary on Exod. iii. 10.

8o MOSES
likely, that when Moses was accepted into Raguel's family, he
was formally enrolled as a member into the tribe to which
Raguel belonged. If so, the tribal law would probably require
an express permission from the head, for the departure of a
member to be regular and legitimate. The words of Moses to
Jethro favour this view of his position — " Let me go, I pray
thee" he said, "and return unto my brethren which are in
Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive" (Exod. iv. 18). He
asks leave, and asks it with some humility, as requesting a
favour, not as demanding a right ; and Jethro grants the re
quest, grants it unhesitatingly and ungrudgingly, in the few but
all-sufficient words — " Go in peace." The relations between the
two at the time are pleasingly, if slightly, portrayed. Moses
takes no airs of grandeur or dignity upon him on account of
his recen'. appointment to be God's instrument in a great wcrk;
he has a grand mission, but he claims nothing on account of it ;
he has vast miraculous powers, but he arrogates nothing to
himself on account of them ; he is his old simple self ; he ap
pears before his employer and chief, and sues humbly, yet with
out servility, for a certain permission to be granted him. He
assigns a reason for his request, a sufficient reason, yet one far
short of his full reason. And Jethro, without cavil, or sneer,
or remonstrance, or inconvenient curiosity, accepts the reason
and grants the request, with the same simplicity with which
it has been made. He will lose a valuable subject, a useful
servant, a new connection ; and with him, he will lose those
dependent on him, a sister to whom he may have been tenderly
attached, gnd two- nephews ; but he acquiesces, he makes no
difficulty, he utters no complaint. He will not mar the grace
of his assent by cold words of disapproval, much less by in-
quisitiveness or by reproaches. " Go in peace," he says — i.e,
" Go with my full good-will ; and may God prosper thy going.
May things turn out for thee as thou wishestl Peace and
prosperity attend thee whithersoever thou goest and whereso
ever thou art ! "
Moses had permission to depart ; but it would seem he did
not hasten his departure. Various causes may have induced
him to put off his journey. First, it may have been the hot
season, and he may have waited in order to travel in the winter
time. Secondly, was it safe for him to return ? The kirg was
dead, but might not procedure against him be taken by others,

THE RETURN TO EGYPT. ol
if he returned ? Thirdly, he had been told that Aaron his
brother was coming forth from Egypt to see him (Exod. iv. 14),
would it not be better to wait till he arrived, and brought mfor
mation of the general position of Egyptian affairs ? At any
rate, for whatever reason, he was delaying his departure ; and
a further interposition of the Divine authority was necessary,
in order to induce him to set out. '' The Lord said unto Moses
in Midian, Go, return into Egypt ; for all the men are dead
who sought thy life" (Exod. iv. 19). The renewed command
was a spur to the laggard, a plain direction which he did not
venture to disobey ; and the assurance that his life was no
longer sought removed one objection to his returning. So at
length the decisive step was taken, and Moses started on his
return journey.
The picture of his departure (Exod. iv. 29) is graphic. Moses
takes his wife and his children — " his wife, whom he had won
by his chivalrous attack on the Bedouin shepherds ; " and the
children born to him in his exile, and named in two opposite
moods of sorrow and rejoicing, and he sets his wife upon his
ass— "the ass," the only beast of burthen that he possesses —
and places her infant son, or perhaps both her sons, in her
arms, while, leaning on his staff, he manfully trudges by their
side. It is no large cavalcade that goes forth, no company of
camels with gay tassels and jingling bells, no troop of prancing
horses, no pomp of chariots — one ass bears all the treasures of
the man who will shortly beard the Pharaoh, and " spoil the
Egyptians," and come out of Egypt with much substance ; and
his treasure consists, not in silver, or gold, or jewels, or rich
raiment, but in the wife and little ones, which are all that
Midian has given him. Involuntarily, as we contemplate the
picture, our thoughts go forward to that other narrow household,
which went from Palestine into Egypt in the days of Herod
the Great (Matt. ii. 14), whose "flight" has been so often
represented by painters ; to Joseph trudging along the sandy
path, supported by his staff, and Mary seated on the ass by his
side, and pressing the young child to her bosom. Here the
interest is concentrated on the aged man, there on the infant
child ; here danger is being affronted, there it is being escaped ;
bu: in both cases the journey is being undertaken at the express
command of God, its outward circumstances are similar, and
it is necessary for the accomplishment of God's purposes with,
7 '

8] MOSES.
respect to man. If Moses does not go into Egypt, there will
be no deliverance of the fleshly Israel from their oppressors ;
if the " young child " be not carried thither out of the reach of
Herod, there will be no deliverance of the spiritual Israel from
sin and Satan.
The journey has little more than commenced when :t is in
terrupted by a strange incident. At one of the halting-places,
where there was perhaps a khan or caravanserai, Moses is
struck down by a sudden severe illness, an illness which
threatens to be fatal. It is at once borne in upon the mind of
Zipporah, perhaps of both Zipporah and her husband, that
God's anger has been incurred by neglect of a duty known to
both of them, but not performed by either. Eliezer, Zipporah's
infant child, born not many days before they set out on their
journey, had not been circumcised on the eighth day after his
birth, as the law of God commanded (Gen. xvii. 10-14), perhaps
because Zipporah objected to the rite, deeming it barbarous and
unnecessary, perhaps because Moses thought it would be incon.
venient to have the rite performed during a journey. Zipporah
was convinced that her husband's life was threatened for this
reason, and she therefore took a sharp stone knife, such as the
Egyptians used for making incisions with a view to embalming,
and with it performed the ceremony. To save her husband,
she could consent to make her child suffer ; but, in token of her
repugnance and abhorrence of the rite, she flung the bloody
knife and fragment of flesh at her husband's feet, with the
reproachful words — "Surely a bloody husband thou art to me—
a bloody husband, in respect of the circumcisions " (Exod. iv.
25, 26). The rite completed, in however faulty a spirit, Moses
at once began to recover, God "let him go," remitted the
death penalty, and restored him to his former health, so that he
was able to resume his journey.
But the question must have arisen, Should he persist in his
original design of being accompanied to Egypt by his wife and
children ? Zipporah had scarcely shown herself a " helpmate."
If her abhorrence of the rite had caused it to be delayed, she
had brought her husband into imminent danger. When she
relented, it was with an ill grace, with an unseemly act, and
with words that showed anger against her husband, if not
positive dislike of him. She was now encumbered with a child
which would for several days require careful tendance. On

THE RETURN TO EGYPT. 83
the whole, Moses seems to have thought it best under the cir
cumstances to give up his original plan, and continue his
journey alone, sending Zipporah and her two children back to
the care and protection of Jethro (Exod. xviii. 2). He prcbably
found at the caravanserai some person whom he could trust to
escort her to her brother's tents and guard her against the perils
of the way. He felt that he would be more independent, and
better able to cope with the difficulties that would necessarily
impede his enterprise in Egypt, if he were free for the time
from the care of his wife and children, and if, knowing them to
be in safety, he could devote all his thought and attention to
the public work which had been assigned him.
The lone wanderer now took his solitary way through the
desolate wadys of the Sinaitic highland, by what exact path we
cannot say, but probably by that which he had pursued, in the
reverse direction, when he fled from Egypt to Midian. He
probably knew the eastern desert well, as far as the pastures of
Sinai, but with the western desert he would only have the slight
acquaintance derived from one solitary journey made nearly
forty years previously. One principal hope cheered him as he
toiled along the weary way, scorched during the daytime by the
fierce blaze of the sun, and chilled by the cold dews at night.
God hath revealed it to him that his brother, Aaron, was about
to set forth to meet him (Exod. iv. 14) ; and he would feel each
day that possibly, ere the sun declined and the shadows grew
long, the happy meeting might take place. Each day the hope
would grow, and the desire for its accomplishment increase;
till at last, by God's blessing and careful guidance of each, there
came fruition — the brothers met in some part of " the mount of
God " (Exod. iv. 27), that is, of the higher hill country, probably
between Sinai and Serbal. Ah ! what a meeting was that 1 Two
brothers fondly attached, yet parted for well nigh forty years ;
at the time of separation in the full vigour of manhood, now
grown old and grey, verging towards eighty years of age, yet
hale and hearty, with eyes undimmed, with strength but little
diminished ; see them approaching, drawing nearer and nearer
to each other step by step, questioning, doubting, suspecting,
at last fully recognizing each the other, and quickening their
steps till they meet in a long embrace. " Aaron went to meet
Moses, and he met him in the mount of God, and kissed him."
On the meeting followed mutual confidences. Aaron would

84 MOSES.
communicate to Moses all that we understand by " home news"—
particulars concerning Amram, and Jochebed, and Miriam, and
the old house, and the new ties, if any, that had been contracted,
and concerning his own children, Nadab and Abihu, and Eleazar,
and Ithamar, and his wife, Elisheba or Elisabeth, and their nu
merous kindred, sons of Izhar and Uzziel, Amram's brethren,
and others. Moses would recount his experiences, would tell Aaron
of his marriage, of Reuel, and Jethro, and of his two sons, of his
peril at the caravanserai, and his escape from the jaws of death,
and his subsequent journeyings ; and further he would relate, as
we are told he did (Exod. iv. 28), "all the words of the Lord who
had sent him" — the mystery of the burning bush, and the sum
mons that had come to him out of the bush, and the revelation
to him of the special name by which God would henceforth be
called, and the mission laid upon him, and his repugnance, and
final acceptance of it on the condition that Aaron should be his
spokesman. Moreover, he would tell his brother of the miracles
which he had been empowered to work, and would perhaps
exhibit them, to convince Aaron that he was not a fanatic, nor
an impostor. And then the two would proceed together and in
loving converse go on their way to Egypt — par nobile fratrum
if ever there was one — in the past long separated, but henceforth
constant fellow-workers, mutual aids to each other, with two
brief exceptions,1 ever of one heart and of one soul, united, as
two brothers have but seldom been, for the long space of nearly
forty years, in the accomplishment of a great and glorious work,
which will never be forgotten, but will keep their memory green,
while the world endures. 1 Exod. xxiii. 1 45 Num. xii. 1-10.

CHAPTER IX.
THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH.
The two brothers convene the elders of Israel — Their mission accepted—
Their first appearance before Pharaoh and the risk they ran — The
demand and its rejection — Pharaoh increases the oppression — Moses
appeal to God and God's answer — Second interview between the two
brothers and the king — Contest with the magicians begins — The First
Plague : Pharaoh unmoved by it — The Second, or Plague of Frogs :
Pharaoh relents, but recovers himself — The Third, or Plague of Lice :
the magicians give way, but the Pharaoh is unmoved — The Fourth, or
Plague of Beetles : Pharaoh gives permission, but retracts it — The
Fifth, or Plague of Murrain — The Sixth, or Plague of Boils — The
Seventh, or Plague of Hail : Pharaoh again yields, but retracts — The
Eighth, or Plague of Locusts — The Ninth, or Plague of Darkness —
The Tenth, or Death of the First-born — Pharaoh drives Israel out
The interchange of thought between the two brothers during
their long journey from " the mount of God " to Egypt led to a
conviction, in which both shared, that, before any application
could be made, with reasonable prospect of success, to Pharaoh,
it was necessary that their mission should be fully acknowledged
and accepted by the people of Israel. Of what avail would it
be to contend with that mighty prince, and gradually subdue his
spirit, and overcome the proud resistance which he was sure to
offer to their message, if at the last, when the time came for
action, the people should repudiate their leadership, and decline
to move at their command ? Practically, therefore, the first
step to be taken was to secure the adhesion of the mass of the
Israelites, For this purpose application was made, as God had
Himself suggested (Exod. iii. j6),tp "the elders of the people" —

86 MOSES.
that is, to those native officials who in different localities, exer
cised, and were allowed to exercise, a certain authority over the
rest of their countrymen. In Oriental countries, an alien race
dwelling among the ruling nation, is almost always permitted to
have its chiefs or head men, who control it, act on its behalf, and
are the means of communication between it and the government.
Among the Israelites these persons would probably be "the chiefs
of the fathers " — i.e. the hereditary heads of families. Moses
and Aaron, though destitute of any legal right to convene a
meeting of such persons, regarded it as morally within their
competence to do so, and issued a summons, which was obeyed,
to "all the elders of the children of Israel" (Exod. iv. 29).
It must have been a grand gathering. From Zoan, and its
suburb, Pa-Ramesses, from Pa-Tum or Pithom, from On or
Heliopolis, from Pi-Bast or Bubastis, from Memphis, and per
haps from towns still further distant, from all the many villages
in the " field of Zoan " and the " land of Goshen," came trooping
the Hebrew grey-beards, drawn together by an unwonted sum
mons, to hear they knew not what, from the mouths of two men
unknown to most of them. The place of meeting was, no doubt,
in some purely Hebrew district, some part of Goshen, probably
towards the eastern border, where the assembly would be the
least likely to draw attention. When all were come together,
the two brothers appeared before them, and delivered the mes
sage which God had sent them by Moses. The message was
as follows : " The Lord God of your fathers (Jehovah-Elohim),
the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me,
saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to
you in Egypt ; and I have said, I will bring you up out of the
affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the
Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey :
a id they shall hearken unto thy voice, and thou shalt come, thou
and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall
say unto him, the Lord of the Hebrews (Jehovah Elohim) hath
met with us ; and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days'
journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord
our God. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you
go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand,
and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the
midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. And I will

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 87
give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians ; and it
shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty ; but
every woman shall borrow (or, ask) of her neighbour, and of her
that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold,
and raiment j and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon
your daughters ; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians " (Exod. iii. ,
16-22). The message delivered, there was doubtless at first
hesitation, doubt, incredulity. The promise of God to Abraham
was so old a matter ; the land of Canaan had so slipped from
their memories ; it was so long since God had appeared to any
among them ; their past history had so faded from their minds,
that they could not possibly accept at once, and be prepared to
act upon, the strange news brought them. If they did not say
to Moses, in so many words, "The Lord hath not appeared unto
thee " (Exod. iv. 1), at any rate they made it sufficiently clear
that their hearts were not impressed, their assent was not
gained : something more was needed to move them. Then Moses
fell back upon his credentials, and produced them. Recognizing
the elders' hesitation as just, reasonable, rightful — for as yet
they had no proof that he was not an impostor, they had no evi
dence that he was not a fanatic — he proceeded to bring forth and
exhibit before them the proofs with which God had furnished
him, that he was a man empowered by God to declare His will
to the nation, therefore no impostor, no fanatic, but a divinely-
commissioned messenger, who spoke the words of soberness
and truth. He cast his rod on the ground, and it became, mani
festly and palpably, a serpent : he put forth his hand, and took
the serpent by the tail, and it was once more a rod. He put his
hand, which was free from all blemish, into the bosom of his
garment, and drew it forth, and showed it to them all white and
leprous ; he then placed it within his vest a second time, and
drew it forth restored to its former condition. He took in £•
vessel of the water of the river, and poured it out upon the dry
land, and the liquid was no longer water, but blood, which lay
in a red pool upon the ground (Exod. iv. 30, compared with
vers . 2-9). The elders saw the three signs, and were convinced
of their reality, and expressed themselves satisfied ; God, they
allowed, had indeed "visited His people" (ver. 31): and they
reported all that they had seen and heard to the people in their
several localities ; and " the people believed " — the whole nation
accepted the mission of Moses and Aaron, acknowledged them

88 MOSES.
as their leaders, and empowered them to act in their name
Henceforth, whatever dissatisfaction, whatever impatience,
whatever jealousy of the two brothers, showed itself in any
quarter, the nation as a whole never withdrew its confidence
from them, never rejected their leadership, or lowered them from
their pre-eminent position. It was felt that God had taken the
matter into His own hands, and as a successful issue could only
be counted on through His help, a faithful adherence to the
leaders of His choice was a matter of absolute necessity.
It is uncertain how much time was consumed in these pro
ceedings ; but we must always be upon our guard against
supposing that each event of the sacred narrative followed im
mediately upon the event directly preceding it in the narration.
Considerable intervals of time may have separated the death of
Ramesses II. from the appearance of God to Moses in the bush,
that appearance from the application made by Moses to Jethro,
Jethro's permission to Moses to depart and Moses' actual de
parture, Moses' illness and the continuance of his journey, the
arrival of Moses and Aaron in Egypt and the convening of the
elders, the convening of the elders and the adoption of Moses
and Aaron for their leaders by the nation, and between the sig
nifying of this adoption by the elders to the two brothers and
their next recorded step, their appearance before Pharaoh. The
extreme brevity of the sacred narrative is such as naturally to
deceive us, unless we continually bear in mind how necessary
compression was to a writer in the position of Moses, and how
little it is in his manner to give prominence to the chronological
element. Moses and Aaron were now at length empowered to act on
behalf of the people. Their action, however, was not rash or
precipitate. They bided their time. " Afterward" we are told,
Moses and Aaron " went in," and spake to Pharaoh. They had
undertaken a momentous task. They had to present themselves
before a king, who, by the long-established usage of the
country, was looked upon as "a god upon earth " — neter nefer,
" the good god," and neter aa, " the great god " — " son of the
Sun," " the living Horus," and who inherited from his father the
idea that he was actually on a par with the greatest of the
recognized divinities, with Ra and Tum, with Phthah and
Ammon and Horus. " The king in that first monarchy," as
Dean Stanley observes, "was the visible god upon earth. The

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 89
only thing like it that has been since seen is the deification of the
Roman emperors. No pure monotheism would for a moment
have been compatible with such an intense exaltation." '
Menephthah, the successor of Ramesses II., took as his pecu
liar titles, "beloved of Ammon," "soul of the Sun," and "he
who trusts in Truth." He is represented as sitting on "the
throne of Ho^us, where he had been placed to give life to
mankind, where he had gone as king to watch over mortals." *
He is called " the living," " the Giver of Life," " the gracious
Lord," "the good God," "the son of the Sun," "the Horus re
joicing in truth." 3 Soon after his accession to the throne, Egypt
had been invaded by a powerful host of Libyans and their allies,
among whom are thought to have been included Greeks and
Italians ; he had abstained from meeting them in person, but
his generals had met and defeated them with great slaughter ;
Egypt had been placed in safety, and Menephthah, counting as
his own all the successes gained by his generals, was full of vain
glory and arrogance. He was, in reality, a weak prince, capri
cious, changeful, timid ; but his vanity was excessive, and his
self-assertion equal to that of any former monarch. It was a
bold thing to confront such a monarch in his palace, on his
throne, among his courtiers, and to urge on him an unpalatable
request Moses and Aaron, when they appeared before him,
took their lives in their hands. He was an irresponsible despot ;
and, though it was a part of the duty of a Pharaoh to give
audience to all who approached him in the authorized way, and to
allow them to prefer their petitions, yet there was no security
against an outbreak of irrepressible anger, if the petition was
considered an improper one, and, during the outbreak, a sign
might be made, or a word spoken, dooming the petitioners to
death. The brothers, however, were not daunted. Both were vener<
able figures, Moses, at eighty years of age, retained much of
the comeliness of his youth. The fire of his eyes was undimmed
(Deut. xxxiv. 7) to a much later date. He was tall and dignified,
with long streaming hair, of a reddish hue, tinged with grey,
and with a long shaggy beard.4 Aaron, at eighty-three, can
scarcely have presented a less venerable appearance. He had
¦ Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," Introduction, p. xxxvi
• "Records of the Past," vol. iv. p. 41, § 10. 3 Ioid, pp. 42-48.
« Artapanus ap. Euseb. " Prasp. Ev." ix. 27 ; Diod. Sic. xxxiv. Fr. 1.

OO MOSES.
the ready address of a practised speaker (Exod. iv. 14), and
though probably a less striking figure than his brother, yet lent
additional importance to the deputation. It was understood
that the two chiefs were about to speak on behalf of their people.
The usual formalities of the presentation having been completed,
Aaron, the divinely-appointed spokesman, stood forth and
delivered the message of Jehovah to the king. We must not sup
pose that his words are fully recorded. Rather, the gist of them
is given. It was impressed on the Pharaoh, that Jehovah, the
God of Israel, had appeared to those who addressed him, and
had charged them with the following message to him : " Let
My people go that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilder
ness " (Exod. v. 1). More definitely the demand was, " Let us
go, we pray thee, a three days' journey into the desert, and sac
rifice unto the Lord our God " (ver. 3).
The Egyptians could readily appreciate the idea of a great
sacrifice, and of a great national gathering to celebrate it, since
such gatherings were not uncommon among themselves.
Pharaoh could not therefore affect surprise at such a request.
Nor could he well object to the " three days' journey into the
wilderness," since he would understand the desire of a people
to hold their national festival by themselves, at a distance froL
those who would at best be curious lookers-on, and might be
deriders of their ceremonies. But he meets and refuses the
request on two grounds — (1) The God, whose commands are
reported to him, is not his God, has no authority over him, is, in
fact, wholly unknown to him (Exod. v. 2) ; and (2) He needs the
Israelites' labours, and will not have them interrupted (ver. 4).
It will be observed, that he does not dispute Moses' facts, or
the reasonableness of the claim that he had made ; he simply
goes upon his own rights — Jehovah is nothing to him ; the
Israelites are his bondsmen ; Jehovah's words are therefore to
him as nothing ; and he will do with the Israelites as he pleases
— he will exact from them the utmost labour that is possible.
Even Moses and Aaron ought to be at work at the kilns or in
the brickfields — he dismisses them therefore with the short,
sharp phrase — " Get you unto your burdens."
Their failure on this first interview cannot have surprised the
brothers. God had warned Moses that Pharaoh would not let
the people go, until Egypt had been smitten with a long series
of chastisements, culminating in the death of the Pharaoh's

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 91
own first-born (Exod. iii. 19, 20; iv. 21-23). The brothers
therefore cannot have hoped anything from their first applica
tion ; and they even may have felt that they had reason to con
gratulate themselves on having come off from the interview so
well as they had, without being struck, or arrested as stirrers-up
of discontent, or actually set to the hard taskwork under which
their fellow-countrymen were suffering. Perhaps, however,
they looked for some immediate interposition of God, in vindi
cation of his own honour, some commencement of the
" smiting " by which they knew that the deliverance of the
people was to be effected. But God showed no sign. All
things remained as they had been from the beginning. The
Pharaoh's defiance of Jehovah brought upon him no immediate
punishment. Egypt was not smitten. The brothers under
these circumstances may have experienced some sense of disap
pointment ; however, they made no complaint — they were ready
to wait patiently until God should give them some new direction
how to proceed.
But now a worse disappointment came upon them. The
Pharaoh, angered at their interposition, determined to punish it
by heaping fresh sufferings upon those on whose behalf the
brothers had interceded. By his own initiative, apparently
(Exod. v. 6-9), the order went forth, that no straw should hence
forth be given to the Hebrew brickmakers, but that they should
themselves find the straw needed for binding the bricks
together. Nevertheless, the tale of bricks was not to be
diminished ; the same number was to be exacted of each gang
of labourers, as when the straw was furnished to them. This
was a heavy aggravation of the previously over-severe burdens,
and indeed was imposing a burden to which human strength
was unequal. Labour as hard as they might, the brickmakers
could not produce the full tale of bricks required of them ; and
the result was, that their head men were bastinadoed for giving
in a short quantity (Exod. v. 14). Then, not unnaturally,
Moses and Aaron were assailed with bitter reproaches by the
sufferers — What good had their interference done ? Nay, what
harm had it not done ? The whole nation had been made to
stink in the nostrils of Pharaoh — his anger had been aroused,
his vengeance provoked. The oppression of the entire people
had been made very much severer than before, and the head
men were in actual peril of their lives, for men died under the

Q2 MOSES.
bastinado. " The Lord judge you," exclaimed the unhappy
officers, " whether it is not by your fault that all this has come
upon us 1 " The reproaches of one's friends, even when un
deserved, are very hard to bear. Moses and Aaron were deeply
stung by the words addressed to them. But they " held their
tongue," they " refrained, yea, even from good words,"— they
" spake nothing," though it may have been " pain and grief to
them ; " and Moses at any rate took his trouble to God — bowed
down before the Throne of Grace, and opened his heart to the
Almighty. " Lord," he said, " Jehovah, Eternal One, wherefore
hast Thou so evil entreated this people ? Why is it that Thou
hast sent me ? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy
name, he hath done evil to this people ; neither hast Thou de
livered Thy people at all " (Exod. v. 22, 23).
It must indeed have been a bitter moment. Having pro
claimed himself a deliverer, having persuaded his nation to
trust in him, having led them to expect that by the exercise of
his miraculous powers he would bow the Pharaoh to his will,
and obtain for them some alleviation of their " affliction," he
now stood before his nation convicted, so far, of absolute failure :
not only no helper, but an injurer, one who by his officious and
clumsy interference had done them infinite harm. They had
been in the " lowest deep " of calamity previously, but he had
plunged them into a " lower deep." They had been scourged
with whips ; he had brought upon them a scourging with scor
pions. Was it by his own fault ? Had he misunderstood his
commission ? Or had he failed to carry it out in the proper
way ? Why had God " forgotten to be gracious " ? Moses, re-
oroaching himself, goes near to reproaching God — " Why hast
Thou so evil entreated this people ? Why is it Thou hast sent me?"
He cannot gauge the depths of the Divine counsels. He cannot
understand God's patience with the wicked, God's reluctance to
stretch forth his arm, until their iniquity is full. He is ignorant,
probably, of the sanctifying power of suffering, and does not
know that God chastens in love, to purge and strengthen and
purify those whom He chastens. God's ways are " far above out
of sight ; " and so he murmurs, and complains, and expostulates
— not, however, rudely or irreverently, but so as to call forth the
Divine compassion, and to draw from God a fresh series of
gracious promises, and an indication that their performance is
just about to commence (Exod. vi. 13).

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 93
The result is, that the two brothers are ordered to appear
before Pharaoh a second time, and to exhibit before him theii
miraculous powers, that it may be seen whether these will be
sufficient to bend his will, or whether the series of Divine visita
tions must commence. Pharaoh has evidently heard of the
strange powers which the brothers possess, and desires to see a
specimen of them (comp. Luke xxiii. 8) ; but he does not agree
to make them a test, or promise to yield if they are satisfactory.
" Show a miracle for you," he says (Exod. vii. g) ; and the
brothers, divinely instructed beforehand, comply. Aaron casts
the rod of Moses, which he had brought from Midian, upon the
ground, and it becomes a serpent — it lives and moves, and
not only appears to be, but is, an actual living reptile. The
Pharaoh is impressed to a certain extent ; but, before de
termining what weight he will attach to this credential, he will
see what his own magicians can do. So he " calls the wise men,
and the sorcerers, and the magicians of Egypt" to his presence,
and consults them with respect to the phenomenon. The
magicians had, it would seem, known what they were about to
witness, and had prepared themselves accordingly. Like other
Egyptian officials, they entered the royal presence with what
seemed to be rods in their hands, and these apparent rods, when
cast upon the ground, became serpents. The Arabic tradition,
preserved to us in the Koran, is to the effect, that the rods were
pieces of rope, to which the magicians contrived to impart
motion by artificial means, so that they seemed to be alive, and
to wriggle like snakes, one twisting over another. But most
modern critics are of opinion that the magicians bore in their
hands real snakes, rendered torpid and stiff, so as to look like
rods, which, on being thrown to the ground were disenchanted,
and resumed their natural character. Another explanation is,
that they were mere clever jugglers, adepts in sleight-of-hand,
and that the snakes were substituted for the rods, which were
skilfully hidden away. Jugglery was certainly an art well known
in Egypt in ancient, as it is in modern, times ; and if the skill
of the jugglers was even half as great as that of their Indian
fellow-craftsmen, there would be nothing at all surprising in
their cheating the eyes of the spectators in the way supposed.
In any case, a seeming miracle, parallel to that of Aaron, was
wrought ; the magicians were triumphant ; the Pharaoh began
to boast, and to revile Moses (Josephus) ; but the triumph was

94 MOSES.
short-lived. Aaron's serpent devoured in succession all the
snakes of the magicians, and was then once more a rod, as at
first (Exod. vii. 12).
Had the Pharaoh been a real seeker after truth, had he
possessed a mind open to conviction, and entertained an honest
desire to do what was right, his resistance to the message sent
him would have ceased thus early. The magic of Egypt had
been overcome and put to shame by the Divine power wielded
by the two Hebrews. There could be no question with which
side the victory had rested. But Pharaoh would not see,
would not acknowledge the fact. He hardened his heart,' shut
his eyes against the light, refused to grant the permission sought
of him, declined to let the people go, and by this obduracy, he
provoked, and brought down upon his people the calamity of
The First Plague
It was morning. The opal tints of early dawn were fading in
the eastern sky, and long streaks of rosy light were stretching
themselves like fingers from the horizon towards the zenith, when
Pharaoh, amid a proud array of chiefs, and guards, and courtiers,
"went forth unto the water" (Exod. vii. 13) ; proceeded from his
lordly palace — probably that erected by the Great Ramesses at
Pa-Ramesses, a suburb of Tanis — to the brink of the mysterious
and holy stream, which Egypt worshipped as one of the greatest
of her gods, either to perform a customary daily act of adora
tion, or perhaps to honour with his presence some special
annual festival. Possibly it was his duty to recite the mystic
hymn, found in a manuscript of the time, where Hapi, " the
hidden," was acknowledged as the giver of all good things, the
source of countless blessings. " Hail to thee, O Nile," ran the
words of the sacred song,3 " that showest thyself in this land,
coming in peace, giving life to Egypt. O concealed One, thou
tadest the night onward to the day, a leading that rejoices the
¦deart ! Thou overflowest the gardens created by Ra ; thou givest
life to all animals ; thou waterest the land without ceasing, from
the path of heaven descending — Lover of good, bestower of
•The rendering of the Authorised Version, " He (Jehovah) hardened
Pharaoh's heart " (Exod. vii. 13) is wrong. All that is said is, that hil
heart was hardened. If we ask, who hardened it, the answer must be,
himself. •" Records of the Past," voL hr. p. 107.

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 95
com, giving life to every homestead ! " The rites were about to
be begun, the priests were ready, the courtiers were all atten
tion, when suddenly the monarch found himself confronted by
the pertinacious Hebrews, whose inconvenient request he had
distinctly negatived the day before, and was compelled to turn his
attention to them. The brothers were waiting by the river's
brink for his arrival, expecting it, and determined to take ad
vantage of it. Moses stood with the miraculous rod in his hand,
and Aaron stood by his side. As the king drew near, Moses
took the word and said : " Jehovah sent me to thee, saying, Let
My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness : and
behold, hitherto thou hast not hearkened. Now thus saith the
Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah : behold, I
will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters that
are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood : and the fish
that are in the river shall die, and the river shall stink ; and the
Egyptians shall loath to drink of the water of the river" (Exod.
vii. 16, 17). Then, as Pharaoh and his courtiers stood to gaze,
astonied and dumbfoundered at the threat, Aaron took the rod
from Moses' hand, and stretched it forth over the fast-flowing
river, and smote the water with it, and at once the life-giving
and limpid stream was changed from its previous nature — the
blessed fertilizing Nile, hitherto the perennial source of all
Egypt's changeless prosperity, regarded as giving the sweetest
water in the world, and fabled to have once for eleven consecu
tive days flowed with honey, on a sudden flowed with blood —
not only was blood-red, but carried between its banks, in a slow
sluggish current, a mass of liquid, which had all the qualities of
blood, and was revolting, fearful, provocative of actual loathing.
Nor was this the whole. All the water in the side-streams, and
in the canals, and in the ponds and the reservoirs, and in houses,
stored away in " vessels of wood and vessels of stone," as is
customary even at the present day, in order that the sediment of
Nile mud may settle down, suffered at the same time the same
conversion, and was rendered a horror to look upon. Soon
"the river stank" (ver. 2i),andthe fish that were in the river died;
the odour of putrefaction filled the air ; everywhere was suffer
ing, misery, disgust, and an awful fear. For seven days the
plague continued (ver. 25). The red stream flowed ceaselessly
on. The only alleviation which the mercy of God allowed to
the people was from the moisture already in the soil before the

96 MOSES.
change fell on the river. This remained water; and the
Egyptians were able to obtain by digging trenches and pits, a
scanty supply of a brackish liquid, on which life was sustained
while the plague lasted.
A more striking visitation, one more apt to impress the
Egyptians, can scarcely be imagined. " It is not an ordinary
river that is turned into blood, but the sacred, beneficent, salu
tary Nile, the very life of the state and of the people." * It is a
divinity that is smitten, that is disgraced, that is turned to an
object of horror. And the divinity that suffers this debasement
further involves in its humiliation other divinities. The fish of
the Nile were, in several instances, sacred. The lepidotus, the
oxyrinchus, the eel, the carp of Esneh, were Nilotic fish, and
had, all of them, a sacred character. The First Plague involved
these fish in a common destruction. It smote " the gods of
Egypt " with a blow that was, within its sphere, unsparing. All
the gods of the waters were smitten in combination with the
great Water-God, Hapi ; and the animal-worship, which was so
important an element in the Egyptian religion, received in this
way a severe blow, and was for the time greatly discredited.
And the physical suffering implied in the visitation was great,
more than can be by moderns and Englishmen readily appre
ciated. It was not merely that for seven days they suffered
largely from the pangs of thirst, having no water, or only a
scant allowance of brackish water, to drink ; but they lost the
fish which formed their most ordinary and favourite food ; they
lost the copious supply of the grateful fluid for the frequent
ablutions to which they were accustomed ; they could not wash
their clothes, or rinse out their utensils, or scour their houses,
or practise any of their usual methods of securing constant
purity and cleanliness. There was never a people so devoted
to cleanliness as the Egyptians — " the cleanliest of all the
ancient nations," as they have been called, " clothed in white
linen, anticipating, in their fastidious delicacy and ceremonial
purity, the habits of modern and Northern Europe." * The
priests especially must have grieved to miss their double daily
and double nightly bath of cold water,3 at once so delightful
to their feelings and so necessary to fit them ceremonially
for the performance of their sacred functions. The highel
"Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. ji8.
¦ Ibid. vol. i. p. 1x8. 3 Herodotus, ii. 37.

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 97
orders must have suffered almost equally from the privation ;
even the lower must have felt it, for in Egypt there was no
class of "unwashed." And to all this negative discomfort was
added the digust to the eye from the sight of the moving mass
of gore, and the disgust to the sense of smell from the putridity
which filled the air.
But, notwithstanding all, the marvel, the horror, the suffering,
the contempt thrown on Egypt's gods, the Pharaoh continued
obdurate ; " neither did he lay even this [sign] to heart " (Exod.
vii. 23). He consulted his magicians a second time ; and by
some trickery they persuaded him that they too could turn
water into blood, as Moses had done ; whereupon he "turned
and went into his house," shutting out the marvel from his
sight and from his thought, and "hardening his heart" (ver. 22),
as he had done before. The affliction did not greatly afflict
him. Such water as was procurable (ver. 24) would be supplied
to him in tolerable abundance for his ablutions ; perfumes would
be burnt in his apartments to purify the air; and the rich wines of
Anthylla and the Mareotis would compensate to him for the loss
of the sweet Nile water, which was perhaps not often included
among his beverages. So he waited till the judgment should
pass, or, perhaps from his own point of view, till the natural pheno
menon should exhaust itself,1 and the great stream resume its
ordinary appearance and character.
The judgment did pass. After " a week of days " Nile did
resume his ordinary appearance, and the first trial was over.
Egypt, and the Pharaoh, had a breathing space. But it was
not for long. After a brief space the two importunate Hebrews,
divinely directed, again appeared before the monarch, again
made their demand in the name of Jehovah — " Let My people
go, that they may serve Me " — were again refused, and, at the
Divine command, announced, and then brought about,
The Second Plague.
Aaron stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt — in
act, probably, over the Nile only, in intention "over the streams
over the rivers, and over the ponds" (Exod. viii. 5) — and lo,
(* The Nile does occasionally turn red, owing to the presence in the water
of.rnicroscopic cryptggramsj&djjifusoria. Pharaoh may have persuaded
himself that what he saw was a mere aggravation of an ordinary pheno
menon. 8

98 MOSES.
there was a plague of frogs. Frogs in hundreds, in thousands
in tens of thousands, in millions, came up out of the waters-
coarse, ungainly animals, if the species was the naturalist's Rana
Mosaica— and entered the villages and the towns, and filled the
streets, and made their way into the houses, and ascended into
the sleeping apartments, and penetrated into the kitchens, and
hopped on the rich coverlets, and entered the ovens and the
kneading-troughs (ver. 3), and, in fact, were everywhere, on the
couches, on the beds, in the food. How intolerable such a
visitation may be, we see by the story which is told by Phcenius,
a disciple of Aristotle, concerning the Paeonians and Darda-
nians. "In Pasonia and Dardania," he says, "there appeared
once suddenly such a multitude of frogs, that they filled the
houses and the streets. Therefore — as killing them or shutting
the doors was of no avail, as even the vessels were full of them,
the water infested, and all food uneatable; as they could scarcely
set their foot upon the ground without treading on heaps of them,
and as they were greatly vexed by the smell of the great numbers
which died — they fled from that region altogether." * Similar tales
are related by Diodorus and Pliny." Frogs in such multitudes as
are described, form not merely an annoyance, but an actual
misery. To have the whole country filled with these disgusting
reptiles, to be unable to walk in the streets without treading on
them, to find them not only occupying one's doorstep, but in pos
session of one's house, in one's bedchamber, and upon one's bed,
to hear their dismal croak perpetually — /Soekekeke? sod? mil — oiiSiv
dXXo irXrtv coo? — to see nothing but their loathsome forms
whithersoever one looked, to be in perpetual contact with them
and feel the repulsion of their cold, rough, clammy skin, to find
them in one's water and in one's food, would amount to a severe
affliction, and, if continued long, might drive men to despair.
And the torture would be increased if, as there is reason to be
lieve was the case in Egypt, those who suffered from them weie
not allowed to kill them. One of the Egyptian divinities, Heka,
has the head of a frog, and we may presume therefore that the
frog was a sacred animal which it was not lawful to destroy.
They had, therefore, to be allowed to do much as they pleased ;
a man might not remove them from his bed, or from his drinking-
cup, except tenderly. Still, they would have died in large num.-
« Eustath. ad. Horn. II. 1. p. 33.
¦ Diod. Sic. iii. 30 ; Pliny, " H. N." viii. so.

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 99
bers — smothered one by another, crushed accidentally behind
doors, trampled through dire necessity beneath the foot of man
and beast, and the houses and streets would soon be full of their
mangled remains, and then a stench would arise. It is extra
ordinary what poor, weak, insignificant things may be made by
God into whips to scourge men beyond endurance. Strangely,
as it seems to us, He " chooses the weak things of the world to
confound the things that are strong, and the base things of the
world, and the things that are despised, yea, and the things
that are not, to bring to nought the things that are" (i Cor. ii. 28).
The plague of the frogs, which affected himself as much as the
meanest of his people, was felt by the Pharaoh to be intolerable,
and he now showed his first sign of yielding — " Intreat the
Lord," he said, " that He may take away the frogs from me and
from my people, AND I will let the people go, that they may do
sacrifice unto the Lord" (Exod. viii. 8). His request was
granted, that his sincerity might be tested, and on the morrow
the frogs "departed" — "died out of the houses, out of the
villages, and out of the fields ; and they gathered them together
into heaps; and the land stank" (vers. 13, 14). The very
removal of the plague in one respect intensified it — a sickly
odour exhaled from the heaps of putrifying reptiles, which filled
the streets, the gardens, and the open country.
In the second plague, as in the first, a blow was aimed at the
Egyptian religion. In the first place, the plague came out of
the Nile. That sacred stream, so fondly worshipped as the
giver of all good, was the generator of this great evil. Nile,
wont to bestow nothing but blessings, brought forth this curse.
Next, the goddess Heka was discredited, and passed under a
cloud. Further, the animal-worship received a second dis
couragement. How could those creatures be Divine which had
aroused such hatred and loathing in the hearts of the entire
people? How could they henceforth be looked upon without
detestation? Despite their religious belief, many Egyptians
Jiad probably killed numbers while the plague lasted, as a
Brahmin will kill flies when they torment him. How could
those who had done so and suffered no calamity in consequence
ever again put any faith in this portion of the creed which had
been taught them ? The whole theory of sacred animals
must have suffered a shock when Heka's sacred sign, the
emblem of fecundity and productiveness, became an object of
hatred and abhorrence.

ICO MOSES.
"When Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his
heart, and hearkened not unto Moses and Aaron, as the Lord
had said" (Exod. viii. 15). On reflection, Pharaoh perhaps
thought that there was not so much in the miracle as he had at
first fancied. His magicians had been able to "bring up frogs"
out of water (ver. 7), or at least had appeared to do so. When
the plague was past it seemed perhaps ridiculous to have been
so annoyed, so vexed, and irritated, by such a trifle. At any
rate, for whatever reason, he changed his tone, went from his
word in most unkingly fashion, and withdrew the permission
which, under the pressure of the calamity, he had granted
This tergiversation provoked God to send upon Egypt, without
any previous notice or warning,
The Third Plague.
The nature of the third plague is disputed. The Hebrew word
used (kinnini), both in Exodus and in the Book of Psalms (Ps.
cv. 31), is thought by some to mean "gnats," by others "lice."
The critical authorities on either side are tolerably equally
balanced, and the arguments which they adduce have very
nearly equal force. Josephus may fairly be set against Philo,
the Rabbinical writers against Gesenius. It is not, perhaps,
without reason that the recent Revisers of the Old Testament
have retained "lice" in the text, and relegated "sand-flies" to
the margin. The Egyptians had an intense hatred of lice, and
looked upon them as so impure that the priests were required
to " shave their entire bodies every other day, in order that no
louse or other impure creature might adhere to them when they
were engaged in the service of the gods." * And lice in North
Africa constitute a terrible affliction. Sir S. Baker says, " At
certain seasons it is as if the very dust of the land were turned
into lice," and describes the lice in question as "a sort of tick,
not larger than a grain of sand, which, when filled with blood,
expands to the size of a hazel nut." " As the first and second
plagues were fitted to work upon the Egyptian abhorrence of
impurity and defilement, so, if we understand the kinnim as
" lice," would the third be.
The plague, whatever it was, seems not to have moved the
Pharaoh. Though his magicians were unable to imitate or
¦ Herodotus, ii. 37.
¦ gee Millington's "Signs and Wonders in the Land of Ham," p. 85-

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. IOI
counterfeit it, and confessed at length that here was " the finger
of God" (ver. 19), yet he himself made no sign of submission,
gave no indication even of personal annoyance. Perhaps the
plague was not upon him. The care of his attendants may have
kept him free from the scourge which tormented his people.
According to Josephus, it was a scourge of a terrible character.
" The bodies of the Egyptians," he says, " themselves bred the
vermin, and they suffered most grievously, for baths and oint
ments were equally unavailing to root out the evil whereby they
were afflicted." * The foul and disgraceful character of the
plague was perhaps its most distressing feature. Priding them
selves, as they had ever done, on their extreme personal cleanli
ness, their delicacy, and their refinement, the calamity placed
them upon a par with the untidiest and filthiest races of their
continent. It unfitted them, while it lasted, alike for society,
for appearance in public, and for religious worship. They could
not dare to carry such an impurity into a temple ; they could
not risk disgracing themselves by the revelation of their con
dition to their fellow-countrymen. Each probably, as far as
possible, hid his shame, and, isolating himself from the rest of
mankind, nursed in secret the foulness which clung to him.
It is further to be noticed that the calamity was "upon the
beasts" (vers. 17, 18). — perhaps especially upon the sacred beasts.
The most famous temples of Egypt contained, each of them, a
sacred beast — a bull, a cow, or a he-goat — which was regarded
as an absolute incarnation of deity ; and sacred animals of one
kind or another were probably kept in all the temples. Nothing
would have more horrified and astounded the Egyptians than to
find their sacred animals defiled by the impurity of vermin. It
was their habit to bestow the extremest care upon these crea
tures, to wash them, comb them, and keep their skin perfectly
clean, bright, and glossy. Lice upon the Holy Apis would have
seemed to an Egyptian a profanation of the deepest dye, one
which he could scarcely imagine the gods allowing. Such an
affliction upon the sacred beasts generally would have caused
a suspicion that Egypt was altogether deserted by her deities,
and had nothing to expect but ruin.
However, this plague, like the others, endured for a time
only, after which it passed away. There was no sudden, perhaps
no complete, removal of it ; but it slackened and gradually died
1 Josephus, " Ant. Jud." ii. 14. § 3.

102 MOSES.
out An interval of repose followed, the length of which we
have no means of estimating ; and then a fresh fiat went forth
from Jehovah which resulted in
The Fourth Plague
Pharaoh had once more "gone forth to the water" (Exod. viii.
20), to celebrate, as it would seem, another Nile festival. The
time was early morning, perhaps while the opal tints still held
possession of the sky, and before the rosy fingers of the dawn
had meddled with them. The silence and freshness of the
hour had a peculiar charm, and Pharaoh, with his attendant
priests and courtiers, may have been sensible of it The bitter
ness of death seemed to be past ; calm had succeeded storm.
Surely Egypt had suffered enough affliction, and was now
about to enjoy a time of repose. To the dismay of the king
and the Court, the profound silence is suddenly broken by the
familiar, and now hated, cry : " Thus saith Jehovah, Let My
people go, that they may serve Me." The importunate Hebrews,
Moses and Aaron, are there before the king, and break in upon
his intended ceremonial with their unaltered, unalterable request.
And with the request is coupled a threat : " Else, if thou wilt
not let My people go, behold, I will send the 'ar6b upon thee,
and upon thy servants, and upon thy people ; and the houses
of the Egyptians shall be full of the 'arob, »nd also the ground
whereon they are. . . . And I will put a division between My
people and thy people. To-morrow shall this sign be" (vers,
21-23). From the way in which the threat is ex v-essed we must
conclude that " the 'arSb was a well-known aW terrible pest
Possibly it was a particular kind of fly, since the L.XX. translate
the Hebrew word by kvpo/ivio, " dog-fly" (Musca c-nina). But
more probably it was a peculiarly destructive beetle. There
is in Egypt a sort of beetle, the Blatta orientalis or KAkerlaque,
which from time to time appears suddenly in great multitudes,
and constitutes a plague of a very marked character. " Ceux
qui ont voyage" sur le Nil," says Munk,1 "savent com^n cet
insecte est incommode; les bateaux en sont infestes, et c*» les
voit souvent en milliers." " They inflict," says Kalisch,3 " v*ry
painful bites with their jaws ; gnaw and destroy clothes, houje-
bold furniture, leather, and articles of every kind, and either
* " Palestine," p. iso. ¦ Commentary on Exodus, ii. 20-24.

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 103
consume or render unavailable all eatables." The beetles
everywhere covered the ground (ver. 21), as the frogs had
done; they swarmed into the houses (ver. 24) ; they destroyed
the produce of the land (ver. 24). Pharaoh's palace was not
exempt from their intrusion : its goodly furniture became their
prey ; its dainty viands were covered with their dark and
hideous forms. Being beetles, they were sacred, emblems of
the Sun, and emanations from his effulgence, types of creative
power, representatives of Khepra, the Sun-god considered as
Creator, who was commonly figured under the form of a beetle,
or as a man with a beetle for his head. It was therefore unlaw
ful to destroy them, and their ravages had to be submitted to
unresistingly. He who crushed a beetle crushed a god, and
must expect to be pursued by the Divine vengeance during the
remainder of his life. So the Egyptians had to "suffer and be
still." A peculiar feature of the Fourth Plague was the exemption
of the Israelites from the calamity. Hitherto they had suffered
in common with their oppressors, if not to the same extent. Now
God announced that He would "put a division" between His
people and the people of Pharaoh; Israel should not be involved
in the afflictions of Egypt; He would show His power by
" severing " between the land of Goshen and the rest of the
Egyptian territory (ver. 22). It is possible that this new
feature impressed the Pharaoh in a peculiar way. He may
have thought hitherto that Jehovah could not proceed to extre
mities with him and his people without involving His own
worshippers in the common destruction. Now it had become
apparent that this was not so. A line of demarcation could be,
had been, drawn. Jehovah could, and would, protect His own ;
Egypt might be destroyed and Israel left untouched. The
Pharaoh, at any rate, now relented for the second time. He
summoned Moses and Aaron into his presence, and addressed
them with the words ; "Go ye, sacrifice to the Lord your God
in the land " (ver. 25). It was not a full compliance with their
request, as on the former occasion (ver. 8), but the suggestion
of a compromise. He would permit them to offer the sacrifice
which they desired, but they must offer it " in the land" — i.e.,
within the limits of the Egyptian territory. Then there would
be no danger of his losing his bond-slaves' services ; for their
every movement would be watched, and the exits of the land

104 MOSES.
would be guarded. But the compromise has no attraction foi
Moses, who unhesitatingly rejects it. There must be no
bargaining between man and God. God has declared His
will— the Israelites are to have leave to go a three days'
journey into the wilderness, and there, beyond the limits
of Egypt, to offer their sacrifice. No less than this will be
accepted. And Moses now assigns a reason. He and his
people will have to sacrifice animals which the Egyptians
regard as holy, and under no circumstances to be put to death.
The result will be a riot, a bloody conflict, an attempt to stone
the chieftains of the Israelites, leading on, perhaps, to a war
between the two nations. The reason is so cogent that the
Pharaoh cannot but yield to it : he will let them go, then, he
says, beyond the borders, into the wilderness — only they must
not go very far away ; and Moses must at once prevail on
Jehovah to remove the plague (ver. 28). Moses consents,
and at his-prayer the plague is on the morrow completely and
entirely removed — not one 'arob remained within the Egyptian
coasts (ver. 31). Then, as before, Pharaoh "hardened his
heart," fled from his word, and revoked the permission which
he had given for the Israelites' departure.
The Fifth Plague
is the immediate punishment of Pharaoh's obduracy and
untruthfulness. It is a murrain of a very grievous kind upon
the domesticated animals in general, " upon the horses, upon
the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the
sheep " (Exod. ix. 3). Though Egypt was in the main an
agricultural country, yet the wealth of its rich men consisted
largely in the number of their cattle and other animals. A
single individual appears in one instance as the possessor of
above a thousand cows and oxen, besides 2,235 g°atsi 974
sheep, and 750 asses.1 The king himself owned flocks and
herds of a large size (Gen. xlvii. 6). The cattle at the timt
of the inundation were conveyed to the towns and villages,
where they were sheltered in stables or sheds, but during the
rest of the year they were "in the field," either feeding freely
or engaged in agricultural operations. The horses would be
mostly in stables, though some were probably employed in
agriculture, and others may have been "out at grass."
• Lepsius, " Denkmaler," vol. iii. pi. 9.

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. I05
Murrains in Egypt are often very violent. They commonly
begin in November or December, when, after the subsidence
of the inundation, the cattle are turned out into the fields and
have free access suddenly to abundance of green food. There
were severe murrains in the years 1842, 1863, and 1866, in
which last-named year nearly the whole of the herds were
destroyed. It is not usual, however, for such visitations to
attack the various kinds of domestic animals at once, and the
fact that on this occasion the plague was indiscriminate, toge
ther with its severity (ver. 6), and its prediction for a definite
day (ver. 5), marked the miraculous character of the affliction.
All over the land, from the eastern frontier, where camels were
bred and nourished for the trade with Syria and Arabia, to the
extreme west, where Egypt melted into Libya, and thence for
nearly a thousand miles up the Nile valley to the First Cataract,
disease hung in the air ; the moans of the cattle were heard,
the horses of the great, the asses of the poor, staggered, sank,
perished. Everywhere was distress, impoverishment, ruin. The
previous afflictions had been disgusting, annoying, painful, but
only to a very small extent destructive of property. This
attacked a main source of the national wealth ; this reduced
to poverty many a great landowner, threw out of employment
thousands of herdsmen, produced distress and complaining all
over the land from one end to the other. It showed, moreovet,
that life and death were in the hands of Him with whom the-
Pharaoh had to do, and was a warning that, unless Israel were
let go, the wrath of Jehovah, which was now smiting the beasts,
might be turned against his human creatures. And this plague,
like the last, was aggravated by the knowledge that Israel was
exempt from it Across the invisible boundary-line which God
had drawn between Egypt Proper and Goshen (Exod. viii. 22)
not a beast was sick or ailing. Pharaoh could not believe that
it would be so, and therefore sent men to see and inquire, who
brought him back word that of the cattle of the children of
Israel there had died not one. All in Goshen went on as
usual ; there was no distress, no anxiety. As of old, " theii
oxen were strong to labour ; there was no decay ; their sheep
brought forth thousands and ten thousands in their streets ''
(Psa. cxliv. 13, 14). The power of God stopped the epidemic
at a certain line, saying to it with irresistible might : " Thus far
shalt thou go, and no further."

106 MOSES.
Moreover, this plague, like the others, smote the religion of
Egypt. Cows, or at any rate white cows, were sacred to Isis,
and objects of popular veneration. Goats were worshipped at
Mendes, and sheep at Thebes. It was a grief to the Egyptians
when any of the sacred animals died. Vast numbers of them
dying at one and the same time would amount to a national
calamity. If the plague fell on any of those specially sacred
beasts which were regarded as actual incarnations of particular
gods, on the Apis-Bull maintained at Memphis, or the Mnevis-
Bull of Heliopolis, or the White Cow of Momemphis, the
religious horror caused by the plague would beyond a doubt
have been greatly intensified ; and it has been supposed that
they all "perished together" in this murrain1 : but there is no
evidence of any such destruction.2 Rather, as the plague
appears to have been limited to the beasts that were " in the
field " (Exod. ix. 3), and the incarnation-gods were, all of them,
kept under shelter in the main buildings or in the precincts of
sanctuaries, we must regard them as having escaped the afflic
tion. Had it been otherwise, the Pharaoh would scarcely have
been so little impressed as he was ; we should have found him
sending for Moses and Aaron and entreating to have the plague
stopped. His actual behaviour is the exact contrary. He takes
no notice, makes no appeal, but simply hardens his heart, and
will not let the people go (ver. 7).
Thus, a further affliction becomes necessary, if Pharaoh is
not to triumph; and so the two brothers receive a Divine
command to take such steps as are to bring about
The Sixth Plague
The command is, that they shall " take ashes of the furnace,"
and that Moses shall "sprinkle it toward the heaven in the
sight of Pharaoh ; " and the ashes, it is said, are to become
" small dust to all the land of Egypt," and to be "a boil breaking
forth with blains upon man and upon beast, throughout all the
land of Egypt" (ver. 9). As water, and earth, and air had
been made to bring forth scourges to chastise the pride of
Pharaoh, so now a plague was brought forth, as it were, from
1 See Millington, "Signs and Wonders in the Land of Ham," p. 108.
* The judgments upon the gods of Egypt, mentioned in Num. xxxiii. 4,
are more likely to have been effected by the sixth and tenth plagues than
by the fifth.

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 107
fire. Ashes of the furnace, the crumbling remains of the fuel
wherewith a furnace had been heated, were taken up into his
hand by Moses and tossed on high into the air, to be carried
hither and thither by the winds of heaven ; and these ashes,
wherever they fell, bred disease, caused an inflamed boil to form
itself, which broke out into pustules, and produced much pain
and suffering. The magicians, who still watched the miracles
of Moses, though they had for some time given up attempting
to imitate them, were unable to stand before him by reason of
the boils, which fell upon them with such severity that they had
to quit the Court and retire to their houses. And the affliction,
in one degree or another, was universal — " the boil was jpon
all the Egyptians" (ver. 11) — every one of them suffered from
it. It may also have been upon all the beasts, though this is
not stated, the human suffering occupying the mind of the writer
of Exodus almost to the exclusion of all thought of the animals.
If, however, it was universal, then the actual gods of Egypt
must now have begun to suffer those judgments which, in the
Book of Numbers (chap, xxxiii. 4), Jehovah is said to have
executed upon them. Even if it was not universal, still some
of them may have suffered ; for the light ash, borne everywhere
by the wind, would have penetrated into temple precincts as
readily as into fields or pastures.
The sixth plague was not tentative, but simply judicial, sent
without warning, like the third, a visitation provoked by the
pride and obstinacy of the Pharaoh, who had taken no notice at
all of the preceding affliction.
The sixth plague made no more impression upon the Pharaoh
than the fifth. His heart continued hard, as hard as the nether
mill-stone (Job xii. 24). Moses was therefore instructed to give
him warning of a further plague, and to preface his warning by
a long and solemn exhortation. " The Lord said unto Moses,
Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and
say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let My
people go, that they may serve Me. For I will at this time send
all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy servants, and upon
thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in
all the earth. For now might I have stretched forth My hand,
and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence, and then thou
hadst been cut off from the earth ; but truly for this cause have
I made thee to stand, for to show thee My power, and that My

lo8 MOSES.
name may be declared throughout all the earth. Dost thou still
exalt thyself against My people, that thou wilt not let them go ?
Behold, to-morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very
grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the founda
tion thereof, even until now. Send, therefore, now, and gather
thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field ; for upon every
.nan and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not
be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, that
they shall die" (Exod. ix. 13-19). The warning is given, but it
has no effect— the Pharaoh utters no entreaty, makes no promise,
expresses no sorrow for the past, no intention of doing better in
the future. It does not bend his will to be reminded that God
might even now have swept him and his people from the earth
(ver. 15); it does not break his pride to be told that God is
about to "send all His plagues upon his heart" (ver. 14). And,
therefore,
The Seventh Plague
falls. Moses stretches forth his rod toward the heaven, and
God sends thunder and hail, and fire that "runs along upon the
ground " (ver. 23) ; there is " hail, and fire mingled with the
hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land
of Egypt since it became a nation " (ver. 24). Josephus says
it was " a hail, not only such as the climate of Egypt had never
previously witnessed, but such as had not even been ever experi
enced, in time of winter or at the point of spring, in those
northern and arctic lands which were accustomed to the visi
tation." * The Hebrew poets describe it in language of
extraordinary force : "The Lord also thundered in the heavens;
and the Highest gave His voice ; hailstones and coals of fire "
(Ps. xviii. 13); "He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire
in their land " (Ps. cv. 32) ; " He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycomore trees with frost ; He gave up their cattle
also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts " (Ps.
lxxviii. 47, 48). Terrible must have been the commotion, both
in earth and heaven. As Moses raised his rod, the sky grew
black ; the wind rose and roared ; vast hosts of clouds assembled
and collided in the upper air ; the lightning flashed from rank
to rank ; the thunder crackled, and crashed, and boomed, and
filled the whole canopy of heaven with its echoes. Not only did
* " Ant. Jud." ii. 14, $ 4.

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. IO9
the electric fluid pass in vivid flashes from cloud to cloud, or
from sky to earth, but collecting itself into masses, here it " ran
along the ground," there it was "as a fire infolding itself"
(ver. 24), quivering and remaining fixed for a time, as "fire
balls " do on the masts and yards of ships, then gliding away or
dispersing. The hailstones must have been of extraordinary
size. Probably they were those rough, jagged pieces of ice such
as sometimes fall in Europe in great hailstorms, which have
been known to weigh from six ounces to half a pound. The
destruction caused by the plague was immense. The flax and
barley crops, which were the most advanced, were cut down
and totally destroyed ; the tender twigs of the fruit-trees were
crushed, battered, and broken off, all promise of fruit for the
ensuing year being thus swept away. The other crops and the
garden vegetables must have suffered greatly. But the damage
was not confined to the vegetable world. Any cattle that the
Egyptians had still left them, which they had not removed from
the fields and placed under shelter, was so smitten and bruised
by the hailstones that it died ; and even the herdsmen, who
were exposed to the full brunt of the storm, were in many cases
wounded to their death. The plague was thus threefold in its
incidence ; it fell " upon man, and upon beast, and upon every
herb of the field " (ver. 22) ; it half ruined the harvest ; it
swept off most of the remaining cattle, and it slew a certain
number of the men. Little by little God had advanced from
visitations that were mere annoyances (the frogs, the lice, the
beetles) to those that inflicted serious injury on person and
property (the murrain, the boils) ; now He struck at life itself.
Dead and dying men lay about the fields and pastures and the
lesson was borne in on all, that, if God were much longer defied,
He might send a pestilence that would cut off half the nation
(ver. 15).
And, while Egypt thus suffered, Goshen was once more
wholly exempt from calamity. "In the land of Goshen was
there no hail" (ver. 26). The clouds turned away when they
reached the borders of the land of God's people, or held their
weapons in reserve as they passed over it Not a blade of grass
was hurt, not a stalk of barley was injured. The Lord Jehovah,
the shelter and defence of Jacob, "stood round about His
people, and delivered them."
Thus, this plague was marvellously impressive from every

IIO MOSES.
point of view Hail was scarcely known in Egypt ; thundei
and lightning were rare ; while such a hail and thunderstorm
as this had been would have riveted attention, and have been
felt to be most extraordinary, anywhere. The storm had been
foretold, and exactly limited to a particular time — " To-morrow
about this time" (ver. 18). The extreme severity had been
predicted (ver. 19)— God had declared that it would be fatal
both to man and beast It had come at the time fixed, upon
the stretching forth of Moses' hand toward heaven ; it had
spared Goshen ; it had visited all Egypt ; it had produced all
the effects laid down beforehand. No wonder that the Pharaoh
was now for the third time impressed, and impressed more
deeply than he had been previously. It was now that he first
- admitted himself to have been in the wrong, it was now that he
first acknowledged that he was justly punished : " I have sinned,"
he said, " this time ; the Lord is righteous, and I and my
people are wicked " (ver. 27). " Intreat the Lord (for it is
enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings, nor hail ;
and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer" (ver. 28).
No compromise was now suggested, no condition imposed, no
desire even expressed, that they would not "go very far away"
(chap. viii. 28). The promise given was as explicit as words
could make it — " I will let you go — ye shall stay no longer."
For the time the spirit of the king seems to have been really
humbled and bowed down. He felt his nothingness ; he felt his
sinfulness ; he abased himself and consented to Moses' request,
p»pbably without arrilre pensde, intending to keep his wordi
Moses, though he had no faith in the continuance of the king's
mood, and though he even went so far as to express his distrust
(chap. ix. 30), allowed himself to be prevailed upon by the
earnestness of the king's entreaties, and, quitting the shelter
of the city while the storm still raged around him, went forth
into the midst of it and prayed to God, and the storm ceased
(ver. 33).
Then the king went from his word once more "When
Pharaoh saw that the rain, and the hail, and the thunder were
ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his
servants. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither
would he let the children of Israel go j as the Lord had spoken
by Moses."
The end was now approaching. Pharaoh's obduracy had

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. Ill
grown vorse and worse. He had added to the sin of cruelty
the sin of disobedience, and to the sin of disobedience the un-
kingly sin of falseness. He had raised hopes only to disappoint
them ; he had made submission to God only to shake off his
submission and resume his rebellious attitude. God might well
now have sent the last plague, which was to break him down
absolutely beneath the weight of its affliction, and cause him to
" thrust the Hebrews out " (Exod. xi. i). But it was His merci
ful decision to give the obdurate monarch two more chances of
repenting-, two more warnings before the final blow was dealt ;
and accordingly Moses and Aaron were instructed to seek the
Pharaoh's presence once more, and to announce to him, in
emphatic terms,
The Eighth Plague
" Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him,
Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou
refuse to humble thyself before Me ? Let My people go that
they may serve Me. Else, if thou refuse to let My people go,
behold, to-morrow I will bring the locusts into thy coast ; and
they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able
to see the earth ; and they shall eat the residue of that which
is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall
eat every green tree which groweth for you out of the field ; and
they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of thy servants, and the
houses of all the Egyptians ; which neither thy fathers, nor thy
father's fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the
earth unto this day " (Exod. x. 3-6). The threat was clear, dis
tinct, very intelligible. The Egyptians well knew what a pest
the locust could be, what terrible devastation it could effect in
a few days, or even in a few hours. Though only one reference
has been found to their ravages in the native records, yet it is
certain that Egypt must always have been subject to incursions
of them, since Syria and Arabia, adjacent countries, are special
homes of the locust. Hence the threat produced an unusual effect,
not however upon the Pharaoh, but upon his courtiers. They at
once realized the terrible character of the scourge, and the dire
results which would follow, if after the destruction wrought by
the hail, the residue of the harvest and of the vegetation gene
rally should be eaten up by locusts. Accordingly, the courtiers
now for the first time interposed, and endeavoured to induce the
king to yield. " Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long

113 MOSES.
shall this man (Moses) be a snare unto us? Let the men go
that they may serve the Lord their God. Knowest thou not yet
that Egypt is destroyed" (ver. 7)? Better, far better, they
thought, to lose the services, even of half a million of bondsmen,
than to have Egypt ruined, impoverished to a fearful extent.
And the Pharaoh is so far impressed by their representations,
that he sends for Moses and Aaron, and for the second time
offers a compromise — " Go, serve the Lord, but who are they that
shall go ? " The point had not been raised hitherto. It had
been fully understood that the demand was general — "Let My
people go." But the Pharaoh now attempts to set a limit of
number, as he had before attempted to set a limit of distance
(Exod. viii. 25, 28). " Go," he says, " ye that are men," but think
not that I will let you go, " and your little ones," or " with your
households." No ; they must remain, a pledge for your return.
Again, the compromise proposed is disallowed. " We will go,"
Moses declared, " with our young and with our old, with our
sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds ;
for we must hold a feast unto the Lord" (ver. 9). The Pharaoh,
exasperated, had Moses and Aaron driven from his presence
(ver. 1 1) ; and then the plague fell in all its terrible intensity.
The locusts came in their myriads ; they covered and hid the
ground, which their brown forms "darkened" (ver. 15) ; they
settled on every herb of the field that the hail had left, on the
wheat and rye crops, on the esculent grasses, on the clover and
lupines and lentils, on the garlic and onions and leeks and
gourds and cucumbers, and further upon the fruit-trees — the
date-bearing palms, the figs, the pomegranates, mulberries, vines,
olives, peach, pear, plum, and apple-trees — they ate the fruit
where it was formed, the blossoms, the buds, the leaves, the
bark, and even the more tender twigs : they utterly destroyed
every green thing ; where the land was as the garden of
Eden before them, behind them it was a desolate wilder
ness. And, besides, they were in the houses, which they
"filled" (ver. 6). It was as at Novgorod in the year 1646,
where an intelligent traveller thus describes the visitation :
" The ground was all covered, and the air so full of them that I
could not eat in my chamber without a candle, all the houses
being full of them, even the stables, barns, chambers, garrets,
and cellars. I caused cannon-powder and sulphur to be burnt
to expel them, but all to no purpose ; for when the door was

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 113
opened, an infinite number came in, and the others went flutter
ing about ; and it was a troublesome thing, when a man went
abroad, to be hit on the face by these creatures, on the nose,
eyes, or cheeks, so that there was no opening one's mouth but
some would get in. Yet all this was nothing ; for when we were
to eat, they gave us no respite ; and when we went to cut a
piece of meat, we cut a locust with it, and when a man opened
his mouth to put in a morsel, he was sure to chew one of
them." »
The infliction was more than even the Pharaoh could bear ;
and, though he had just before had Moses and Aaron driven
from his presence (ver. n), he now again sent for them "in
haste," and piteously intreated for pardon, and for the removal
of the scourge. " I have sinned," he said, " against the Lord
your God, and against you ; now, therefore, forgive, I pray thee,
my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that He
may take away from me this death only" (vers. 16, 17). Once
more Moses complied ; once more God was intreated ; and then
the ordinary result followed— the Pharaoh's heart was hardened,
and he would not let the people go (ver. 20).
The Ninth Plague
now came, like the third and the sixth, without warning. " The
Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven,
that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even dark
ness whirh may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand
toward neaven ; and there was a thick darkness in all the land
of Egypt three days : they saw not one another, neither rose any
from his place for three days ; but all the children of Israel had
light in their dwellings '' (Exod. x. 21-23). We are not told how
the darkness was produced, and no theory on the subject can
be more than a conjecture. The general supposition of scholars
and historians has been, that the natural phenomena of the
Khamstn wind, which frequently blows in Egypt soon after the
vernal equinox, were by miracle so aggravated as to produce the
effects described — a darkness that was total, that seemed to en
velop men and press upon them, and that made it impossible for
them to move about in it. Whatever, the cause, the effect was
awful in the extreme. A great horror of thick darkness fell upon
* Beauplan, quoted by Dr. Pusey in his " Minor Prophets, with a Com
mentary," p. 117. 9

It4 MOSES.
the whole people. Man could not see his fellow. Each stayed
where he was, since he did not know which way to turn, or
whither he could direct his steps to any purpose. Men's hearts
must have failed them for fear, and the end of the world must
have been expected. The darkness continued for three days.
Let the reader imagine three entire days — seventy-two hous—
without a single gleam of light 1 How would nervous souls be
terrified 1 How would sensitive imaginations breed gloomy and
horrible phantasms 1 How would sinful souls tremble with
alarm 1 Artificial light they seem to have had none, whether the
power of producing it was stopped by miracle, or whether the
terror that was upon them was too great for them to dare to
move. At length, after three days, the darkness passed off—
the light of the sun was seen. Ra, it was found, had not fallen
from his place in the heavens, or been absorbed and extinguished
in the primeval darkness. Nature returned to her old course,
and nothing remained of the visitation but the recollection of
it. The recollection was, however, sufficient to move the proud
heart of the Pharaoh to a fresh concession. He sent for Moses,
and said : " Go ye, serve the Lord ; only let your flocks and
your herds be stayed ; let your little ones (families) also go with
you" (ver. 24). All Israel — the whole nation — might depart,
might take their three days' journey into the wilderness, and
there hold their festival ; only they must consent to one thing —
they must leave behind them their flocks and their herds ; then
the Pharaoh would feel tolerably sure of their returning ; they
would not be content to lose the main source of their wealth,
and so he would not lose their services.
The argument was valid, the plan not wanting in sagacity ;
but the craft of Pharaoh was ill-matched against the downright
straightforwardness of Moses. Moses would have none of his
compromises. Moses saw through his scheme at once, and met
his offer with the plainest and most absolute refusal. " Thou
must give us also sacrifices and burnt-offerings," he replied,
"that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also
shall go with us ; there shall not an hoof be left behind" And
he added a reason, which was unanswerable — " For thereof must
we take to serve the Lord our God ; and we know not with what
we must serve the Lord until we come thither" (ver. 26). The
feast was a new thing ; its ritual was unknown ; there would be
sacrifices to be offered doubtless ; but as yet the Israelites did

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. I15
not know what animals, or how many of each, would be required
of them. They must therefore take all their cattle. As Pharaoh
cannot meet the reasoning, he falls in a rage, bids Moses quit
his presence forthwith, and threatens him with death if he again
comes into his sight. Moses, though deeply angered (Exod.
xi. 8), indignant at such rude and scornful treatment, restrains
himself, and answers with dignified calmness — "Thou hast
spoken well, I will see thy face again no more " (Exod. x. 29),
but before quitting the presence, he lodges a Parthian dart in
the breast of his adversary, by threatening him with the last and
worst of all the plagues — the death of the first-born (Exod.
xi. 4-8).
Here, we may note the great change which had been wrought
in the character of Moses by the circumstances of his long
struggle on behalf of his people. At its commencement, he was
timid, diffident, distrustful of his powers, hopeless of any good
result, easily cowed, patient of affronts and insults. Now he is
firm, resolute, self-reliant, self-assertive, may we not say, elo
quent ? No wonder that he was " very great " in the eyes both
of the great officers of Pharaoh's court and of the people (ver. 3).
He had withstood and baffled the magicians ; he had withstood
Pharaoh ; he had never blenched nor wavered; he had never lost
his temper. With a calm, equable, unfailing persistence, he had
gone on preferring the same demand, threatening punishments
if it were not granted, inflicting them, and removing them on
the slightest show of repentance and relenting. He had thus
won the respect both of the upper classes and of the common
people, as much as the Pharaoh had lost it, and was now looked
up to and regarded with feelings of general admiration and ap
proval The utterance with which he wound up his long contest
with the Pharaoh, and finally quitted his presence, is a model of
dignified speech ; "Thou hast spoken well ; I will see thy face
no more. But thus saith the Lord, 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 maidservant that is
behind the mill ; and all the first-born of beasts. And there
shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as
there was none like it, nor shall be like it anymore. But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue,
against man or beast ; that ye may know how that the Lord doth

1 16 MOSES.
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all
these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down
themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that
follow thee ; and after that, I will go out '' (Exod. x, 29 ; xi. 4-8).
The Tenth Plague.
An interval of some duration seems to have separated be
tween the announcement of the Tenth Plague and its actual
infliction.1 Time was needed by Moses to make the necessary
preparations for the simultaneous departure of the Israelites
from all the various parts of Egypt which they occupied, and
for their convergence towards a fixed locality. Pharaoh and his
people had to be allowed time to brood over the threat launched
against them, and to realize its terrible import, if so be that they
might take it to heart, and at the eleventh hour yield to God's
will and so escape the calamity. The hour fixed for the plague
was midnight (Exod. xi. 4) ; but which midnight was left inde
terminate, the horror of the menace being increased by the
vagueness of it. In the interval Moses received instructions to
institute that Passover Feast which remains to this day an en
during memorial of the Exodus, inexplicable except as the com
memoration of a historical fact, and testifying by its name to tha
nature of the fact commemorated. God willed that the deliver
ance which He was about to give should be accompanied, and
thenceforth kept in mind, by a ceremony which He now insti
tuted, and of which He commanded the constant observance.
Each householder was to assemble his family round him ; all
were to be prepared as for a journey, their long garments
girt up about their loins, their shoes on their feet, and their staffs
in their hands ; a lamb was to be sacrificed, and the blood
to be splashed on the lintels and the two door-posts of tht
houses ; then the lamb was to be roasted and unleavened breat?
hastily prepared to eat with it ; and the households were to wait
in silent expectation. At midnight the destroying angel was to
go through the entire land of Egypt, smiting in each house the
first-born, but " passing over " the houses on which the blood
of the lamb was sprinkled. Then a cry would be heard, and
hurrying messengers burst in from Pharaoh, requiring all to " go
forth, and begone from among his people ; " and the meal pre
pared was to be snatched in hot haste, and eaten standing, and
1 See the " Speaker's Commentary," vol. i. p. 291.

THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH PHARAOH. 1 17
then the journey was to begin. All had to be explained before
hand by Moses, and all arranged beforehand ; the households
had to be got ready, the beasts to be laden, the household goods,
or such as were most necessary, to be packed, the people to ask
for farewell presents from their well-to-do Egyptian neighbours,
and all to be in preparation for an immediate start.
Thus the two nations waited— on the one hand, the Egyptians
ir perplexity and anxious doubt, depressed by the long series
of calamities which had fallen upon themselves and upon their
country, not knowing when a new calamity would fall, or what
exactly the new calamity would be ; shaken from their estab
lished trusts and time-honoured beliefs by the marvels which
they had witnessed ; disappointed in their king ; disappointed
in their master-magicians, disappointed in their priests, who
had not even availed to save their gods from suffering — and,
on the other hand, the Israelites, expectant, elated, confident,
that the time approached for their final deliverance from the
" furnace " of the Egyptian affliction, full of hope and full of
resolution, sure of a leader who had never failed them, and
fully prepared by him for the events which were about to
happen. Both nations waited, and at last the blow fell. At
midnight of the fourteenth of Nisan, the Lord went forth, and
" smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first
born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the first-born of
the captive that was in the dungeon ; and all the first-born of
beasts. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his
servants, and all the Egyptians ; and there was a great cry in
Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one
dead " (Exod. xii. 29, 30). The cry was " the loud, frantic,
funeral wail, characteristic of the nation."1 It went up from
the royal palace, from the grand mansions of the rich and
noble, from the small but tidy dwellings of the artisans, from
the mean and wretched huts of the poor — one universal
piercing bitter wail, making night hideous and thrilling through
every ear. All Israel heard it, and knew that the time of their
redemption drew nigh. All Egypt heard it, and resolved to
send the people through whom they suffered out of the land.
Pharaoh heard it, and proceeded to " thrust Israel out." His
own first-born, the heir to his crown, the Erpa suten sa, or " Here
ditary Crown Prince " was, it must be remembered, dead. He
« Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 12a

11 8 MOSES.
sent a message to Moses and Aaron "by night," saying— " Rise
up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the
children of Israel ; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said.
Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be
gone ; and bless me also " (vers. 31, 32).
It was an utter surrender, a yielding up of everything. The
long struggle had terminated in the complete triumph of
Moses. Pharaoh yielded all that had been ever asked, and
added the self-imposed humiliation of craving the blessing on
him of the two brothers, whom for nearly a year he had op
posed, vexed, thwarted, harassed, and insulted. "Bless me
also." It showed an entire distrust of his own priesthood and
of his own deities, when the Pharaoh submitted to ask humbly
of the priests of an alien god, that before quitting his country
they would condescend to give him their blessing. For the
moment, at any rate, the Pharaoh's pride was utterly bowed
down — he trailed his regal garments in the dust — he sub
ordinated himself and the throne of his ancestors and pre
decessors for forty generations to a couple of Hebrews, his own
slaves, to whom ten months before he had wholly refused tt.
listen (Exod. v. 1-4).

CHAPTER X.
THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.
The gathering— The number that came together — The halt at Succoth—
Change in the direction of the march — Encampment at Migdol — Peril
of the position and faith of Moses — Regret of Pharaoh — His pursuit
of Israel — Terror of the Israelites — Movement of the Pillar of the
Cloud — Passage of the sea by Israel — The Egyptians pursue — Their
difficulties — Destruction of the entire army — Completeness of the
deliverance — Credit which attaches to Moses in respect of it — Moses'
Song of Triumph.
The Israelites set out at early dawn on the fifteenth of Nisan.
Moses had no need to give any signal, or to send his orders
by messengers ; for by fixing the Passover Feast for a definite
day, and requiring that after eating it none should go forth
" until the morning " (Exod. xii. 22), he had made all acquainted
with the day and hour of departure ; he had also caused all to
be prepared for setting forth ; and, if any had been inclined to
linger, the Egyptians themselves would not have allowed it j
for they " were urgent upon the people, that they might send
them out of the land in haste ; for they said, We be all dead
men" (ver. 33). Thus an almost simultaneous departure was
secured. From the various points at which the Israelites were
settled, extending, we conceive, from Memphis towards the
south to Tanis and Pelusium on the north, columns went forth
in orderly array, all streaming in converging lines towards one
point, the place fixed for the rendezvous — the land of Thukot
or Succoth. The largest company took its departure from
Rameses-Tanis under the conduct of Moses and Aaron. This
company proceeded south-eastward, and would reach Succoth,

I JO MOSES.
to the north-west of Lake Timseh, in about three marches.
Other companies flowed in from the north, the west, and the
south, till the whole people was gathered together in one— six
hundred thousand men, according to the existing text, together
with their families.
It has been thought by some that this number is a corruption,
or an exaggeration. The theory of a corruption seems to most
critics to be precluded by the detailed statements in the first
chapter of the Book of Numbers, where the exact number of each
tribe is given, and the sum total of the adult males reckoned at
603,550 (Numb. i. 46). Exaggeration is precluded, if we admit
the number to belong to the original document, not merely by
the theory of inspiration, but by the entire character of Moses,
and by the absence of any motive for such misrepresentation.
The fewer that the Israelites had been, the greater the glory
that would have attached to their defying and baffling the
mighty nation of the Egyptians. Consequently, the more
candid of modern critics, as Ewald, Dean Stanley, Kalisch, and
Kurtz, take no exception to the number given in the text of
Exodus, but base upon it a calculation that the entire body of
emigrants must have somewhat exceeded two millions. No
doubt, as Dean Stanley says,1 " It is difficult for us to conceive
the migration of a whole nation" under the circumstances
narrated. But, as he also notes, we have an illustration of its
possibility even in the history of the last century, which records
the sudden departure, under cover of a single night, of a whole
nomadic people — 400,000 Tartars — who withdrew themselves
from Russia and made their way over several thousand miles
of steppe from the banks of the Wolga to the confines of the
Chinese Empire.* And the great caravans of pilgrims, which
even now traverse the East, without confusion or disorder, give
something like a picture, on a small scale, ot the movements
of such a host as that led forth by Moses. They are mar
shalled and arranged by the caravan-leadet-each company
knows its place — they encamp and break ^ from their en
campments silently and in an orderly way , they have each
their train of animals ; they traverse long distances in a fairly
compact body — once started they pursue iheir way with a
regularity and an absence of confusion, that leaves little to be
¦ "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. L p. 134.
• Bell's " History of Russia," vol. ii. appendix C

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 121
desired — and they usually accomplish their journeys in the
time prescribed, without serious loss, except perhaps of the
animals. The rendezvous, and first resting-place of the host at Suc
coth, seems to have been in a bosky region, where were found
tamarisk, and sycomore, and palm, so that they were able to
rest and recruit their strength in " booths " or leafy huts, which
afforded shelter from the sun's heat by day and from the cold
dews of night. They were nearly at the edge of the cultivated
ground ; they were perhaps inclined to linger before confronting
the hardships of the actual desert. But their energetic leader
would not suffer them to rest The order speedily went forth,
that the host was to resume its march, and to follow the course
indicated by a " pillar of cloud," which moved miraculously in
front of them during the day, and on its stopping pointed out
where they were to rest at night. From Succoth the course
taken seems to have been towards the north-east. In this
direction lay the route ordinarily traversed by Egyptian armies
and caravans, when they proceeded from Egypt into Syria, the
line running first south of Lake Serbonis, and then along the
coast by Raphia and Rhinocolura to Gaza and Ashdod. The
family of Jacob had probably travelled to Egypt along this
route, and their descendants deemed that they were now about
to retrace it. But God had determined otherwise. God knew
that the undisciplined and unarmed mass of slaves, which he
was leading out of Egypt, was quite unfit to contend against
the warlike nation of the Philistines, and had it in his designs
to train them and win them gradually, during a long term of
years, to military discipline and martial virtue. Ere long,
therefore, he changed their course, causing them to make a
sudden turn (Exod. xiv. 2) to the south, and to proceed in that
direction for several marches, finally encamping before Pi-
hahiroth, between Migdol and the Sea, over against Baal-
Zephon. It has been thought that these names point to a northern
rather than to a southern locality, and proposed to find them all
in the vicinity of Lake Serbonis — that famed " Serbonian bog "
which has more than once proved fatal to armies. But the
specious arguments employed by the author of this theory
never had power to seduce very many, and the question raised
by them may be said to have been finally set at rest by the

122 MOSES.
labours of Ebers, Greville Chester, and Dr. Tiumball. It is
understood that the great geographer, who originally broached
the theory, is no longer inclined to maintain it, or at any rate
does not now press it as anything more than a theory. The
old belief has consequently re-asserted itself; and the move
ment of the Israelites from their second halting-place, Etham,
may be regarded as almost certainly southward, along the
western edge of the Bitter Lakes to the vicinity of Suez. Migdol
may be placed at the modern Muktala (which is the old word
slightly changed in the vocalization), Pi-hahiroth at Ajrood,
and Baal-Zephon on the flanks of Mount Attakah. Here, in
this cul-de-sac, with a desert on one side of them, the Red Sea
on the other, and the impassable mountain chain of the Jebel
Attakah in the front, the host of Israel took up its position, as
commanded, about five or six days after it had set forth.
The position was an extraordinary one, which any leader
of ordinary capacity would have avoided, and which, unless
divinely commanded, Moses would certainly never have
occupied. There was no natural egress from it, except by
turning round and retracing one's steps. That egress might
easily be blocked. Never was faith more conspicuously shown,
than when the Hebrew leader, trusting in God's power to de
liver, took his people calmly into a position of such peril. But
Moses " knew in whom he had believed." His was that per
fect, undoubting, unquestioning trust, which never fails, never
wavers ; God's word was passed for Israel's deliverance ; that
word was sure ; how the deliverance was to be effected it was
for God to determine ; Moses felt that he had only to accept
God's way. He must, more or less, have expected Pharaoh's
coming, since he had been apprised of his feelings concerning
>the Israelites, and warned that he was following on their foot
steps (vers. 3, 4). But he did not allow himself to be troubled.
He " put his trust in God, and did not fear what flesh could do
unto him." He knew that " they which were with him were
more than they which were against him." In God was his
hope ; he knew that He who keepeth Israel " fainteth not,
neither is weary " — " slumbers not nor sleeps."
Meanwhile the Pharaoh had recovered from his first shock
of alarm. No more deaths had followed those of the one
terrible night The pestilence, as he no doubt thought it, was
stayed. Perhaps, his priests persuaded him that they had

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. I23
stayed it by their prayers and sacrifices, and that he had now
nothing to fear. Moreover, the lapse of time naturally blunted
his sorrow and lessened his dread. He had lost his first-born
son ; but he had, at least, one other son, probably several :
and the death of the Erpa suten sa threatened no danger to
the succession. Thus he was free from any immediate per
sonal anxiety ; and, naturally, his thoughts reverted into their
accustomed channel. For months he had been resolving with
himself that he would not lose the services of his half-million
labourers — nothing should induce him to consent to it. But
now he had consented, and he was losing them. Israel had
quitted their abodes, which stood empty ; whole tracts of land
were left nearly bare of inhabitants ; the labours in the brick
fields had ceased ; the works which he had been carrying on
were interrupted. Would it be possible ever to resume them ?
Common sense had told him all along, that, if the Israelites
once went forth beyond the borders of Egypt, they would never
return thither. And now he would remember that Moses had
never pledged himself to a return. And the circumstances
of his departure were such as to make a voluntary return
almost inconceivable. He ,and His people had been " thrust
out." They had been bidden to quit, told — " Rise up, get you
forth, go — take your flocks and your herds, and be gone " (Exod.
xii. 31, 32). Parting gifts had been given them, and they had
gone forth enriched with all the wealth of Egypt. They had
taken with them their wives, their children, their cattle, their
beasts, the best of their furniture, their tools and implements.
What was there to induce them even to think of returning?
As Pharaoh reflected on all that, the idea occurred to him,
Vhat, after all, the flight might perhaps be stopped. He and
his people were at one on the subject. They too had repented,
and had begun to ask themselves — "Why have we done this,
that we have let Israel go from serving us?" (Exod. xiv. 5)
They were full of regret ; they feared lest their own burdens
might be increased ; they were willing to abet their king in
any attempt that he should make to stop the exodus, and recall
the fugitives.
When such was the position of affairs, intelligence reached
the king, that, instead of quitting his land at Etham, and there
entering the wilderness, when they stood upon its verge, the
Israelites had made a retrograde movement, had edged off from

124 MOSES.
the wilderness, clung to the cultivated soil, which gave susten.
ance to their flecks and herds, and proceeded southwards along
the eastern frontier of Egypt, still keeping within the border
line, till they had occupied a position from which it was not
easy to see how they could extricate themselves. The wilder
ness " shut them in " on one side (ver. 3), the Red Sea upon the
other ; the Jebel Attakah blocked up further passage to the
south. They seemed to him " entangled in the land " — so
situated that, if he marched against them, they could not escape,
but must submit on any terms that he chose to offer them. He
therefore hastily collected such forces as were within reach, and,
following up the line of the Israelite retreat, came upon the host
still encamped " by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-
Zephon" (ver. 9). "The Israelites were encamped on the
western shore of the Red Sea, when suddenly a cry of alarm
ran- through the v^st multitude. Over the ridges of the desert
hills were seen the well-known horses, the terrible chariots of
the Egyptian host. Pharaoh had pursued after the children
of Israel, and they were sore afraid." * Pharaoh had gathered
together six hundred of his best chariots, a force which constituted
the very Slite of his army : with these were united a large body
of the ordinary class of chariots, and a considerable force of foot.
It is doubtful whether he was accompanied by any cavalry.
The" horses" and " horsemen," or "riders," of Exodus xiv.
and xv. are probably the chariot horses and the riders in the
chariots, not cavalry soldiers mounted on the backs of steeds.2
The Egyptians scarcely used cavalry at this period. But the
array, whatever it may have been, was sufficient ; it was felt to
be irresistible. Utter destruction was expected. "Because
there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to
die in the wilderness ? " said the spokesman of the host to
Moses (ver. 11) — "Wherefore hast thou thus dealt with us, to
carry us forth out of Egypt ? "
It was indeed a fearful situation, humanly speaking. On
the one side was an unarmed and undisciplined host — men,
women, and children, cattle, baggage animals intermixed — wholly
unprepared for war, ignorant of it, without arms, without train-
1 Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church/' vol. i. p. 127 ; Philo, " Vit,
Mosis. " i. 30.
¦ See Hengstenberg, ".<Egypten und Mose4" pp. \vj-\29\ Denison,
" History of Cavalry," pp. 7, 8 ; " Pulpit Commentary," voL ii. p. 321.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 12;
ing, without discipline. On the other side were the trained
bands, the veteran troops, which the great Ramesses had so
often led to victory, and which had recently confronted and
destroyed the hosts of Marmaiu, son of Deid, who had threatened
Egypt with conquest. Let but Pharaoh give the word, and
launch his armed force against the unarmed multitude, and how
could these latter escape being slaughtered like sheep, falling
in heaps upon heaps under the swords, and the bows, and the
spears, and the hoofs of the horses, and the chariot wheels ?
And this fate was what the Israelites fully expected (ver. 12).
But Moses had no such fear. In bold strong words he addressed
the multitude, and quieted it. " Fear ye not," he said ; " stand
still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to
you to-day ; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye
shall see them again "no more for ever. The Lord shall fight
for you and ye shall hold your peace " (vers. 13, 14). Moses
did not even yet know what the manner of the deliverance
would be, whether hail would fall and destroy the Egyptian
host, or the earth gape and swallow them up, or a pestilence
fall upon them and lay them dead in their tents during the night ;
but he was confident that, in one way or another, Israel would
be delivered. Still, as the peril was great and pressing, and only
God could give deliverance, Moses, having comforted and en
couraged the people, himself turned to God, and "cried to
Him" (ver. 15) — cried to Him from the depths of his soul, |
beseeching His interference. And the cry was promptly
answered. The mode of the deliverance was revealed. Im- 1
mediate safety was secured to the panic-stricken Israelites by a '
sudden movement of the pillar of the cloud ; and the way
whereby they were to make their escape was declared in the
plainest words.
The Egyptians had arrived on the ridges of the desert hills
about sundown, after a long and hasty march, and had then
encamped (ver. 20). Their prey was in their sight, and appar
ently could not escape them. Israel's camp lay below them,
directly in their view ; every sound that was made in it could
be heard, every movement seen. By the passage of the pillar
of the cloud from the head of the Israelite column to its rear,
and its interposition between the host of Israel and the host of
Egypt, this condition of things was wholly changed. A thick
darkness spread itself in front of the Egyptian lines — a dark-

126 MOSES.
ness impenetrable by human eye and felt to be preternatural
Into this murky cloud, which reminded of the plague recently
endured, no Egyptian would venture to plunge. Thus Israel
was free to act during the night, as if there had been no enemy
near. And, while the Egyptian host was thus plunged in deep
darkness, the Israelites enjoyed a superabundance of light. The
cloud turned to them its " silver lining," and shone with a lustre
that changed night into broad day. The orders which Moses
gave were easily executed. Divinely instructed (vers. 15-18),
he commanded the Israelites to form in column, facing a par
ticular portion of the shore, to load their beasts, bring together
their cattle, and have everything in readiness for a start Then
he stood at the head of the column, and stretched out his hand
over the sea. At once an east, or south-east, wind arose, and
drove the upper water of the shallow bay that lay before him
towards the north-west, while probably * a strong ebb-tide set
in at the same time and drew the lower water southwards, so
that the bed of the sea was for a considerable space laid bare.
A sort of broad causeway, guarded by water upon either side,
was formed, and upon this the column advanced, the pillar of
the cloud still lending them its brilliant light and clearly show
ing them their path. The distance to be traversed may not
have been more than a mile, and the entire column may easily
have accomplished the passage in five or six hours. As the
last Israelites entered the sea-bed, the pillar of the cloud with
drew itself from the shore and followed up the retiring column,
protecting it like a rearguard. Then the Egyptians began to
see what had happened. Israel had quitted its camping-ground,
had entered the sea-bed, and was traversing it — their prey was
on the point of escaping them. The sight woke in them a
burning anger, and an intense longing for revenge. It was
no longer vexation at the loss of so many and such useful
labourers, and the desire of recovering them, that formed their
animating motive, but sheer rage and malice, with a certain
mixture of cupidity. " The enemy said, I will pursue, I will
overtake, I will divide the spoil ; my lust shall be satisfied upon
them ; I will draw my sword ; my hand shall destroy them "
1 The people of Memphis had a tradition to this effect. They said, that
Moses, being well acquainted with the district, watched the ebb of the Hie,
and so led the people across the dry bed of the sea. (Artapan. ap. Alex,
Polyhist. Fr. 14.)

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 127
(Exod. xv. 9). Without waiting for orders, as far as appears,
they rushed to satiate their lust of carnage and of spoil. " The
Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst of the
sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his riders"
(Exod. xiv. 23). The soft sand and ooze of the sea-bed was
unsuited for the passage of chariots ; the wheels sank into it up
to their axles, and were in consequence clogged,1 and " made
to go heavily." In addition to this, " the Lord looked unto the
host of the Egyptians through the pillar of the cloud and of fire,
and troubled the host of the Egyptians " (ver. 24). As Josephus
expj uns,a " Showers of rain came down from the sky, and dread
ful thunders and lightning, with flashes of fire ; thunderbolts
were also darted upon them ; nor was there anything wont to
be sent by God upon men as indications of His wrath, which
did not happen upon this occasion." A Psalmist thus describes_
the event — " The clouds poured out water ; the skies sent out
a sound ; Thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of Thy
thunder was in the heaven ; the lightnings lightened the world ;
the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and Thy
path in the great waters ; and Thy footsteps are not known.
Thou leddest Thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and
Aaron " (Ps. lxxvii. 17-20).
The result was, that the Egyptian host never came in contact
with the Israelites. Before they could do so, God gave a com
mand to Moses to " stretch out his hand over the sea " a second
time, " that the waters might come again upon the Egyptians,
upon their chariots, and upon their riders " (ver. 26). Moses
obeyed, and "the waters returned." From the northern end of
the bay, the waters held there by the " strong east (i.e., south
east) wind " came back with a rush so soon as the wind lulled ;
from the south the flood tide rushed furiously in. Those who
know the danger of crossing estuaries (e.g., Morecombe Bay)
under an advancing tide, and how easily travellers are under
such circumstances lost, will at least partially apprehend the
peril of the situation. Here, however, water threatened on both
sides j the hungry waves rushed in upon either flank, surged,
boiled, united their seething waters, and soon went over the
heads of the host. Encumbered with their heavy armour, the
Egyptian warriors " sank like lead " (Exod. xv. 10) in the
1 See the Septuagint version of Exod. xiv. 25.
• " Ant. Jud." ii. 16, § 3.

128 MOSES.
angry flood— went to the bottom "as a stone" (ver. 5). The
horses, plunging, rearing, mad with fear, struggled wildly, but
had to succumb ; the chariots stuck fast in the wet sand. In
vain the Egyptians " fled against " (Exod. xiv. 27) the ad
vancing tide, when they first saw it coming ; tried to race it, and
to get to shore before it was upon them. The surge was far
swifter than they. Probably the struggle to escape did not
occupy half an hour. Before that space of time had elapsed
" the waters covered the chariots, and the riders, and all the hosi
of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them ; there remained
not so much as one of them " when morning fully broke (ver.
28). Later in the day a ghastly mass of floating corpses was
borne in by the waves and cast upon the Asiatic coast ; and
Israel took its last look upon the Egyptians lying " dead upon
the sea-shore " (ver. 30 J.
Mighty, marvellous, and most complete was the deliverance.
The army that had pursued Israel was utterly destroyed. The
Pharaoh had either perished, or was a disgraced and awe
struck fugitive, never likely to lift a hand against Israel again-
The whole Egyptian military force must, when news reached it
of what had happened, have become utterly demoralized. Israel
had stepped from a position of imminent peril to one of absolute
security, so far as Egypt was concerned. They had passed from
Africa into Asia, from the Dark Continent into the region of
Light, the Land of the Rising Sun, the " Land of Promise."
Old things were passed away — all things were become new with
them. "Behind the African hills, which rose beyond the Dead
Sea, lay the strange land of their exile and bondage — the land
of Egypt, with its mighty river, its immense buildings, its
monster-worship, its grinding tyranny, its over-grown civilization.
This they had left to revisit no more ; the Red Sea flowed be
tween them ; ' the Egyptians whom they saw yesterday they
will now see no more again for ever.' And before them
stretched the level plains of the Arabian desert, the desert where
their fathers and their kindred had wandered in former times,
v, here their great leader had fed the flocks of Jethro, through
which they must advance onwards till they reached the Land of
Promise. Further, this change of local situation was at once
a change of moral condition. From slaves they had become
free ; from an oppressed tribe they had become an independent
nation. It is their deliverance from slavery. It is the earliest

THE PASSAGE OF THE REDSEA. 129
recoided instance of a great national emancipation."' Israel
had burst its bondage, had passed through its first great trial in
the furnace of affliction, and entered on a new phase of its
existence. It was free ; it was under direct Divine guidance ;
to a certain extent, it knew Jehovah ; untold possibilities of
advance, progress, and usefulness to the world lay before it ; in
a certain sense it might be said to have " passed from death
unto life," from the power of Satan to the free service of God.
The biographer naturally asks, before turning his eye from
this great crisis, What was Moses' share in producing the re
sult ; how far may it be considered to have been brought about,
not only through, but by, him ? If the crisis be compared with
those which ordinarily determine the history of nations, there
can be no doubt that the part which was played in it by any
human agency whatever, must be pronounced to be small. Moses
had not to design, or to plan, or to contrive, or to persuade, or to
undertake a campaign, or to display any extraordinary activity,
or energy, or practical power. The deliverance was of God.
" Stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah," was at once its
watchword (Exod. xiv. 13) and its principle. The object of the
whole series of transactions, was that God's power might be
shown forth, and His name declared throughout all the earth
(Exod. ix. 16). It was intended that the Israelites should be com
pelled to look to Him, and not to themselves, nor to any " arm
of flesh," as the source of their triumph. To Moses, therefore,
a much smaller proportion of the results achieved under his
leadership is to be attributed, than we rightly assign to such
active and stirring chiefs, the prime movers in all that they
effected, as Joshua, and Gideon, and Samson, and David, and
Judas Maccabaeus. In the main, he was a passive instrument
in God's hand for working out His purposes. Yet, still, he was
not merely this. His consciousness was not absorbed, his in
dividuality was not swallowed up. Through the whole struggle
with his proud and powerful adversary he showed unwavering
firmness, coolness, and strength of mind. In the final scene,
tha great climax and crisis, he displayed intense faith, profound
confidence in God, and a contempt of danger rarely exceeded
by any military hero. The dogged perseverance, which, how
ever difficult his task appeared, " bated no jot of heart or hope ;"
the boldness, which bearded the Pharaoh in the midst of all
1 Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 128.
IO

[30 moses.
his courtiers and lords ; the patience, which endured all, and
never let itself be driven to any false step ; and the firm faith,
which nothing could shake— were great qualities, and largely
conduced towards the result, which God miraculously brought
about. God works through men as instruments ; but He
fashions His instruments with extreme care, and fits each ot
them marvellously for the work which He has in hand. " Moses
was a man of marvellous gifts, raised up by Divine Providence
for the highest purpose to which man could be called." ' In
the crisis at the Red Sea, as in the previous struggle, these gifts
were brought into play ; and we shall do less than justice to
Moses if we do not allow that they had no small share in
producing the result.
On finding himself, with his people, safe on the Arabian
shore of the Red Sea, the first instinct of Moses was thanks
giving. As in the Christian world each national escape or
victory is celebrated by the solemn singing of a Te Deum, so
was the first deliverance of the Jewish Church commemorated
by a song of triumph. Moses composed, and the minstrels of
Israel sang, on the day following that wonderful escape, the
magnificent psalm, which is at once " the first burst of Hebrew
national poesy," a and the pattern Thanksgiving Hymn for the
Church of God through all ages. The psalm was sung by
" Moses and the children of Israel" (Exod. xv. l) ; Miriam and
her maidens, accompanying themselves with instruments of
music, sang the chorus. The song was as follows : —
I.
Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously ;
The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.
My strength and song is J AH ;
And He is to me for salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise Him ;
My father's God, and I will exalt Him.
Jehovah is a man of war ;
Jehovah is His name.
Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea J
And his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea,
The depths covered them ; they sank to the bottom as a stone.

« Stanley in Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," vol. ii. p. 428.
• Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 132.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. 131
Chorus by Miriam and her maidens.
Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously ;
The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea
II.
Thy right hand, Jehovah, is glorious in power ;
Thy right hand, Jehovah, dasheth in pieces the enemy.
In the greatness of Thy height, Thou overthrowest them that tise up
against Thee ;
Thou sendest forth Thy wrath, which consumeth them as stubble.
With the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were piled up :
The floods stood up as an heap ;
The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said — ' I will pursue, overtake, divide the spoil ;
My lust shall be satisfied upon them ;
I will draw my sword ; my hand shall destroy them.'
Thou didst blow with Thy wind ; the sea covered them ;
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
(Chorus as before^
III.
Who is like unto Thee, Jehovah, among the gods?
Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness.
Fearful in praises, doing wonders ?
Thou stretchedst out Thine hand, and the earth swallowed them.
(Chorus as before?)
IV.
Thou, in Thy mercy, didst lead forth the people which Thou hast
redeemed ;
Thou didst guide them in Thy strength to Thy holy habitation.
The peoples have heard ; they tremble ;
Pangs have taken hold on the dwellers in Palestine.
Then were the dukes of Edom amazed ;
The mighty men of Moab, trembling, took hold upon them ;
All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away.
Terror and dread shall fall upon them ;
By the greatness of Thine arm shall they be still as a stone
Till Thy people pass over, O Jehovah,
Till the people pass over which Thou hast redeemed.
Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountains of Thine
inheritance ;
The place, O Jehovah, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in —
The sanctuary, O Jehovah, which Thy hands have established.
Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever.
(Chorus as before.)

CHAPTER XI.
THE STRUGGLE WITH AM ALE K.
ITie Sinaitic Peninsula — Its geography — Its population in the early Egyp
tian period — Its early history — The population in Moses' time— The
Kenites — The Amalekites — Natural hostility of the latter to Israel—
Their guerilla warfare — The great fight at Rephidim — Part taken by
Moses — Results of the victory, and commemoration of it.
The Sinaitic Feninsula, on which the Israelites entered after
quitting Egypt, is a region of a very marked and peculiar cha
racter. Projecting, like a huge wedge, into the Red Sea, with
a direction nearly due north and south, and splitting the upper
Red Sea into two long tongues or arms, it is itself projected
into by "a vast limestone plateau of irregular surface,'" which
occupies two-thirds of its area, and is sharply divided from the
more southern portion of the peninsula by a continuous line of
cliff, or escarpment, almost perpendicular on the side which
fronts the south-west, steep and difficult, but still with a more
gradual fall, on the side which faces south-east. The general
elevation of the plateau above the sea level is two thousand feet.
It is a region nearly without water. Here and there in the
vvadys a little may be obtained by scraping holes in the ground,
and baling up with the hand a discoloured liquid, which,when
allowed to settle, produces a cake of mud about half its own
bulk. The ground is hard, and is for the most part covered
with a sort of carpet of flints, worn and polished by the fine de
tritus of sand which is constantly blown upon them, till they
resemble pieces of black glass. There are said to be two trees
only in the entire country, one at Nakhl and the other in the
1 " Our Work in Palestine," p. 275.

THE STRUGGLE WITH AMALEK. 133
Wady Fahdi. The tract, however, produces a coarse grass,
which is dry and dead during the greater part of the year, but
bursts into fresh life at the approach of spring. A certain
amount of green vegetation is also to be found in most of the
wadys during the whole of the year.
Outside this plateau, called El Tij, to the south, the south
west, and the south-east, is a region of a markedly different
character. The plateau, though undulating, is a dull, tame,
uninteresting country. There is nothing to notice in it. The
journal of a recent traveller in the region contains, for one day,
only the following entry : " Monday. — Walked six hours ; saw
two beetles and a crow." The outer region, on the contrary,
is one of the strangest and most striking on which the eye of
man ever gazed. It is a tangled mass of mountains inextricably
confused, separated from the plateau of El Tij by a narrow belt of
sand, called towards the west the Debbet-er-Ramleh, and towards
the east the Wady El Ain, composed of sandstone, porphyry,
and granite rocks, gradually rising in height towards the south
west and south, and culminating in the lofty summit of Um-
Shomer, south of Sinai, which attains an elevation of 9,300 feet.
Between the mountains, which everywhere almost jostle one
another, lie threads of wadys, only rarely expanding into plains
of even a mile in width, but watered to some extent by springs,
and covered with a thin veil of vegetation. The most striking
feature of the mountain sides is their bareness ; yet even they
are not bare like the Tij. Almost every mountain nourishes
some vegetation, and generally a vegetation peculiar to itself.
Um-Shomer is named from the fennel (shomer), which once
undoubtedly characterized it; Ras Sufsafeh from the willows
which still cling to its sides ; Serbal from the myrrh (ser) which
" creeps over its ledges to the very summit." The most probable
origin, even of the name Sinai, is to be found in the saneh, or
acacia, with which it once abounded. One wady is named
"the Father of fig-trees" (Wady Abu-Hamad), from its pro
ducing that fruit ; another " Wady Sidri," from its bushes of
wild thorn ; another Wady Sayal, from its acacias ; another
Wady Tayibeh, from the " goodly " water and vegetation which
it contains.1 Compared with the northern, the southern region
may be regarded as a " region of springs." " These springs,
whose sources are for the most part high up in the mountain
« Stanley, " Sinai and Palestine," p. 18.

134 MOSES.
clefts, occasionally send down into the wadys rills of water which,
however scanty — however little deserving even of the name
of brooks — yet become immediately the nucleus of whatever
vegetation the desert produces. Often their course can be traced,
not by visible water, but by a track of moss here, a fringe o'
rushes there, a solitary palm, a group of acacias — which at once
denote that an unseen life is at work. Wherever these springs
are found, there, we cannot doubt, must always have been the
resort of the wanderers in the desert ; and they occur at such
frequent intervals that, after leaving Suez, there is at least one
such spot in each successive day's journey. In two of the great
wadys which lead from the first beginnings of the Sinaitic range to
the Gulf of Suez — Ghurundel, and Useit with its continuation ol
the Wady Tayibeh — such tracts of vegetation are to be found in
considerable luxuriance. In a still greater degree is this the case
in all the various wadys leading down from the Sinaitic range to
the Gulf of Akabah — as the Wady El Ain, the Wady Samghy, and
the Wady Kyd — in all of which this union of vegetation with the
fantastic scenery of the desolate mountains presents a combina
tion as beautiful as it is extraordinary. In three spots, how
ever, in the desert, and in three only, is this vegetation brought
by the concurrence of the general configuration of the country
to a still higher pitch. By far the most remarkable collection
of springs is that which renders the cluster of Gebel Mousa the
chief resort of the Bedouin tribes during the summer heats.
Four abundant sources in the mountains immediately above the
Convent of St. Catherine, must always have made that region
one of the most frequented of the desert. But there are two
other of such spots, of considerable importance. One is the
palm-grove of El Wady at T6r— the seaport half-way down the
Gulf of Suez, which receives all the waters which flow down
from the higher range of Sinai to the sea. The other, and the
more important, is the Wady Feiran, high up in the table-land
of Sinai itself; but apparently receiving all the waters which,
from the springs and torrents of the central cluster of Mount
Sinai, flow through the Wady Esh-Sheykh into this basin, where
their further exit is forbidden by the rising ground in the Wady
Feiran. These two green spots are the oases of Sinai, and,
with the nucleus of the springs in Gebel Mousa, form the three
chief centres of vegetation in the peninsula." '
1 Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," pp. 19, 20.

THE STRUGGLE WITH AMALEK. 13S
The Sinaitic Peninsula had been inhabited from a very re
mote date by various wandering tribes, who found a scanty yet
sufficient pasture for their flocks in its wadys and oases. The
Egyptians knew these tribes anciently as Mentu or Sakti, later
on as Shasu. They came into contact with them partly as in
vaders of their territory, and occupiers of certain districts which
yielded copper and turquoises ; partly as subject to their incur
sions. Shasu from time to time ravished the border-lands of
Egypt, making raids for the capture of cattle and slaves, and
then retreating rapidly into the wilderness. Mentu and Sakti
were attacked in their own fastnesses, in the district between
the head of the Gulf of Suez and Mount Serbal, and forced into
a species of subjection. It was not the object, however, of
Egypt at any time to occupy the country, but only to maintain
permanent settlements at two posts, not very distant the one
from the other, and to have one secure line of communication
with them. The posts were at Sarabit-el-Khadim, on the edge
of the Debbet-er-Ramleh, in lat. 290 2', long. 330 25', nearly ;
and in the Wady Magharah, further to the south, in lat. 280 53',
long. 330 22', nearly. Mines of copper and turquoise were
worked in both localities, and in each place an Egyptian gar
rison was maintained for the protection of the miners. A strong
fortress was built of large blocks of stone to accommodate the
troops, with a deep well inside to secure them an unfailing sup
ply of water ; and in the vicinity were erected temples to some
of the principal Egyptian divinities, that the expatriated soldiers
might have the enjoyment of their accustomed worship. The
district was first occupied in the time of the fourth dynasty, or
before the date of Abraham ; and the founder of that dynasty,
together with his successor, the founder of the Great Pyramid,
cut in the soft sandstone of the Wady Magharah effigies of
themselves, which remain to the present day, and are among
the very earliest of the historical monuments that have come
down to our time. It is not altogether certain that the posses
sion of the copper mines by the Egyptians was continuous from
the time of their first occupation to that of the nineteenth
dynasty ; but, on the whole, probability is in favour of their
having held the mines with little or no interruption from the
conquest of Sneferu in the fourth dynasty, to the reign of
Ramesses III. in the twentieth. At any rate, such a monarch
as Ramesses II. is sure to have held them, and we cannot

136 MOSES.
doubt that they passed from him to his son. Thus, at the time
of the Exodus, there was an Egyptian element in the popula
tion of the Sinaitic peninsula which, however, was confined
within narrow limits, and did not aspire to any general authority
even over the western part of the country.
The peninsula was mainly peopled at the time by two other
quite different races. These were the Kenites and the Amale-
kites. The Kenites, a branch of the people of Midian (who
were widely spread over South-western Asia, occupying both
sides of the Gulf of Akabah, and reaching thence to the Dead
Sea and the country east of the Jordan), were chiefly settled in
the eastern portion of the peninsula, on the coast of the sea,
and in the many fertile wadys which pierce the coast range
along its entire length. They claimed descent from Abraham,
and were extremely well disposed towards the Hebrews, whom
they regarded as a kindred race, and with whom they had
recently become still more closely connected by the marriage of
Moses with Zipporah, daughter of Reuel (or Raguel), one of
their chiefs. A portion of the great mountain cluster in which
the peninsula terminates towards the south was included in the
country which they considered to be theirs ; but the extreme
limit of this tract to the westward was probably the region im
mediately around Sinai. The Kenites were a pastoral and a
peaceful people, who make but little show in history. They
could bring to the help of an ally no important military aid, but
their countenance and support were no doubt of important ser
vice to the Israelites, when they had made their way into the
Kenite country.
The Amalekites are derived by some from Amalek, one of the
grandsons of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 12). But there is nothing in
Scripture to support this view ; and the fact that, though ene
mies of Israel, they are never taxed with unnatural conduct, as
the Edomites are, is strongly against the connection. Arabian
tradition makes them a pure Arab race from the shores of the
Persian Gulf, and represents them as driven thence into the
desert, at a very early date, by the advancing Assyrian (i.e.,
Babylonian) power. This account of their antiquity harmonizes
with the mention of them as a nation in the earlier life of Abra
ham (Gen. xiv. 7), before Amalek can have been born, and with
the early date at which they achieved greatness. "Amalek was
the first of the nations " (Numb. xxiv. 20) in the viaw of Balak

THE STRUGGLE WITH AMALEK. 137
the son of Beor. It had at one time held Palestine, and left its
name in the " mount of the Amalekites," near Pirathon, in the
land of Ephraim (Judg. xii. 15). It had then entrenched itself
strongly in the Negeb, or south country, which it held till the
times of Saul and David. From the Negeb it extended its sway
over the adjoining tract of the Tij, and from the Tij it pene
trated into the Sinaitic mountain cluster, and became the domi
nant power in the western portion of the region. Widely spread
over the Negeb are "the primeval stone remains of a pre
historic race, and the Hazeroth, or fenced enclosures of a pas
toral people," * presumably the Amalekites, who dwelt here at
the time of the Exodus (Numb. xiii. 29). All over the desert of
El Tij are similar constructions — circular camps, enclosed by
walls now about three feet high, composed of large boulders
packed together with much care. Within the outer ring are a
number of smaller circles communicating one with another.
The remains closely resemble the camping-grounds of the
modern Morocco Arabs ; and here, again, we have probably the
Hazeroth of the Amalekite people. Spread over the Negeb and
the Tij, they naturally pressed on into the more desirable
mountain region of the extreme south, and made themselves
masters of the entire tract between the Red Sea and Sinai,
most valuable to them on account of its water supply, its large
patches of perennial verdure, its palm groves (Exod. xv. 27), and
its other leafy regions. There is reason to believe that anciently
the entire peninsula was much better watered than at present,
and that especially this was the case with the mountain region
of the south. "The barrenness of the peninsula," say the
officers engaged in the recent survey,3 " is due to neglect. In
former times it was more richly wooded ; the wadys were pro?
tected by walls stretching across, which served as dams to
resist the force of the rushing waters ; the mountains were
terraced, and clothed with gardens and groves. The fertility
lasted till (comparatively) modern times. The monks — there
was formerly a large Christian community in the peninsula —
carried on the old traditions of cultivation (traditions perhaps
as old as the Amalekites) and terraced, protected, and planted.
Then came the bad times of Mohammedan rule, which let in
the Bedouin to waste and destroy. Then the protecting walls
across the wadys were broken down ; the green terraces along
1 "Our Work in Palestine," p. 276. ¦ Ibid. p. 27a

138 MOSES.
their sides were destroyed ; the trees were cut down, or carried
away by the winter torrents." Yet even now, it is noted, " de
spite of neglect and desolation, there is still fertility to be found
in the peninsula of Sinai. There are no rivers, yet many a
pleasant little rivulet, fringed with verdure, may be met with
here and there, especially in the romantic glens of the granite
district. At Wadys Nasb and Ghurundel are perennial, though
not continuous streams, and large tracts of vegetation." *
It is evident that to the Amalekites the entrance of the
Israelites into the peninsula, in the guise of settlers, with their
wives and children and their large flocks and herds, must have
been exceedingly distasteful. Especially must it have angered
them, that the intruding tribe, instead of taking the direct route
through the Tij to Canaan, whither they professed to be bound,
deviated wholly from that line of march, and turning southwards,
showed the intention of, so far as possible, avoiding the bare
plateau of the Tij, and pasturing its flocks and herds in the
" romantic glens " of the south, which formed their own summer
camping ground. If the month was April, as is probable, they
would have been absent from their mountain pastures, feeding
their flocks on the rich herbage, which even the very desert
produces under the influence of the spring rains, when they are
abundant. A portion would have been scattered over the Tij,
while some may have been feeding their sheep and goats on
the flat coast tracts of El Kaa and El Murkhah. The Israelites
thus did not fall in with them when they first entered the moun
tain country, but were able themselves to enjoy unmolested the
rich pasturages and palm groves of the more western region,
about Wadys Ghurundel, Useit, and Tayibeh, one of the most
charming regions of the peninsula. But their presence was ere
long reported to the Amalekite chiefs, and orders went forth
from head-quarters, that their march should be watched, and that
they should be, as much as possible, harassed and annoyed,
whithersoever they betook themselves. The Israelites probably
greatly outnumbered the Amalekites ; but they were unaccus
tomed to warfare, and poorly armed, a small proportion of them
only having weapons, which they had either brought with them out
of Egypt, or obtained from the bodies of those drowned Egyp
tians, who were cast up on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Suez
1 " Our Work in Palestine," p. 271.

THE STRUGGLE WITH AMALEK. 13?
after Pharaoh's host had been drowned in the Red Sea (Exod.
xiv. 30). The Amalekites were, on the contrary, excessively
warlike, well armed, and fairly disciplined, having been long
accustomed to hold their own against the surrounding nations,
with whom they had frequent collisions. Thus the two enemies
were not, upon the whole, ill-matched.
The Amalekites commenced the contest by hanging upon
the rear of the Israelite host, cutting off its baggage and its
stragglers, and inflicting as much damage as was possible by
a kind of guerilla warfare (Deut. xxv. 18). Their active bands
followed up the loose column of Israelites as it crossed the
hills or wound through the wadys of the mountain region,
smiting the hindmost, threatening, obstructing, plundering.
Meanwhile, the chiefs of the nation were busy collecting its
warriors from the more distant portions of its territory,
from Petra and GebalSne-,1 from Kadesh or En-Mishpat, from
the wadys of the Tij, and the highlands of the Negeb. A strong
force was gathered together, and took up a position at a place
called Rephidim, situate probably in the Wady Feiran, where
it resolved to fight in defence of its pastures. Moses had no
choice but to accept the challenge. Distrusting his own capacity
for command at the age of eighty-one, he selected from the
younger men a warrior of the tribe of Ephraim, by name Oshea
or Joshua, and committing to him the task of conducting the
combat, reserved for himself the duty of watching its progress
and aiding his countrymen by his prayers. Never to be forgotten
is that sublime figure of the aged patriarch, lifting his hands to
heaven in the Oriental attitude of prayer, seeking, as it were, to
draw down blessings from above. The battle rages in the valley
beneath ; now one side, now the other, has the better of it.
Moses observes that, while he can hold his hands aloft, success
attends his own countrymen, but when through faintness and
weariness he lets them drop, Amalek recovers itself and begins
to have the upper hand. He has with him his two most natural
supports, Aaron, his elder brother, and Hur, who, according to
Josephus," was the husband of Miriam, his sister, and these
chieftains come to his relief. Setting him on a stone seat, and
standing one at either side of him, they prop up the weary arms,
and hold them steady in an erect position through the long hours
1 So josephus, "Ant Jud." ii. 2, } 1. * Ibid. ii. 2, J 4

140 MOSES.
of that eventful day, until the sun goes down (Exod. xvii, 12).
By that time Amalek was completely discomfited. Their best
warriors were slain with the sword ; and the slaughter would
have been general, had not night put a stop to the combat. The
remnant fled, leaving their camp standing, which was at once
taken and plundered.
The Jewish historian of later times descants upon both the
material and the moral effects of the victory. The material effects
were twofold. In the first place, there was a great accession of
wealth to the Israelites, Amalek having taken the field, as
Orientals so continually do, laden with gold and silver ornaments,
and their camp being found full of rich stuffs, of vessels for the
table both in bronze and in the precious metals, and of other
valuable equipment. Secondly, the Israelites became possessed,
by their victory, of a large stock both of arms and armour, in
which they had previously been very deficient The armour
was stripped from the bodies of the dead, the shields and coats
of mail, thrown away as impediments to their flight by those
who had escaped from the field, were collected ; and from these
two sources a large number of the Israelites were equipped so
as to leave little to be desired. " The Israelite heavy-armed
infantry," says Josephus, " was now considerable." A solidity
and firmness was given to the migration which it had not pos
sessed previously ; its confidence in itself was much increased;
and it had found a military commander, now in the full vigour
of manhood, in whom under any circumstances of danger it
could repose perfect confidence.
But the most important consequence of the victory, was the
impression which it made upon the Amalekites themselves,
and upon the other neighbouring nations. Until the valour of
Israel was tested, and the metal whereof it was composed put
to the proof, none could say whether a new nation had appeared
in the world, which would have to be reckoned with by the pre
viously existing powers, or whether a mere rabble of worthless
slaves had escaped from the yoke of their masters, to melt away,
perish, and disappear from the earth in the course of cne or two
decades. The deliverance at the Red Sea had in no way tested
the stuff whereof Israel was made. It was a pure and absolute
deliverance by miracle, and was effected without the two hosts
of Israel and Egypt coming into collision. Now, a collision
had taken place between Israel and one of the well-known

THE STRUGGLE WITH AMALEK. 14!
world powers — a power which by its previous history had vindi
cated to itself a very important place among the nations (Numb.
xxiv. 20). A fair trial of strength had taken place ; there had
been no miraculous interference, unless we include in miracle the
unseen might of effectual fervent prayer, which is, in fact, a nor
mal element in the constitution of things. After a long struggle,
which had lasted during a whole day, Israel had emerged the
victor ; Amalek was completely defeated ; after suffering great
losses the Amalekite host had fled away in disorder from the
field of battle. The lesson was primarily taken to heart by Amalek
itself, which thenceforth made way for Israel, withdrew from all
contact, retreated and kept aloof, until the time came when
Israel took the aggressive, sought out Amalek in the Negeb,
and attempted the conquest of that old seat of Amalekite power
(Numb. xiv. 40-44), without Divine authority, when they in
their turn experienced a defeat (ver. 45). Meanwhile, a truce
prevailed between the two peoples ; Israel had made itself re
spected ; and Amalek, instead of provoking, shrank from further
hostile encounter.
There was a further effect produced upon other neighbouring
nations. The prowess of Israel induced the Kenites to draw
closer the bonds which united them with the Hebrews. The
other minor tribes of the peninsula, and the peoples upon its
borders — Edomites, Moabites, Amorites, Philistines — were more
or less impressed by what had occurred, and followed the Ama
lekites in a policy of abstention. Israel appeared to all of them
too formidable to be meddled with, and was allowed to pursue
its course unmolested for a considerable time. As Josephus
says — " The victory of Rephidim was not merely of immediate,
but of much prospective advantage to the people of Israel ; for
they not subjected the bodies, but the spirits of their adversaries,
and their defeat of the Amalekites rendered them an object of
fear to all the nations round about" '
Moses, however, viewed the victory less as the result of Isr leli-
tish prowess than as God's answer to his own prolonged and
earnest prayer. Josephus says that he greatly praised theconduct
of Joshua, and bestowed various honours and rewards on those
who had distinguished themselves in the fight; but the sacred nar
rative, which we owe probably to his own pen, omits all reference
« "AntJnd."H. 2, , 4.

142 MOSES.
to the human instruments of the success, and tells of his offering
no acknowledgments on the occasion to any but God. His
memorial of the victory was an altar, built probably on the spot
where he had stood and sate, whereto he gave the name of
" Jehovah-nissi," or "The Lord is my banner" — under Him
I go out to battle, through Him alone do I subdue ray
enemies.

CHAPTER XIX
MOSES AT SINAL
Sinai ; its geographical features — God's manifestation of Himself to Israel
there,directly, through the elders, and.through Moses — Abiding proof of
the last-named manifestation fo the light that shone from Moses' coun
tenance — Purpose of the manifestations — The legislation of Sinai, not
from, but only through Moses — Individuality of Moses strongly marked
in his conduct at Sinai — His reverence — His care for the people — His
indignation at their apostasy — His severe punishment of it — His subse-
i quent intercession for his people — His stupendous act of self-devotion
I and its consequences, to the people, to himself — Exaltation of the cha-
( racter of Moses after Sinai.
From Rephidim the people of Israel, guided by the pillar of
the cloud, proceeded to Sinai. " Onwards and upwards after
their long halt, exulting in their first victory, they advanced
deeper and deeper into the mountain ranges, they knew not
whither. . . . Onwards they went, and the mountains closed
around them, upwards through winding valley, and under high
cliff, and over rugged pass, and through gigantic forms, on which
the marks of creation even now seem fresh and powerful ; and at
last, through all the different valleys, the whole body of the
people were assembled. On their right hand and on their left
rose long successions of lofty rocks, forming a vast avenue, like
the approaches which they had seen leading to the Egyptian
temples between colossal figures of men and of gods. At the end
of this broad avenue, rising immediately out of the level plain,
towered the massive cliffs of Sinai, like the huge altar of some
natural temple ; encircled by peaks of every shape and height,
the natural pyramids of the desert. In this sanctuary, and

144 MOSES.
secluded from all earthly things, raised high above even the
wilderness itself — arrived, as it must have seemed to them, at the
*• very end of the world — they waited for the Revelation of God." '
The general consensus of recent travellers, now that the whole
region has been thoroughly explored, fixes the place of gathering
in the plain now called Er-Rahah, at the foot of the precipitous
granite rock known as the Ras Sufsafeh. The plain is two miles
long and half a mile wide, nearly flat, and dotted over ,.th
tamarisk bushes. The mountains which enclose it have foi the
most part sloping sides, and form a sort of natural amphitheatre.
"That such a plain should exist at all in such a place," says Dean
Stanley, " is so remarkable a coincidence with the sacred narra
tive, as to furnish a strong internal argument, not merely of its
indentity with the scene, but of the scene itself having been
described by an eye-witness." ' All the surroundings are such
as exactly suit the narrative. "The awful and lengthened ap
proach, as to some natural sanctuary, would have been the fittest
preparation for the coming scene. The low line of alluvial
mounds at the foot of the cliff exactly answers to the 'bounds'
which were to keep the people off from ' touching the mount.'
The plain itself is not broken and uneven and narrowly shut in,
like almost all others in the range, but presents a long retiring
sweep, against which the people could 'remove and stand afat
off.' The cliff, rising like a huge altar, in front of the whole
congregation, and visible against the sky in lonely grandeur from
end to end of the whole plain, is the very image of the ' mount
that might be touched,' and from which the voice of God might
be heard far and wide over the plain below, widened at that point
to its utmost extent by the confluence of all the contiguous
valleys. Here, beyond all other parts of the peninsula, is the
adytum, withdrawn as if in the ' end of the world ' from all the
stir and confusion of earthly things."3 As an eminent eng near
has observed — " No spot in the world can be pointed out which
combines in a more remarkable manner the conditions of a
commanding height and of a plain in every part of which the
sights and sounds described in Exodus would reach an assembled
multitude of more than two million souls." *
1 Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. pp. 149, 150.
* " Sinai and Palestine," p. 42. 3 Ibid. p. 43.
* Sir Henry James, quoted by Canon Cook in the " Speaker's Commen
tary," vol. i. p. 44a.

MOSES AT SINAI. I45
The heart of the desert was reached. The whole multitude, v
hitherto scattered in the many wadys and over the broad moun
tain sides, were collected to a single encampment, where they
might be seen and impressed at once. The Eternal was to be 1
revealed to them. It was to be impressed upon them indelibly, ,
that they were God's people, placed in a relation to Him that ;
was not occupied by any other nation upon the earth, put under
His direct rule, to be governed by laws which were His com- ;
mandments and decrees. But how was such a revelation to be [
made ? All mankind was, at this period of the world's history,
so prone to idolatry, and Israel was so deeply infected by the
contagion of Egyptian superstition (Josh. xxiv. 14), that if
God had appeared to them in any form, they would infallibly
have seized upon that form, have reproduced it, imitated it, and
made it an object of idolatrous veneration. It was necessary
that they should have an absolute conviction of the presence,
power, might, majesty of God, and yet that they should not see
Him, should not have any form with which to connect Him.
The manifestation of God was therefore made to them after this
fashion. God "came down upon Sinai" (Exod. xix. 20). On
the morning of the third day after their arrival, when their ex
pectations had been wrought up to the highest pitch by orders
from Moses to sanctify and purify themselves (vers. 10-15),
they beheld, and Io 1 suddenly, " there were thunders and light
nings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a
trumpet exceeding loud ; so that all the people that was in the
camp trembled" (ver. 16) ; and "Mount Sinai was altogether
on a smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire ; and the
smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace ; and the
whole mount quaked greatly" (ver. 18). Or, as the scene is
elsewhere described by Moses — " Ye came near and stood under
the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst
of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the
Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire : ye heard the
voice of the words, but saw no similitude ; only ye heard
a voice" (Deut. iv. 11, 12). It was not a mere "storm of
thunder and lightning, whereof Moses took advantage to per
suade the people that they had heard God's voice " — it was not
" an earthquake with volcanic eruptions " — it was not even these
two combined — it was a veritable theophany, in which, amid the -
phenomena of sterm and tempest, and fire and smoke, and
II

146 MOSES.
thick darkness, and heavings of the ground as by an earthquake
shock, first the loud blast seemingly of a trumpet sounded long,
commanding attention, and then a clear, penetrating voice, like
that of a man, made itself heard in distinctly articulated words,
audible to the whole multitude, proceeding out of the midst of
the fire, and recognized by the multitude as superhuman, as
" the voice of God " (Deut iv. 33).
This direct manifestation of God to His people generally was
supplemented by a further manifestion, somewhat later, in which
He showed Himself to them more distinctly, but through their
representatives. Moses was instructed to take with him into
the Mount his brother Aaron, Aaron's two sons, Nadab and
Abihu, together with the seventy elders of Israel, in order that
they might draw more near to God than was permitted to the
mass of the people, and hold closer communion with Him
(Exod. xxiv. 1). A sacrificial feast was celebrated, at which
these persons were present, and in the course of it a fresh revela
tion was made. " They_saw Ae_Gjid^oOsraeL^arirlther^
under his feet as itjver^j^MarXof^lejJsapphire, and as it were
thTbody oFheaven in his clearness "(ver. 10). These words
can scarcely mean less, than that the elders saw with their bodily
eyes some appearance of the Divine Being who had summoned
them to His presence for the purpose. As Isaiah " saw the
Lord sitting upon His throne" (Isa. vi. 1), and Ezekiel saw
" the likeness of a throne, and upon the likeness of the throne
the likeness as the appearance of a man above, upon it"
(Ezek. i. 26), so now the elders " saw the God of Israel." What
exactly the form was which the elders saw, we are not told ; but
as it had " feet," it was probably a human form. It may have
been hazy, indefinite, " too dazzling bright for mortal eye " to
rest upon ; but it was a true vision of God, and as Keil says,
" a foretaste of the blessedness of the sight of God in eternity."
And Moses, the leader of the nation, in whom the whole
people may be regarded as summed up, centred, and embodied,
was vouchsafed long, direct, continuous, and most unmistakable
communication with the Almighty, communication which did
not rest, like that of Mahomet and other fanatics, on his own
unsupported ipse dixit, but which was confirmed and attested,
so far as was possible, by the entire people. " All the people
saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the
trumpet, and the mountain smoking ; and when they saw it,

MOSES AT SINAI. 1 47
they removed and stood afar off; and said unto Moses, ' Speak
thou with us, and we will hear ; but let not God speak with us,
lest we die. . . . And the people stood afar off, and Moses
drew near unto the thick darkness, where God was " (Exod.
xx. 18, 21). " Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud
covered the mount ; and the glory of the Lord abode upon
Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days ; and the seventh
day He called unto Moses out of the cloud. And the sight oj
the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the
mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went
into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount ;
and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights "
(Exod. xxiv. 15-18).
Moreover, the reality of Moses' admission to the presence of
God was testified, physically, in another most extraordinary
way. When he came down from Mount Sinai the second time,
"the skin of his face shone. . . . And when Aaron and all the
children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face
shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him " (Exod. xxxiv.
29, 30). As St. Paul expresses the fact — "The children of
Israel -could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the
glory of his countenance" (2 Cor. iii. 7). A light, like that
which rested on the face of our Lord at the transfiguration,
beamed from the countenance of the great leader thenceforth,
a light so plainly supernatural, that it terrified ordinary men,
and induced Moses thenceforth under ordinary circumstances
to veil his face from the eyes of the people. None could doubt
that this light was the reflection of that radiance which had
streamed on him day and night during his long conference with
the Supreme Being, during which he " with open face beholding
the glory of the Lord, had been changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord"
(ver. 18).
These manifestations of Himself by God to Israel at Mount
Sinai seem to have had a double purpose. Primarily, they
were to impress on the people the reality of the Divine existence,
the power and awful majesty of God, and His nearness and
close relation to themselves. Secondarily, they were to give the
highest possible sanction to that Law, or series of Laws, which
Moses was commissioned to impose on them as of absolute
obligation. A stubborn and "stiff-necked" race, like the

148 MOSES.
Hebrews, would never have accepted any merely human legis
lation, or regarded themselves as bound by it a moment longer
than suited their own convenience. They had to be convinced
that all the laws, all the statutes, all the ordinances, which Moses
gave them, were the laws, statutes, and ordinances of God
Himself. Hence, and hence alone, the enduringness of the
Law, which was regarded as valid in its entirety for more than
fourteen hundred years, and is still held to be obligatory in
many, if not in most, particulars. Never was there a case in
which miracle was more justified by its results. Assuming the
object to be the creation of a " peculiar people," marked out
from all the world by a special set of unchanging laws, ordi
nances, and customs, then the means adopted must be pro
nounced at once absolutely effectual, and probably the only
means by which the result aimed at could have been effected.
It does not belong to the province of a biographer of Moses
to enter into any account of the legislation which goes by his
name. Had Moses been the fount and origin of the legislation,
had he out of the resources of his own mind framed that won
derful system which held the Hebrew nation together for a
millennium and a half, his legislation would have been the great
act of his life, the measure of his intellectual capacity, the
crucial test of his strength and weakness, the ultimate ground
on which would have rested all estimates of his character.
^ But the plain, direct, and reiterated statement of Scripture is,
that in his legislative capacity he initiated nothing, he was " a
mere passive instrument of the Divine Will." No doubt, in the
poetical language of the Old Testament (Numb. xxi. 18 ;
Deut. xxxiii. 21), and in the popular language of both Jews
and Christians, he is known as the Law-giver " ; ' but this
does not mean that he was a " Law-giver " as Solon, or Lycurgus,
or Numa, or Demonax, or Zaleucus, or Justinian, or even
Charlemagne ; Moses "gave the Law" (John vii. 19) ; but he
gave it exactly as it had been delivered to him by the Almighty.
As the Ten Commandments were spoken by God " out of the
midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness,
with a great voice" (Deut. v. 22), and as the words of the
original " Book of the Covenant" were delivered to Moses by
God in the form in which he published them to the people
(Exod. xx. 22), so every later ordinance is declared to have
1 Stanley in Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," vol. H. p. 428.

MOSES AT SINAI. 149
been from God's month, spoken by God to Moses, and then
communicated without change to the people. The key to the
whole Mosaic Law is found in the ever-recurring formula — " Ye
shall observe all these statutes — / am the Lord." It was not
Moses who determined what old customs, laws, ceremonies,
long familiar to the Hebrew nation, should be continued, what
abolished, what modified or restrained ; it was not Moses who
made the law of divorce, or the law of slavery, or the laws
relating to paternal authority, or to the avenger of blood ; it
was not by Moses that provisions were taken, if any provisions
were taken, from the Egyptian code, or from the customs of the
Arabs ; from first to last the legislation was God's work ; Moses
did nothing else but promulgate it. We must not ascribe to
Moses a tenderness and humanity in advance of his age on
account of the humane provisions of the laws with respect to the
poor, to slaves, to kidnapping, to usury, to pledges ; or blame
him for what seems to us harsh and inequitable in the laws
respecting divorce, retaliation, disrespect to parents, and the
like. God, not Moses, was the author of each proviso, the realf
legislator, the real law-giver, the true compiler of the cocey
Moses was but His mouth-piece, an intermediary to communi
cate God's decrees to His people. _i
The individuality of Moses comes out, during the Sinaitic
sojourn, not in his laws, but in the history which we have of his
acts. First, we see his great reverence for God, and his tender
care of his people, in the pains taken to impress on them the
sanctity of the Mount while God's presence was upon it ; the
danger of approaching too near it, or of presenting themselves
before God while there was attaching to them any sort of defile
ment (Exod. xix. 14, 15, 25). Then we note the absence from
his character of all jealousy or self-seeking in his readiness to
share the honour of approaching near to God, first with Aarcn,
Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders (chap. xxiv. 9-1 1),
and then with Joshua, "his minister " (ver. 13). Next, we see
his temper, judgment, conduct, feelings, undergoing suddenly
the severest and most tremendous test, when, on his descending
frorr Sinai, anxious concerning his people, with the Two Tables
of the Law in his' hand, there breaks upon him suddenly — first
the sound, and then the sight, of that miserable lapse of Israel
into Egyptian grossness and idolatry, which must always remain
one of the most shameful passages in the history of mankind,

l$0 MOSES.
one of the most extraordinary apostacies that has ever been
witnessed in heaven or earth. While he has been absorbed in
the closest communion with the One pure, spiritual God, drink
ing in life and light and spirituality from that Holy, Awful Source,
his people have gone back, in thought and word and act, to the
materialism, the idol-worship, and the lewd orgies, of which
they have had experience in Egypt. Aaron, whom he had left
to restrain their waywardness and unruliness, instead of re
straining them, has aided and abetted them in their sin ; and
he sees the whole camp engaged in a festival on the Egyptian
model, with their clothes in part laid aside (ver. 25), singing
lewd songs, and dancing licentious dances. Under the strange
and fearful circumstances that hot temper breaks out a second
time, which showed itself in Egypt, when he slew the smiter of
his countryman, and Moses dashes to the ground and breaks to
pieces the Two Tables, written with the finger of God, which
were the most precious monuments that the world contained at
the time. The action was not deliberate— it was momentary,
instinctive ; it sprang from a fierce and fiery indignation at the
unworthy conduct of his nation, who did not deserve the precious
gift which he was bringing them, and whom he therefore de
prived of the gift. It is remarkable that Moses is never blamed
for his act, and speaks of it many years afterwards without dis
approval (Deut ix. 17). Fiery indignation at sin, springing
as it does from a jealousy for God's honour, is an emotion
which is not too common among men, and one which God's
Word does not discourage.
The next act of Moses seems to have been to order the
destruction of the idol (ver. 20), which was necessarily a work
of time, occupying probably several days. He then proceeded
to stop the orgy, which, in spite of his presence, continued.
The sight aroused in Moses the same burning indignation which
had led him to break the Tables. He must stop the orgy at any
cost. Standing therefore in the gate of the camp, he raised aloud
the cry, " Who is on the Lord's side ? Let him come unto me,'
(literally, " Who for Jehovah ? To me") ; and when the Levites
who were within hearing rallied to his side, he made them the
executioners of a terrible punishment. "Put every man his
sword by his side," he said, " and go in and out from gate to
gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and
every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And

MOSES AT SINAI. I51
the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses ; and
there fell of the people that day about three thousand men "
(vers. 27, 28). Moses, we see, was no weak sentimentalist ;
he did not shrink from measures of extreme severity, when
severity was requisite. It was an awful thing to have to put to
a sudden and violent death three thousand men — his own coun
trymen — utterly unprepared, in the very high tide of gaiety and
excitement, and in the commission of deadly sin, worshipping
an idol with lascivious songs and dances ; but may it not have
been a wise act, and an act of mercy ? God had threatened to
let loose his anger upon the guilty people (ver. 10), an anger
that would have entirely " consumed " them, perhaps in a
moment of time. Moses turns his wrath aside by punishing
with death three thousand of the guiltiest. He sacrifices 3,000
lives ; he saves nigh upon 600,000. He turns away the wrath
of God, who accepts the punishment inflicted as sufficient, at
any rate for the time being, and reserves the action of His retri
butive justice for some distant day of visitation (vers. 34, 35).
When the execution is over, when the swords are wiped and
returned to their scabbards, when the slain are buried and the
traces of their slaughter removed, Moses earnestly wrestles with
God in prayer on behalf of his people. He had prevented their
immediate destruction, but he requires more — he would fain
have them fully and freely forgiven. It is in this crisis that he
performs the sublime act_of_^elf jSD^n«aJEio01?Cl?lf-flevorior^
whTch^musf always remah^OM-,fif Jlbfe. most .gloriou.g_.acts_>of
whicTThumanity has shown itself capable, and must be held as
entitling him to a high place— may we ngt, say Ihe highest place ?
— among the heroic characters of the world. He had already,
before he descended from Sinai, declined the proffered honour
of being put in the place of Abraham, made the absolute
progenitor of all God's people ; he had put the offer from him
without a moment's hesitation, and had induced the Almighty
to change his purpose (vers. 9-14) ; he now went further— she. '
Q^CTerl^unjieJLfJoi-his-people ! " This people," he said, "have
sinned a great sin — they have made them a god of gold. Yet
now, if Thou wilt [freely] forgive their sin, well and good ; but it
not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written ''
(vers. 31, 32). " The book of the living" is that book (as Keil
notes) which "contains the list of the righteous, and ensures to
those whose names are written therein life before God, first in

1 52 MOSES.
the earthly kingdom of God, and then eternal life also." Thus
Moses declared his willingness — nay, his wish — that God would
visit on him the guilt of his people, both in this world and the
next ; so that He would thereupon forgive them. " Infinite
things were to be hoped for from God's love; infinite things
were to be dreaded from His anger. . . Moses was willing
to die ; to be cut off from covenant hope and privilege ; to
undergo whatever awful doom subjection to God's wrath might
imply ; if only thereby his people could be saved. It was a
stupendous proposal to make ; an extraordinary act of self-
devotion ; a wondrous exponent of his patriotic love for his
people ; a not less wondrous recognition of what was due to the
justice of God ere sin could be forgiven — a glimpse even, struck
out from the passionate yearning of his own heart, of the actual
method of redemption. A type of Christ has been seen in the
youthful Isaac ascending the hill to be offered on the altar by
Abraham his father. A much nearer type is Moses, ' setting his
face' (Luke ix. 51) to ascend the Mount, and bearing in his
heart this sublime purpose of devoting himself for the sins of
the nation." '
Though the offer of Moses could not be accepted, since " no
[mere] man can deliver his brother, nor make agreement unto
God for him" (Ps. xlix. 7), yet great benefits flowed from it,
both to himself and to the people. The people were not cast
off; they were not deserted ; the Angel of God's Presence still
continued with them, and went with them throughout their
wanderings, and sustained them along the weary way, and
ultimately " gave them rest " (Exod. xxxiii. 14) in the Promised
^ Land. Moses' spiritual life entered into a new stage. He was
drawn nearer to God by the effort which he had made ; and God
in consequence drew nearer to him. The self-devotion of Moses
is followed closely by the establishment of the first " Tabernacle
of the Congregation " (ver. 7) beyond the camp, and in this
Tabernacle, which only he and his personal attendant, Joshua,
are privileged to enter, Moses is admitted to continual com
munion with God of a closer kind than even that which he had
enjoyed upon Mount Sinai. When he needs to consult God,
or to commune with Him, he has only to "go out unto the
tabernacle ;" as he enters it, the pillar of the cloud quits its
previous position, whatever that might be, and " descends and
• The Rev. J. Orr, in "The Pulpit Commentary," Exodus, pp. 693, 694,

MOSES AT SINAI. 1 53
stands at the door of the Tabernacle," and remains there while
he is within it. Within, God " talks with Moses " (ver. 9),
" speaks to him face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend "
(ver. 11). It is impossible to conceive communion more close,
more purifying, more elevating than this, which Moses was
permitted to enjoy for nearly forty years, from the first erection
of the Tabernacle to the day of his death.
But this was not all. While his continual growth in grace,
and in the wisdom and knowledge of God was thus provided
for, a further momentary privilege was granted him transcend
ing any ever previously imparted to any of the sons of men.
Hungering more and more after the sight of God, as he was
drawn more and more close to him, Moses desired and prayed
to see the unveiled glory of Jehovah (ver. 18). The request
could not be granted in its fulness. " Thou cans* not see my
face," he was told, " for there shall no man sec my face and
live" (ver. 20). But all was granted that was possible. He
was bidden to ascend Sinai alone ; the flocks and the herds were
to be removed to a distance from the mount (Eiod. xxxiv. 3) ;
he was to take-his place on a well-known or prominent rock
(Exod. xxxiii. 21) ; and there, covered by the Divine hand and
sheltered in a clift of the rock, he was to wait wh'le the Divine
Glory passed him by. The scene evidently transcends human
language and human thought. It has to be described by tropes
and figures. God, having first proclaimed His name, as " Th^
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
and yet visiting iniquity," and in no case "clearing the guilty"
(Exod. xxxiv. 6-7), passed Moses by in such sort that " His face"
was not seen, but only "His back parts" (Exod. xxxiii. 23) — some
reflex image of His glory, that is to say, some radiance left by it,
but the utmost that man could see and yet live, more (probably)
than either Isaiah (vi. 1) or Ezekiel (i. 26) saw — some near
approach to that "beatific vision " which shall constitute to the
saints in bliss the satisfaction of all their cravings, the perfect
contentation of all their desires.
Moses after Sinai is not as Moses before Sinai — he isjl
spiritualized — he lives in a different world. Not that he is as
yet sinless. Human imperfection clings to him, as it must to
all who have not passed within the veil. But he is henceforth I
the Prophet rather than the Ruler, "very meek" and wanting j

I'

1 54 MOSES.
; in self-assertion (Numb. xii. 3), free from all jealousy (Numb. xi.
j 29), mild, forgiving (Numb. xii. 13), chiefly employed in com-
municating God's will to the people. He must have passed
much of his time in the Tabernacle of the Congregation, in
close communion with the Almighty, receiving from Him that
complex legislation, which, according to the Rabbis, contained
248 positive and 365 negative precepts, and which occupies
almost the whole of two Books of Scripture — Leviticus and
(Numbers. A distance was placed between him and his
countrymen by the strange glory which shone from his face,
and the veil which he ordinarily wore to shroud it from them
— he became to them something mysterious, something awful —
they watched his movements with a timid and subdued curiosity
(Exod. xxiii. 8-10) — he must have seemed to them more than
mortal, half human, half Divine. And, correspondent to this
external manifestation of increased likeness to God, was an
inward purification and elevation of character, a passage "from
strength to strength," "from glory to glory," which, though
Moses himself was perhaps unconscious of it, as he was at first
of the light that streamed from his face (Exod. xxxiv. 29), is yet
very apparent to the careful student of the later Books of the
Pentateuch.

CHAPTER XIII.
HEBREW ART IN MOSES' TIME.
Hebrew Art more advanced than might have appeared probable -Possible
derivation of some of it from Chaldea — Artificers needed by nomadic
tribes — Advances which Hebrew Art would naturally have made in
Egypt — Egyptian and Hebrew Metallurgy — Carpentry — Textile in
dustry — Embroidery — Tanning and dyeing of leather— Gem-cutting
and gem-engraving — Confection of spices and unguents — General
Egyptian character of Hebrew Art in Moses' time — Exceptions —
Hebrew eclecticism.
Among the instructions given to Moses on Mount Sinai was
a long series (Exod. xxv.-xxx.), which had reference to the
externals of worship, and involved the exercise of various arts
and industries, belonging to a somewhat advanced civilization
— a civilization which has seemed to many out of harmony with
the circumstances of the people, just escaped from slavery, and
from employment in agriculture, building, brick-making, and
other servile labours. It is therefore important to consider what
opportunities the Hebrews had had of attaining proficiency in
the arts and industries in question, and what it may reasonably
be concluded that their civilization in these respects was at the
time of the exodus. The subject is also one proper to be dis
cussed in any account of the "Life and Times of Moses," which
could not be complete without some consideration of it.
First, then, it is to be remembered, that the Chaldeans, or
Babylonians, at the time when the family of Abraham left them
and proceeded northwards, were in possession of many valuable
arts, and of a civilization that had advanced considerably beyond
the first rudiments. The Babylonians of a time long anterior

156 MOSES.
to Abraham burnt excellent brick (Gen. xi. 3), built cities (Gen.
x. 10), and conceived the design of erecting a tower whose top
should reach to heaven (Gen. xi. 4). They were well acquainted
with metallurgy, and by the mixture of copper with tin produced
a bronze of a quality scarcely surpassed by the best bronze of
the Greeks. They were familiar with the art of weaving, and
manufactured fabrics of a good quality, which by the time of
Moses, and probably much earlier, had attained a wide reputa
tion, and formed an article of exportation to foreign countries
(Josh. vii. 21). They had paid great attention to the arts of
gem-cutting and gem-engraving, which they carried to a con
siderable degree of perfection, having advanced so far as to
deal freely with several of the materials known to jewellers as
" hard stones," and covering these with inscriptions and with
representations of men and animals, which indicate a complete
mastery of the graver.1
There can be no reason why the household of Terah, when he
quitted Ur of the Chaldees, should not have contained artificers
well instructed in the various arts practised in Babylonia at the
time. A nomadic tribe, which avoids cities and dwells in the
wilderness, requires to have in it persons capable of producing
all the commodities which it regards as essential to its life. The
household of Abraham contained 318 males ; that of Terah was
probably not smaller. He would be careful to include within
it, before quitting Ur, persons skilled in weaving the goat's-hair
cloths required as coverings for the tents, weavers of woollen
cloth for the outer and of linen for the inner garments, artificers
in metal to furnish the tribe with arms, ornaments, and imple
ments, potters to make them their ordinary earthenware utensils,
and even perhaps artists skilled in the delicate embroidery of
garments, together with gem-cutters and gem-engravers, who
might provide the chiefs and the upper class of their retainers
with seals, cylinders, and rings. The descendants of Abraham,
long before they entered Egypt, possessed signets, bracelets
(Gen. xxxviii. 18), earrings (Gen. xxxv. 4), and coats of divers
colours (Gen. xxxvii. 3). It is probable that their tents, their
clothing, their arms, and their ornaments, were alike of native
workmanship. But, however this may have been, it is quite certain that, on
entering Egypt, they came into contact with a civilization of a
1 See the Author's " Five Great Monaichies," vol. i. pp. 88-131.

• HEBREW ART IN MOSES* TIME. itf
very high order — a civilization which was perhaps a thousand
years old, and which included within it all those branches of
art and industry with which, according to the author of the
Pentateuch, the Hebrews were familiar in the wilderness. If
previously the processes employed by them had been rude, or
coarse, or in any way defective, and the manufactured products
had consequently been of poor quality, there would have been
opportunity in Egypt to make rapid advance in all the various
lines of industry, and to carry those which were most valued to
a high degree of perfection. For it is not to be supposed that
when the tribe of two or three thousand souls entered Egypt
they were, all of them, at once employed in nothing but shep
herding. Shepherding was no doubt their principal occupation ;
but those of them who had been artificers before entering Egypt
would have been likely to retain their occupation. Such persons
would compare their methods with those prevailing in their new
country, and having the intelligence and commercial instinct
which have always characterized the Hebrews, would not be
slow to adopt such improvements as came under their notice.
We have a right to suppose that, when the Israelites quitted
Egypt, their artisans generally would be fairly on a par with
those of the native Egyptians, and would be capable of pro
ducing works nearly, if not quite, equal to those which the
inhabitants of the Nile valley fabricated or manufactured at the
period. What, then, are the chief classes of works, the production of
which during their sojourn in the wilderness is distinctly assigned
to the Israelites, and what evidence have we that works of the
same or of a similar character were within the competence of
Egyptian artists and manufacturers at the time of the exodus,
or the period of the twentieth dynasty? The works would
seem to fall under seven principal heads : I. Metallurgy ; 2.
Carpentry and cabinet-making ; 3. Weaving of stuffs ; 4. Em
broidery ; 5. Preparation and dying of leather ; 6. Gem-cutting
and engraving; and 7. The making of confections out of spices
and similar ingredients.
The metallurgy of the Egyptians was of a very advanced
description. It comprised the working in gold, in silver and
lead to a small extent, in copper, in iron, and in bronze. Tin
appears to have been but little used except as an alloy, while
zinc was wholly unknown. The Egyptians found gold in con-

1 58 MOSES. •
siderable quantities within the limits of their own land, chiefly
in veins of quartz towards the south-eastern part of their country.
After digging out the quartz, they broke it up by hand into small
pieces, which were then passed on to the crushing-mill, and
ground to powder between two flat granite mill-stones of no
great size ; this work again being performed by manual labour.
The quartz thus reduced to powder was washed on inclined
tables, furnished with one or two cisterns, until all the earthy
matter ran away, flowing down the incline with the water. The
gold particles which remained were carefully collected and
formed into ingots by exposure to the heat of a furnace for five
days and nights in earthen crucibles, which were allowed to cool,
and then broken. The ingots, having been extracted, were
weighed and laid by for use. The manufacture of objects out
of gold was effected by goldsmiths, who, after melting down an
ingot or a portion of one, in a crucible, with the help of a blow
pipe, proceeded to work the material into shape with the forceps
and tongs, and, finally, to fashion it with graving tools. Among
the objects produced the commonest were solid rings of a certain
size and weight, which seem to have passed current as money,
vases, bowls, baskets, armlets, bracelets, anklets, necklaces,
collars, ear-rings, and other ornaments of the person ; cups,
goblets, rhytons, and other drinking vessels. Much taste was
shown in many of them. Animal forms, especially the heads of
horses and ibexes, and the heads or entire bodies of serpents
were represented in solid metal, or in chasings on metal ; brace
lets and ear-rings were often set with gems, and occasionally
enamelled or inlaid with lapis lazuli and glass pastes.
In silver the objects produced were principally rings used for
money, vases, bracelets, plates to be employed as ornaments of
mummies, finger-rings, and statuettes, chiefly of gods and sacred
animals. The fashioning of the objects was effected much in
the same way as the fashioning of the objects in gold ; but ,t is
probable that the statuettes were cast. Silver objects are some
times gilt.
The Egyptian manufacture of bronze was very extensive.
Arms, implements ; household vessels, such as cauldrons, bowls,
ewers, jugs, buckets, basins, vases, ladles, &c. ; articles of the
toilet, mirrors, tweezers, razors, pins, ear-rings, armlets, brace
lets ; artistic objects, figures of gods, of sacred animals, and of
men ; tools, such as saws, chisels, hatchets, adzes, drills, and

HEBREW ART IN MOSES' TIME. 159
bradawls, are usually, or at any rate frequently, of this material.
The bronze arms included swords, daggers, battleaxes, maces,
spearheads, arrow-heads, and coats of mail ; the implements,
ploughshares, sickles, knives, forceps, nails, needles, harpoons,
and fish-hooks. The Egyptian bronze was very variously com
posed ; sometimes it contained as much as fourteen parts of tin
and one of iron to eighty-five parts of copper — a very unusual pro
portion ; more often the copper stood to the tin as eighty-eight to
twelve ; while sometimes the proportion was as high as ninety-
four to six. The process of melting bronze is not shown upon
the Egyptian monuments, but there can be no doubt that the
metals composing it were melted and mixed together in furnaces,
the glowing mass being then run into moulds, allowed to cool,
and finished by the hand.
Tin was made into plates, which were inscribed with the
symbolic eye, and employed to cover the incision in the flank of
mummies, which had been made for the purpose of removing
the entrails. It was also employed together with lead, as a
solder. Iron was occasionally used for tools, arms, and implements,
but seems to have been scarce, or at any rate was not employed
with anything like the same frequency as bronze. Bronze
implements and weapons were found to answer every purpose
satisfactorily ; and being manufactured much more easily than
iron was, were, on the whole, preferred to them.
The metallurgy of the Israelites, as disclosed to us by the
narrative of the Pentateuch, followed closely the Egyptian lines.
The metals employed were chiefly, if not solely, gold, silver, and
bronze (Exod. xxv. 3 ; xxxv. 5). Gold was more widely employed
than silver. It was used in plates to overlay wood (vers. 11, 13,
&c), for rings (ver. 12), for moulded figures (ver. 18; xxxii. 4), for
bowls and their covers, for dishes and spoons (Exod. xxv. 29),
for lamp-stands and lamps (vers. 31-37), and for personal orna
ments, such as chains, breastplates, bells, ear-rings, bracelets,
and the like (Exod. xxxii. 3 ; xxxv. 22, &c). Silver was em
ployed to overlay wood, and also for hooks and sockets (Exod.
xxvM. 10, 17, &c). The general material for vessels of all sorts
and kinds was bronze. Of bronze was made the great laver for
the court of the Tabernacle (Exod. xxx. 18), the pillars for the
court (Exod. xxvii. 10) and their sockets, the external covering
of the altar of burnt-offering (ver. 2), all the vessels of the altar

<6o MOSES.
(ver. 3), the tent pegs which kept the tabernacle erect (ver. 19),
and 'all the vessels of the Tabernacle" (ver. 19). To fashion
these objects, many of them wholly new in design and pattern,
the Israelites must have had among them goldsmiths, silver
smiths, and metallurgists of various kinds, and have carried
with them out of Egypt the apparatus necessary for melting the
metals, and running it or fashioning it into such shapes as were
required. Bezaleel, it is distinctly said (Exod. xxxi. 4), was skil
ful " to devise cunning works, and to work in gold, and in silver,
and in brass " (i.e., bronze). He must have had a large number
of skilled artisans under him.
The carpentry and cabinet-making of Egypt were excellent.
From an exceedingly remote date the Egyptians were acquainted
with the saw, and by its aid could separate into thin planks every
kind of wood. These they could smooth with adzes and planes
into a perfectly even surface. The high value placed by the
priesthood on " arks " for the repose and conveyance of images
of the gods, together with the store set by the higher orders on
perfectly fashioned coffins, or mummy-cases, caused extreme
care and attention to be given to this branch of industry. None
of the actual arks have come down to us, but the representations
on tombs and other monuments show them to have been tasteful
and elegant.' The mummy-cases are exceedingly well made,
and are generally painted with much elaboration. Smaller
objects, such as sepulchral boxes, and boxes to contain articles
of the toilet, are evidences of still greater skill and care, being
often inlaid with gold, ivory, or porcelain, and sometimes having
covers that move on a hinge. There is nothing in the account
given of the Ark of the Covenant, or of the wood-work used in
the Tabernacle and its surroundings, which at all transcends
what the Egyptian carpenters and cabinet-makers of the time
of the twentieth dynasty could have produced. The Ark itself
must have borne a considerable resemblance to the arks used
in their religious worship by the Egyptians. The images of the
cherubim with their outstretched wings remind us of the winged
figures of Ma, or " Truth," so often seen within the arks, shel
tering the scarabseus or some other emblem of the deity. The
staves passed through rings, by which the Ark, the table of
shew-bread, and the altar of incense were to be carried, have
their counterparts in the poles similarly passed through rings,
1 See the Author's "Herodotus," vel. ii. p. 85 (edition of 1862).

HEBREW ART IN MOSES' TIME. l6l
which are seen in the Egyptian sculptures, attached to arks,
thrones, and litters, and resting on the shoulders of the men
who carry them. The pillars of the Tabernacle, with their carved
" chapiters," or capitals, would have presented no difficulties tc
Egyptian artizans, who supported the fronts of houses, and
corridors within houses, with tall thin pillars, which seem to
have been of wood, and which terminate in a " lotus capital." '
Weaving was an art in which the Egyptians highly excelled,
Though the only loom known to them was a hand-loom of the
simplest and most primitive description, yet the fabrics which
they produced were in all cases thoroughly good, and sometimes
quite admirable. They worked in linen, in cotton, and in wool,
producing satisfactory results in each material ; but their
favourite textile manufacture was that of linen, and it is in this
branch that their fabrics are most remarkable. The fineness of
some equals that of the best Indian muslin, while of others it is
said, that " in touch they are comparable to silk, and in texture
to our finest cambric." * Commonly the linen was white ; but
sometimes it was dyed red, and at other times the edges were
coloured with indigo, either in a single line or in several parallel
stripes. Patterns were occasionally inwrought during the
weaving, while sometimes they were superadded by a process
analagous to that which in modern times is called " printing."
Gold threads were also in some cases introduced to give addi
tional richness to the fabric, which was often as transparent as
lawn and of silky softness. In the best of the linen manufactures
each thread was composed of several strands, spun separately
and then twisted together, the number of the strands being
occasionally, it is said, as many as three hundred and sixty." 3
Less is known concerning the cotton and the woollen fabrics
of the Egyptians, which have not in many cases survived to our
time ; but there is no reason to believe that they fell much short
of the fabrics in linen. The use of cotton was, comparatively
speaking, rare ; but ,that of woollen fabrics was common. In
winter each Egyptian wore a woollen outer garment ; and woollen
cloths, the purpose of which is not quite clear, have been found
in some of the tombs.
As with the Egyptians, so with the Israelites in the wilder-
« Rosellini, "Monumenti Civili." Plates, vol. ii. pi. 68, fig. a.
• Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," vol. iii. p. 119.
* Herodotus, lit 47. 12

1 62 MOSES.
ness, linen was the chief material employed for textile fabrics
The curtains of the Tabernacle were " of fine-twined linen, blue,
and purple, and scarlet (Exod. xxvi. i). Of similar material
was the veil which divided between the Holy Place and the
Holy of Holies (ver. 31). The hangings of the court were also
of "fine-twined linen" (Exod. xxvii. 9). Linen was the only
material used in the vestments of the priests (Exod. xxviii.).
The outer covering of the Tabernacle was of " goat's hair," i.e.t
of a textile fabric woven from the soft under-hair of the Syrian
goat. This fabric is not found in Egypt where there was no
occasion for it, since the Egyptians do not seem to have made
any use of tents. The art of weaving such a cloth was probably
brought by the Israelites with them into Egypt from their Syrian
and Palestinian homes. It is an art well known to all the wan
dering tribes of Mesopotamia and Arabia, and is almost a
necessity of their existence.
The Egyptians are said by Herodotus to have embroidered
some of their linen fabrics with gold thread and with cotton ; '
and woollen fabrics ornamented with embroidered patterns have
been occasionally found in the tombs. It was thus quite within
the competency of the Hebrews, as being familiar with the arts
of Egypt, to embroider the ephod of the High Priest with gold
(Exod. xxviii. 6), and the " curious girdle " with " needlework "
of an artistic character (ver. 39), as well as to work (or perhaps
weave) figures of cherubim into the covering (Exod. xxvi. 1) and
the veil (ver. 31) of the Tabernacle.
The tanning and dyeing of leather was also known to the
Egyptians. The bottoms of the chairs which have come down
to our day are frequently " of tanned and dyed leather," cut into
straps and intertwined or plaited together. Leathern straps are
also found " crossing the shoulders and the breasts of mummies,"
and " stamped at the ends with the names and figures of kings
of the twentieth and following dynasties." Leather was likewise
employed in the construction of chariots, as well as for caps, for
aprons, and for sandals. Thus the Israelites may well have
carried with them out of Egypt a certain number of " rams'
skins dyed red," such as they are reported to have offered (Exod
xxxv. 23) towards the construction of the Tabernacle.
Much attention had been paid in Egypt from a very early
date to the cutting, polishing, and engraving of gems. The
1 Herodotus, iii. 47.

HEBREW ART IN MOSES' TIME. l6j
haidest class of stones, such as the diamond, the ruby, the
emerald, the sapphire, the topaz, and the chrysoberyl, seem to
have defied their efforts ; and, at any rate, no proof has come
down to us that they had the power of cutting the gems
mentioned. But they dealt freely with stones of the second
degree of hardness — e.g. the amethyst, the garnet, the carnelian,
the jasper, and with haematite, porphyry, lapis lazuli, green
felspar, obsidian, serpentine, and steatite. These they both cut
into amulets and ornaments, and also set in finger rings, arm
lets, bracelets, earrings, &c. They also frequently engraved
these gems either with the names and titles of kings, or with
their own names, or with images or emblems of deities. Among
the engraved gems are the carnelian, the yellow jasper, green
felspar, serpentine, basalt, porphyry, steatite, and steaschist.
Bezaleel, the chief artificer of the Tabernacle, was especially
skilled in "the cutting of stones," and the "setting" of them
(Exod. xxxv. 33). It is difficult to say what exact stones were
employed in the ornamentation of the dress of the High Priest
The two large shoulder ornaments seem certainly to have been
either onyxes or sardonyxes, both of them stones tolerably easy
to engrave, and found of a sufficiently large size to answer the
description of Exod. xxviii. 9-12. The fact that these stones
are not among those known to have been made use of by the
Egyptians is not very important, since they were common in
Arabia, and may have been obtained by Moses from Arab
traders, whom the presence of the children of Israel in the
Sinaitic Peninsula, and their known wealth, would naturally
have attracted. The gems of the priestly breast-plate (vers.
17-20) are exceedingly difficult to determine. According to
the Authorised Version, they included the topaz, the emerald,
the sapphire, and the diamond ; but modern critics do not allow
these renderings. It is most probable that the twelve gems
were the sard, the chrysolite, the beryl, the carbuncle, the
lapis lazuli, the onyx, the jacinth, the agate, the amethyst, the
turquoise, the sardonyx, and the jasper. All these stones are
fairly easy to engrave, and Arabia could furnish by far the
greater number of them. The Sinaitic peninsula itself had
turquoise mines, and sards, onyxes, agates, jaspers, amethysts,
carbuncles, and lapis lazuli are either Arabian products or known
to have been common in Egypt
Gem-engraving had been practised in Egypt from the lime of

164 MOSES.
the fourth dynasty, and was in much favour under the Pharaohs
of the nineteenth. It is thought to have been effected by mean*
of bronze tools assisted with emery powder. Bezaleel no doubt
learnt the art in one of the Egyptian towns, Heliopolis, or Tanis,
or Memphis, and brought with him the materials necessary for
the exercise of his art when he quitted the Egyptian territory.
If he was, as perhaps he was, a jeweller by trade in Egypt, he
may have himself supplied the greater number of the breast
plate stones.
The Egyptians had studied the confection of spices from a
very early date in connection with the embalming of human
bodies. Herodotus says that, in the best kind of embalming,
after taking out the intestines, they filled the cavity of the belly
with a mixture of " the purest bruised myrrh, of cassia, and of
every other kind of spicery except frankincense." * They were
also very choice in the unguents which, while alive, they applied
to their persons, and the toilet table was commonly covered
with a great variety of jars, vases, basins, and boxes, which
contained ointments, unguents, and cosmetics variously com
pounded. Bezaleel, who appears to have been a universal
genius, added to his other kinds of knowledge an acquaintance
with "the art of the apothecary" (Exod. xxx. 25, 35, xxxvii. 29),
and compounded a " holy anointing oil " and an " incense of
sweet spices," which were equal probably, though perhaps
not superior, to the confections known in Egypt. His "holy
anointing oil " was composed of one-third myrrh, one-third
cassia, one-sixth cinnamon, one-sixth sweet calamus, and an
uncertain quantity of oil olive. His "incense of sweet spices"
contained equal quantities of frankincense, galbanum, gum
storax, and onycha. The component elements were, in both
cases, prescribed to him by Moses, after the command of
God, but the method of preparation seems to have been left
to himself, and here he would naturally fall back upon the
knowledge which he had acquired in Egypt from the Egyptian
" apothecaries." Altogether, the Hebrew art of the time of Moses is clearly,
in the main, based upon the art of the Egyptians. It is more
contracted than that art, since many of the objects which the
Egyptians most highly valued were either contemned by the
Hebrews or unsuited to their life in the wilderness. As wanderers,
¦ Herodotus, ii. 86.

HEBREW ART IN MOSES' TIME. 165
the Hebrews could have no architecture, properly so-called, and
therefore no painting and no sculpture. The Tabernacle was
not a temple but a tent, as the name implies, and followed the
laws of tent-construction in general. The Hebrews had never
used chariots in Egypt, and did not adopt them till the time
of Solomon (1 Kings x. 26). They had no need of costly
and elaborate furniture, and therefore despised the Egyptian
upholstery. They do not appear to have either practised, or
valued, glass-blowing, or enamelling, or the production of arti
ficial pastes in imitation of gems, or the making of wigs, or of
delicate porcelain fabrics, or of gold and silver vases for the
table, or of litters, or of sarcophagi. But the arts which they
employed, having been for the most part learnt in Egypt, if they
did not exactly follow the Egyptian pattern, had at any rate
more or less of an Egyptian character. The Ark, the mode
of carrying it, its overlaying with gold, the outstretched wings
of the cherubs, the preference of linen for sacred purposes,
and especially for priests' garments, the embroidering with gold
thread, the inweaving of patterns in textile fabrics, the setting
of gems in cloisonne4 work, the use of unguents, the religious
employment of incense, the fourfold arrangement of the Taber
nacle into a Court, a Porch, a Holy Place, and a Holy of Holies,
the sacred laver, the ornamentation with lilies, had all of them
their counterparts in Egypt, and recall elements more or less
essential of the Egyptian civilization. It is a strong confirmation
of the historical date assigned to the Tabernacle and its ap
purtenances in Exodus, that there are attached to it so many
Egyptian features ; for at no other time in the life of the Hebrew
naticn would it have been natural for them to conform themselves
in so many respects to " the manner of Egypt."
At the same time Hebrew art in Moses' time was far from
being a mere imitation, or continuation, of the art of Egypt.
In no case was it an exact reproduction of Egyptian models.
The Ark of the Covenant differed considerably from any
Egyptian ark. The arrangement of the wings of the cherubim
differed in one striking respect from that of the images
of Ma ; they had both wings, Ma had one wing only, elevated.
They were outside the Ark, guarding it ; Ma was inside her
ark, which guarded her. The chief features of the High Priest's
dress were altogether peculiar. The Tabernacle, though to some
extent Egyptian in arrangement, was, taken as a whole, an

(66 MOSES.
entirely novel construction, for which Egypt afforded no prece
dent. The seven-branched candlestick was wholly unlike any
known Egyptian lamp-stand. The table of shew-bread, and the
pot of manna, have no Egyptian prototypes. The goats'-hair,
and badger-skin (or sealskin) coverings of the Tabernacle have
nothing parallel to them in Egypt. The cherubic forms were
less Egyptian than Assyrian or Babylonian ; the overlaying
of wood with plates of gold instead of merely gilding was Baby
lonian ; the use of the pomegranate ornament was Assyrian ;
the use of goats'-hair Syrian or Arabian. Hebrew art was
thus, even in Moses' time, to a considerable extent eclectic— a
characteristic which clung to it, and which is especially marked
under Solomon.

CHAPTER XIV.
MOSES AS RULER.
Difficulties of the situation — Disorganization — Judges appointed by the
advice of Jethro — Perversity of the Israelites — Their constant murmur-
togs— Moses but little helped by his subordinates — Conduct of Aaron
and Miriam — Relations of Moses with Joshua and with Phinehas —
The true support of Moses, the Theocracy — Its nature — Mildness and
unselfishness of Moses.
The task of Moses, as sole ruler of the large tribe which he
had led out of Egypt, must have been one of enormous diffi
culty. He had — according to the existing text — to provide
for the welfare of above two millions of souls. Even if we
regard the numbers of the text as corrupted, and reduce each
of them by a figure, so as to substitute for the grand total of
two millions and a half the comparatively moderate one of a
quarter of a million, still we must regard the difficulties of the
situation as extreme, and indeed as not much diminished. It
was the quality, rather than the multitude of his subjects, that
constituted the weight of his burden. Recently a horde of
serfs, the greater part of them ignorant, uneducated, debased
by their long servitude, without national spirit, without lofty
aspirations, slaves mostly of their carnal appetites, fickle,
childish, impulsive, they were as intractable a race, one as
difficult to direct and govern, as was ever committed to the
charge of an individual. They had, it must be remembered,
next to no institutions. "Elders" indeed there were, heads ot
families, or head-men of villages, who had been allowed by the
Pharaohs to exercise a certain amount of authority over theii

168 MOSES.
fellow-countrymen. But the organization had been of the
loosest kind, the authority vague and indefinite, its source
problematical, its extent uncertain. And the circumstances of
the time had been such as to weaken if not destroy it. Slaves,
in the first burst of their emancipation, are apt to throw ofl
restraints, to disown subjection to any kind of authority, and to
regard it as the first of their newly-gained privileges, that they
are entitled to do what is right in their own eyes. If the
authority of the head-men had been still acknowledged at the
moment of the exodus, in the gathering and on the march,
while there was still something to be feared from Pharaoh and
his host, yet after the passage of the Red Sea it would have
been likely to fall into abeyance. Danger had disappeared; the
open desert invited to freedom ; the simplicity and regularity of
the daily life seemed to render control unnecessary. When Jethro
visited his brother-in-law at Rephidim, after the defeat of the
Amalekites, he found the Israelites a disorganized mass, and
the sole authority over them that of Moses, who was accepted
as Leader, Ruler, Guide, and Judge, and was without any
recognized assistants.
In this condition of affairs Jethro recognized very great
inconvenience. Moses, he saw, was wearing himself out by
undertaking more than any single man could perform satisfac
torily (Exod. xviii. 1 8). He superintended the whole machinery
of government. He judged causes all day long, and yet could
not keep pace with the number of causes that were always
arising. He was becoming exhausted, and still was not fully
contenting the people. Jethro suggested to him a division of
labour. He set before him the Arabian system of " rulers and
judges, of elders or sheikhs, that still forms the constitution of
the Arabs of the peninsula ; " * and " Moses hearkened to the
voice of his brother-in-law, and did all that he had said"
(ver. 24). The plan suggested was, that Moses should "choose
out of all Israel able men, and make them heads over the
people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties,
and rulers of tens" (ver. 25). Causes were to be judged in
the first instance by the " rulers of tens," from whom there
was to be an appeal to the "rulers of fifties," from them to
the "rulers of hundreds," and then finally to the "rulers of
thousands." Difficult causes, which the " rulers of thousands "
« Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 144.

MOSES AS RULER. l6g
felt themselves incompetent to decide, were to be reserved for
the judgment of Moses. Moses adopted the advice, and "out
of this simple arrangement sprang the gradations that we trace
long afterwards in the history of the Hebrew commonwealth." *
Moses seems to have given the nomination to the people, but
to have reserved the right of appointment for himself (Deut. i.
13-15). The organization thus established was at once civil and
military. The officers appointed judged causes, and also exer
cised a general superintendence, being "elders" in their civil,
and " captains " in their military, capacity. The arrangement,
on the whole, was suitable, and gave satisfaction, thus removing
one of the many difficulties which beset the path of Moses as
a ruler at this period.
But the chief difficulties were untouched by it. They arose
from the temper of the people, from their childishness, their
excitability, their want of balance, and their want of any real
earnest faith in God. Every difficulty struck them as insur
mountable ; every trial caused them to despair, and to wish that
they had never quitted Egypt. So it was in the cul-de-sac by
the Red Sea, when they reproached Moses with having carried
them forth out of the country, and declared that it would have
been better for them to have continued to serve the Egyptians
(Exod. xiv. 11-12). So it was again in the wilderness of Sin,
when they first began to feel a difficulty with respect to food.
" Would to God," they said, " that we had died by the hand of
the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots,
when we did eat bread to the full ; for ye have brought us forth
into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger "
(Exod. xvi. 3). So it was once more at Rephidim, when for the
first time there was no water. " The people murmured against
Moses and said, Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought us
up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst?" (Exod. xvii. 3). Again, at Sinai, Moses has left them
but for a few short weeks, when the despairing cry arises: "Up,
make us a god, which shall go before us ; for as for this Moses,
the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot
not what is become of him " (Exod. xxxii. 1). They have not
fed on the manna for much more than a year, when a disgust
takes them at the uniformity of their diet, and its want of
solidity ; so they " wept, and said, Who shall give us flesh to
1 Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 144.

170 MOSES.
eat ? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely;
the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions,
and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away; there is
nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes " (Numb. xi.
4-6). Later, when the spies came back from searching the
land, and gave an evil report, " all the congregation lifted up
their voice and cried, and the people wept that night, and all
the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against
Aaron ; and the whole congregation said unto them, Would
God that we had died in the land of Egypt 1 or, Would God we
had died in this wilderness ! and wherefore hath the Lord
brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives
and our children should be a prey ? Were it not better for us
to return to Egypt ? And they said one to another, Let us
make us a captain, and let us return into Egypt " (Numb. xiv.
1-4). It is needless to pursue the history. The whole history
of Israel in the wilderness is one of murmurings and rebelliops,
whereby they repeatedly provoked God so that He would have
destroyed them, if Moses had not interceded on their behalf,
Never was a civil ruler more tried by the perversity of his
subjects than Moses during the forty years' wanderings in the
desert. And in his troubles he had little human help. Jethro indeed
gave him wise counsel and did him right good service at
Rephidim (Exod. xviii. 14-23) ; and Hobab, probably Jethro's
brother, was " as eyes " to him in the later wanderings, giving
him all needful topographical information, and perhaps notifying
the approach of Amalekites or other marauders (Numb. x. 29-32).
But of his own people there was none that lent him any valuable
aid. Aaron in the wilderness shrinks back into that subordinate
position from which he only emerged for a time in consequence
of Moses' undue diffidence. For leadership he shows no capa
city, and when entrusted with it, he at once falls into a grievous
sin, and nearly causes the destruction of the whole people
through want of faith and want of a strong firm will (Exod.
xxxii. 1-6, 21-24). He failed to restrain his two elder sons,
Nadab and Abihu, when they sinned against God by "offering
strange fire" (Lev. x. 1-3). He failed to restrain Moses at the
water of Meribah (Numb. xx. 10-13). When Moses married a
second time, and offended his sister thereby, since she lost the
first place among the women of the tribe, Aaron not only did

MOSES AS RULER. 17T
not check her, but joined with her against his brother. There
is no time of trouble or difficulty during the wanderings when
Aaron is any support or strength to Moses, with the one ex
ception of the fight with Amalek, when he assists in upholding
Moses' hands. As for Miriam, after the Thanksgiving song on
the passage of the Red Sea, she disappears from sight, and only
emerges on the occasion above referred to, when she heads the
opposition to Moses, ventures to " speak against him " and is
punished by being smitten with leprosy, which it requires the
prayer of Moses to remove (Numb. xii. 1— 13). Hur, the chief of
the elders, is, like Aaron, of use on one occasion only, when he
joins in upholding the heavy hands of the aged prophet (Exod.
xvii. 12). To only two persons in the entire host can Moses be
said to have been indebted for real valuable help and assistance
in his office of ruler. Joshua, the son of Nun, who was " his
minister," was faithful to him from first to last. Appointed to
the command against Amalek, he gained the great victory of
Rephidim. He went up with his master into the mount (Etfod.
xxiv. 13), and waited for him, it would seem in solitude, during
the weary "forty days," returning with him when he came down
(Exod. xxxii. 17). He attended on Moses in all his visits to the
Tabernacle (Exod. xxxiii. 11). He bore back a true report of
the land and people of Canaan, and interposed to check the
revolt of the people against Moses, thereby endangering his own
life (Numb. xiv. 6-10). He was with Moses when he sang his
last song (Deut. xxxii. 44). What part he took in the wars
whereby the Trans-Jordanic region passed into the possession
of Israel is uncertain ; but it can scarcely be doubted that he
gave Moses important aid in effecting that conquest.
The other Israelite from whom Moses derived some real help
was Phinehas, his great-nephew. The only son, so far as we
know, of Eleazar, Aaron's son and successor, Phinehas was,
during the lifetime of his father, " the ruler or commander of
the Levite guard,*1 and a man of indomitable zeal and energy.
When Israel in Shittim " began to commit whoredom with the
daughters of Moab,"he distinguished himself by thrustingthrough
with a javelin two of those whose guilt was the most flagrant,
without waiting to receive any direct command so to act (Numb.
xxv. 6-8), thereby stopping the plague which had already begun
among the people (Ps. evi. 30). When a priest was wanted to
•Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 227.

172 MOSES.
accompany the expedition against the Midianites, no one seemed
so fit as Phinehas for the purpose (Numb. xxxi. 1-6). Moses
must have felt that he had in Phinehas a subordinate thoroughly
to be depended on, one who might be trusted to undertake any
task that he might be set, and to act boldly on his own respon
sibility at a crisis.
But though scantly aided by man in the execution of his
difficult task, Moses had one unfailing resource. He could, and
he did continually, throughout all his troubles, turn to God.
The " theocracy " of Israel in the time of Moses was no mere
nominal and unmeaning thing, but a most important reality.
It was not a government by priests as opposed to kings ; it was
a government by God Himself as opposed to man. Moses
could and did confer directly with God on all matters of high
importance, and received instructions from Him how to act.
It was in his power, whenever he pleased, to enter into the
Tabernacle, and there converse with God face to face, as a
man speaks with his friend (Exod. xxxiii. n ; Deut. xxxiv. 10).
When the daughters of Zelophehad came to him, and desired
an inheritance among their brethren, Moses "brought their
cause before the Lord " (Numb, xxvii. 5), and received distinct
directions how to decide it. And there is ample reason to
believe that in so doing he was only following his usual practice.
In the chief troubles — the murmurings and rebellions — there
was, however, scarcely time for this formal method of consulta
tion, and a shorter one appears to have been pursued. Moses
"cried to God" from the spot where he happened to be standing
at the time (Exod. xvii. 4 ; Numb. xiv. 5,&c.),and God interposed,
and in some way or other made His will known both to him
and to the people. Or God took the matter entirely into His
own hand, and brought the people back to their obedience by a
judgment, which proceeded suddenly and without warning from
Himself (Numb. xvi. 46). What is most remarkable in the con
duct of Moses as ruler is his extreme mildness and forgivingness.
Twice only does he himself execute judgment, each time to
vindicate God's honour — once when the idolatrous orgy is going
on before the golden calf, and once again when the people have
"joined themselves to Baal-Peor" (Numb. xxv. 3). On all other
occasions the punishment comes straight from God, and Moses
in almost every instance deprecates it, intercedes with God
an behalf of the objects of it, and generally obtains a remission

Moses as ruler. 173
Me is the least exacting and the most unselfish of rulers. He
requires nothing for his own glory, no crown, no throne, no
title, no prostration, no honour. God gives him an honour, '
in the radiance of his face, and for the most part he veils
it. He asks nothing for his children. Gershom and Eliezer
do not emerge from the rank of ordinary Israelites, or obtain
the slightest privilege or precedence because they are his
sons. The priestly functions are assigned, not to them, but
to the offspring of his brother, Aaron, while his own de
scendants scarcely obtain any mention in the later history.
The leadership passes, with the full consent of Moses, to
Joshua. The aspirations of Moses are after the spiritual, not
after the temporal ; and it is in accordance with the general
tenor of his desires, that he has descended to later ages, not as
the Great Sheikh, not as the Ruler or Judge, not even as the
Law-giver, but as " Moses, the man of God" (Deut. xxxiii. 1 ;
Ps. xc. title), " Moses, the servant of the Lord " (Numb. xii. 8 ;
Deut. xxxiv. 5 ; Josh. i. 1, &c), " Moses, the Prophet, whom the
Lord knew face to face " (Deut xxxiv. 10).

CHAPTER XV.
LATER YEARS OF MOSES.
Departure of the Israelites from Sinai — Route to Kadesh-Barnea— Kibroth-
hattaavah and the troubles there — Hazeroth and the sin of Miriam-
First arrival at Kadesh — The spies and their report — The sin of the
people and the sentence on it — Israel smitten by Amalek — The thkty-
eight years of penal wandering — Israel hardened and braced by them—
Rebellion of Korah and its consequences — Return to Kadesh — Death
of Miriam — Sin of Moses and Aaron, and death of Aaron — War with
Arad — War with the Amorites — Sihon — Og — Conquest of the Trans-
jordanic region — War with Midian and Moab — Part taken in it by
Balaam — Moses at Abel-Shittim — He exhorts the people — His appoint
ment of Joshua as his successor — His injunctions respecting the Book
of the Law — His last words — The Song of Warning — The Song of
Blessing — Extracts.
When the legislation of Sinai was complete, Moses, by the
Divine command, proceeded to conduct the Israelites from the
plain Er-Rahah, at the foot of Ras-Sufsafeh, to the Holy Land.
The journey was directed, in the first instance, upon Kadesh-
Barnea (or Kadesh), the exact location of which <s uncertain.
It is not intended in the piesent sketch of Moses' Life and
Times to discuss geographical problems, much less to propound
new theories in connection with any of them. It will be enough
to point out the general direction of the route which Israel fol
lowed, and to indicate the most probable position of the chief
resting-places. Kadesh-Barnea then was clearly in the region
north-east of the wilderness of El-Tij, the tract commonly
known to the Hebrews as the " Negeb " or " South country,"
because it bordered Palestine upon the south. All the Biblical
notices tend to place it in the more eastern portion of this

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. 175
region, not far from the great valley of the Arabah. To reach
it Moses had to take his journey towards the north-east and his
earlier route would thus have lain along the valleys which lie
outside the Tij, between it and the Elanitic Gulf or eastern arm
of the Red Sea.
The first important resting-place was Kibroth-hattaavah,
either Erweis-el-Ebeirig, thirty miles north-east of Sinai, or
some spot not very distant from it. Here began the troubles of
the journey. First, complaints broke out among the people,
probably at the heat, the toil, and the privations of the march,
and these God at once punished by lightning, which fell on the
hinder part of the camp, and killed many persons ; but ceased at
the intercession of Moses (Numb. xi. I, 2). Then, a disgust fell on
the multitude at having nothing to eat but the manna day after
day — no change, no flesh, no fish, no high-flavoured vegetables,
no luscious fruits, no cucumbers or melons, no onions, or garlic,
or leeks. The people loathed the " light food," and cried out to
Moses, " Give us flesh, give us flesh, that we may eat ! " Here
for once the heroic leader seems to have despaired. What
should he do to content the cry? Should he order the slaughter
of all the flocks and herds, and thus leave the people without
offerings for sacrifice, or milk for daily use, or curds, or butter,
or cheese ? Or should he take them to the shore of the neigh
bouring sea, and set them to catch, or to purchase from the
Arab fishermen, all the fish with which the Elanitic Gulf
abounded, and so feast them on the sort of food which they
required? Or what other course should he take ? In his per
plexity he felt that the burden imposed on him was too great —
" I am not able to bear all this people alone," he said, "because
it is too heavy for me" — and he prayed that God would kill him,
that he might no longer experience such wretchedness (Numb.
xi. 4-15). The despairing cry elicited a double response. First
the seventy elders were given a portion of Moses' spirit, and
appointed to beai the burden of the people with him (ver. 17) ;
and secondly, a prodigious flight of quails was sent, on which
the people satiated their gluttonous appetite for a full month.
Then punishment fell on them ; they loathed the food which
they had desired ; it bred disease in them ; the Divine anger
aggravated the disease into a plague, and a heavy mortality
was the consequence. The dead were buried without the camp ;
and in memory of man's sin and of the Divine wrath, the name

176 MOSES.
of Kibroth-hattaavah— " the Graves of Lust "—was given to the
place of their sepulchre (ver. 34).
At the second resting-place, Hazeroth, a third trouble occurred.
Zipporah being (as is generally supposed) dead, Moses had
married again, and this time had taken to wife " an Ethiopian
woman " (Numb. xii. 1). Many of the Arab tribes were de
scended from Cush (Gen. x. 7), and thus Moses, as he traversed
the desert, might readily fall in with a tribe of Cushite Arabs,
and choose a wife from among them. No law, divine or
human, forbade such a marriage. Miriam, however, who,
on the death of Zipporah would have become the woman
of the highest dignity in the tribe, disliked the thought of
descending from her exalted position, and, having persuaded
Aaron to take part with her, assumed an attitude of coldness and
hostility to Moses. " Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses,
and said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath
he not spoken also by us ? " The claim set up seems to have
been one'of absolute equality with the true leader of the people,
and its allowance would have been destructive of Moses' just
authority, besides striking at the root of the Theocracy, which
was practically maintained solely through the right of Moses to
enter the Tabernacle, and there see and consult with God face
to face. It was a crisis which called on Moses to lay aside the
" meekness" that characterized him, and to boldly assert his
rights. But he could not bring himself so to act Nature was
too strong for him, and apparently he would have acquiesced
in the usurpation. God, however, interfered. He would not
have His "faithful servant" deposed from his high station, in
sulted, vilified, " spoken against." Miriam, therefore, as the chief
sinner, the originator of the rebellion, was suddenly stricken with
leprosy in the sight of all the congregation, and stood before
them " as one dead," with her flesh already " half consumed," a
miserable picture of disease and impurity ; loathsome to be
hold, and an object from which all instinctively shrank. Natu
rally Aaron, who was nearly as guilty, felt inexpressedly shocked,
and entreated Moses to intercede for the miserable woman,
whom God, on Moses' prayer, restored. The honour of Moses
was thus vindicated by his Almighty Master ; and the journey
of the people was continued from Hazeroth through the wilder
ness of Paran to Kadesh (Numb. xiii. 26).
The vicinity of the Holy Land was now reached. The wan-

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. 177
derings seemed to be approaching their close. Within fifteen
months of their quitting Egypt, the Israelites had arrived at the
south-eastern edge of the Negeb, and were probably within fifty
miles of Beersheba, and within about the same distance from
the southern shores of the Dead Sea. It was full summer, pro
bably about the end of July or the beginning of August (ver. 20).
Palestine might at once have been occupied, or its conquest at
any rate commenced, if the people had had faith. But, on the
near approach of danger, their hearts failed them, and they ex
pressed to Moses their desire of sending men to bring a report
concerning the land and its inhabitants before they ventured on
invasion (Deut. i. 22). As the request seemed not wholly unrea
sonable, it was granted ; and the " twelve spies " went up to
search out the land, and bring word concerning it, what it was,
whether good or bad, fat or lean ; and concerning the people,
whether they were strong or weak, few or many, and whether
they dwelt in cities, or in tents, or in strongholds (Numb. xiii.
18-20). On the return of the "twelve," a double report was
made. It was generally agreed that the land was " a good land,"
" a land which flowed with milk and honey." Joshua and Caleb
maintained that there would be no difficulty in conquering it,
while the remainder of the spies represented the difficulties as
enormous and insuperable. The cities, they said, were "very
great," " walled up to heaven," and the people were " men of a
great stature," " taller and stronger" than the Israelites, "giants"
many of them, " sons of Anak," compared with whom the
Hebrews were but "as grasshoppers" (vers. 31-33). It need
not surprise us that the people, already hesitating, accepted the
discouraging report, and gave themselves up to despair. They
had come all the long weary way from Egypt, four hundred miles
at least by the route which they had followed, in the hope of
possessing themselves easily of the land promised to them ; and
now it appeared that the possession would be hotly disputed,
and that instead of effecting a rapid conquest, they would pro
bably " fall by the sword," and their wives and children " be a
prey " (Numb. xiv. 3). The prospect was too bitter. It caused
them for a brief space to waver in their allegiance to Moses.
The cry arose — "Let us make a captain, and let us return to
Egypt." In vain did Joshua and Caleb endeavour to " still the
people," and to persuade them that the Canaanites were not so
greatly to be feared ; that with God's blessing the land might

178 MOSES.
be conquered, and the conquest might not even be very difficult
The people would not listen, and were on the point of stoning
them to death (ver. 10), when God intervened. " The glory of
the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before
all the children of Israel." A death sentence was pronounced,
and the execution was begun — the faithless and untruthful spies
were smitten by a plague, and died suddenly (ver. 37) — the fate
of the people trembled in the balance, when once more Moses
interceded and prevailed. God modified the death sentence
into one of simple exclusion from Palestine, and condemned the
rebels to an aimless wandering for thirty-eight more years in the
wilderness, until the whole guilty generation of those who had
murmured and rebelled should have died out and their place
have been taken by their children.
But,before the wanderings recommenced, the Israelites caused
Moses a fresh trouble, and gave another specimen of their per
versity. Having first sinned by too much^ distrust and-timidity,
they would set tne~"6aIaanTe~;straight by sinning a^second.time
through too much boldness and self-confidence. God had com
manded a backward movement by way of the "wilderness of
the Red Sea" (ver. 25). In the teeth of this order, they would
go up from Kadesh-Barnea to the higher region of the Negeb,
and there attack the tribes in possession and seek to occupy
their country. Moses warned them that the attempt would fail,
and that they would be " smitten before their enemies ; " but
they would not listen to him. They " presumed to go up into
the hill country," without the Ark of God, and without the sanc
tion of Moses ; and the result was as he had prophesied. Their
old enemy, the Amalekites, and the other Canaanitish tribes of
the district, resisted them and inflicted on them a severe defeat—
they were "smitten" and "discomfited, even unto Hormah"
(ver. 45).
The wanderings were now resumed. It is impossible to follow
them. Seventeen stations are mentioned, where the ark rested
for a while between the departure from Kadesh-Barnea and the
return to it (Numb, xxxiii. 19-36). Most of these stations are
wholly unknown, and can only be located conjecturally, either
in the Tij, or in the tract between the Tij and the eastern shore
of the Elanitic Gulf. The history during the period of thirty-
eight years is almost a blank. Moses passes it over as a dreary
time, during which no progress was made — "a period of reaction,

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. I7g
and contradiction, and failure." * It was not, however, entirely
sterile of results. During the whole of it the nation was under
going a discipline, and becoming stronger, hardier, worthier.
The slave temper was passing away ; the actual slaves, timid
and sensual, that had come out of Egypt were dying off, their
deaths divinely hastened (Numb. xiv. 32-35), and were being
replaced by a generation of a firmer fibre, bred up in the bracing
air of the desert, in simple habits, with healthful surroundings,
and under the influence of a pure and spiritual religion. Further,
it may well be that during the time they had encounters, per
haps frequent encounters, though they are not mentioned, with
the native tribes of the desert — Sati, Mentu, Amalekites,
Amorites, and others. The Amalekite victory, recorded in
Numb. xiv. 45, must have greatly encouraged the tribes gener
ally to offer a resistance ; and we may be tolerably sure that
they did not allow their best lands to be occupied year after
year by an alien race, without venting on the intruders that ill-
will, which is always felt by nomads against those who interfere
with pastures which they consider their own. The passage of
'in alien tribe bent on making their way rapidly from Egypt to
Palestine might have been borne ; but when the tribe seemed to
settle down permanently in the eastern portion of the peninsula,
and to make itself a home there, which is what the Israelites
did, jealousy must necessarily have been aroused, and the en
forcement of proprietary rights must have led, at any rate, to
occasional collisions.
A very few events are distinctly assignable to this period. The
most important is the joint rebellion of the two tribes, Reuben
and Levi. Korah, a Kohathite Levite, first cousin to Moses and
Aaron, together with Dathan, Abiram, and On, three chiefs of
Reuben, persuaded their fellow-tribesmen to rise up in revolt
against Moses, and to question the very basis of his authority.
The Reubenite chiefs, no doubt, intended to assert the right of
their tribe, as the eldest born of Israel, to hold the reins of civil
government, while Korah, and the Levites who abetted him,
disputed the claim of Aaron and his sons to the special privi
leges of the priesthood. An insolent demeanour was assumed ;
disrespectful language was used ; the commands of Moses were
disobeyed and openly set at nought ; and a condition of things
was brought about, which, if unchecked, would have resulted in
* Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church,'' vol. i. p. 180.

I So MOSES.
absolute anarchy and confusion. Moses, under the circum
stances, did not attempt to punish the rebels himself, but made
appeal to Jehovah. Korah and his company should take censers
and put incense in them, and approach near to the Tabernacle to
perform the prAesAJy duiv of offering it, and they should see
whether God would accept tflis'ir offering, and so endorse their
claim, or whether He would reject it. Dathan and Abiram were
summoned to attend and see what would happen ; but they re
fused and remained at their tent doors, with their adherents.
Hereupon there fell upon the rebels a double punishment. Moses
having first warned the congregation to remove from the vici
nity of the Reubenite leaders' tents, the earth suddenly gaped
and swallowed up the ringleaders and those about them, while
at the same time a fire burst forth from the Tabernacle of the
congregation, and utterly consumed the ambitious Levites who
were gathered in front of it to offer their incense (Numb. xvi.
1-35). Their censers were collected by the order of Moses, and
made into "broad plates for a covering of the altar," as a
memorial of the transaction, and a solemn warning to future
generations, that they might not "perish in the gainsaying of
Korah" (Jude, ver. 13).
The partial rebellion of these two tribes was followed by a
general outburst of discontent, which brought once more into
'eopardy the very existence of the Hebrew nation. " On the
morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the
people of the Lord" (Numb. xvi. 41). The Divine anger was
necessarily provoked by the senseless and blasphemous charge,
which attributed to Moses and Aaron as a crime what God had
done by way of just punishment ; and the complete destruction
of the entire congregation would have followed, had not Moses
again promptly interposed. Moses ordered an atonement to be
made ; and it was made by Aaron as quickly as was possible ; but
the plague had already gone forth, and the " murmuring " had
cost fourteen thousand seven hundred lives (Numb. xvi. 49).
After thirty-eight years of weary wanderings, during which the
people spread themselves widely in search of pasture for their
flocks, and the tabernacle moved from place to place among
them, the pillar of the cloud once more brought the ark to
Kadesh, and there was a general collection of the congregation
to that locality (Numb. xx. 1). During the stay here Miriam

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. l8l
died. It was the first loss from among his own kith and kin, so
far as we know, that Moses had suffered, the first break in the
small family circle which had come with him out of Egypt.
Miriam must have been an aged woman, a hundred and thirty
years old or more. Her sisterly duties had been faithfully dis
charged, except on one occasion (Numb. xii. i) ; and Moses
must have severely felt her loss. It is among the chief griefs of
old age, that the friends of our youth drop off one by one, and
leave us more and more companionless, until at last we are
wholly solitary. Moses, according to Josephus, mourned for
Miriam during the space of thirty days, and honoured her with
a costly public funeral, in which all the people took part' Her
grave, according to him, was on the summit of a hill called Sin,
which must have been in the near vicinity of Kadesh, though
later tradition places it not far from Petra.2
Another death followed shortly that of Miriam. During the
stay at Kadesh, which was of many months' duration, the springs
of -the neighbourhood had proved insufficient for the collected
nation, and fresh murmurings having arisen, Moses and Aaron
had been commanded to give the people to drink by " speaking
to the rock before their eyes," which would then gush out with
abundant water, sufficient both for the congregation, and for
their cattle. In their method of carrying out this command,
Moses and Aaron alike offended God. Instead of giving Him
the glory, and " sanctifying Him in the eyes of the people of
Israel," they took the credit of the action to themselves, as
though it was done by their own power and will. " Hear
now," they said, " ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of
this rock ? " And then, instead of " speaking to the rock " in
God's name, Moses angrily " smote it twice," as though to com
pel it to give up its treasures. For this misconduct, this " un
advised speaking " (Ps. evi. 33) and rash action, a sentence was
at once pronounced upon both — " Because ye believed Me not
to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye
shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have
given them" (Numb. xx. 12) ; and, a little later, the further
announcement was made with respect to Aaron — "Aaron shall
be gathered unto his people ; he shall not enter into the land
which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye re-
* Josephus, " Ant. Jud.," iv. 4, § 6.
* Jerome, " Onomasticon," ad voc. Cades-Barne.

1 82 MOSES.
belled against My word at the waters of Meribah " (Numb, xx,
24). The Israelites had reached Mount Hor at this time — pro
bably Jebel Madurah," and there, " in the top of the mount,"
having first transferred his priestly garments to his son Eleazar
in the sight of all the people, Aaron died — the first, and perhaps
the saintliest of the long line of high priests, passed away, for
bidden to enter the Promised Land, but allowed to see its outer
most skirts, and to die with his eye resting upon those northern
hills, behind which lay Hebron, and Jebus, and the Dead Sea,
and the rich Jordan valley, and the land flowing with milk and
honey, the land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig-trees,
and pomegranates — the land whose stones were iron, and out of
whose hills men might dig brass (Deut. viii. 8, 9). Aaron, like
Miriam, was mourned for thirty days (Numb. xx. 29).
The Great Leader was now left alone — " the youngest, the
greatest, and the only remaining child of the family of Amram."'
He was alone, and he must have known that his career drew
towards its close ; but his spirit was undaunted. Physically and
mentally he retained his vigour — " his eye was not dim, neither
his natural force abated " (Deut. xxxiv. 7). It is in the final year
of his life that he renews those military glories which had gilded
his early manhood, and becomes the successful commander in
three great wars, and the conqueror of Eastern Palestine. As
the forty years of enforced wandering (Numb. xiv. 34) approached
their term, the march on Palestine had to be resumed, and
various hostile nations had to be encountered one after another.
The first struggle seems to have been with Arad, a Caananite
monarch, whose country was probably the tract about the
modern Tel Arad, which is between Beersheba and the southern
end of the Dead Sea. If Mount Hor is Jebel Madurah, and if
Israel had advanced thither in expectation of being permitted to
pass through the Edomite territory, we can understand that
Arad would be alarmed, and would imagine that his country was
about to be invaded. He therefore, it would seem, took the
offensive (Numb. xxi. 1), attacked Israel, and at first gained
some advantage, but was shortly afterwards delivered into their
hand, his land ravaged, and Lis cities utterly destroyed"
(ver. 3).
The next war was with the Amorites. Forbidden bj the
1 See Dr. Trumbull's "Kadesh-Barnea,"' pp. 127-139.
* Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church,'' vol. i. p. 185.

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. 1 83
Eaomites to traverse their country, the Hebrews retired south
ward, and avoiding Edomite territory, marched from Mount
Hor to Ezion-Geber, at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, and
rounding the granite range of Mount Seir, passed by the Wady
I than along its eastern flank, till they reached a tract of country
which the Amorites had recently taken from the people of Moab.
The tract was that between the Arnon and the Jabbok, to the
east of the Red Sea and of the Lower Jordan, a highland region
of extreme fertility, consisting of " a wide tableland tossed about
in wild confusion of undulating downs, clothed with rich grass
throughout," ' and in spring waving with great sheets of wheat
and barley, in summer and autumn bringing to perfection vast
quantities of grapes. Here, encamped upon the Arnon (Numb.
xxi. 13), Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites,
asking a passage through his country, which was refused. Wai
followed. Sihon gathered together his forces at Jahaz, a strong
city not far north of the Arnon, " on the confines of the rich pas
tures of Moab and the desert whence the Israelites emerged,"
and offered battle to the Israelites, which they were not slow to
accept. Israel began the attack. Charging the Amorites with
great force and courage, they almost immediately produced
among them a panic terror, which threw the whole host into
disorder. Sihon was seized with alarm, and regretted that he
had not stood on the defensive behind the strong walls of his
numerous towns. The Israelites, seeing theiradvantage, pressed
on with vigour ; " their slingers and their archers, afterwards sc
renowned, now first showed their skill." * Sihon fell ; the army
broke up and fled, pursued by their active foe, who allowed them
no respite. Some of the fugitives broke off from the main body,
and made for the nearest cities, but were mostly shot down ere
they could reach them. Those who kept together, retreating
hastily under a hot sun, suffered greatly from thirst, and at last
coming upon a watercourse, descended into it to drink, and, like
the Athenians in their flight from Syracuse, were slaughtered in
the bed of the stream. The army was not only defeated but
annihilated. There wis no more resistance. The entire
country between the Amon and the Jabbok submitted to the
conquerors ; the cities opened their gates, " Heshbon, and its
daughters," Jahaz, and Dibon, and Medeba, and Elealeh, and
¦ Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," p. 314.
¦ Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. L p. 213.

1 84 MOSES.
Baal-meon, and Kir-hareseth, and Horonaim (Numb. xxi. 24,
25). No wonder that a song of triumph went up from the
triumphant host —
" We have shot at them : Heshbon is perished ;
We have laid them waste, even unto Nophab ;
With fire : even unto Medeba.'' «
After the defeat of Sihon, and the conquest of the entire tract
between the Arnon and the Jabbok, a war followed with Og, who
had been Sihon's ally, and who was, like him, an Amorite
(Deut. iii. 8). Og"s territory was the far-spreading and delightful
region, known as Bashan, which reached from the Jabbok upon
the south to the flanks of Hermon upon the north, and extended
eastward so as to include the Ledja, or district of Argob, which
is a stony tract, rising suddenly from the fertile plain — formed of
a sort of " ocean of basaltic rocks and boulders, tossed about in
the wildest confusion, and intermingled with fissures and crevices
in every direction." * Bashan, apart from Argob, is a rich and
well-wooded country, abounding with forests of oak and other
trees, and producing abundant wheat, barley, and olives. It is
the most picturesque portion of the Holy Land. " The traveller
rides up and down deep concealed dells, sometimes by a track
meandering along the banks of a brook, with a dense fringe of
oleanders shading it from the sun, and preventing summer
evaporation, while they waste their perfume on the desert air
without a human inhabitant near. Lovely knolls and dells open
out at every turn, gently rising to the wooded plateau above.
Then we rise to higher ground, and ride through noble forests of
oak : then for a mile or two through luxuriant green corn ; or
perhaps through a rich forest of scattered olive-trees, left un-
tended and uncared for, with, perhaps, patches of corn in the
open glades." 3
Og, according to Josephus,4 was coming to the aid of Sihon
when he heard of his defeat and death. If so, he must have re
treated in some alarm to his stony citadel of Argob ; for it seems
to have been there that he made his stand. Moses had been
instructed by God to invade Bashan, and promised complete
success (Numb. xxi. 34). In reliance on this promise he marched
¦ See the Septuagint Version of Numb. xxi. 3a
¦ Porter, in Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," vol. L p. 104.
s Tristram, " Bible Places," p. 322,
* Josephus, "Ant. Jud." iv. 5, § 3.

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. 185
into the heart of the country, and found Og with his army posted
at Edrei, in a very advantageous position. Edrei occupies a rocky
promontory, which projects from the south-west corner of the
Ledja into the plain. It is without water and without access,
excepting over rocks and through defiles almost impracticable.
Many of the old houses still remain — they are of great strength,
low, massive, and gloomy. Moses,however, persevered. Though
Og was by repute " of the sons of the giants," and of a stature
rarely attained by man, while his subjects were probably also to a
large extent of the primitive gigantic race, he yet proceeded to
the attack. How he overcame the obstacles, we do not know,
but the result of his assault was a complete victory ; the greater
part of the Amorite army perished ; Og and his sons perished
with them ; Edrei was taken ; and the whole kingdom shortly
overrun. There were within its limits sixty cities, all of them
" fenced with high walls, gates, and bars (Deut. iii. 5), beside
unwalled towns a great many." These Moses took and " utterly
destroyed ; " at the same time, by Divine command, extermi
nating the inhabitants (ver. 6).
The Trans-Jordan ic region was thus conquered, with the excep
tion of the Moabite territory south of the Arnon, and extending
thence along the shores of the Dead Sea to the Lower Jordan
valley, of the Ammonite country further to the east, and of some
scattered settlements of the Midianites. Whether the original
intention of Moses was, or was not, to occupy this country, is
not apparent, but, at any rate, he was induced to agree to its
occupation by the representations of the Reubenites and Gadites,
who pointed out that it was especially suited to them on account
of their wealth in cattle. Having pledged them solemnly to
take full part in the conquest of Western Canaan, notwithstand
ing their eastern location, he assigned the district to them, join
ing with them, however, as needed for the full occupation of the
district, one-half of the tribe of Manasseh (Numb, xxxii. 1-40).
The last war of Moses was with the Midianites, or, perhaps it
should be said, with the Midianites, supported by the Moabites.
The relations of the Israelites with the Moabites had from first to
last been strained. Moses had received an express command from
God not to invade their territory, or contend with them in battle,
since they were " children of Lot," and thus a kindred race to
Israel (Deut. ii. 9). He had therefore skirted their country, as
he had the country of the Edomites, leaving it on his left hand

186 MOSES.
as he marched to the banks of the Arnon, on his way to invade
the territory of Sihon, recently Moabite, but, at the time of his
invasion, Amorite. Moab had seen his advance with displeasure ;
and the king of Moab at the time, Balak the son of Zippor, had
sent into Mesopotamia, and hired a soothsayer, on whom he
placed great reliance, hoping to induce him to lay the people
of Israel under a curse, and intending in that case to attack
them and " drive them out of the land " (Numb. xxii. 5, 6). But
the soothsayer, Balaam the son of Beor, proved intractable.
He was a man of that strangely mixed character, which from
time to time passes across the stage of history, " combining the
purest form of religious belief with a standard of action im
measurably below it ; " * anxious for worldly advancement, but
unable to bring himself to overstep manifestly the restraints of
law and conscience ; always repining and seeking to reconcile
his private interest with the rule of right ; self-deceived, and
gradually led on to the commission of grievous sins, from which
his better nature would have shrunk, had he viewed them in
their true light. Solicited by two embassies, he consents after
a time to draw near to the temptation, and then he proceeds to
coquet with it, to dally with it, to endeavour as it were to cir
cumvent the Deity, and to find a way of doing what the monarch
who has sent for him desires without directly giving the lie tc
his internal spiritual impulses and Divine enlightenment. In
this he fails. "The irresistible force of the prophetic impulse
overpowers the baser spirit of the individual man."* The
Divine message forces its way, and is delivered whether he will
or no. Hired to curse Israel, he is compelled to bless them
altogether — to "lift up his voice" and cry — "How goodly are
thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel 1 As the
valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as
the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, as cedars
beside the waters. Water shall flow from his buckets, and his
seed shal5 be in many waters ; and his king shall be higher than
Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him
forth out a Tgypt ; he hath as it were the strength of a wild
bull : he shall eat up the nations that are his enemies ; he shall
break their bones in pieces ; and pierce them through with his
arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion ; (he lay down) as
« Stanley "Lectures on the Jewish Church," tai. i. p. 191.
¦ Ibid., p. 196.

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. l8j
¦ lioness ; who shall stir him up ? Blessed be he that blesseth
thee, and cursed be he that curseth thee I " (Numb. xxiv.
5-9)- Reluctantly, Balak gave up the idea of himself attacking the
host of Israel with his army, and descended to a lower and baser
form of hostility. By the advice of Balaam (Numb. xxxi. 16) he
drew the Israelites into sin, tempted them to join in the Moabite
and Midianite idolatries, and then to engage in those licentious
orgies, with which the idolatries of the East were always so
intimately connected. Israel fell into the snare ; and the result
was that terrible plague which cost the lives of twenty-four thou
sand of the people, whereto the zeal of Phineas put a stop.1 It
was to avenge this successful plot that the last war of Moses
was undertaken. The Divine command still protected Moab ;
but Midian, which had been Moab's tool, received the chastise
ment that both had deserved, and suffered a fearful retribution.
The war had the character of a sacred war. Of every tribe
throughout all the tribes of Israel one thousand warriors were
taken, perhaps by lot, and to this small representative army
was committed the task of chastising the myriads of Midian.
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the high priest, who had already
shown his zeal against licentiousness, was appointed to accom
pany, and probably to direct, the expedition ; the ark and
"vessels of the sanctuary" (Numb. xxi. 6), went with him ; and
the sacred trumpets were blown. The Midianite army was
commanded by five chiefs, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur,
and Reba, who are all of them given the title of " king," but who
were probably heads of tribes, like Oreb, and Zeb, and Zebah,
and Zalmunna (Judges viii. 3-5). Moab perhaps sent a contin
gent under Balaam. At any rate, that arch-plotter was present,
and took part in the fight, which terminated in Midian's entire
discomfiture, in the complete destruction of the army, and in
the slaughter of the five chiefs. The great prophet of the East
was involved in their fate. "Balaam, the son of Beor, the
soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among
the rest of their slain " (Joshua xiii. 22). An enormous quantity
of spoil was taken — 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cows and oxen,
61,000 asses, and female captives to the number of 32,000—
besides a great store of gold in the shape of ankle-chains and
bracelets, of signet rings, earrings, and armlets (vers. 32-35,
1 See above, page 171.

[88 MOSES.
and 50). By Divine command the male population was
exterminated. The active work of Moses was now accomplished. Eastern
Palestine was conquered, except the Moabite and Ammonite
portions, which were reserved for the children of "just Lot ;"
and the time had come for the victorious nation to pass from
the eastern to the western region, and claim the whole wide
sweep of its inheritance. But Moses was not to go over Jordan,
and knew that he was not to go over. He was conscious that
his end approached ; and having brought the people to the very
banks of Jordan, and disposed them along its course, in the
rich valley under the eastern hills, from Beth-Jeshimoth near the
.shore of the Dead Sea to Abel-Shittim, " the acacia meadow,"
several miles higher up the stream, he prepared to bring his
life to a close with calmness, courage, and dignity, and to com
mit the task of completing his work to another.
His first care was to give injunctions to the people, and to
impress upon them, in the strongest possible way, the impor
tance of their cleaving to God, and observing all the ordinances
of the law delivered to them through him, if they would hope to
obtain the Divine blessing, and to avoid the terrible punishments
in store for the disobedient. This he did by the series of dis
courses which are recorded in the" first thirty chapters of
Deuteronomy, wherein appeal is made to every motive that
commonly exercises a constraining force upon men ; and by an
alternation of threats and promises, of appeals to gratitude, and
to reason, and to self-interest, and to the innate sense of right
and wrong, the nation is urged, persuaded, exhorted, wrought
upon, to refuse the evil and choose the good, to renounce
idolatry, impurity, and wickedness of all kinds, and to walk in
the way of the Lord, to fear Him, and to keep His command
ments. The sum is this — " See, I have set before thee this day
life and good, death and evil ; in that I command thee this day
to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His
commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments, that
thou mayest live and multiply, and that the Lord thy God may
bless thee in the land whither thou goest in to possess it. But
if thine heart turn away, and if thou wilt not hear, but shalt
be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them ; I
denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish ; ye shall
not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over

LATER YEARS Of MOSES. 1 89
Jordan to go in and possess it. I call heaven and earth to
witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and
death, the blessing and the curse ; therefore choose life, that
thou mayest live, thou and thy seed : to love the Lord thy God,
and to obey His voice, and to cleave unto Him ; for He is thy
life, and the length of thy days : that thou mayest dwell in the
land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them" (Deut. xxx. 15-20).
The next care of Moses was with respect to his successor,
Joshua had been previously, not obscurely, designated for the
post. Moses had put up a request to God, saying : " Let the
Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the
congregation, which may go out before them, and which may
come in before them : that the congregation of the Lord be not
as sheep which have no shepherd (Numb, xxviii. 16, 17) ; and
God had replied : - " Take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man
in whom is the spirit : and set him before Eleazar the priest,
and before all the congregation, and give him a charge in their
sight. And thou shalt put of thine honour upon him, that all
the congregation of the children of Israel may obey. And he
shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shalt enquire for him
by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord : at his word
shall they go out, and at his word shall they come in, both he
and all the children of Israel with him " (vers. 18-21). And Moses
had done according to the commandment of God : he had taken
Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the
congregation ; and had laid his hands on him, and given him
a charge, as the Lord had said (vers. 22, 23).
It would seem, however, that now, in the immediate prospect
of death, he gave Joshua a second charge. " Moses called
unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be
strong and of a good courage : for thou shalt go with this people
into the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to
give them ; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the
Lord, He it is that doth go before thee ; He will be with thee,
He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee ; fear not, neither be
dismayed" (Deut. xxxi. 7, 8). This was the formal delivery
into the hands of Joshua of the office of leader of the people.
It was immediately followed by a solemn confirmation of the
act by God Himself, who summoned both Moses and Joshua to
present themselves before Him in the Tabernacle of the Con

rgo MOSES.
gregation, and there ratified what Moses had done by Himself
giving Joshua his commission in the words : " Be strong and of
a good courage : for thou shalt bring the children of Israel inle
the land which I sware unto them : and / will be with thee"
(vers. 23).
Moses' third care was concerning the Book of the Law.
Moses had written the Book of the Law at various intervals in
the course of the wanderings. Either on parchment, which the
Hebrew artificers may have had the skill to prepare from the
skins of slain beasts, or on papyrus, which he may have brought
with him out of Egypt, he had noted down the several laws
delivered to him by God during the forty years of his ministry,
and had collected them into a "book" (sepher), which was
thenceforth to be the rule of their life to the people. Of this
" Book" he had hitherto been the custodian ; but, now that he
was on the point of departing, some other custodian, or cus
todians, must be found for it. It might have been expected that
he would transfer the charge, with the other duties of his office,
to Joshua ; but either this course did not approve itself to him,
or he was Divinely admonished to act otherwise. Joshua was
a soldier, not a prophet or a priest. It was fitting that the Law,
the rule of life for all, the directory for the entire ritual and
service which it was the office of the priests to perform, should
be deposited with the priestly class, but with some security that
they should not tamper with it, nor alter it, in their own interest,
or to suit their own ideas of what was right and proper. To
this end Moses provided a double security. He made the priests
the custodians of the Book in conjunction with " the elders of
Israel" (ver. 9) ; and he required that his autograph should be
" put by the side of the Ark of the Covenant " (ver. 26) ; and
that from it should be read in the ears of the whole people, once
every seven years, in the Feast of the Tabernacles, either the
whole Law, or at any rate the main precepts of it (vers. 10-13).
No better precautions could have been taken for preserving the
text in its integrity, and ensuring the transmission of the rules
of conduct, which he had been commissioned to lay down,
unaltered and unimpaired, from generation to generation.
Still, when all this was done, there seemed to be some " last
words" needed. The pastor does not readily quit his flock
without prolonged exhortation. The founder of a people or
i. state, if he has notice of his approaching end, still more

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. 191
desires to imprint his instructions and warnings on the minds
of the people whom he is leaving. Moses, deeply anxious for
his nation and impressed strongly with the feeling that after his
death they would fall away from God and "utterly corrupt
themselves," composed in the few days that remained to him,
and recited in the ears of the congregation, two splendid psalms
or " songs " — one a " song of warning," addressed to the people
collectively, and the other a " song of blessing," addressed (in
the main) to the twelve tribes severally, " correspondent and
supplementary to each other,"1 setting before the people " Life "
and " Death " — the glorious future which awaited them if they
would be faithful to God and set themselves earnestly to the
accomplishment of their national mission, and the terrible
judgments that would fall upon them if they, as he anticipated,
should apostatize, despite God's mercies to them, and provoke
the vengeance with which God was bound to visit such apostasy.
The poems are too long to be inserted here in their entirety ;
but a specimen may be given from each, which will sufficiently
indicate their style and general character :
" Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked —
Thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art become sleek :
Then he forsook the God which made him,
And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
They moved Him to jealousy with strange gods,
With abominations provoked they Him to anger ;
They sacrificed unto demons, which were no gods,
To gods whom before they knew not ;
To new gods that came newly up —
Gods, whom your fathers feared not.
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful,
And hast forgotten the God that gave thee birth ;
And when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them,
For the provoking of His sons and of His daughters :
And He said, I will hide My face from them—
I will see what their end shall be ;
For they are a very froward generation,
Children in whom there is no faith.
They have moved Me to jealousy with that which b not God ;
They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities ;
And I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people,
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
For a fire is kindled in mine anger,
1 " Speaker's Commentary," vol. L part ii. p. 930.

192 MOSES.
And burneth unto the lowest hell,
And devoureth the earth, with her increase,
And setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains.
I will heap mischiefs upon them ;
I will spend Mine arrows upon them ;
They shall be wasted with hunger,
And devoured with burning heat,
And with bitter destruction ;
And the teeth of beasts will I send ipon them,
With the poison of crawling things of the dust
Without shall the sword bereave.
And in the chambers terror ;
It shall destroy both young man and maid.
The suckling with the man of grey hairs.
I said, I would scatter them afar ;
I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among
men ;
Were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should misunderstand—
Lest they should say. Our hand is exalted.
And the Lord hath not done all this." *
The " Song of Blessing " has a prologue and an epilogue of a
general character, the "Blessing" proper being the following :
Let Reuben live, and not die ;
And let not his men be few.
And this is the blessing of Judah — He said,
Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah,
And bring him unto his people ;
Let his hands be sufficient for him,
And be Thou a help to him from his enemies.
And of Levi he said —
Thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy godly one,
Whom thou didst prove at Massah,
With whom thou strovest at the waters of Meribah ;
Who said of his father and mother, I have not seen him ;
Neither did he acknowledge his brethren ;
Nor knew he his own children :
For they have observed thy word,
And they have kept thy covenant.
They shall teach Jacob thy judgments,
And Israel shall they teach thy law :
They shall put incense before thee,
And whole burnt offerings upon thine altar.
Bless Thou, Lord, his substance ;
1 Deut. xxxii. 15-27.

LATER YEARS OF MOSES. I93
And accept the work of his hands :
Smite through the loins of them that rise against him,
And of them that hate him, that they rise not again.
Of Benjamin he said —
The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him ;
And He (i.e., the Lord) shall cover him all the day long j
And he (i.e., Benjamin) shall dwell between His shoulders.
And of Joseph he said —
Blessed of the Lord be his land,
For the precious things of heaven, for the dew.
And for the deep that coucheth beneath,
And for the precious things of the fruits of the sun.
And for the precious things of the growth of the moons,
And for the chief things of the ancient mountains,
And for the precious things of the lasting hills,
And for the precious things of the earth and its fulness,
And for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush :
Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from bis
brethren.
His firstling bullock is his glory ;
And his horns are the horns of the wild ox ;
With them shall he push all the people to the ends of the earth *
And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of Manasseh,
And of Zebulun he said : —
Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out ;
And Issachar, rejoice in thy tents.
They shall call the people unto the mountain ;
There shall they offer sacrifices of righteousness ;
For they shall suck of the abundance of the seas,
And of treasures hid in the sand.
And of Gad he said : —
Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad :
He dwelleth as a lioness,
And teareth the arm, yea, the crown of the head.
And he selected the first part for himself,
Because for him was reserved the leader's portion :
And he came, together with the heads of the people j
He executed the justice of the Lord,
And his judgments, together with Israel.
And of Dan he said : —
Dan is a lion's whelp,
That leapeth forth from Bashan.
And of Naphtali he said : —
O Naphtali, satisfied with favour.
And full with the blessing of the Lord,
Possess thou the sea and the south.
14

194 M0SE8.
And of Asher he said : —
Blessed be Asher with children ;
Let him be favoured among his brethren ;
And let him dip his foot in oil.
Thy bars shall be iron and brass ;
And as thy days, so shall thy strength be." *
• Dsat.uxiii.6-9S.

CHAPTER XVI.
MOSES' DEATH.
The ascent of Pisgah — The view from it — Hebrew legend of the dream-
stances of Moses' death — Actual circumstances unknown — Place of
sepulture unknown — Chief characteristics of Moses — His faithful ser
vice of God— His "meekness" — His trust in God— His unselfishness-
Conclusion.
Two things only now remained for Moses to do — to satisfy
his soul with the fullest sight of the Promised Land that was
possible for him under the circumstances, and to die. He might
not go over Jordan, but he might feast his eyes, and comfort his
heart, with a long, rapt, earnest gaze upon that goodly land to
which he had brought his people, and which he knew to be their
sure inheritance. He might "lift up his eyes," and look " west
ward, and northward, and southward, and eastward," and behold
" the good land that was beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain,
and Lebanon " (Deut. iii. 25, 27). So much had been granted
him, and he had been bidden to ascend into the top of Pisgah,
md thence contemplate the wondrous, the unequalled, prospect.
ft is to be remembered that though aged a hundred and twenty
years, he was in no way infirm ; " his eye was not dim, nor his
natural force abated " (Deut. xxxiv. 7). He was able, therefore,
without any extreme fatigue or exhaustion, to mount from the
low-plain of Jordan, where the host lay encamped, from ridge
to ridge, and from terrace to terrace, up the rocky range of
Moab, to the " high places " dedicated to Baal on the top of the
rocks, to the bare hill close above it — the cultivated field of the
watchmen (Zophim) on the top of Pisgah — to the peak where

196 MOSES.
stood " the sanctuary of Peor, that looketh toward the waste."
On and on, the rgsd prophet toiled upward. Scripture shuts up
the scene into the fewest, simplest words (Deut. xxxiv. 1-4) ;
but Josephus to some extent expands it, whether following tra
dition, or drawing from the stores of his own imagination, who
shall say? According to the Jewish historian, " He withdrew
from the camp amid the tears of the people, the women beating
their breasts, and the children giving way to uncontrolled weep
ing. At a certain point of the ascent, he made a sign to the
weeping multitude to advance no further, and pursued his way,
taking with him only the elders, the high priest, Eleazar, and the
general, Joshua. At the top of the mountain he dismissed the
elders, and was proceeding to embrace Eleazar and Joshua,
when a cloud suddenly covered him, srnd he vanished from their
sight in a deep ravine or gully." '
But first, he had gazed intently on the fair scene stretched
out before his view. " Beneath him lay the tents of Israel
ready for the march ; and, over against them, distinctly visible
in its grove of palm trees, the stately Jericho, key of the Land
of Promise. Beyond was spread out the whole range of the
mountains of Palestine, in its fourfold masses — " all Gilead,"
with Hermon and Lebanon in the east and north ; the hills of
Galilee, overhanging the Lake of Gennesareth ; the wide open
ing where lay the plain of Esdraelon, the future battle-field
of the nations ; the rounded summits of Ebal and Gerizim ;
immediately in front of him the hills of Judea, and amidst
them, seen distinctly through the rents in their rocky walls
Bethlehem on its narrow ridge, and the invincible fortress of
Jebus. To him, so far as we know, the charm of that view —
pronounced by the few modern travellers that have seen it
to be unequalled of its kind— -lay in the assurance that this was
the land promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to
their seed, the inheritance — with all its varied features of rock,
and pasture, and forest, and desert — for the sake of which
he had borne so many years of toil and danger, in the midst of
which the fortunes of his people would be unfolded worthily
of that great beginning. To us, as we place ourselves by his
side, the v'ew swells into colossal proportions, as we think how
the proud city of palm trees is to fall before the hosts of Israel ;
how the spear of Joshua is to be planted on height after height
" Josephus, ¦' Ant. Jud." iv. 8, § 48,

MOSES' DEATH. 197
of those hostile mountains ; what series of events, wonderful
beyond any that had been witnessed in Egypt or in Sinai,
would in after ages be enacted on the narrow crest of Beth
lehem, in the deep basin of the Galilean lake, beneath the
walls of Jebus, which is Jerusalem." *
It has been said that the sight afforded to Moses of " all
the land," " Gilead, and Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of
Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah unto the
utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho,
the city of palm trees, unto Zoar" (Deut. xxxiv. 1-3), was
" supernatural, obtained perhaps, through an extraordinary
enhancement of the dying lawgiver's power of vision." * But
there is no need of this supposition. From the highest peak of
Nebo, which seems to have borne the name of Pisgah, the
natural eye, unhelped, would have ranged over the sylvan
scenes of Gilead and Bashan, over the Ghor or Jordan valley
from end to end, over the Dead Sea and the hill-country of the
south beyond, over the Judsean upland, and over the moun
tains of Ephraim and Manasseh, would have had glimpses of
the fertile valleys which nestle among the Palestinian hills, and
have caught a sight of ancient cities crowning many a rocky
eminence. Naphtali, if not seen, would have been suggested
by the snowy peak of Hermon towering aloft in the far northern
sky ; and even " the utmost sea," though beyond bodily ken,
being shut out by the Judaean hills, would have been felt as
present beyond them at no great distance towards the west.
The whole Land of Promise was before Moses, and in the
clear atmosphere of that southern sky he would see its features
with a distinctness of which we northern islanders, who dwell
in fogs, can scarcely form a conception ; he would see and
coi lprehend how fair and " goodly " was the tract, how fitted
to teem with corr, and wine, and honey, and oil olive, and fig
trees, and pomegranates, where his people might be sure to
" eat bread without scarceness," and have " no lack of any
thing" (Deut. viii. 8, 9).
A Hebrew legend tells the tale of the actual death of Moses
as follows :
" The supreme angels were commanded to take away the
soul of Moses ; out they tarried through fear. Among
' Stanley, " Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 197.
» " Speaker's Commentary," vol. i. part ii. p. 927.

I9< MOSES.
them was Zagzagel, or Zangziel, the special teacher of
Moses, who said — 'O Lord, I was the instructor of Moses,
how can I take away the soul of my disciple?' Then the
Angel of Death was called forth, who, with the eagerness of
the Destroyer, drew his sword and approached Moses. But
he saw inscribed on his staff the Ineffable Name of the
Almighty ; he saw fiery sparks issuing from his lips, and a
wondrous lustre shining forth from his countenance. For
Moses shone like the sun, and had the appearance of an angel
of the heavenly host. Then was the Angel of Death stricken
with terror. And Moses, turning his eye upon the angel, asked
of him — ' Who sendeth thee unto me ? ' Whereto the Angel
of Death replied — ' He that hath created the world, and that
hath delivered into my hands all those who come into the
world.' Then Moses spake — ' I was gifted with the greatest
power. I was born with all the signs of a true child of
Israel, and was endowed with speech at my birth. My
mother received a recompense even for the milk wherewith
she nursed me. From the days of my childhood I was made
a prophet, being destined to receive the Law ; I wrested the
crown from the head of Pharaoh. At the age of eighty I
wrought signs and miracles ; six hundred thousand Israelites
I led out of Egypt. For them I cleft the sea, making twelve
paths. I sweetened the waters. I cut from the rock the
tables of stone, and took them up into the firmament of heaven.
Face to face I spake with the Lord of the universe. I pre
vailed over the powers that sought to rival me in the supreme
regions. It was I that received the Law. Under the dictation
of Him who inspired me, I wrote the 613 commandments, and
by my teaching enforced them. I overcame the giants, who
after the Flood had maintained their predominance. I deter
mined the motions of the sun and moon in their orbits. I have
been the mightiest of men. Thou, rebellious angel, for whom
there is no peace, begone 1 '
" And the Angel of Death fled. Then called out the mys
terious voice—' Contend not ; thy life lasteth only a short
moment.' " Again was the Angel of Death summoned to take away the
soul of Moses. But he said— 'I may deepen Gehenna into a
lower depth ; but over the son of Amram can I not prevail.
Before him I cannot stand.' His face beameth like that of a

MOSES* DRATH. I99
seraph in the heavenly chariots. His countenance shines with
Divine radiance.' And the Almighty addressed the Angel of
Death, and said — ' Thou rebellious angel, thou wert formed out
of the fire of Gehenna. Unto the fire of Gehenna thou shalt
return. Eagerly thou wentest forth 5 but when thou didst behold
the greatness of that man (i.e., Meses), thou didst shrink back
with dismay. Nevertheless, his soul shall be brought home.'
"Once more did the Angel of Death with drawn sword
approach Moses, who held in his hand the Divine staff, inscribed
with the Ineffable Name. With that staff did Moses touch the
Angel of Death ; and with a rebuke he put him to flight The
lustre of his countenance had not departed from Moses, when
for the last time there rang out the mysterious voice, exclaim
ing — 'The end of thy time hath come.' Moses stood up in
prayer and said — "Thou, Lord of the Universe, who wast re
vealed unto me in the burning bush, remember that Thou didst
carry me up into Thy heaven, where I abode forty days and
forty nights — have mercy upon me, and hand me not over into
the power of the Angel of Death.'
" His prayer was granted. Moses stood there as a seraph,
clad with heavenly majesty ; and He who ruleth in the highest
heavens Himself received the soul of Moses, who acknowledged
the benign and compassionate rule of the Creator. Moses
resigned himself to that merciful rule.
" Thus he followed the guidance of the Almighty. And three
angels, Michael, Zagzagel, and Gabriel, came to meet him,
smoothing his couch for him to lie down on ; and they placed
themselves at his right side, and his left side, and at the foot of
his couch. Then, by the heavenly command, he clasped his hands
and closed his eyes. And the Almighty called his soul, saying
unto it — 'My daughter, one hundred and twenty years were
appointed for thee to abide in the body of this righteous man.
Tarry no longer there. Thou hast arrived at thy destination.
And thou shalt be placed with me by the Throne of My Glory,
where Seraphim and Ophanim, where angels and cherubim are
enthroned.' And the soul said — ' Well was it for me to dwell
within this righteous man. Angels themselves became cor
ruptible, but this man, Moses, who was but flesh and blood, was
the purest among the pure, ever since the time when Thou didst
reveal Thyself unto him in the midst of the burning bush.'
"Then the Almighty with a Divine kiss removed the soul of

aco MOSES.
Moses. 'Moses, the servant of the Lord, died by the mouth o)
the Lord ' (Deut. xxxiv. 5). There was mourning in heaven and
mourning on earth, and sorrow prevailed everywhere on account
of Moses ; for he had proclaimed the Lord's righteousness, and
the Divine justice among the people. He had proclaimed the
knowledge of the Lord in the heavens above, and likewise on
the earth beneath ; and he had established that testimony,
whereby he transcended every other prophet in Israel There
fore he received the high praise, which crowns the conclusion of
the Divine Law."
Such is the account of the legend. The actual manner of
Moses' death must remain for ever a mystery. No eye saw it.
None knew the exact moment of it In silence and solitude, at
the top of Pisgah, alone with God, the great lawgiver, prophet,
leader, passed away — passed to the rest which he had so well
earned, not smitten by any painful disease, nor worn out by
gradual decay — but, still in the full possession of his powers,
still with none of his natural force abated, he sank to rest — he
"was not, for God took him " (Gen. v. 24). The soul fled ; the
body remained, and was buried in some strange and mysterious
way — not by Eleazar, not by Joshua — in a ravine of the moun
tain : but exactly where, no man knew. "He buried him in a
valley of the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor ; but no
man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day " (Deut. xxxiv. 6).
"The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab
thirty days" (ver. 8) ; but he had no funeral rites, no obsequies,
no monument ; and hence there could be no after growth of
loving pilgrimages, no superstitious reverence of a holy spot, no
local commemorative ceremonies. The grave on Mount Nebo
was, as is the grave of Golgotha, shrouded in thick darkness, to
after ages an unknown locality.
As Abraham receives in Scripture, as his special designation,
the title of " the Friend of God " (2 Chron. xx. 7 ; Isa. xii. 8 r
Jas. ii. 23), so Moses bears the title of "the Servant of the
Lord" (Exod. xiv. 31 ; Numb. xii. 7 ; Deut. xxxiv. 5 ; Josh.i. 1 ;
Heb. iii. 5). The special quality which this epithet marks is
his unswerving faithfulness — that absolutely unshaken fidelity
to God which characterized him throughout his entire career,
alike at Heliopolis, where he worshipped God daily outside the
walls of the city, turning towards the sun-rising; in Midian,
where he proclaimed by the name of his son that " God was his

Moses' death. 201
help" (Exod. xviii. 4); in his dealings with Pharaoh, wherein
from first to last he followed exactly all the directions that God
gave him; and in his leadership of the people, which was little
less than a constant pleading to them of God's claims, God's will
to bless, God's power to punish. Moses was " faithful to God in
all his house" (Heb. iii. 5) ; i.e., in the entire government and
administration which he exercised for forty years over Israel,
God's "house" or "household." He was ever witnessing to
them for God. " Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord "
(Exod. xiv. 13) — " the Lord shall fight for you " (Exod. xiv. 14)
— "at even ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out "
(Exod. xvi. 6) — "This is the bread which the Lord hath
given you to eat" (Exod. xvi. 15) — " Wherefore do ye tempt the
Lord ? " (Exod. xvii. 2) — " Wherefore now do ye transgress the
commandment of the Lord?" (Numb. xiv. 41) — "The Lord
your God, which goeth before you, He shall fight for you "(Deut
i. 30) — " The Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous
God" (Deut. iv. 24)— "The Lord thy God is a merciful God,
He will not forsake thee" (Deut. iv. 31) — " Thou shalt fear the
Lord thy God ; Him shalt thou name, and to Him shalt thou
cleave, and swear by His Name " (Deut. x. 20), &c. Even in the
one defection of Moses (Numb. xx. 10-13), at the waters of
Metibah, there was no conscious unfaithfulness. Moses was
wearied out — he was impatient— the perverseness of the people
had angered him — " Hear now, ye rebels," he exclaimed; " must
we fetch you water out of this rock ? " He did not mean to take
the honour to himself; but for the moment God was not in his
thoughts, and he neglected to " sanctify Him in the eyes of the
children of Israel" (ver. 12), a sin of omission for which God
punished him.
A second characteristic, and the one which is most widely
recognized, though perhaps not always quite rightly understood,
is his " meekness." The temperament of Moses was not placid
or tame. He was quickly and violently provoked by ill-doing,
when others were the object of it, and warmly resented injuries
done either to man or to God. Hence his rash act in Egypt,
when he "slew the Egyptian " (Exod. ii. 12) ; hence his chival
rous deliverance of the daughters of Reuel from the rude
Midianite shepherds (Exod. ii. 17-19) ; hence his hasty break-
ing of the Tables of the Law on his first descent from Sinai
(Exod. txxii. 19); hence his command to the Levites to take

202 MOSES.
their swords and "slay every man his brother" (Exod. xxxii.
27) ; hence his wrath against Korah and his company, who
wished to degrade Aaron (Numb. xvi. 5-15) ; hence his conduct
at " the waters of strife." It was only in his own case, when
he was individually concerned, that Moses was "meek," that he
did not resent wrong-doing, or inflict punishment on the wrong
doer. He interceded for the people and obtained their pardon,
when they rejected his authority (Numb. xiv. 4-20) ; he besought
God to heal Miriam, when her sin against him had caused her
to be smitten with leprosy (Numb. xii. 1-13). He was mild in
his rebuke of Aaron, when Aaron had grievously failed in the
trust that he had reposed in him (Exod. xxxii. 21). Once
only was he angered at a slight offered to himself, when Pharaoh
bade him " see his face no more " (Exod. x. 28 ; xi. 8) ; and we
may feel sure that his anger then was less on his own account
than on account of the insult offered to God in the person of His
messenger. Into the catalogue of Old Testament saints set forth as
examples to Christians by the writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, Moses enters by reason of his faith. " By faith
Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter " (Heb. xi. 24). " By faith he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as
seeing Him that is invisible" (ver. 27). The faith of Moses
almost never wavers. Whether Pharaoh threatens his life
(Exod. x. 28), or the Red Sea and the Egyptian host shut him
in (Exod. xiv. 9), or the people are "almost ready to stone
him" (Exod. xvii. 4), or Amalek meets him in the way and seeks
to destroy both him and his people (Deut. xxv. 17, 18), or for
the people's sin he is condemned to eight and thirty years of
aimless wandering in the wilderness (Numb. xiv. 28-35), or n>s
tribe rises up and seeks to shake off his rule (Numb. xvi. 1-32),
or his nearest and dearest forsake him (Numb xii. 1-1 1), or the
entire nation proposes to put itself under another leader (Numb
xiv. 4), or Sihon blocks his entrance into Palestine (Numb. xxi.
23), or Balak " seeks enchantments" against him (Numb. xxiv. 1),
or Og the giant comes out to battle against him at Edrei (Numb.
xxi. 33), Moses remains firm, unmoved — he has "put his trust
in God, and does not fear what flesh can do unto him ; " he is
certain that God will interpose, that He will not suffer His pur
pose to be frustrated, that He will ceme down to vindicate His

MOSES' DEATH. 20J
own honour, that nothing will be able to stand against Him.
He sets before his face always " Him that is invisible ; " in
every difficulty he flies to Him, entreats Him, beseeches Him,
implores His mercy, His protection, His gracious favour, His
forgiveness. True, his faith is sustained in a miraculous way,
so that the same strain is not put on it as on that of other men ;
tor he sees God, or at least sees " his similitude " (Numb. xii. 8),
and converses with him face to face " as a man speaketh unto
his friend" (Exod. xxxiii. u). But still his faith is something
marvellous, something almost without a parallel. It takes him
to God at every moment ; it sustains him under every trial and
disappointment ; in a lifetime of a hundred and twenty years it
fails him perhaps three or four times ; otherwise it is a constant
support and stay. To the last he has the eternal God for his
refuge, and feels underneath him the everlasting arms (Deut.
xxxiii. 27). Not even Abraham, " the father of the faithful," is
more a man of faith than he.
But of all his qualities, of all his many excellences, the most
remarkable, the most characteristic, is his unselfishness. His
own interest, his own advancement, is never his motive. He
does not seek greatness ; greatness is thrust upon him. In
Egypt, he abdicates his princely rank, and throws himself into
the almost hopeless cause of his oppressed brethren ; in Midian,
he is quite content to be a shepherd, and aims at no higher con
dition ; when the time for his call comes, all his efforts are
directed towards escaping compliance with the call ; in the early
portion of his ministry, he pushes Aaron to the front, and re
mains himself in the background ; at Sinai he declines to be put
in the position of Abraham, and to become the father of all the
faithful ; later on he prays that his name may be blotted out
from God's book rather than God's favour and guidance should
be withdrawn from the people. Forced to the front himself
when troubles thicken, he assumes no state, takes no titles of
honour, claims no position for his sons, either in his own lifetime
or afterwards ; assigns the succession to a stranger. An am-
- bitious man, a self-seeking man, would, in the position which
Moses occupied, have established a dynasty. Moses, under
Divine guidance, gave his tribe a certain pre-eminence, but
asked nothing for his descendants.
But " the meek inherit the earth " (Matt v. 5). There are
lights which, though put under a bushel, cannot be hid. Meses,

204 MOSES.
though scantly regarded during his lifetime, was to his people
after his death "the man of God" (Deut. xxxiii. i)— "the
servant of the Lord " (Deut. xxxiv. s) — the prophet like to whom
none ever after arose (ver. 10) — the "chosen one" of God
(Ps. evi. 23) — " Moses, beloved of God and men, whose me
morial is blessed " (Ecclus. xlv. 1) — " in intelligence surpass
ing all men " (Josephus, " Ant. Jud." iv. 8, § 49) — " as a
general equalled by few " (ibid.) — " great in all respects" (Philo,
ii. p. 280) — " king, lawgiver, high-priest, prophet in one " (ibid.
p. 179), "in all that he did or said a pattern to all men" (ibid.
pp. 383-4). Nor was his memory confined to the single people
which under his auspices became a great nation. Manetho
the Egyptian knew of him, and spoke of him as the founder of
the Jewish polity, and the author of the Jewish laws ;' the
Greeks became acquainted with his name about the time of
Herodotus,' and unanimously attributed to him the peculiar
customs which marked out from all others the Jewish people.
Historians of Egypt with one voice proclaimed that it was he
who led the Jews from Egypt to the Holy Land.3 From Greece
his fame passed to Rome, where attention was first drawn to
him by Cornelius Alexander in the time of Sulla, and where he
soon became known as " the Jewish legislator," and attracted
the notice of Apollonius Molo, Trogus Pompeius, Strabo,
Thallus the freedman of Tiberius, Tacitus, Juvenal, Longinus,
and others. Longinus called him " no common man ; " 4
Numenius, the Pythagorean philosopher, said that he was
"very powerful with God through prayer."5 Hecatasus of
Abdera praised his courage and practical wisdom. * But his
true praise and his true glory is, that, bred up from infancy
under circumstances that might well have attracted him to
idolatry and to laxity of living, he turned from them by a
strong effort of the will, and chose the better part, chose to
1 See the Fragments of Manetho in the " Fragm. Hist Graec." of C.
Mtiller, vol. ii. p. 580, Fr. 54-
' Justin Martyr, "Cohort ad Gent," § 8 j Cyril Alex. " Contra Julianum, "
vol. i. p. 15, D.
s Manetho, l.s.e. ; Chseremon ap. Joseph., "Contr. Apion," I 32;
PtoL Mendes. ap. Tatian., "Orat. adv. Gent." §37.
* Longinus, " De sublimitate," § 9.
S Numenius ap. Euseb., " Praep. Ev." ix. 8.
6 Hecat Abder. in C. Midler's " Fragm. Hist Graec." voL if. p. 39ft
Fr. 13.

MOSES' DEATH 205
abide by the One God, "the God of his father, the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"
(Exod. iii. 6), chose to cling to his brethren, and "rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of
Bin for a season" (Heb. xi. 25). In this "great decision" all
was involved ; for this God exalted him ; for this God
" recompensed " him (ver. 26) ; not, however, with the
reward that men commonly look for and hope for — power and
honour and riches, a soft easy life of worldly enjoyment, a
position of dignity and repose among the great of the earth —
but with the far more fitting and appropriate reward of a long
life of exertion and toil in His service — a life of hardship, of
scant food, frequent fatigue, constant trouble, bereavement, dis
appointment — but a life cheered by continual close communion
with Him, and by the sense of an important task accomplished,
of a nation emancipated, instructed, guided, trained, fitted for
the work before it, ready at last after forty years of preparation
to enter into that inheritance, to which he had been com
missioned to conduct it, and fitted, amid whatever lapses and
shortcomings, to bear a witness for God in the future, to hold
aloft the torch of truth, to testify to the nations on behalf of the
One God, the One Pure, Perfect, Spirit, Self-existent, All- Holy
— "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-
suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty " (Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7).

Tub End.