The History of Antiquity (Vol. 1-6). Duncker Max

out on man and beast, on the magicians, and all the Egyptians. And Moses stretched out his hand to heaven, and Jehovah caused it to thunder and hail, and fire came down, and the hail smote all that was in the field, man and beast, and all the herbs of the field; and all the trees were destroyed; only in the land of Goshen there was no hail. And Moses stretched out his hand over all Egypt, and Jehovah brought the east wind, and in the morning the east wind brought swarms of locusts, and they ate up all that the hail had left in the field: there was nothing green in the field and in the trees. And Moses stretched his hand towards heaven, and there was a thick darkness in the land of Egypt for three days. And now the king was willing to let Israel go, but their flocks and herds must remain behind. Moses answered that not a single hoof should remain, and went in wrath from the presence of Pharaoh. But to the Israelites he said: At midnight Jehovah will go forth and smite all the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the woman behind the mill, and all the firstborn of cattle. But they were to slay a yearling lamb without blemish for each household, and to eat it roast, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. With loins girded, with shoes on their feet, and staff in hand, they were to keep the feast. With the blood of the lamb they were to strike the door-posts and the lintel of their houses, that Jehovah might see the blood and pass by their doors. In the morning there was not a house of the Egyptians in which there was not one dead. There was a great cry in Egypt, and the king called Moses and Aaron and said: Depart with your people, your flocks, and your herds.

      Then the children of Israel set forth from Ramses to Succoth—600,000 men on foot, besides children. And with them went a number of strangers, and many flocks and herds. And they went from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the desert; and from Etham they went to Pihahiroth, and encamped over against Baalzephon. But Pharaoh was grieved that he had let the people go from their service; he pursued them with all his chariots, his horsemen, and his army, and found them encamped on the sea at Pihahiroth, over against Baalzephon. But Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Jehovah caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind through the whole night, and made the sea into dry land, and the Israelites passed through the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall upon their right hand and a wall upon their left. And the Egyptians pursued and came after them with their chariots and their horsemen into the sea. Then Moses again stretched out his hand, and the sea returned towards morning into its bed, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh, so that not one of them was left.

And Moses and the children of Israel sang: I will sing of Jehovah, for he is glorious; the horses and chariots he whelms in the sea; Jehovah, the God of my father, will I praise. Jehovah is a man of war; Thy right hand, O Jehovah, shatters the enemy. The chariots of Pharaoh and his might he threw into the sea; his chosen charioteers were drowned in the reed-sea. The floods covered them; like stones they sank in the pit. At the breath of Thy nostrils the waters rose in a heap; the floods stood like a bank; the floods ran in the midst of the sea. The enemy said: I will pursue, and overtake, and divide the spoil; I will satisfy my lust upon them; I will draw my sword, and destroy them with my hand. Thou didst blow with Thy mouth, O Jehovah, and the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who among the gods is like unto thee, Jehovah?[630]

The older text narrated in a simple manner, that the Hebrews multiplied greatly in Egypt, and the Egyptians vexed them with heavy burdens, and God heard their cry, and thought of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then God spoke to Moses: he would take Israel for his people, and lead them out of Egypt, and Moses spoke to the children of Israel, but they did not listen to him. Then the command came to Moses to speak to Pharaoh, and Aaron was to speak for him. Afterwards came the plagues (to which the revision has added the hail, the locusts, and the darkness),[631] the slaying of the firstborn, the march through the sea as described.[632] The text of the tribes of Joseph is far better instructed, or, at any rate, far more detailed in its account of Moses, no less than in that of Joseph. To it belongs the command of Pharaoh to slay the children of the Hebrews, the rescue of Moses, the history of his youth, his flight into the desert, his connection with Jethro, the appearance of God on Sinai, and certain traits in the dealings with Pharaoh, and the direct action of God in the march through the sea and the desert.

      Of both these narratives the tendency is the same, it is only more strongly marked and broadly realised in the second. The God of the Hebrews has pity on the sufferings of his people. He provides and arouses their leader. To him and to Aaron he imparts the power of working miracles which the magicians of Egypt can only imitate up to a certain point. Yet the power of working miracles given to Moses and Aaron is not enough to overcome Pharaoh. The decisive stroke is given by Jehovah himself, inasmuch as he smites the firstborn among the Egyptians of man and beast. And when Pharaoh hastens after the Hebrews Jehovah causes the sea to retire before them, and finally buries Pharaoh and his host under the returning waves. Thus has Jehovah led his people out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.

The narrative of the slaying of the firstborn of the Egyptians and the mode in which the Hebrews protected themselves from the visitation are borrowed from the Hebrew ritual. We saw above that the firstlings of the fruits, and "all that first opens the womb, man or beast," belonged to the God of the Hebrews.[633] This firstborn must be sacrificed, or ransomed by a vicarious sacrifice. In the spring the sacrifice of the firstfruits was offered from an ancient period, and unleavened bread eaten, as was usual with shepherds.[634] The spring, the time when nature has borne anew, was also the right time to offer the sacrifice for the redemption of the house. The head of the family at the spring festival slew a lamb without breaking any bone, and with the blood he smeared the lintel and door-posts. Hence the offering in the spring was also the festival of redemption and purification—the passover, the passah of Jehovah, who had spared the house for the lamb. To this old spring sacrifice, which was celebrated in the month Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew year (it was the year of the Babylonians), at the time of the full moon, when the sun was in the Ram, the first text has already attached a historical background and meaning. It was in the night following this sacrifice that the exodus from Egypt took place. The unleavened bread of the ancient custom was explained by the haste of the exodus; and as signs of the readiness to go forth, the girdle round the loins, the shoes upon the feet, and the staff in the hand were added to the old ritual; the smearing of the lintel with the blood was done in order that the angel of Jehovah might distinguish the doors of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians. Tradition turned the spring festival and sacrifice into a feast of thanksgiving for the protection of the firstborn of the Israelites while Jehovah carried off those of the Egyptians, a thanksgiving for the deliverance of the nation out of Egypt.

The lofty calling of the man whom Jehovah summoned to be the instrument of the deliverance is shown in the Ephraimitic text by the marvellous fortune which attended him even in his earliest years. The daughter of Pharaoh himself, disregarding her father's commands, rescues the boy, brings him up, takes him for her son, and gives the name to the man who is destined to liberate the Hebrews and bring so much misfortune upon Egypt. Amid the kindness shown to him by the Egyptians Moses does not forget the people to whom he belongs. The sight of the oppressions which his people suffer kindles his heart. A rash action, by which he avenges the ill-treatment of a Hebrew, compels him to fly into the desert. Here he founds a family by taking a Midianitish woman, a daughter of the desert, to wife. In the second text the father of his wife is called Jethro, in the revision Reuel.[635] When he has begotten sons here, and is advanced in years, his mission is revealed to him on the mountain of God. In both texts he hesitates to undertake it, but finally carries it resolutely to the end.

As in the narrative of Joseph, so here, all that is said of Egypt agrees with what we know from other sources of that country. As the Hebrews were settled to the east of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, the locality of the exposure in the meaning of the Ephraimitic text must be sought in the neighbourhood of Tanis. We saw above that Ramses II. erected considerable