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The Antiquities of the Jews

F >> Flavius Josephus >> The Antiquities of the Jews




7. Thermuthis therefore perceiving him to be so remarkable a
child, adopted him for her son, having no child of her own. And
when one time had carried Moses to her father, she showed him to
him, and said she thought to make him her successor, if it should
please God she should have no legitimate child of her own; and to
him, "I have brought up a child who is of a divine form, (21) and
of a generous mind; and as I have received him from the bounty of
the river, in , I thought proper to adopt him my son, and the
heir of thy kingdom." And she had said this, she put the infant
into her father's hands: so he took him, and hugged him to his
breast; and on his daughter's account, in a pleasant way, put his
diadem upon his head; but Moses threw it down to the ground, and,
in a puerile mood, he wreathed it round, and trod upon his feet,
which seemed to bring along with evil presage concerning the
kingdom of Egypt. But when the sacred scribe saw this, (he was
the person who foretold that his nativity would the dominion of
that kingdom low,) he made a violent attempt to kill him; and
crying out in a frightful manner, he said, "This, O king! this
child is he of whom God foretold, that if we kill him we shall be
in no danger; he himself affords an attestation to the prediction
of the same thing, by his trampling upon thy government, and
treading upon thy diadem. Take him, therefore, out of the way,
and deliver the Egyptians from the fear they are in about him;
and deprive the Hebrews of the hope they have of being encouraged
by him." But Thermuthis prevented him, and snatched the child
away. And the king was not hasty to slay him, God himself, whose
providence protected Moses, inclining the king to spare him. He
was, therefore, educated with great care. So the Hebrews depended
on him, and were of good hopes great things would be done by him;
but the Egyptians were suspicious of what would follow such his
education. Yet because, if Moses had been slain, there was no
one, either akin or adopted, that had any oracle on his side for
pretending to the crown of Egypt, and likely to be of greater
advantage to them, they abstained from killing him.

CHAPTER 10.

How Moses Made War With The Ethiopians.

1. Moses, therefore, when he was born, and brought up in the
foregoing manner, and came to the age of maturity, made his
virtue manifest to the Egyptians; and showed that he was born for
the bringing them down, and raising the Israelites. And the
occasion he laid hold of was this: - The Ethiopians, who are next
neighbors to the Egyptians, made an inroad into their country,
which they seized upon, and carried off the effects of the
Egyptians, who, in their rage, fought against them, and revenged
the affronts they had received from them; but being overcome in
battle, some of them were slain, and the rest ran away in a
shameful manner, and by that means saved themselves; whereupon
the Ethiopians followed after them in the pursuit, and thinking
that it would be a mark of cowardice if they did not subdue all
Egypt, they went on to subdue the rest with greater vehemence;
and when they had tasted the sweets of the country, they never
left off the prosecution of the war: and as the nearest parts had
not courage enough at first to fight with them, they proceeded as
far as Memphis, and the sea itself, while not one of the cities
was able to oppose them. The Egyptians, under this sad
oppression, betook themselves to their oracles and prophecies;
and when God had given them this counsel, to make use of Moses
the Hebrew, and take his assistance, the king commanded his
daughter to produce him, that he might be the general (22) of
their army. Upon which, when she had made him swear he would do
him no harm, she delivered him to the king, and supposed his
assistance would be of great advantage to them. She withal
reproached the priest, who, when they had before admonished the
Egyptians to kill him, was not ashamed now to own their want of
his help.

2. So Moses, at the persuasion both of Thermuthis and the king
himself, cheerfully undertook the business: and the sacred
scribes of both nations were glad; those of the Egyptians, that
they should at once overcome their enemies by his valor, and that
by the same piece of management Moses would be slain; but those
of the Hebrews, that they should escape from the Egyptians,
because Moses was to be their general. But Moses prevented the
enemies, and took and led his army before those enemies were
apprized of his attacking them; for he did not march by the
river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful demonstration of
his sagacity; for when the ground was difficult to be passed
over, because of the multitude of serpents, (which it produces in
vast numbers, and, indeed, is singular in some of those
productions, which other countries do not breed, and yet such as
are worse than others in power and mischief, and an unusual
fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out of the ground
unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men at
unawares, and do them a mischief,) Moses invented a wonderful
stratagem to preserve the army safe, and without hurt; for he
made baskets, like unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with
ibes, (23) and carried them along with them; which animal is the
greatest enemy to serpents imaginable, for they fly from them
when they come near them; and as they fly they are caught and
devoured by them, as if it were done by the harts; but the ibes
are tame creatures, and only enemies to the serpentine kind: but
about these ibes I say no more at present, since the Greeks
themselves are not unacquainted with this sort of bird. As soon,
therefore, as Moses was come to the land which was the breeder of
these serpents, he let loose the ibes, and by their means
repelled the serpentine kind, and used them for his assistants
before the army came upon that ground. When he had therefore
proceeded thus on his journey, he came upon the Ethiopians before
they expected him; and, joining battle with them, he beat them,
and deprived them of the hopes they had of success against the
Egyptians, and went on in overthrowing their cities, and indeed
made a great slaughter of these Ethiopians. Now when the Egyptian
army had once tasted of this prosperous success, by the means of
Moses, they did not slacken their diligence, insomuch that the
Ethiopians were in danger of being reduced to slavery, and all
sorts of destruction; and at length they retired to Saba, which
was a royal city of Ethiopia, which Cambyses afterwards named
Mero, after the name of his own sister. The place was to be
besieged with very great difficulty, since it was both
encompassed by the Nile quite round, and the other rivers,
Astapus and Astaboras, made it a very difficult thing for such as
attempted to pass over them; for the city was situate in a
retired place, and was inhabited after the manner of an island,
being encompassed with a strong wall, and having the rivers to
guard them from their enemies, and having great ramparts between
the wall and the rivers, insomuch, that when the waters come with
the greatest violence, it can never be drowned; which ramparts
make it next to impossible for even such as are gotten over the
rivers to take the city. However, while Moses was uneasy at the
army's lying idle, (for the enemies durst not come to a battle,)
this accident happened: - Tharbis was the daughter of the king of
the Ethiopians: she happened to see Moses as he led the army near
the walls, and fought with great courage; and admiring the
subtility of his undertakings, and believing him to be the author
of the Egyptians' success, when they had before despaired of
recovering their liberty, and to be the occasion of the great
danger the Ethiopians were in, when they had before boasted of
their great achievements, she fell deeply in love with him; and
upon the prevalency of that passion, sent to him the most
faithful of all her servants to discourse with him about their
marriage. He thereupon accepted the offer, on condition she would
procure the delivering up of the city; and gave her the assurance
of an oath to take her to his wife; and that when he had once
taken possession of the city, he would not break his oath to her.
No sooner was the agreement made, but it took effect immediately;
and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to God,
and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their
own land.

CHAPTER 11.

How Moses Fled Out Of Egypt Into Midian.

1. Now the Egyptians, after they had been preserved by Moses,
entertained a hatred to him, and were very eager in compassing
their designs against him, as suspecting that he would take
occasion, from his good success, to raise a sedition, and bring
innovations into Egypt; and told the king he ought to be slain.
The king had also some intentions of himself to the same purpose,
and this as well out of envy at his glorious expedition at the
head of his army, as out of fear of being brought low by him and
being instigated by the sacred scribes, he was ready to undertake
to kill Moses: but when he had learned beforehand what plots
there were against him, he went away privately; and because the
public roads were watched, he took his flight through the
deserts, and where his enemies could not suspect he would travel;
and, though he was destitute of food, he went on, and despised
that difficulty courageously; and when he came to the city
Midian, which lay upon the Red Sea, and was so denominated from
one of Abraham's sons by Keturah, he sat upon a certain well, and
rested himself there after his laborious journey, and the
affliction he had been in. It was not far from the city, and the
time of the day was noon, where he had an occasion offered him by
the custom of the country of doing what recommended his virtue,
and afforded him an opportunity of bettering his circumstances.

2. For that country having but little water, the shepherds used
to seize on the wells before others came, lest their flocks
should want water, and lest it should be spent by others before
they came. There were now come, therefore, to this well seven
sisters that were virgins, the daughters of Raguel, a priest, and
one thought worthy by the people of the country of great honor.
These virgins, who took care of their father's flocks, which sort
of work it was customary and very familiar for women to do in the
country of the Troglodytes, they came first of all, and drew
water out of the well in a quantity sufficient for their flocks,
into troughs, which were made for the reception of that water;
but when the shepherds came upon the maidens, and drove them
away, that they might have the command of the water themselves,
Moses, thinking it would be a terrible reproach upon him if he
overlooked the young women under unjust oppression, and should
suffer the violence of the men to prevail over the right of the
maidens, he drove away the men, who had a mind to more than their
share, and afforded a proper assistance to the women; who, when
they had received such a benefit from him, came to their father,
and told him how they had been affronted by the shepherds, and
assisted by a stranger, and entreated that he would not let this
generous action be done in vain, nor go without a reward. Now the
father took it well from his daughters that they were so desirous
to reward their benefactor; and bid them bring Moses into his
presence, that he might be rewarded as he deserved. And when
Moses came, he told him what testimony his daughters bare to him,
that he had assisted them; and that, as he admired him for his
virtue, he said that Moses had bestowed such his assistance on
persons not insensible of benefits, but where they were both able
and willing to return the kindness, and even to exceed the
measure of his generosity. So he made him his son, and gave him
one of his daughters in marriage; and appointed him to be the
guardian and superintendent over his cattle; for of old, all the
wealth of the barbarians was in those cattle.

CHAPTER 12.

Concerning The Burning Bush And The Rod Of Moses.

1. Now Moses, when he had obtained the favor of Jethro, for that
was one of the names of Raguel, staid there and fed his flock;
but some time afterward, taking his station at the mountain
called Sinai, he drove his flocks thither to feed them. Now this
is the highest of all the mountains thereabout, and the best for
pasturage, the herbage being there good; and it had not been
before fed upon, because of the opinion men had that God dwelt
there, the shepherds not daring to ascend up to it; and here it
was that a wonderful prodigy happened to Moses; for a fire fed
upon a thorn bush, yet did the green leaves and the flowers
continue untouched, and the fire did not at all consume the fruit
branches, although the flame was great and fierce. Moses was
aftrighted at this strange sight, as it was to him; but he was
still more astonished when the fire uttered a voice, and called
to him by name, and spake words to him, by which it signified how
bold he had been in venturing to come into a place whither no man
had ever come before, because the place was divine; and advised
him to remove a great way off from the flame, and to be contented
with what he had seen; and though he were himself a good man, and
the offspring of great men, yet that he should not pry any
further; and he foretold to him, that he should have glory and
honor among men, by the blessing of God upon him. He also
commanded him to go away thence with confidence to Egypt, in
order to his being the commander and conductor of the body of the
Hebrews, and to his delivering his own people from the injuries
they suffered there: "For," said God, "they shall inhabit this
happy land which your forefather Abraham inhabited, and shall
have the enjoyment of all good things." But still he enjoined
them, when he brought the Hebrews out of the land of Egypt, to
come to that place, and to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
there, Such were the divine oracles which were delivered out of
the fire.

2. But Moses was astonished at what he saw, and much more at what
he heard; and he said, "I think it would be an instance of too
great madness, O Lord, for one of that regard I bear to thee, to
distrust thy power, since I myself adore it, and know that it has
been made manifest to my progenitors: but I am still in doubt how
I, who am a private man, and one of no abilities, should either
persuade my own countrymen to leave the country they now inhabit,
and to follow me to a land whither I lead them; or, if they
should be persuaded, how can I force Pharaoh to permit them to
depart, since they augment their own wealth and prosperity by the
labors and works they put upon them ?"

3. But God persuaded him to be courageous on all occasions, and
promised to be with him, and to assist him in his words, when he
was to persuade men; and in his deeds, when he was to perform
wonders. He bid him also to take a signal of the truth of what he
said, by throwing his rod upon the ground, which, when he had
done, it crept along, and was become a serpent, and rolled itself
round in its folds, and erected its head, as ready to revenge
itself on such as should assault it; after which it become a rod
again as it was before. After this God bid Moses to put his right
hand into his bosom: he obeyed, and when he took it out it was
white, and in color like to chalk, but afterward it returned to
its wonted color again. He also, upon God's command, took some of
the water that was near him, and poured it upon the ground, and
saw the color was that of blood. Upon the wonder that Moses
showed at these signs, God exhorted him to be of good courage,
and to be assured that he would be the greatest support to him;
and bid him make use of those signs, in order to obtain belief
among all men, that "thou art sent by me, and dost all things
according to my commands. Accordingly I enjoin thee to make no
more delays, but to make haste to Egypt, and to travel night and
day, and not to draw out the time, and so make the slavery of the
Hebrews and their sufferings to last the longer."

4. Moses having now seen and heard these wonders that assured him
of the truth of these promises of God, had no room left him to
disbelieve them: he entreated him to grant him that power when he
should be in Egypt; and besought him to vouchsafe him the
knowledge of his own name; and since he had heard and seen him,
that he would also tell him his name, that when he offered
sacrifice he might invoke him by such his name in his oblations.
Whereupon God declared to him his holy name, which had never been
discovered to men before; concerning which it is not lawful for
me to say any more (24) Now these signs accompanied Moses, not
then only, but always when he prayed for them: of all which signs
he attributed the firmest assent to the fire in the bush; and
believing that God would be a gracious supporter to him, he hoped
he should be able to deliver his own nation, and bring calamities
on the Egyptians.

CHAPTER 13.

How Moses And Aaron Returned Into Egypt To Pharaoh.

1. So Moses, when he understood that the Pharaoh, in whose reign
he fled away, was dead, asked leave of Raguel to go to Egypt, for
the benefit of his own people. And he took with him Zipporah, the
daughter of Raguel, whom he had married, and the children he had
by her, Gersom and Eleazer, and made haste into Egypt. Now the
former of those names, Gersom, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies
that he was in a strange land; and Eleazer, that, by the
assistance of the God of his fathers, he had escaped from the
Egyptians. Now when they were near the borders, Aaron his
brother, by the command of God, met him, to whom he declared what
had befallen him at the mountain, and the commands that God had
given him. But as they were going forward, the chief men among
the Hebrews, having learned that they were coming, met them: to
whom Moses declared the signs he had seen; and while they could
not believe them, he made them see them, So they took courage at
these surprising and unexpected sights, and hoped well of their
entire deliverance, as believing now that God took care of their
preservation.

2. Since then Moses found that the Hebrews would be obedient to
whatsoever he should direct, as they promised to be, and were in
love with liberty, he came to the king, who had indeed but lately
received the government, and told him how much he had done for
the good of the Egyptians, when they were despised by the
Ethiopians, and their country laid waste by them; and how he had
been the commander of their forces, and had labored for them, as
if they had been his own people and he informed him in what
danger he had been during that expedition, without having any
proper returns made him as he had deserved. He also informed him
distinctly what things happened to him at Mount Sinai; and what
God said to him; and the signs that were done by God, in order to
assure him of the authority of those commands which he had given
him. He also exhorted him not to disbelieve what he told him, nor
to oppose the will of God.

3. But when the king derided Moses; he made him in earnest see
the signs that were done at Mount Sinai. Yet was the king very
angry with him and called him an ill man, who had formerly run
away from his Egyptian slavery, and came now back with deceitful
tricks, and wonders, and magical arts, to astonish him. And when
he had said this, he commanded the priests to let him see the
same wonderful sights; as knowing that the Egyptians were
skillful in this kind of learning, and that he was not the only
person who knew them, and pretended them to be divine; as also he
told him, that when he brought such wonderful sights before him,
he would only be believed by the unlearned. Now when the priests
threw down their rods, they became serpents. But Moses was not
daunted at it; and said, "O king, I do not myself despise the
wisdom of the Egyptians, but I say that what I do is so much
superior to what these do by magic arts and tricks, as Divine
power exceeds the power of man: but I will demonstrate that what
I do is not done by craft, or counterfeiting what is not really
true, but that they appear by the providence and power of God."
And when he had said this, he cast his rod down upon the ground,
and commanded it to turn itself into a serpent. It obeyed him,
and went all round, and devoured the rods of the Egyptians, which
seemed to be dragons, until it had consumed them all. It then
returned to its own form, and Moses took it into his hand again.

4. However, the king was no more moved when was done than before;
and being very angry, he said that he should gain nothing by this
his cunning and shrewdness against the Egyptians; - and he
commanded him that was the chief taskmaster over the Hebrews, to
give them no relaxation from their labors, but to compel them to
submit to greater oppressions than before; and though he allowed
them chaff before for making their bricks, he would allow it them
no longer, but he made them to work hard at brick-making in the
day-time, and to gather chaff in the night. Now when their labor
was thus doubled upon them, they laid the blame upon Moses,
because their labor and their misery were on his account become
more severe to them. But Moses did not let his courage sink for
the king's threatenings; nor did he abate of his zeal on account
of the Hebrews' complaints; but he supported himself, and set his
soul resolutely against them both, and used his own utmost
diligence to procure liberty to his countrymen. So he went to the
king, and persuaded him to let the Hebrews go to Mount Sinai, and
there to sacrifice to God, because God had enjoined them so to
do. He persuaded him also not to counterwork the designs of God,
but to esteem his favor above all things, and to permit them to
depart, lest, before he be aware, he lay an obstruction in the
way of the Divine commands, and so occasion his own suffering
such punishments as it was probable any one that counterworked
the Divine commands should undergo, since the severest
afflictions arise from every object to those that provoke the
Divine wrath against them; for such as these have neither the
earth nor the air for their friends; nor are the fruits of the
womb according to nature, but every thing is unfriendly and
adverse towards them. He said further, that the Egyptians should
know this by sad experience; and that besides, the Hebrew people
should go out of their country without their consent.

CHAPTER 14.

Concerning The Ten Plagues Which Came Upon The Egyptians.

1. But when the king despised the words of Moses, and had no
regard at all to them, grievous plagues seized the Egyptians;
every one of which I will describe, both because no such plagues
did ever happen to any other nation as the Egyptians now felt,
and because I would demonstrate that Moses did not fail in any
one thing that he foretold them; and because it is for the good
of mankind, that they may learn this caution - Not to do anything
that may displease God, lest he be provoked to wrath, and avenge
their iniquities upon them. For the Egyptian river ran with
bloody water at the command of God, insomuch that it could not be
drunk, and they had no other spring of water neither; for the
water was not only of the color of blood, but it brought upon
those that ventured to drink of it, great pains and bitter
torment. Such was the river to the Egyptians; but it was sweet
and fit for drinking to the Hebrews, and no way different from
what it naturally used to be. As the king therefore knew not what
to do in these surprising circumstances, and was in fear for the
Egyptians, he gave the Hebrews leave to go away; but when the
plague ceased, he changed his mind again, end would not suffer
them to go.

2. But when God saw that he was ungrateful, and upon the ceasing
of this calamity would not grow wiser, he sent another plague
upon the Egyptians: - An innumerable multitude of frogs consumed
the fruit of the ground; the river was also full of them,
insomuch that those who drew water had it spoiled by the blood of
these animals, as they died in, and were destroyed by, the water;
and the country was full of filthy slime, as they were born, and
as they died: they also spoiled their vessels in their houses
which they used, and were found among what they eat and what they
drank, and came in great numbers upon their beds. There was also
an ungrateful smell, and a stink arose from them, as they were
born, and as they died therein. Now, when the Egyptians were
under the oppression of these miseries, the king ordered Moses to
take the Hebrews with him, and be gone. Upon which the whole
multitude of the frogs vanished away; and both the land and the
river returned to their former natures. But as soon as Pharaoh
saw the land freed from this plague, he forgot the cause of it,
and retained the Hebrews; and, as though he had a mind to try the
nature of more such judgments, he would not yet suffer Moses and
his people to depart, having granted that liberty rather out of
fear than out of any good consideration. (35)

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