The Garden of Eden 7

The Garden of Eden 7

And he answered, “Here I am.”

 

And the voice said, “I am the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.

I have seen the sorrows of my people, the Children of Israel, how the

Egyptians make them work, and whip them. Come now, return to Egypt, and

tell

 

[Illustration: MOSES BY THE BURNING BUSH]

 

Pharaoh to let my people go that they may meet me here at this

mountain.”

 

But Moses said, “Pharaoh will not hear me.”

 

And God said, “I will make Pharaoh hear you.”

 

Then Moses said, “I am no speaker.”

 

And God answered, “Look, who is that coming?” And Moses looked, and

there was his brother Aaron. And he ran to meet him and kissed him. And

God said, “Aaron shall go with you and speak for you.”

 

So Moses went back to his father-in-law and told him what had happened

at the burning bush. And the next day, Moses and Aaron started for

Egypt. There they found the Children of Israel working very hard, and

the taskmasters beating them with whips to make them work harder. And

Moses and Aaron said to the people, “God spoke to us in Arabia, and sent

us to tell you to meet him there beside a mountain. He has seen your

affliction and has promised to help you.” And the people were very

glad.

 

 

 

 

X

 

THE TEN PLAGUES

 

 

One day, as Pharaoh the king was sitting in his palace, in came one who

said, “Two of the Children of Israel are at the door, and would like to

speak with you.”

 

And Pharaoh said, “Let them come in.”

 

And in came Moses and Aaron. “Pharaoh,” they said, “we have a message

for you from our God. He wishes you to give the Children of Israel a

holiday, that they may go out into the country, and meet Him at a

mountain in Arabia.”

 

Then Pharaoh was very angry. “Who is your God,” he said, “that I should

obey Him? There is work to be done: there are cities to be built; this

is our busy season; this is no time for a holiday.” And Pharaoh sent

away Moses and Aaron, and called for the taskmasters who had charge of

the Children of Israel, and said, “These people have asked for a

holiday. They are idle. Give them more work.”

 

Now the Children of Israel were making brick and building the walls of

houses and towers; and the way to make brick was to take clay and mix it

with straw and bake it; and the taskmasters provided the straw. But the

taskmasters heard what Pharaoh said, and they stopped the supply of

straw. “You must get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it: but

you must make just as many bricks as you made before.” And when the

Children of Israel could not do it, they were beaten with whips. So they

cried out against Moses, saying, “You have done us harm instead of

good.”

 

Then Moses and Aaron went again to Pharaoh, and Aaron had a rod in his

hand, and he threw it on the floor at the king’s feet, and the rod

became a serpent. But Egypt was a great place for tricks of magic.

Pharaoh had magicians at his court, who performed before him every day.

So he called for two magicians, and in came Jannes and Jambres, each

with a rod, and they cast their rods on the floor, and in a moment there

were two more wriggling serpents fighting with Aaron’s serpent. And

although Aaron’s serpent chased these two and ate them up, Pharaoh only

laughed, and would not let the people go.

 

But the next morning, when the king went down to the river, there was

Moses waiting for him. And Moses said, “Pharaoh, if you will not let the

people go, God will make this river red like blood, so that nobody may

drink out of it.”

 

And so it was. That great river, the Nile, which flows through the midst

of Egypt, was red like blood, for a whole week. But when it cleared

again, Pharaoh said, “I have seen it like that many a time, after the

spring rains.” And he would not let the people go.

 

Then Moses called again upon the king, and said, “Pharaoh, if you still

refuse, God will bring frogs out of the river till they cover all the

land.” And so it was. The frogs came: first, along the bank; then,

across the road so that nobody could go that way; then in crowds and

crowds, crawling and hopping and skipping, up the streets and up the

lanes and up the steps of houses. And at night, there were frogs in the

bed; and in the morning, at breakfast, there were frogs on the table.

And Pharaoh said, “This is more than I can bear. Take away the frogs,

and I will do whatever you wish.”

 

But after the frogs had gone back into the river, Pharaoh said, “That

was not so very bad. Almost every year, we have a plague of frogs.” And

he would not let the people go.

 

Then, week after week, all kinds of dreadful things came one upon

another. Once there were lice, like the dust of the ground; then there

were such swarms of flies that nobody could eat or sleep; after that,

the horses and cattle were all sick. Then people had boils; and there

was a very grievous hail, and thunder and lightning so that fire ran

along upon the ground. The locusts came, blown by the east wind, and ate

all the leaves and the grass. And after the locusts there was a storm of

sand, and for three days it was so dark, that people could feel it with

their hands. And every time, when the trouble was worst, Pharaoh said to

Moses, “Take it away, and I will let the people go.”

 

But when the plague was over, Pharaoh said, “I don’t believe that God

did it. It was only the weather or the wind.” And he broke his promise.

 

Thus there were nine plagues. Then Moses said to the Children of Israel,

“The tenth plague is at hand. This very night, Pharaoh will beg you to

go. Get yourselves ready. There is a long journey before you. Let every

family prepare supper. Kill a lamb and roast it, and bake bread. But the

time is short; you cannot wait for the bread to rise; make it without

leaven” (or, as we say, without yeast). “Do not even sit down at the

table: stand up, with your coats and hats on, and eat in haste. For

to-night, God will send a sudden sickness upon the Egyptians, and in

every house there will be one dead. You must mark your houses. Take of

the blood of the lamb and strike it on the upper post and on the two

side posts of your doors. Then God will pass over you when He comes to

punish the Egyptians.”

 

And at midnight so it was. And there was a great cry through all the

land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. “This is the

end,” he said; “get you gone out of the land, you and all your people.”

 

And the Egyptians hurried them. “Quick!” they said, “go out of Egypt

before we all die.”

 

But the Children of Israel said, “Shall we go with empty hands after all

the work which we have done for you? What will you give us?”

 

And the Egyptians gave them jewels of gold and jewels of silver. So they

departed. There was a full moon that night, and in the light of it they

made their way out of all the cities where they lived, and they turned

their faces toward Arabia. But now they went not only to meet God at the

mountain, but to be a new nation, and never again to live as slaves in

Egypt.

 

 

 

 

XI

 

THE RED SEA

 

 

In the middle of the night, under the round moon, the Children of Israel

started on their journey. The fathers and mothers carried the babies,

the boys and girls ran and danced beside them, and they drove their

flocks and herds before them. And as they went, they talked about the

ten plagues, and especially about the last and worst of all, when the

firstborn died in every house in Egypt. “Except our houses,” they said.

“God passed over our houses, and saved our lives, and brought us out.”

And they said, “We must keep the memory of this night forever. When we

have a land of our own, and are settled there, then every year when the

spring is green and the moon is shining full, we will have a supper of

roast lamb and bread unleavened, such as we had to-night, and when the

children say, ‘Why do we have this supper and eat unleavened bread?’ we

will reply, ‘Children, this is the feast of the Lord’s Passover, when He

passed over our houses, and saved us from our slavery in Egypt.’”

 

So they journeyed all that night and all the next day. But in the

meantime, the Egyptians had begun to recover from their fear. “Yes,”

they said, “we have indeed been stricken by a fearful pestilence. There

is hardly a house in which there is not one dead. And Moses says that

this is a punishment upon us because we would not let the Children of

Israel go. But we are not so sure of that. How do we know that the

Children of Israel or their God had anything to do with it? We were

foolish to be frightened and let them go. Now there is nobody left to do

our work. All our carpenters and masons, all our brick-makers and

bricklayers, all our hired men, have gone away: and all our cooks and

washerwomen have gone with them. What shall we do? Come, let us go after

them, and bring them back.” And Pharaoh sent for his chariot in which he

rode when he went to war, and ordered his captains to bring up six

hundred other chariots, the best that there were in Egypt. And there was

a great clattering of horses’ hoofs, and a great clashing of swords and

battle-axes, in the street before the king’s palace. And Pharaoh came

out, and away they went, as fast as they could go, after the Children of

Israel.

 

Now the Children of Israel, after a long day’s march, were very tired,

and they stopped to rest by the Red Sea. On the other side of the sea

was the land of Arabia, where they were going to meet God beside a

mountain. And on the morrow, they expected to walk around the head of

the sea, and so reach the other side. But suddenly, in the far distance,

as the sun was setting, there was a gleam of light, and they knew that

it was the shining armor of the Egyptian soldiers. And there they were,

the poor Children of Israel, with the soldiers behind them and the sea

before them, and no way of escape to either right or left. And they