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Moved by the novelty of the thing, he rejoices to inquire by what fuel at last such bright fires arise. And while, fearing, he silently offers himself, the king, so near, he is forbidden by the voice of the starry Thunderer to hasten quickly in his going; but he is compelled to stay his step and soon to take off the coverings of his feet from both soles, and he obeys, for the sake of the summits of the holy ground. Soon fear enters his senses, and his sight grows dim from too great light, because to behold the Lord is not lawful for anyone, and he turns away his face and at the same time his mouth. Then a sent voice sounds, by which the renowned king declares himself to be the God of the nobles whom we long ago said to be the leaders of the believers and of life. Then he adds such things:
'Now the vows of my people have been discovered by me and seen in full light, which with vast masses builds cities and, driven by the harsh sweat of works, exalts the wealth of Egypt and kingdoms not its own; while with servile mind it dreads and is tormented by frequent grief, long subjected to the will of the harmful. And therefore I have come hither, descended from lofty Olympus, to protect and lift my own from the seat of Canopus, the bestower of great riches and of a fruitful land, which now, rich in manifold crops, the bold Canaanite holds, and the Hittite, and the Amorite joined, with the band of the Perizzite and the Girgashites following, and which together the Hivite folk, drenching, cultivates. Here from rich brooks, from a fertile river, honey with white milk flows in sweet streams;'
'About to give these gifts to the chosen, I appoint you leader, I command you to proceed to the king's gaze, that you may relate what things are commanded. And lest, all-trembling at the undertaking, you be weakened in the act, I will be ever with you, who with liberty restored... on this hill, with my mind exulting in lights.' When the Lord had thundered these things, scant confidence first holds the seer. Soon he asks the eternal name which the Lord has, that Judah may know the sign of the prince imposed. The Savior joins such words: 'I am he who is—thus you shall say—and who flourishes above the stars, and is the God of your parents from their stock: the immeasurable God everywhere and through all nations, the sower of the living through the ages, not of those lacking light. This name is mine; speak this on the hill to those compelled, who then may dismiss the peaceful words through their ears.'
'And entering together into the hall of King Pharaoh, you shall say that the Lord of the Israelites has commanded from above, that for three days the Judaean phalanx march through the desert fields and offer fitting gifts to the holy God and observe the rite of their forefathers. For the swollen tyrant will wish to release my people after the slaughter and plague, which, frequent, shall be sent from the deep sky, varied with many perils. Nay more, when license shall have been made for you, that you may take up the commanded journey, then let the woman ask of her neighbor or one known to her, what soft Egypt now holds in rich substance, and let her take what is sought, so that the legion, to be led through the shapeless fields of the desert, may leave Egypt emptied of its noble spoils.'
After these things the seer seeks signs which might perchance be able to confirm wavering minds, if they should not believe that God could have been seen by the eye speaking such bright things. He is bidden to drop the supple staff swiftly and loosen it from his hand; which, after the earth received it, gathers itself into a coil in a foamy track, a serpent, striking terror into the noble; which, bidden to grasp by the tail, he reduces and recalls to its ancient figure. Then, hiding his hand in his bosom with snowy whiteness, he brought it forth, and again, covered, he drew it out, and to him it was rolled back into its own appearance. Then thereafter he is warned, if these things were too small, to pour out water taken from the river and to change the white to red gore.
No less does the seer struggle against it, and say that his speech is feeble, and that he can scarcely bring forth his voice bound by knots, because they veil the secrets of his heart; in short, that there is nothing worthy in him which the mind of men, relying on it, might follow. He is rebuked, that none, save by the Lord's giving, speaks with polished senses, nor do the mute break long silences—the Lord would loosen the bonds of the tongue; he who opens the times to the deaf, who gives lights to the blind, and who serenes with pure light the keen sight of the seeing. 'Go,' he says, 'and trusting, speak with full speech, noble in eloquence and with sense rounded to words.' But while he often asks God and prays that another be substituted and put under him in his place, he moved to wrath the God distinguished by piety, who, stirred, begins:
'Behold, there is your brother, eloquent, bearing a polished mouth and known to me, that one created in the tribe of Levi, whom they call by a certain name, Aaron.' At once the seer departs and confesses to his father-in-law that he will return and wishes to visit his brothers, born of the Jewish nation. At this the other relents and, with piety preserved, bids him depart glad. He, eager, taking with him his sons and wife, took up the appointed journey; and wearied with traveling, while he refreshes his strength, leaning in the cool shade, behold, an angel of the Lord comes and threatens death. But Zipporah, as they say, digs out a sharp flint and soon diligently cuts the foreskin of her tender son; and when she had cast herself prone before his holy feet: 'Let this blood be stayed,' she sings, 'from the wound of the little one.' At whose word the holy one departed to the stars.
And now the prophet was treading the sands of the barren desert, when suddenly, at the bidding of the commanding Lord, Aaron hastened to the sacred mountain to meet his brother in honour; and joined together they joyfully pressed kisses upon each other, and it delighted them to open their thoughts to one another in flowing speech, each telling what must be done or what had been done. At once, by the word of the Lord, both joined together a sincere and steadfast faith, and going forth alike they spoke to the elders whom they had summoned, telling what God's command was: from whom the people must be set apart. And when the signs had been performed in order, the people believed that the longed-for remedy had returned. And bending his knees, leaning low, he adored the Lord. They proceeded to the king, who saw nothing with his blind heart nor believed in God, whom he declared he hardly knew, holding the people under a harsh law and savage rule.
While the burden of labours grew and the work was doubled, and an immense weight was added to the raw bricks, which the lamp of the sun scorched. Nay more, he takes away the straw, wont to be mixed for binding the cracked earth and the soaking clay, so that the people, worn out by their woes, would rather lay down their spirits and suffer exile. While she, undone by grief, was driven on by harsh lashings, she poured out reproaches against the very chief priests, crying that she was being afflicted the more bitterly, after they, using immoderate words, had procured wretched slavery in place of liberty. When the gentle prophet had laid these words before the eternal Lord, he received again these words: "Behold, I have appointed you to be a god to King Pharaoh, and your brother to serve the prophet's zeal and to obey you. You shall tell to your brother what you have learned;
and he shall declare to the king, that he may take care to send forth the people." And now the holy prophet had worn away through twice forty years a peaceful life in mortal flesh. While these men eagerly desired to soften the king with sanctifying speeches and renewed signs, in nothing did the slippery serpent, made from the cast-down rod, in nothing the streams changed into red blood, in nothing the moving water compel him. With the fish destroyed, tainted by a sad stench, even so, because the profane mind of those men, girt with sinister chant, was skilled in equal deeds. Nay more, they make like frogs creep forth where there was land, where there was water, and they are created by the song of the magicians in equal measures, which croaking on every side with grating voice the prophet strove to drive away, only not allowing the accustomed creatures to be lacking to the rivers.
This was offered to the king, that if he wished to escape the plague at the prayers and vows of the entreating elder, it might then be made clear that no other god reigns: the next day's light is restored to heaven, and all those same frogs are slain by death and, heaped up together, are dissolved by bitter hatred. Gnats are quickly born over all the bodies of beasts and men alike, and the earth too is filled. This too the Chaldean band, having tried, confesses to be the hand of the Lord, and abandons its empty endeavour. When these things were done, the dog-fly flowed, which is called the canine fly, and at the prophet's nods it filled all places, spreading abroad, and not known to Goshen alone, which then was a land convenient for the Jewish nation, dragged inexhaustible sufferings wherever it was driven.
Then indeed Pharaoh, conquered, commands them to depart, and migrating to set forth their steps wherever they wish, and to serve God with vows; and at the same time he prays that the present and exceeding evil may withdraw from the fields of Egypt, and that God at last, more merciful, may be near. Nor was there delay: with the death-bringers of sudden destruction sent, they slay all together. But the horny heart-fibre which had been in the king returns: soon a single plague is sent upon the beasts of burden and the flocks, and deaths following, with Judaea losing nothing. Then the empty ashes drawn forth from the bosom of the furnace are hurled to the stars, and they stir up dry blisters over the limbs of men and hollow swellings, and with none left exempt, in every flock they breed torments throughout the fields.
But a renewed face of evil pressed upon the king, idle in vain, by which the praise of God might be loftier, as he changed so many marvels: behold, amid the very fires—the lightnings which they hurl—and the murmurs of high heaven, which crash at the Lord's command, threatening hail runs down from the stars and whirls everywhere its freezing weapons, which fly thick from the rock, and it thrusts down with shattered body the men lacking the cover of roofs, and kills them, and all the cattle; and with bark broken it cripples the woods and with dry inner-bark extinguishes them—a thing unseen before and unknown to ancient ages. The wheat-crops, with herbs not yet sprouting, and the spelt it just then strewed upon the ground; for all the rest it drowned, which, sprinkled in the soil, the harrow had not yet brought forth.
This too loses its strength at the prophet's demand, with clear day returning; because with broken heart the weak leader had prayed, while he himself uncovers his crimes and declares the just God on high. Behold, again the breasts are made rigid with insane purpose, destined to bring worse losses to the living leader, nor does he believe in his companions the downfall of perishing Egypt. Yet nevertheless he grants in a small measure the right of going, for those empty of goods, which the use of life provides. The prophet does not allow it and demands the whole property and the herds of beasts; but the just request is not pleasing to unwilling ears. For this reason he is driven outside, with his brother thrust out together.
Then the south wind comes with much blowing, and darkens the day, and through the shadow of night heaps up green-backed locusts beyond measure, which devour whatever moist with sap they had found through the leafy coverts, and the glad grasses upon the turf. Then these, at the king's demand through fear, are slain and, heaped up together, are drowned in the Red wave. When the grim king had spat these forth from his mouth for trifling reasons, fallen night holds all, and vast tempests shut in and confine the men, and alike for three days they remained hidden, and none could see his neighbour or rise from his poor bed, while a region radiant with hands enjoyed the open world, untouched by any evils.
Nay, even as the people themselves ran about, the harmless dogs kept silent, and with barking suppressed, undaunted, they licked their legs with the lash of their tails, sometimes laying aside their fierce dread of their masters. Yet not even by these losses does the king's resolve yield, and raging he chides the prophet and threatens death, because he wished to sweep away the cattle and all the property. And now God had darkened the night with a pitch-black cloak, devising a hidden blow amid the thick deaths, when with sudden death those perish whom they had brought forth as first offspring, with a small distinction of death—from the throne of the king himself—and thereafter all the men of whatever stock, and the flocks and the beasts. At once huge grief stirs up dreadful-sounding cries; all the dwellings roar, the cities resound with lamentations.
Then indeed all press to thrust out the people who bear the name of Jew, as if that were the cause of their woes by its deserts; and their property and all their goods are handed over, and no loss is reckoned to come from this: and countless flocks of cattle accompany them as they go. Therefore they depart, with God leading, who went before them as their forerunner, and on straining shoulders they carry the merchandise of life. And now the world had consumed four hundred years, and forty likewise, if the sum of elapsed time be reckoned, since which Jacob, with care to procure grain, had come to the Pharian cities, to abide there; these being fulfilled, God at last, pitying from on high, the praiseworthy one, raised up the people from the untamed foe.
The first day is reckoned by the offering of the Passover, and the joys of the night consecrated to God are led on, and seven days, as the year returns, bring the slow leisure of the blessed, and all care is laid aside; no one turns the soil, and labour, exempt from the curved plough, is lulled to rest throughout the measured season, and the slaves rejoice in equal liberty, and the whole business of life is to join hearts to God and to lie upon spread couches and to bring in choice foods, which the happy land creates from its rich fields. And a white lamb is taken up, with the months fulfilled which the year makes twice-six, whole and the tenderest of the whole flock: this the law compels all alike to eat and to set upon the holy table with its bones untouched, and to dye the doorposts with its blood, and to acquire a cleansing and safe life.
A common law holds all, and those prepared with bronze and wont to hire out their hands lay aside their foreskins and take festive foods from the lamb's flesh. Nor is it permitted that anything remain over; if a thin band did not consume it all, it is lawful to add a neighbour from the field. The loaves lack leaven, and the soft flour, mixed with spring-water, is formed into thin disks, which they call azyma, ground in the native tongue. These holy rites are done, with all returning from the river. After fourteen lights have run their course in the new month, men perceive it by guiding reason. And with anxious care they bind up their flowing folds, intent, as though signals were sounding and war were being waged, and the armed hands bear the strength of staves.
Moreover they seize the blade of pale hyssop and with devoted hand plunge it in the consecrated blood, and rejoice to sprinkle it, shaken off, far upon the doorways, so that on the dear doorposts the noble wave might congeal, which—holy—forbids the entrance of the assailing evil one. And now had not the order come down to the fifth step, when, seeking the desert, the people dear to God was coming to the Red sea, bearing the bones of Joseph taken from the tomb, who once with truthful mouth had foretold the serene looks of the Lord and his kindly right hand that would come from heaven and bring liberty.
Then they come to Succoth and leave Etham behind, with Christ showing the unknown ways through trackless places, who, when with new morning he opened the light from the stars, flying ahead furrowed the snowy heavens with a cloud and, veiling the gleaming sun and its radiance through the darkened upper air, covering it with night, shone with the bright tress of a comet. Then they make for Pi-hahiroth, to which the land of Migdol is joined, bordering opposite Baal-zephon. Here the Lord strips the king's mind of fear, sharpening his over-swollen senses and ferocious mind; so that he might say he was rather putting to flight the people whom he himself had sent away, and move his battle-lines headlong into war, believing that the men whom error drives and trackless paths delay could be overtaken with easy effort.
Therefore, eager, he stirs to war his phalanxes as if they were small, driving his iron chariots, which a threefold soldier drives on the flying axle, while he rises onto the swift spear, now low, now lofty into the windy breezes, capable of terror and of treachery, because struck with frequent blows they lay low the lines that stand close at hand, and the horn-footed steeds add their charge with the burning wheels, which the swift hoof turns with various assaults. And now, hastening his march, he had moved his four-horse chariots to the curving shores of the Red marble, frozen for battle, when the Jewish band, with eyes turned suddenly, looks back upon the immense lines and, through all the plains, the iron-clad men gleaming, and, hemmed in by an equal weight of double fear, while it beholds both the sea and the foe set against it, using harsh words against the prophet, recounts these things:
"What was that so great confidence, O leader, of strength unfamiliar, to destroy your kindred people and to endure to follow on and to set the Red ocean against the captured? Why bear—sorrowful indeed, yet safe—our burdens out of hated Egypt, only to lift them away in vain? Was it not better to suffer the grim hardships of Pharaoh and his deadly laws? Was not that servitude better than this liberty, which, subjected to deceit, prefers what was endured before and counts it sweet, as often as worse things, never tried before, follow upon it? We said this long ago, when you called us to vows to be paid to the boundless God: it stands safer there to live accustomed to slavery and to bear the yoke of a grievous bondage, than now to lie down in death amid the squalid fields and the abandoned land,
while in fearful peril we are terrified by the sea and by the foe." But the prophet, conquered by no fear of things, and rather seeing things to come, spoke these words with the voice of the earth: "Loosen your gnawing cares and put on serene spirits, O comrades, and turn your gaze with straight sight. How great a salvation is brought back to you from the lofty stars, with God on high granting it! Those whom you behold pressing on in a dense column, after this present light it is not permitted you to see them, whom the time of death drives on. For God the warrior fights with lofty right hand and rules the subjected, while you keep your mouths silent." When he had spoken these things, the words follow the man advanced before them.
For an angel, flying before, removes himself from the camp of the men, placing himself behind; and thereafter a tawny pillar is set at their rear and divides with a middle boundary the ramparts and the site of the camps, and God pours opaque night from his shining seat, and unexpected peace cherishes those raging for war and removes all commotions. O exceedingly happy he, to whom God sent defences from the lofty stars, for whom the shining heaven fights, and to whose battles the sworn-allied nights come! Hence the commands of God bid the chieftain bring forth the rod with hand outstretched and look down upon the Red sea so great. After this had been duly accomplished, the south wind comes.
It, using all its blasts through the silent night, drank up the seething waves and dried the strait, so that a middle path, laid open, might spread an unharmed course over the opened plain, when the receding sea had bared its thirsty sands. Therefore, when the hurried deep had departed, a wave, curved into the likeness of a mountain, stood around them and received them in its open bosom and sent them through the deep. Pharaoh, believing this lawful for him, while he presses close, enters and treads the sea; but suddenly the slow wagons groan, and the horn-footed steeds, prone with their whole breast to the ground, thrust the weights forward on their knees in vain, which deep within could not be moved with the axle bound fast. At once the bloodless men, bound with an immense fetter, attempting hurried flight and striving to turn back again, with vain terror goad on their yoke-beasts.
Upon these wretched men another, greater thing, far more dreadful, is heaped, and afflicts their dulled senses still more. For the strait, wont to dash its doubtful waves, joined the parted waters and mingled the swelling waves and sank all Egypt to the bottom. But the Jewish band, seeing the floating bodies of the men from the hostile side, and the chariots swimming and the arms and whatever is hurled crosswise at the foe, looked up and feared God, and with faithful sense believed the command of the Lord and hallowed the prophet, while it sang the songs of Moses, sweet in words: "Let us sing to the Lord and to our God, to whom be glory abounding with honour. He adorns himself with magnificent deeds, while he destroys the swift chariots of the Egyptians with their joined horsemen and the heavy throng in the streams of the Red marble.
The mighty helper of my salvation has lifted the people out of the midst of the deep, guardian and begetter and true salvation! This, this is my Lord and nourisher! Him with conspicuous praise I shall hallow, who is the forefather of my parent. Him with lofty voices I shall confess, who waged war and overwhelmed the strong, worthy of the name by which God is called. Like to rocks and heavy lead, in the vast waves he hid the cohorts, which the king of the Nile, mustering for arms, sharers of his plunder, threateningly chanted: while he draws the swords against our throats and whirls and shakes the drawn iron, saying: "I will seize them as they flee, I will share out the plunder and overwhelm the vanquished, and with the glory of noble war I will hold the palm sought by my deserts." While he recounts these things and trusts in himself, he prepared destruction for all his own.
None is like to you, Creator, greatest in deeds, and prince of princes; you have given a mighty aid to your own, which the nations of the Philistines dread, the Edomites also and the Moabites, whose destruction the Canaanites tremble at, until this people, redeemed for you, may climb the conspicuous mountain holy to God, an heir to perpetual trophies." These things, repeated in equal measures, the mothers sang with the chorus applauding, the prophet's sister dictating, beating the timbrels with their fingers, while they speak in harmony. At once, undaunted, after they had seen the band of wicked Pharaoh overthrown, they make their way through trackless places, which were formerly called Shur, and through the dry heat they wore away parched days; whom, with threefold light and more fervent hair, the lamp of the sun scorched.
Weary, they come to Marah and behold the waters welling up with a bitter taste, which, tasting with weary breast, they hurl far away; because the over-heavy water tortured their beset throats with a bitter sense. On account of this defect they mark the spring with a name, and with dense clamour they demand of the prophet flowing streams which might be able to soften the hot vapours. He asks of God; for by what license could he beget waves, unless the Lord should send them from the star-bearing hall? And at once he takes wood, by which he calms the bitter cups, and steeps the streams with honey infused. There God, with the balance of the scales weighed, gave just decrees, testing the chieftain, while he says such things:
"If you, mindful, take up my every saying in a sincere heart, so as to do whatever is suited to life, bearing in your heart the commands of God, you shall suffer nothing sad throughout your age, nor shall the loss of damages weigh you down, nor savage sickness; you shall stand apart from every disaster of evil, whatever wild beast laid waste Egypt. Since I am the Lord, who care for hearts and am able to render them sound." After this they came to Elim, watered with twelve springs which by chance flowed among leafy palms, which with lofty top waved seventy cones through the clouds.
And after, with camp pitched at the Sinus, worthless leisure was worn through, and thereafter on the fifteenth day, journeying, they hasten through the dark, in the second month, and they bemoaned the utmost hunger, while with lofty voices they upbraid and harass the leader: "What was the cause, so great, of evils? Or what could it be? What could prevail to be sadder than dire hunger, than the burning spirit amid parched jaws, and present death, which, delayed, weighs more than that which presses close at hand? And would that one lot had given us death, set then in Egypt, when the substance of food was abundant for all, with none muttering apart that food was lacking to him? Now we dwell here, where life is grievous, even if there be no sad things.
Therefore is anyone able to endure the hated day amid the squalid sands, and, parched, can he bear the hot sun, which no shade tempers? Nay rather, if sense should warn us of our perils, aged leader, we ask you: restore the Nile and Pharos to your own, and thereafter permit the men, demanding it, to repeat all their labours, because it is our judgement that nothing can be more grievous than food cut off, and it pleases us, when filled, to serve." After such words the prophet speaks forth, with Aaron the partner of his speech: "Why does it please you to hurl your voices in untamed uproar and to harass the chieftains? Why demand food, which he alone can provide who made the stars? But nevertheless you shall see, with the lamp of the sun setting, that there is a God, by whose gift bread is sent to you from heaven;
who now sends you, long entangled in dark Lake Mareotis, glad to glad fields. Wherefore come, and at the first light of the returning sun taste the unaccustomed banquets and the heavenly manna. For the quarrels of the people, not fitting to our deeds, are sent rather against the Lord, who is wont to feed whatever he nourishes, and leads forth the ages with long pasturing." When he had spoken these things, the Lord flashed forth from the cloud on high on a better day and pledged heavenly food to all, which a harvest that knows no fraud begets, and which extinguishes its seeds with no dye. Then, when evening had already shone red from the saffron sky, quail, fallen from heaven thick after the manner of snow, heaped in a heavy mass, fills the lying plains and the site of the camps, with all marvelling.
Nay, even when the light gave itself back at the first dawn, the manna gives snowy foods, which with minute grain, like coriander, flowed down from all the stars. This, when bidden, the men plucked with the hand by a fixed rule of gathering: lest perhaps anyone should prefer to store up more than is the measure of just food, which suffices for each single day; nor did vain cleverness give anyone leave to set aside at home more than is just; for when the sun is hot, the meal rots, spoiled by manifold worm. This alone the twin lights cannot destroy, which the festival of Parasceve brought forth, to be eaten on the festal day, which God bids be holy, and that men sustain no labour as often as that light recurs, which they call the Sabbath, granted to slow rest.
Nay, even this thing was thoroughly known to all, that on every seventh day no food descends which the heavenly harvest holds; because the men who went forth with shrewd care through the country and the lying plains, gazing on nothing but grasses waving with the blasts of the winds, are brought back to their dwellings with empty bosoms. And lest perhaps they should see only the memorials of God, to whom the food of the honeyed gift had been sent, something is enclosed in the protection of a gilded chest, that the generations to come and those one day to be might see it, and, venerating God, might marvel at the food of their forefathers. After these signs they move and the long column is led forth to life, which, hot with the sun and lacking water, made the people utter gnawing words against the chieftain, while it demands water; nor with murmur alone, but they almost proceeded with the hand;
for the priest, fearing the rocks to be hurled against him, sends words on high to God and with dry sandbanks implores the streams. At once, prompted by the resolve of the great Lord, he commands those greater in age likewise to go before; then he takes the accustomed rod, by which he had known how to stay the waves and to part the sea with a middle wall; and he seeks Mount Horeb, which towers up most high and lifts its consecrated head to the neighbouring clouds. There the hard flint had enclosed the shut-up waters—above which the Lord stood and stirred up the springs by the same reckoning of his powers, by which he marked off the immense rivers throughout the whole world and poured out the seas. Bidden to strike this, he smites it, and the rock is suddenly broken and, with him speaking, vomits forth streams with welling waters.
There is a rush to the waters in eager rivalry by the thronging crowd, and countless flocks rush down and slake the heat, and with these satisfied, strength returns to their wearied bodies. At once the place itself bears a name from the cause of its name, the name of Temptation, because the people was of doubtful breast, with wavering mind, whether the supreme Almighty dwelt among them, and because the people, harsh in words, had wished curses upon their leader, which wrath conceives. There Amalek, drawn up with warlike troops, routed the Hebrew wedges; warding off which disgrace, Joshua seizes with him the chosen strength of the warriors: