The Plagues of Egypt, Part Three

(Exodus 9:13 - 10:29)
Jehovah said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and confront the Pharaoh.  Tell him that Jehovah, the god of the Hebrews, tells you, 'Allow my people to make a sacrifice to me, or else I will bring to bear all my power against you, your servants and your subjects in order to convince you that there none like me on earth.  I could have used the power at my disposal to inflict such disasters upon you that you would all be wiped off the face of the earth.  But I have spared you for this purpose: to impress you with my power and to spread my fame throughout the world. --- You still lord over my people and refuse to let them go?   Beware!  Tomorrow at this time I will bring a devastating hailstorm, such has not been seen in Egypt from its establishment as a nation until now.  Therefore, send word at once that all your livestock and everything belonging to you in the fields must be taken inside, for men and animals, everything remaining outside and not under cover, will be killed when the hail falls.’”

Those among the Pharaoh's subjects who believed and heeded Jehovah's warning sought shelter for their workers and farm animals inside.  Those who disbelieved and ignored it, left their workers and animals outside in the fields.

Jehovah said to Moses, "Stretch out your arm toward the sky and bring down hail upon man and beast, upon every plant and tree in the land of Egypt."  Moses reached his staff up into the sky and, lo, Jehovah sent a storm of hail with thunder and lightning strikes upon the ground.  Jehovah made it hail all across the land of Egypt, and the the hail fell amidst flashes of lightning.  It was very severe -- nothing like it in all of Egypt from the time it had been founded.  Throughout the country the hail struck all that was left outside, killing both men and animals, beating down the grain in the fields and stripping of leaves every tree in the land.  Only in Goshen, where the Israelites lived, did the hail not fall.

The Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and confessed to them, "I was in error concerning this matter.  Jehovah is in the right.   I and my people are in the wrong.  All I ask is that you pray to Jehovah that he may put a stop to all this thunder and hail.  I will let your people go and you need not stay in this country any longer."

Moses responded, "As soon as I have left the city, I will reach my hands up to Jehovah, the thunder will cease and the hail will fall no more, so that you will know that earthly events are controlled by Jehovah. --- But as for you and your court, I know that you still do not respect the god Jehovah.”

(The flax and the barley crops were destroyed, for the flax was in the bud and barley was in the ear, but the winter wheat and the emmer wheat were not damaged, for they had not yet come up.)

Moses departed from the Pharaoh's capital and raised his hands up to Jehovah, thereupon the hail and the thunder ceased and no more rain fell.   But once he saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had stopped, the Pharaoh lapsed back into his evil ways, and he and his court became more obdurate than ever, fully determined to prevent the Israelites from going -- just as Jehovah had told Moses he would. 

Jehovah said to Moses, "Go, see the Pharaoh.  I have made him and his court obstinate so that I could manifest my divine power before them and so that you will be able to recount to your children and grandchildren how I have humbled the Egyptians and miraculously inflicted upon them these plagues, and you will thus remember the reason that I am your god."

When Moses and Aaron went to see the Pharaoh, they said to him, "Jehovah, the god of the Hebrews says to you, 'How long will you refuse to yield to me? Let my people go so they can sacrifice to me.  If you refuse and won't let them go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.  They will completely cover the surface of the earth and will devour all that was left by the hail.  They will eat every green thing that grows up in the fields.  They will invade your palaces, the residencies of your officials, and the homes of your subjects, and in numbers such as men have not seen since your ancestors began living in Egypt.’”  Moses then turned away from the Pharaoh and departed from his presence. 

The officials of Pharaoh's court said to him, "How long must this man continue to be our undoing?  Let his people go so they can worship their god.  Can't you see that the country has already been destroyed?"  And so the Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron back to his court and told them, "Go and worship Jehovah, your god.  But who is it among you that must go?"

Moses explained, "We will take along the old and the young, our sons and daughters, and our flocks and herds as well, for we must hold a feast honoring Jehovah."

The Pharaoh answered, “Jehovah will be with you indeed, if I let you take your children with you.  Who can doubt that you have some ulterior motive, some evil intent?  No,  just the men may go and sacrifice to Jehovah -- that's what you wanted all along, wasn't it?"  Immediately after, Aaron and Moses were forcible ejected from the palace.

Jehovah said to Moses, "Extend your arm over the land of Egypt so that the locust will appear, sweep over the country, and devour all that remains of the crops after the hailstorm."  Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt.  Jehovah stirred up a hot east wind that blew across the land all day and night, and in the morning, the wind brought hordes of locusts.  They spread over the entire land of Egypt, from one border to another, and their numbers were greater than had ever been or will ever be.  They covered the entire surface of the land so that the earth was darkened with them.   They consumed every bit of vegetation, the grain and whatever fruits that were spared by the hailstorm.  Indeed, nothing green, either the leaves on the trees or the plants on the ground, was left in the entire country of Egypt.

The Pharaoh urgently summoned Moses and Aaron back to his palace and apologized to them, "I have done wrong to your god Jehovah and to you.  Just this once forgive me and pray to your god Jehovah that he may spare me this deadly catastrophe."

After leaving the Pharaoh, Moses called upon Jehovah, who evoked a mighty wind from the west that blew all the locusts to drown in the Red Sea -- there remained not a single locust from one end of Egypt to the other.

But Jehovah made the Pharaoh hard headed and unbending, and he still refused to let the Israelites go.

Jehovah told Moses, "Extend your arm to the sky and there will settle over the land of Egypt a darkness so thick that men will grope their way in blindness.”  And Moses did stretch his arm to the sky and there came a terrifying darkness throughout the land for Egypt for three days.  No man could see his fellow, no one ventured abroad for three days.  However, wherever the Israelites lived, there was light. 

The Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, "You may go and sacrifice to your god.  Your children may go with you, but you must leave behind your herds and flocks."

Moses replied, "But you must allow us to make animal sacrifices to our god Jehovah.  All our livestock must go with us with nary a hoof left behind.  For they are necessary for our religious ceremonies, and we don't know exactly what will be needed for the sacrifice until we get there."

But again Jehovah made the Pharaoh obstinate, and he refused to let them go.  Moreover, Pharaoh warned Moses, "Be gone from my sight and make sure you don't show your face here again, for if you do, you will be put to death."

Moses responded, "So be it, you will not see my face anymore!"

Notes
1.  Jehovah's primary concern does not seem to be the welfare of the Israelites, except as it impinges upon their ability to make sacrifices to him.  He lets the Israelites suffer for generations under Egyptian bondage, but his primary beef is that he is not allowed to receive the devotion he is due.  The Pharaoh's obstinacy, which Jehovah continually nurtures, seems an excuse for Jehovah to flaunt his god-like powers, to assert his dominance over the Egyptian gods (who after the first couple of plagues are absent from the field of contest), and to wreak as much havoc as he can, which seems to be his way of getting kicks.  The Jehovah of Moses, even more than the Jehovah of Abraham, uses his power almost exclusively in a destructive way.  He doesn't build or teach and do anything to improve the character or living conditions of his people.  He may protect his people from the disasters and pestilences he creates, but when he gives something to his people it always something he has taken from someone else.  And he certainly doesn't mind if he kills and punishes thousands and thousands of innocent people, just because he can't get his own way.  The land and people of Egypt are all but destroyed because of the stubbornness of the Pharaoh.  Why doesn't he just punish the Pharaoh, give him a migraine or a case of the shingles?  And why does he make him so pig-headed, why not, if has the ability, make the Pharaoh compliant so that he will let the Israelites go?  It is his stated goal to make the liberation of the Israelites something spectacular and unforgettable,  so that his people will always remember him and be obligated to him.

2.  Hail, needless to say, is exceedingly uncommon in Egypt, but not entirely unknown.  A hailstorm so severe that it kills anyone caught out in it is, however, a bit of a stretch.  Some translations interpret lightning as being fire, in which case it sounds more like volcanic activity -- perhaps a memory of the Thera eruption.  It seems more likely, though, that lightning is meant here and not fire.

3.  When Moses is summoned by the Pharaoh, who falsely promises to let the Israelites go if Moses will bring the hailstorm to an end, the storm is still going on, the hail is still falling.  How does Moses protect himself from the lethal hail?

4.  The wheat, unlike the flax and the barley, are not destroyed by the hail since they have not yet come up.  Since winter wheat and emmer wheat (a variety cultivated at that time in the Middle East -- some translations incorrectly refer to spelt or rye) would have matured in March or April, this would place the hailstorm during the harvest time for flax and barley, in February.

5.  The locust invasion is the archetypal Biblical plague, but such infestations are far from rare and have occurred in modern times.  Beating the insects into the sea was a technique used by settlers in early Massachusetts, and luring them into Lake Michigan with high-pitched calls was effectively employed against giant grasshoppers in the 50's sci-fi film Beginning of the End.

6.  The threat of locusts is the last straw for members of the Pharaoh's court, who finally protest and urge the Pharaoh to give in to Moses.  The Pharaoh thus recalls Moses and seems willing to concede to his demands, but they bicker about terms.  Moses has never asked for freedom for his people, only the right for them to take a little time off so they can go into the desert and hold some religious ceremonies, with the assumption that they will then return to the former conditions of their servitude.  That Moses wants to bring along the children and all the livestock seems suspicious to the Pharaoh, who, believing they will not return, will allow only the men to go.  This is unacceptable to Moses, so the deal falls through and the Eighth Plague, that of locusts, goes into effect.  Then, after the Ninth Plague, that of darkness, the Pharaoh is willing to let all the people go, as long as they leave behind their livestock, which, Moses insists, are necessary.  Why the Israelites, who will have to slaughter some of their animals to feed Jehovah's bloodlust, need all of their livestock with them does not seem reasonable.  The Pharaoh, for once, does have a point.  Fed up, he gets mad at Moses and boots him out of the palace and tells him he will be killed if he ever returns.  (Extraordinary this took so long to happen: one would think that any ruthless despot worth his salt would have had Moses impaled after the first plague -- but then that would have ruined the story.)

7.  The plague of darkness, lasting three days, might have been due to a sandstorm, even a result of that stiff west wind that blew the locusts into the Red Sea. 

 

The Plagues of Egypt, Part Two

(Exodus 8:16 - 9:12)

Jehovah instructed Moses to tell Aaron, "Stretch out your staff and strike the ground that the dust may turn into midges that will infest the land of Egypt."

They did as they were told: Aaron stretched out his hand and with his staff struck the ground so that throughout Egypt the dust spawned midges to afflict both man and beast.  The Pharaoh's magicians attempted with their sorcery to summon forth midges as Aaron had done, but they could not successfully do so.  And so the midges remained a scourge to man and beast.

The magicians advised the Pharaoh, "This has indeed been wrought by the power of God," but the Pharaoh was unpersuaded and wouldn't listen to them -- just as Jehovah had foretold.

Jehovah told Moses, "Get up early in the morning and approach the Pharaoh when he goes down to the river to wash.  Say this to him: 'Jehovah tells you to let my people go so that they may make a sacrifice to me.  If you do not free them, I will send against you, against your servants and your subjects, swarms of flies.  Your palace and the homes of your people will be infested with swarms of flies; even the ground on which you stand will teem with them.  But the land of Goshen, where my people live, shall be set apart and no flies will appear there.  You will realize then that I am the master of earthly events, and what will happen tomorrow will be proof that am determined to preserve this division between my people and your people."

And Jehovah did as he promised: an horrendous swarm of flies invaded the Pharaoh's palace and the homes of his servants, spreading over Egypt so that the whole country was paralyzed by the flies.  The Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron and told then, "You may make a sacrifice to your god, but do so here in this country."

Moses replied, "It would not be proper to do so, for if we did, we would be sacrificing animals that are worshiped as idols by the Egyptians, and if we sacrifice their idols in front of them, will not the Egyptians stone us to death?  We will go three-days journey into the desert and sacrifice to Jehovah our god as he has commanded us."

The Pharaoh answered, "I will let your people go so they can make their sacrifice to your god Jehovah in the desert, but you must not go quite so far away -- and you must make entreaties to your god for me."

Moses said, "Look, I will go out tomorrow and pray to Jehovah so that he will drive away the flies from the Pharaoh, his servants, and his subjects, but the Pharaoh must cease his deceitful dealing and allow my people to sacrifice to their god."

After Moses departed from the Pharaoh, he prayed to Jehovah, who answered Moses's entreaty and removed the swarms of flies from the Pharaoh, his servants, and his subjects so that not one insect remained.

But again, the Pharaoh was obstinate, reneged on his promise, and did not let the people go.

Jehovah then told Moses, "Go see the Pharaoh and tell him, Jehovah, the god of the Hebrews demands, 'Let my people go that they may worship me, for, if you refuse to let them go and hold them still, my fury will fall upon the animals of the field.  The horses, the donkeys, the camels, the cattle, the goats, and the sheep will all succumb to a virulent outbreak of murrain.'  I will isolate the livestock of the Egyptians from that of the Israelites, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die."

The time was thus ordained: "Tomorrow, Jehovah will inflict this upon the land!”  And, on the next day, he accomplished what he had promised.  All the livestock belonging to the Egyptians perished and of the livestock belonging to the Israelites, not one did.  Although the Pharaoh had been informed by scouts that none of the Israelite livestock had died, still he was uncompromising and did not let the people go.

Jehovah instructed Moses and Aaron, "Take some handfuls of soot from a kiln and, in the presence of the Pharaoh, disperse it into the air.  It will spread like dust throughout the land of Egypt and will produce in men and animals swelling boils that will blister."

And they took some soot and, in front of the Pharaoh, Moses dispersed it into the air, and, as a result, there broke out upon men and animals swelling boils that blistered.  Even the Pharaoh's magicians could not stand up in front of Moses because of the sores from which they suffered, (like all did in the land of Egypt).

But Jehovah still made the Pharaoh obstinate of mind so that he wouldn't listen to them -- just as Jehovah said.

Notes
1.  The insect instrumental in the Third Plague is not clearly defined in the Hebrew text.  Most often translations name lice or gnats.  There is, however, no species of lice that attacks both men and animals and they would not suddenly increase in numbers.  Gnats are not common in Egypt.  Neither is thus likely to be the culprit.  Midges, however, tiny, swarming insects, do seem to materialize from the dust and would fit the description.  Biting midges of the genus Culicoides are a common nuisance in Egypt, and their numbers can burgeon suddenly under certain climatic conditions.

2.  Again, with the Fourth Plague nothing specific is named, only "swarms."  Early translators thought this might mean "wild animals," but that really doesn't fit.  Generally it is thought that flies are what the swarms must have consisted of and that seems very reasonable.  House and horse flies, though, don't usually swarm and bite.  However, the stable fly does so and would fill the bill as the Fourth Plague.  They are, incidentally, more prolific than any other kind of fly and are a vector for many diseases.

3. The swarms of flies suddenly appear at Jehovah's behest, while the midges had to be summoned by Aaron with some magical passes.  Why the change in technique?  The Fifth Plague, the murrain, also comes without human agency, but to create the boils of Plague Six, Moses has to throw some soot or ashes into the air.

4.  The dying out of all the frogs -- and presumably toads -- would have caused the the fast-breeding insect populations on which they regularly fed to increase astronomically.

5.  The Israelites suffered under the first three plagues, but were not affected by the later plagues, perhaps because of Goshen's geographic location and the fact that it is removed from the main course of the Nile and closer to the sea.

6.  Moses realized that his people's custom of animal sacrifice was offensive to the Egyptians, who, despite their seeming love of animals, did practice animal sacrifice on a large scale, but with different methods and traditions.  There was less emphasis on the burnt offerings of meat favored by the Hebrews and more on the mummification of sacrificial victims.  The practice of Egyptian sacrifice of male (but not female) cattle is described by the Greek historian Herodotus (writing many centuries after the events of Exodus).  It might be noted that most meat sacrifices ended up as meals for the Egyptian priests!

7.  Moses, responding to the false promise of the forked-tongued Pharaoh, banishes the flies from Egypt, but, interestingly, there is no record of his getting rid of those pesky midges.

8.  Murrain, the Fifth Plague, is not a specific disease, but a catch-all term for any serious ailment affecting livestock.  It is not possible to identify the specific disease here.  It was, for various reasons, probably not anthrax, hoof-and-mouth disease, or rinderpest.  It might, though, have been a combination of African horse sickness and the related blue-tongue virus, which could have been easily spread by the Culicoides midges.  (These diseases have high mortality rates.)  Since this plague supposedly wiped out all the livestock in Egypt, one wonders how the Egyptians were ever able to replenish their stocks.

9.  The Sixth Plague, a disease causing boils and blisters on both men and beasts, is also a mystery.  The best candidate is a bacterial infection called glanders, which could have been spread by the stable flies.  Glanders mostly affects animals, but will spread to humans.  It was used by the Axis powers in World War I in an attempt to destroy enemy livestock.  The Japanese used it to sicken Chinese populations during World War II, and there were subsequent efforts (happily unsuccessful) to weaponize it as a biological warfare agent. 

10.  Since all the livestock in Egypt was dead as a result of the Fifth Plague, one might well ask what animals remained to be affected by the Sixth Plague -- wild animals, pets?

11.  There are several points on which the credibility of the story is strained.  Why would the Pharaoh allow his whole country to be destroyed just because he was too proud and too stubborn to allow a group of slaves to go into the desert to make a sacrifice to their god? --- They didn't ask to be free from bondage, only to be able to observe a religious holiday.  Was the Pharaoh a megalomaniac or merely a moron?  He wouldn't listen to his magicians who advised him that Jehovah was more powerful than their gods, but wasn't he also getting some input from his vizier, his political advisors, his officers, his military, his family?  Why weren't his people in revolt?  There is a suspension of belief necessary in accepting the fairy tale aspects of a story which is composed of both fantasy and probable fact.

The Plagues of Egypt, Part One

(Exodus 7:9 - 8:15)

Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron, "When the Pharaoh will challenge you, ‘Convince us by performing a miracle,' you will tell Aaron to take your staff and cast it down before the Pharaoh; it will turn into a snake."

And so Moses and Aaron appeared before the Pharaoh and did what Jehovah had bid them, casting before the Pharaoh and his court the staff, which did indeed become a snake.  The Pharaoh, though, summoned all the wizards and sorcerers of Egypt, and with their expertise in magic they were able to do likewise: they each cast down their staffs and the staffs all turned into snakes just like Aaron's.  Aaron's staff, however, devoured all the others!

But just as Jehovah had predicted, the Pharaoh was stubborn and did not relent and did not free the people.

Jehovah spoke again to Moses, "Since the Pharaoh has not changed his mind and will not let the people go, see him again in the morning when he comes out to wash in the Nile.  Stand by the river bank and confront him carrying the same staff that was turned into a snake.  You will say to him that the god of the Hebrews has sent you and demands, 'Let my people go so that they can worship me in the desert -- a request that you have thus far refused to grant.'  And to prove to him that I am a god, you will dip into the waters of the Nile the staff you hold in your hand, and I will turn the river water into blood.  The fish in the river will die.  The river itself will stink and will sicken the Egyptians that drink from it.”

And Jehovah continued, "Tell Aaron to take the staff and stretch it out over all the waters of Egypt, the rivers, streams, pools, and ponds that they may all be turned into blood.  Let there be nothing but blood in the land of Egypt, even in water containers of both wood and stone."

Moses and Aaron did as they were instructed by Jehovah.  In the presence of the Pharaoh and his court, Aaron stretched the staff over the river, and the waters of the Nile were turned into blood.  The fish died, the river stank, and the people could no longer drink its waters: there was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

But the magicians of Egypt possessed the occult power to perform the same trick, so the Pharaoh was still adamant and refused to accede to Moses' demands, (as Jehovah had foretold).  He turned away from Moses and Aaron and returned to his palace, remaining unconvinced.

All the Egyptians, who could no longer drink the waters of the Nile, dug around the river bank for water.  This continued for seven days from the time that Jehovah had cursed the waters.

Jehovah then told Moses, "Go to the Pharaoh and tell him, 'Let my people go so that they may make a sacrifice to me.  If you do not free them, I will afflict your entire country with a plague of frogs.  The Nile will spew forth a swarming plethora of frogs.  They will enter your palace and your bedchamber.  They will even hop into your bed. They will invade the homes of your servants and subjects.  They will get into your ovens and cooking bowls.  And they will leap up, climb, and crawl all over you, your servants, and your subjects!’”

"Tell Aaron to stretch out his staff over the rivers, the streams, and the marshes and with it summon forth the frogs."

And Aaron did stretch out his staff over the waters of Egypt.  The frogs appeared and they soon covered the entire land.  But the wizards of the Pharaoh were able by their magic to similarly summon forth frogs onto the land of Egypt.  

The Pharaoh, though, saw Moses and Aaron and asked them, "Please tell your god to take away the frogs from me and my people, and I will let your people go so they can sacrifice to their god."

Moses replied to the Pharaoh, "Tell me the time when I may pray for you, your servants, and your people that the frogs may be taken away from your house and from the houses of your servants and subjects and be thenceforth confined only to the rivers."

"Tomorrow," was the Pharaoh's reply.

"Let it be as you say -- but you will see there is none like the god Jehovah.  The frogs will be banished from you and from your houses, from your servants and subjects and will remain only in the river."  After he and Aaron departed from the Pharaoh, Moses prayed to Jehovah concerning the frogs that had been brought against the Pharaoh.  Jehovah did what Moses had asked of him: the frogs that had infested the houses and courtyards and fields all perished.  The frog carcasses were piled in huge heaps and because of them, the whole country reeked.

But when the Pharaoh saw that there had been a deliverance, he resumed his stubborn attitude and refused to honor his promise -- just as Jehovah had predicted.

Notes
1. At this point in the narrative we seem to be lapsing into the realm of a fairy tale, with competing exhibitions of magical feats.  To impress the Pharaoh with Jehovah's power Moses has Aaron toss down his staff and make it turn into a snake.  One would think that an omnipotent, omniscient creator of the universe would manage something a little more impressive, if not a little more dignified.  What is remarkable is that the Pharaoh's magicians are able to perform the same trick.  (How did they do it?) There is an implied competition of Jehovah with the gods of Egypt.  The latter, while unfit subjects for Hebrew worship, are nowhere discounted as being nonexistent or impotent.  A modern interpretation might assert that the power of the Egyptian magicians came from Satan or the Devil, while that of Moses and Aaron, from God.  However, there was, at this time, no concept of a Devil, a god of evil, an antagonist against which Jehovah and the forces of good were arrayed.  This dualism would creep into religious thought at a later date, mostly as a result of Persian/Zoroastrian influence.

2.  It is amazing that the Pharaoh is so accessible to the spokesmen of his slaves: Moses is able to confront him when he takes his morning wash up in the Nile.  (Where is security!)  All through Egyptian history Pharaohs, even those foreigners who assumed the title, were aloof, godlike personages, hardly approachable to ordinary men.  Also, it is interesting there is no mention by the Pharaoh -- or by the storyteller -- that Moses is the adopted son of a Pharaoh's sister.   One would think that might have given Moses some clout at court, but it’s never spoken of.

3.  By stretching Moses' magic staff over the waters, Aaron is able to turn the water in to blood.  As the First Plague of Egypt, water all over Egypt is turned into blood.  Apparently Aaron traveled all over the country stopping at every pond and pool to make a pass with his staff and was somehow able as well to turn the water of every bowl and bottle, cup and urn in Egypt into blood.  This, and much of what ensues has the flavor of a fanciful folk tale, too absurd to be taken literally.

4.  The people of Egypt are without water for seven days.  One would think everyone would be pretty thirsty, if not dead by week's end.  There is a reference, though, to people digging along the river to find drinkable water.  Perhaps enough was found to keep the population hydrated.

5.  Suggestions have been made that a certain algae may have been responsible for making the Nile water turn red, or some mineral contamination at the river's source may have accounted for the change in the color of the water.  This may certainly have given rise to a memory of waters turning to “blood,” but it of course does not explain waters in containers turning to blood.

6.  The second plague, that of frogs, is able to be replicated as well by the Egyptian magicians, but apparently they are unable to get rid of the frogs they have summoned and so the Pharaoh, fed up with the amphibious infestation, cries "uncle."  He gives in to Moses' demands (and then reneges).  Moses avails upon his god to get rid of the frogs; Jehovah makes them all die, but why doesn't he do it one better and make their stinking carcasses disappear?

7.  Nearly all the plagues can be ascribed to either a change in climatic conditions or a natural calamity, the most likely culprit being the cataclysmic eruption of a volcano on the Aegean island of Thera, probably in the early 17th Century B.C. (although many place the events of Exodus at a much later date.)  The plagues could have all occurred sequentially as the story says, or they may have happened at different times.  The  Ipuwer papyrus, an Egyptian text, describes similar events taking place at the end of the Old Kingdom.  The plagues, however, do not seem to be an original part of the Moses saga.  In Deuteronomy Moses inexplicably makes no mention of them when recounting the highlights of his time in Egypt.  Chroniclers compiling the Books of Moses during and shortly after the Babylonian Captivity may have added the story of the Plagues to dramatize their narrative of the liberation of the Israelites.  There is also a strong possibility that the Plagues, if they occurred during the time of Moses, may have precipitated Israelite emigration from Egypt back to Canaan.  (Remember that the Hebrews left Canaan and settled in Egypt because of famine.)  Later, the Plagues would become an instrument by which Jehovah freed the Israelites.

8.  It must be mentioned that undermining the credibility of the story is the passive conduct of the Pharaoh.  Why does he continue to allow Moses to afflict his country with plagues?  Why doesn't he imprison or execute Moses and Aaron or at least take that darn staff away from them!  It makes no sense. 

Moses Confers with Jehovah

(Exodus 5:22 - 7:7)

Moses went back to confer with Jehovah and to vent his displeasure, "Master, why have you brought nothing but misery to this people?  Why did you send me anyway? --- Since I went to see the Pharaoh and spoke to him in your name, he has only done evil to this people and has certainly not freed them."

Jehovah replied to Moses, "You will see now the strong pressure I will put upon the Pharaoh: he will not only be willing to let the Israelites go, he will literally drive them out of the country."  He continued to speak to Moses, "I am Jehovah!  When I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I called myself the All-Powerful God, but my true name, Jehovah, was not known to them.  I made an agreement with them that I would give them possession of the land of Canaan, where they had settled to dwell as foreigners.  I have heard the complaints and the cries for help of the Israelites whom the Egyptians hold in bondage, and I remember the contract I have with them."

"Tell the Israelites, 'I am Jehovah and I will deliver you from the oppressions of the Egyptians and free you from your bondage.  I will use my power to exact harsh punishments upon your persecutors, and I will rescue you from them.  I will embrace you as my own people and I will serve you as your god.   And you will know that I am your god when I free you from your bondage to the Egyptians and bring you to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and make it your heritage.  I am Jehovah!’”

Moses told all this to the Israelites, but they scorned his words, depressed and dispirited as they were by the harshness of their servitude.

Jehovah spoke to Moses, "Go see the Pharaoh of Egypt and speak to him that he will allow the Israelites to leave his country."

Moses replied, "Look, even the Israelites won't listen to me, how will the Pharaoh heed my words, especially since I’m a poor speaker."

But Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them instructions concerning the Israelites and the Egyptian Pharaoh.  (He commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.)

These are the family heads of the tribes of Israel:

The sons of Reuben, Israel's oldest son:
Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

The sons of Simeon and the heads of his tribe's families:
Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul (whose mother was a Canaanite).

The names of Levi's sons (by the genealogical records):
Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
(Levi lived 137 years.)

The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimi.
The sons of Kohath:  Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.  (Kohath lived 133 years.)
The sons of Merari: Mahali and Mushi
These are the families of Levi (by the genealogical records).

Amram married his father's sister Jochebed and she gave birth to Aaron and Moses.  Amram lived 137 years.

The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.

The sons of Uzziel:  Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri

Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Naashon, and she gave birth to Nadab,  Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

The sons of Korah:  Assir, Elkanah, Abiasaph.  These are the forefathers of the Korhite clans.

Aaron's son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas.

Above are the forefathers of the various clans of the Levite tribe.

It was this very Moses and Aaron who were commanded by Jehovah to, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt in an orderly exodus. “ It was this very Moses and Aaron who beseeched the Pharaoh to let them leave Egypt. 

At the time when Jehovah appeared to Moses in the land of Egypt, he told him, "I am Jehovah, tell the Pharaoh everything I will say to you.”  But Moses responded, "Look, I’m a poor speaker.  How will the Pharaoh pay any attention to my words?"

Jehovah assured him, "I have made you like a god over the Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be like your prophet.  You will tell Aaron everything I say to you.  He will tell the Pharaoh -- tell him to send the Israelites out of Egypt.  I will make the Pharaoh obstinate, but I will perform more and more miracles and feats of magic.  Yet the Pharaoh will not relent until I punish his country severely.   Then I will marshal my people, the Israelites, and bring them out of Egypt like a marching army.  When I exert my power over Egypt and liberate the Israelites, it will dawn upon the Egyptians that I am indeed a god."

Moses and Aaron did as Jehovah had commanded them.   (When they confronted the Pharaoh, Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83.) 

Notes
1.  Moses has thus far been a failure as a liberator and as a spokesman for his people.  He has not only made the Pharaoh more determined not to let the Israelites go, but has goaded him into more severely oppressing them.  Moreover, he has lost the confidence of his own people.  Moses, therefore, goes to Jehovah who has put him up to it and blames him.  Jehovah reassures him with, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."

2.  Jehovah makes the case to Moses that he is the same god who communed with his ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He claims that he never told them his real name, “Jehovah,” (YHVH),  but that he only called himself, rather grandly, "the All-Powerful God."  This is a curious passage.  Jehovah's insistence that he is the Hebrew national god strikes, at least this reader, as a case of protesting too much.  One can't help getting the feeling, based on the tone of this Jehovah's remarks and the unusual way in which he contacted Moses, that this is a different person from the god of Abraham.  The repeated insistence that he is, only strengthen the doubt.

3.  Moses speaks several times to Jehovah, but we are not told how and where these contacts occurred.  Did Moses keep going back to the Holy Mountain and converse again and again with the burning bush?  Was there telepathic contact?  Did Jehovah appear in human or some other physical form?

4.  One gains the impression that Jehovah, in his quest to have the Pharaoh release his people, doesn't really know what he's doing.  Rather than using the most effective means at his disposal he seems to be winging it.  But he is determined to show Egypt his power and create phenomena they will regard as miraculous and divine, so that they will know for sure that he is a god.  It seems that Jehovah is constantly aspiring to be a god, receiving the worship due a god, making demands in exchange for unfulfilled promises.  And again it must be mentioned that Jehovah presents himself as the god of the Israelites, not the god of any other people, not the universal God.  He occasionally does claim to be the Creator, but this is inconsistent with what he is actually able to do. 

5.  At this point, the story is becoming repetitious, as if the author has temporarily lost the thread of the narrative.  Interrupting the story is a catalog of the family heads of the Israelites, including the descendants of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi (with no mention of Israel's other tribes).  The genealogy shows us that Moses is the great-grandson of Levi and that his mother Jochebed was also his great aunt.  (So far we find no hint of any prohibition of incest.)   It also gives one an idea of the actual number of Israelites in bondage, several hundred, a few thousand? -- at any rate a far, far lower number than is otherwise suggested by the text wherein the Egyptians are fearful the Israelites will outnumber them.   The text seems to want to inflate the number of the Israelite population (to enlarge their importance?), but normal propagation for the number of generations cited simply cannot support anything above the level of a small tribe.

6.  Again we have abnormal longevity for Hebrew patriarchs.  Jehovah's decision after the Flood to shorten the life span of men to what we now know as normal has apparently not been put into full effect.  One feels that the long life spans are included not only to enhance the stature of important figures, but also to expand the time between generations and make it seem as if a longer period of time has elapsed between certain events than is really the case.  Moses' age at the time when he appeared before the Pharaoh is here given as 80 years.  This seems preposterous, but is necessary for the story since a certain number of known years will pass from his return to Egypt to his death.  Decades of extra years can only be inserted during his Midian period.  (Moses must have a number of years in accordance with his importance.)  The 80 years, though, hardly seems credible since Moses left Egypt a young man and married Sephora almost as soon as he arrived to live among the Midianites.  Two children were born.  When Moses returned to Egypt, one of them was a young child of circumsizable age.  Did he and Sephora wait fifty or sixty years to have children?  Not likely.  And an exile of 60 years or so doesn't seem very reasonable, nor does Jehovah choosing such an aged man to represent him make much sense. 

Moses Returns to Egypt

(Exodus 4:20 - 5:21)

Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on donkeys, and they began their journey back to Egypt.  And as he was told, Moses carried with him the divine staff.  Jehovah reminded him, “When you arrive in Egypt, make sure that you work your wonders and perform before the Pharaoh all the feats of magic I have taught you.  Even so, I will make the Pharaoh stubborn so that he will still refuse to let your people go.  You should then tell him the demands of Jehovah,  'Israel is my son, my favored son.  I tell you to let my son go so he can worship me.  If you fail to do so, I will kill your favored son.’”

During the journey, when Moses was camping for the night, an extraterrestrial confronted him.  He was at the point of killing Moses when Sephora quickly seized a sharpened flint and, with it, circumcised their son.   Flinging the bloody, excised foreskin at Moses' crotch, she declared,  “You are now wedded to me in blood,"  after which the extraterrestrial released Moses and departed.  (She used the term “wedded to me in blood" because of the circumcision).

Jehovah communicated to Aaron.  "Go out into the desert to meet Moses."   And he journeyed to the holy mountain and, when he found Moses, he greeted him with a kiss.  Moses told Aaron all the things that Jehovah, who had sent him, had revealed and showed him the feats of magic in which he had instructed him.

Moses and Aaron appeared before a meeting of the elders of Israel.  There Aaron conveyed to them the words Jehovah had spoken to Moses and demonstrated the magical feats before the people.  The people were duly convinced.  And when they learned that Jehovah had visited their people and had observed their hardships, they bowed down in worship.

Moses and Aaron appeared before the Pharaoh and told him, "Jehovah, the god of Israel, says, 'Free my people, so that they may hold a sacrificial ceremony to me in the desert."  But he replied, "Who is Jehovah that I should listen to him and free the Israelites?  I've never heard of this Jehovah, and I won't free the Israelites."

Moses and Aaron replied, "The god of the Hebrews has called to us and instructed us to journey three days into the desert and there to make sacrifices to him.  If we don't, he may afflict us with wars or plagues.”

The Pharaoh of Egypt said, "Why do you, Moses and Aaron, entice the people away from their appointed tasks.  Get back to work!"  He further complained, "The Israelites are numerous now and already overflowing their territory.  How much more will they increase in numbers if we give them leisure from their labor?”

On the same day the Pharaoh commanded the overseers and taskmasters, "You will no longer furnish the Israelites with straw to make brick as you’ve been doing.  Let them go out and glean straw for themselves.  You will not decrease the quota of bricks they are required to make or reduce their labor in any way.  They’re a lazy lot. They whine, 'We want to go and make a sacrifice to our god.'  Keep them busy with more and more work.  Make sure they do it and not listen to foolish talk."

The overseers and taskmasters went out and told the Israelites, "The Pharaoh has said you will have no more straw.  You must go out and gather it for yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work load will not be reduced."

And so the Israelites dispersed over the land to collect stubble instead of straw.  The taskmasters drove them hard, telling them, "Make your daily quota just as you did when you were given straw." 

The Israelite foremen, those chosen by the taskmasters, were beaten.  "Why haven't you filled your quota of bricks the past few days, as you did in the past?" they were asked.  But the Israelite foreman brought their grievances to the Pharaoh. "Why do you treat your servants like this?” they asked him.  “Your servants are given no straw, yet are ordered to make bricks as before.  When we can’t, we’re whipped.  The fault is not with us, but with your people.”

The Pharaoh responded, “Lazy!  That’s what you are, you don’t want to work.  That’s why you keep grousing, 'We want to go and sacrifice to our god.'  Get back to work!  You will not be given straw and the quota of bricks you must deliver will remain the same."

The Israelite foremen knew they were in deep trouble when they heard, "Your daily quota of bricks will not be lessened."  As they left their audience with the Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron were waiting for them.  The foremen stood up to them and chewed them out, “May God judge you harshly because you have made our people loathsome in the eyes of the Pharaoh and his men.  You've only given them an excuse to exterminate us."

Notes
1.  Jehovah commands Moses to perform his magic feats before the Pharaoh and, then by way of encouraging him (not), tells him that the Pharaoh will be unconvinced, not because of the Pharaoh's own stubborn nature, but because Jehovah has made him that way.  Logically, Jehovah is working at cross purposes.  He wants the Pharaoh to act a certain way and then compels him to act in the opposite manner.  It makes no sense, except to reinforce the belief that nothing happens unless it is divinely ordained.

2.  An unusual and disturbing incident on the trip back to Egypt occurs at an inn.  An extraterrestrial shows up with the presumed intent of killing Moses because his second(?) son had not been circumcised.  (The text is somewhat muddled.)  Moses has been shockingly remiss in not performing this procedure, but it must be remembered he was brought up as an Egyptian and not as a Hebrew, and his wife, though Hebrew, was not an Israelite.  Some have suggested he did not do so because his second son Eliezer had been recently born and Moses did not want him to travel weakened by the operation.  This, of course, is mere conjecture.  At any rate, it is somewhat shocking that a Jehovan would come down to earth to murder Moses simply because his son hadn't been circumcised, especially when Moses had just been selected as Jehovah’s spokesman and emissary.  Were Jehovans constantly on the rampage, killing the fathers of uncircumcised Hebrew babies wherever they found them?  It is possible that Jehovah himself sent this particular extraterrestrial assassin?  If so, why?  Or was this extraterrestrial acting on his own, unaware of Jehovah's plans for Moses?

3.  The Pharaoh rebuffs Moses and scorns Jehovah, of whom he has no knowledge.  The Egyptians worshiped a large number of gods and goddesses, most of them depicted with human bodies with the heads of animals.  The Pharaoh himself was generally regarded either as a living god or as a god to-be.  It is understandable that he would not kowtow to some no-name god worshiped by his slaves.

5.  On one level, the conflict between the Pharaoh and the Israelites is the familiar one of management and labor.  Management thinks the workers are lazy and uppity, labor thinks management is arrogant and abusive.  Here, the Pharaoh rejects the demands of labor (time off for religious worship) and, for their presumption, he makes their working conditions more onerous.  The labor leader, Moses, is rebuked by representatives of the rank and file for making their lot worse instead of better. 


 



    

Moses Encounters Jehovah and the Burning Bush

(Exodus 2:23-4:19)

After some time had passed, the Egyptian Pharaoh died.  But, for the Israelites, the harsh conditions of their bondage continued.  They complained bitterly of them, and their protests reached the ears of Jehovah, who was reminded of the bargain he had made with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  Jehovah saw how the Israelites were suffering, and, moved to pity, he resolved to help them.

Moses was in charge of tending the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.  Having driven the flocks deep into the desert he came upon Horeb, known as the mountain of God.  There, Moses sighted an extraterrestrial being standing amid a flame radiating from a bush.  He observed that the bush seemed to be on fire, yet it remained unburnt by the flame.  Moses declared, "I'll go up there and take a look at this miraculous sight and find out why the bush doesn't burn."

When he noticed that Moses was coming to investigate the bush, Jehovah called to him from out of the it, "Moses, Moses!"

And Moses replied, "I am here."

"Do not approach or come any nearer.  Remove your sandals, for the place on which you stand is holy ground," he told him and said as well,  "I am the god of your father, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

Moses covered his face in reverence, for he was fearful of gazing upon the divine.

But Jehovah spoke to him, "Indeed I am aware of the sufferings of your people and have heard their cries of protest because of their forced labor and their cruel taskmasters.  I understand their troubles and I have come back down to earth to deliver them from the hands of Egyptians, to lead them out of that country and bring them to a fertile and expansive land, a land rich with milk and honey, where now live the Canaanites, the Hethites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.  I have listened to the complaints of the Israelites and have witnessed the hardships they have endured due to the oppressions of the Egyptians. --- But go now, Moses.  I am sending you to the Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

Moses replied, "Who am I that I should go to the Pharaoh, that I should bring my people out of Egypt?"

"I will be with you.  As proof that it was I who sent you, after you lead my people out of Egypt, you will come back here to this mountain to worship me.”

"Very well," answered Moses.  “But if I go to the Israelites and tell them, 'The god of your fathers has sent me to you,' they will ask me, 'What’s his name?’.  What should I tell them?"

Jehovah told Moses, "I am Jehovah.  You should tell the Israelites that it is Jehovah who has sent you." 

Eventually, he  added, "Tell the Israelites that you are sent by the god of their fathers, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Jehovah!  This is my eternal name, the name by which I will be remembered for all time.  Go and assemble all the elders of the Israelite people and tell them, 'Jehovah, the god of your fathers, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob  has appeared to me and has seen how you have been treated in Egypt.  He will deliver you from your hardships and bring you back to the land of the  Canaanites, the Hethites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land rich with milk and honey.  They will pay attention to your words, and they will follow you.  You and the Israelite elders will approach the Pharaoh of Egypt and tell him that Jehovah, the god of the Hebrews, has spoken to us and demands that we go three-days' journey into the desert in order to make a sacrifice to him.  But I know the Pharaoh will only let you go under considerable duress.  However, I will use my power to inflict upon Egypt miraculous calamities all across the land.  After that, he will turn you free.  The Egyptians will then respect your people.  And when it happens that you leave there, it will not be empty handed.  All your women will cadge from their neighbors and from those who board in their house any jewels of gold and silver and any fancy raiment they might have.  You will bedeck your sons and daughters in them and thoroughly despoil the Egyptians."

Moses answered, "But, look, they won't believe me or follow me, for they'll say, 'Jehovah didn't really appear to you!'"

Jehovah asked him, "What's in your hand?"

"A shepherd’s staff,” he answered.

"Throw it down!"  Jehovah bid him.  Moses did so.  The staff was turned into a snake and Moses ran away from it.  “Reach out your hand and pick it up by the tail."  Moses grabbed it by the tail and, lo and behold, it turned back into a shepherd’s staff.  "This will make them believe that the god of their fathers, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has indeed appeared to you.  Now, put your hand inside your cloak."  He did so, and when Moses withdrew it, the hand was scaly and white as snow.  "Put your hand back inside your cloak,"  and when Moses did so and brought it out again, the skin on his hand was normal again like the rest of his flesh.

"If they won't believe you or remain unconvinced by the first miracle, they will believe the second," Jehovah assured him.  "But if they remain unconvinced by these two miracles and refuse to believe you, then draw some water from the river and pour it out on the ground.  Wherever you pour it, the water will turn to blood."

"I appeal to you, Master," Moses said, "I have never been a good speaker, and since you have contacted me, your servant is even more tongue-tied and slow of speech."

Jehovah told him, "Who has given man a voice or made him dumb?  Or deaf, or seeing, or blind?  Was it not I?  Therefore, I will be your voice and teach you what to say." 

"I appeal to you, Master, please choose someone else to send!”

Jehovah became very angry with Moses.  "Aaron the Levite is your brother.  I know that he is a well-spoken man.  He is coming to meet you and when he arrives, he will be overjoyed to see you.  Confide in him and reveal to him my words.  I will help both of you to speak my words and teach you what you both what to do.  He will speak to the people in your stead and be to you your spokesman.  And you will be to him God's spokesman."

"Take your shepherd’s staff with you.  With it you will work miracles.”

Moses departed and returned to his father-in-law Jethro.  He told him, "I must go back to my own people in Egypt to see if they are still living."

"Go in peace," Jethro bid him.

(While he was still in Midian, Jehovah told Moses, "Go, return to Egypt, for all who sought to kill you are dead now.”)

Notes
1.  Apparently, Jehovah has been absent from the scene for many generations, during which time he had no direct communion with his Chosen People.  Being a national god of the Hebrews seems at best a part-time job for him, a hobby, even, that only occasionally arouses his interest.  His behavior and the long lapses of time between his appearances fit well with the explanation that Jehovah is an extraterrestrial human visitor and not some omniscient spirit being.  Moreover, there is no evidence, that the Jehovah of Moses is the Jehovah of Abraham, that they are the same person.  It is likely that the title of Hebrew god could have been passed down from one individual to another or merely claimed by any Jehovan being who wished to aid and receive worship from this particular group of people.  (It should be remembered that national gods were expected to make personal appearances once in a while and there were probably no believers of ancient gods who were not aware of accounts, legends at least, of direct human contact with those gods.  There were, in fact, credible and well authenticated sightings of many other gods besides Jehovah.)

2.  It is recounted that Jehovah is aware of the Israelites' suffering as if it is a surprise that he would be so and not a matter of course (for an all-knowing god).

3.  The location of Mount Horeb, where Moses encountered the burning bush has long been a matter of conjecture.  It is generally believed to be the same place as the Biblical Mount Sinai.  Most place it in the Sinai, but there are varied opinions as to which mountain it might be.  By the time of Jesus any definite knowledge of its location had been lost.  Mount Catherine and Jebel Musa, thought to be the most likely candidates, are situated near the southern tip of Sinai, very far away from the route from Egypt to Canaan.  But other scholars place it even farther afield, in the Hijaz (northwestern Arabia). --- It seems more likely to me that it should be placed in the northern Sinai.

4.  The burning bush (or brambles) remains a mystery in many aspects.  It is too unusual to be a creation of dramatic license, something the chroniclers concocted.  But why would Jehovah chose to speak to Moses in this manner when he spoke face to face with Abraham as one man to another?  As a means of communicating with Moses, it may have been an object, a device that resembled a bush. (Burning might mean glowing, radiating, or sparking with electricity, who knows?)  Perhaps Jehovah was not actually on the earth, but used the burning bush as a means of communicating to Moses while he was somewhere else -- in space?  However, the burning bush may have had a different purpose altogether, that it was not there merely for Moses' benefit, for the impression is given that Moses discovered it by accident.  Jehovah reacts only when Moses approaches it.  Yet, he immediately chooses him as the man who will liberate the Hebrew people, leading one to believe that Moses was intentionally called to that particular place to meet Jehovah and that the "accident" was planned.  As for the burning bush, there is also a distinct possibility that it is only the result of a muddled text, considering that the account is known to be a pastiche from several sources.  Bush -- seneh in Hebrew -- might be a “typo” for another word.  That something besides a bush might have been meant is suggested by the fact that when Moses initially sees it -- from afar since he will decide to go nearer to investigate -- the bush has an extraterrestrial being, presumably man-sized, standing within it.  Therefore, it must have been something much larger than a bramble and must have been open enough in its interior for someone to fit inside it.  Perhaps seneh was the only word available to the authors to describe something for which they had no vocabulary.

5.  Jehovah asks that Moses remove his sandals when he approaches the burning bush because it is holy ground.  Removing one's foot gear when in a place of worship is not an unusual custom; it is, of course, a well known feature of Islamic belief.  There may be some other reason for Jehovah's request, though, but what it might be does not spring readily to mind.  (Moses also covers his face, although Jehovah does not ask him to do so.)

6.  Moses asks who it is that is sending him to his people, what god.  Jehovah replies simply, “I am Jehovah.”  Most translations have the cryptic and supposedly profound “I am that I am”.  This mistranslation results from the fact that this sentence is a confusing play on Hebrew words: the word for “Jehovah”  (YHWH) is similar (sort of) to the word for “I am”  (EHHEH-YEH).  The word play probably implies that Jehovah exists and is a living god.

7.  Jehovah decides to send Moses to demand that the Pharaoh free the Hebrew people and, that failing, to impress and intimidate the Pharaoh with some magic tricks he has taught Moses.  (Jehovah knows these efforts will fail and that he will have to do much more, apply a lot more pressure on the stubborn Pharaoh, yet he sends Moses on this futile mission.)  These stunts are also necessary for Moses to convince his own people of his legitimacy as a spokesman for Jehovah.  Feats of magic become, in a religious context, miracles and have always been an essential part of religion, a component necessary to promote belief.  So far Jehovah is working miracles on a pretty petty scale, turning sticks into snakes.

8.  The magical feats, turning a stick into a snake, a healthy hand into a scaly one could easily have been produced by hypnotic suggestion, which would explain how Jehovah could do them for Moses.  How Moses might be able to perform these feats is another, unexplained matter.  (There is a strong temptation to dismiss any aspects of the story that cannot be explained rationally as being fictional embellishments.)

9. Moses is either carrying a shepherd’s rod, probably in his belt, if it were a small one, say, two feet length, or he may have been using it as a walking stick, if it were longer.  A rod was simply a stout stick used to protect sheep from predators.  It is distinct from the shepherd’s staff, which was the familiar crook, often with something like a small shovel on the other end.  The text is frustratingly ambiguous about whether Moses is carrying a rod or a staff, and most translators seem unaware that there is any difference between the two and use the words imprecisely and interchangeably.  It seems likely that if a shepherd were carrying only one of these items, he would carry the staff and use it as a walking stick.  I have, therefore, concluded the stick Moses carried was probably a staff and not a rod.  (The staff is much like the Egyptian crook, a Pharaonic symbol of authority). 

10.  Jehovah promises Moses that when his people are liberated they can, with divine sanction, loot the country on their way out.  We see more of the morality that dictates, “get back at your enemy, do to him what he has done to you”.

11.  Jehovah, in deference to the recalcitrant Moses, agrees to let his brother Aaron act as his smooth-talking front man.  Although he boasts that he is the one who has created man and his voice, Jehovah is incapable or unwilling to impart eloquence to the thick-tongued Moses. 

12.  The self doubt and skepticism of Moses, as well as his curiosity, are refreshingly human traits and makes him seem more of a modern man than his forbears. 

Moses, His Birth, Adoption, and Exile

(Exodus 2:1 - 2:22)

There was a certain Levite man who married a woman of his own tribe.  She conceived and bore him a son, and seeing that he was a fine, healthy boy, she hid him for three months.  When it became no longer possible to keep his existence a secret, she constructed for him a basket of papyrus reeds, caulked and sealed water-tight with tar and pitch.  She placed the child inside the basket and set it adrift amid the rushes along the river bank.  The baby's sister watched from afar to see where the basket would be borne by the river’s current.

It happened that one of the daughters of the Pharaoh had come down to the river to bathe, accompanied by handmaidens who strolled along the bank.  She noticed the basket among the sedge grass and ordered one of her handmaidens to fetch it.  When it was brought to her, the Pharaoh's daughter opened it and found it contained a baby.  The baby cried and the heart of the Pharaoh's daughter was touched; she took pity on the child, observing, "This must be one of the Hebrews' children."

The baby's sister approached the Pharaoh's daughter and asked her, "Shall I go and find you a Hebrew woman to be a wet nurse for the child?"

"Yes, do so," she replied and the sister went and got her mother.  "Take the child with you," the Pharaoh's daughter instructed her.  "Nurse him for me and I will pay you."

And so the Levite woman took her own son and nursed him.  After he had been weaned, she presented the boy to the Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her own son.  She called him "Moses," because, she said, "I drew him out of the water."

When Moses had grown to manhood, he went out among own people to witness the harsh terms of their bondage and the hardships they were forced to endure.  On one occasion, he happened to catch sight of an Egyptian giving a beating to a Hebrew, one of his own people.  After looking around to see that no one was there, Moses killed the Egyptian and then concealed his body in the sand.

On the following day, Moses came upon two Hebrews brawling.  He demanded of the one who seemed to have started the scuffle, "Why are you fighting with one of your own people?”

He answered back, "Who made you master and judge over us?  Are you going to kill me like you did that Egyptian yesterday?"

Moses was alarmed.  “Doubtless the deed has been found out!” it dawned on him.

When the Pharaoh learned what Moses had done, he set out to have him killed.  Moses, therefore, fled Egypt and went into exile in the land of Midian.

There, he happened to sit down by a well.  It was here that the seven daughters of the priest of Midian came to draw water to fill the troughs and water their father's flocks.  A group of shepherds arrived at the well and drove the sisters away.  Moses sprang to his feet and defended the women from the shepherds.  He gave water to their flocks as well.

When the sisters returned to their father Jethro (the son of Reuel), he questioned them, "Why have you come back earlier than usual?"

"An Egyptian man rescued us from a gang of shepherds.  He drew water for us and watered our flocks," they explained.

He berated his daughters, "Well, where is this man?  Why did you let him get away?  Call him so he can share a meal with us!"

Content, Moses agreed to remain and reside with Jethro, who gave to him as a wife his daughter Sephora.  She bore Moses a son he named Gershom, for, Moses said "I have been an stranger in a foreign land."   He was given another son, Eliezer, saying "The god of my fathers has saved me from the power of the Pharaoh."

Notes
1.  Moses sounds like the Hebrew word for “pull out,” however it is more likely an Egyptian name.  Some have suggested it is from words meaning “water” and “saved”.  Another explanation is very possible: “mose” in Egyptian meant “child”, such as in Ramose, son of Ra, or Tutmose, son of Thoth.

2.  Many translations have Moses’ birth mother returning him to the Pharaoh’s daughter after he had “grown up”.   Since the Pharaoh’s daughter obviously had had her maternal instincts awakened by the child in the basket, it is absurdly unlikely she would wait fifteen or twenty years to satisfy them.  An adopted child would regularly be given to a wet nurse to be breast fed and returned after it had been weaned.
 
3.  It is not known whether Midian was an ethnic or a geographic term.  If the latter, most scholars believe it refers to the eastern, Arabian coast of the Gulf of Aqaba or, as some have suggested, Sudan.  This, however, is impossible in the context of Moses’ story: Moses was herding Jethro’s sheep in the vicinity of Mount Horeb, usually located in the Sinai, so at least some Midianites must have dwelled in the Sinai.  The Midianites, at any rate, were supposedly descendants of Midian, son of Abraham and Keturah.  They were nomads much like the Ishmaelites, with whom they are often identified.
 
4.  Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, is originally called Reuel or Raguel, but therefore referred to as Jethro.  He may have had two names or may have been Jethro, the son of Reuel.  Those of the Druze religion (who live mostly in Syria and Lebanon) regard Jethro as a prophet and ancestor
 
5. Unlike the Vulgate, the Hebrew Bible does not mention the birth of Moses' second son Eliezer, yet, later it refers to Moses having "sons."