Part 137 (1/2)

_The Slave Who Was Brought Up in a King's Palace. Moses Kills One of the Egyptian Taskmasters and Flees from the Country_.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph. And he said to his people, ”Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: come, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pa.s.s, that, when there falleth out any war, they also join themselves unto our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land.”

Therefore they set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor: and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, wherein they made them serve with rigor.

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And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, ”Every son that is born to the Hebrews ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.”

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took for his wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman had a son: and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river side; and she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her handmaid to fetch it. And she opened it and saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compa.s.sion on him, and said, ”This is one of the Hebrews' children.”

Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, ”Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?”

And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, ”Go.”

And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, ”Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.”

And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and said, ”Because I drew him out of the water.”

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[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE SPHINX

From a photograph in the possession of Mr. S. E. Bridgman and used by his kind permission.

The Great Sphinx at Gizeh is a colossal figure carved out of the solid rock. It perhaps represents the reigning monarch as a conqueror. The age of the Great Sphinx is thought to be about the same as that of the pyramids [End ill.u.s.tration]

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And it came to pa.s.s in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he went out to his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he saw an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And he went out the second day, and, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, ”Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?”

And he said, ”Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? thinkest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?”

And Moses feared, and said, ”Surely the thing is known.”

Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, ”How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?”

And they said, ”An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock.”

And he said to his daughters, ”And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.”

And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she had a {142} son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, ”I have been a sojourner in a strange land.”

And it came to pa.s.s in the course of those many days, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto G.o.d by reason of the bondage. And G.o.d heard their groaning, and G.o.d remembered them.

THE VOICE OF G.o.d FROM THE BURNING BUSH.