Sefer haYashar — Medieval Midrash

Sefer HaYashar (midrash) — Book of Exodus

[Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 1] Now these are the names of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, who had come with ‎Jacob, every man with his family came all the sons of Jacob unto Egypt. The children of Leah: ‎Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun, and Dinah, their sister. ‎And the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.And the sons of Zilpah, the handmaid of Leah: ‎Gad and Asher. And the sons of Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel: Dan and Naphtali. And these ‎are their generations that were born unto them in the land of Canaan, before they came unto ‎Egypt with Jacob their father. The sons of Reuben: Chanoch, and Pallu, and Chetzron and ‎Carmi. And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zochar and Saul, ‎the son of the Canaanitish woman. And the children of Levi: Gershon, and Kehath and Merari, ‎and their sister Jochebed, who was born unto them in going down to Egypt. And the sons of ‎Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Herez and Zarach. And Er and Onan died in the land of ‎Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Chezron and Chamul. And the sons of Issachar: Tola, and ‎Puvah, and Job and Shomron. And the sons of Zebulun: Sered, and Elon and Jachleel, and the ‎son of Dan was Chushim. And the sons of Naphtali: Jachzeel, and Guni, and Jetzer and Shilam. ‎And the sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Chaggi, and Shuni, and Ezbon, and Eri, and Arodi and Areli. ‎And the children of Asher: Jim nah, and Jishvah, and Jishvi, and Beriah and Serach, their sister. ‎And the sons of Beriah: Cheber and Malchiel. And the sons of Benjamin: Bela, and Becher, and ‎Ashbel, and Gera, and Naaman, and Achi, and Rosh, and Mupim, and Chupim and Ord. And the ‎sons of Joseph, that had been born unto him in Egypt were: Manasseh and Ephraim. And all ‎the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls, those that had come with ‎Jacob their father to dwell there. And Joseph and all his brothers dwelt in Egypt securely, and ‎they ate the best of the land in Egypt, through all the days of Joseph’s life; and Joseph lived in ‎the land of Egypt for ninety-three years, and he ruled over all Egypt eighty years. And when ‎the days of Joseph drew nigh that he had to die, he sent and called his brothers and all the ‎household of his father, and they all came together and they seated themselves before him, ‎and Joseph said unto his brothers, and all the household of his father: Behold, I die, and God ‎will surely visit you, and he will bring you up into the land which he hath sworn to your fathers ‎to give it unto them. And when the Lord will visit you to bring you up from this land into the ‎land of your fathers, then carry ye up my bones with you from here. And Joseph took an oath ‎from the children of Israel, saying: God will surely visit you, and ye shall then carry up my ‎bones from here; and after this Joseph died in that year, the seventy-first year of their going ‎down to Egypt. And Joseph was a hundred and ten years old when he died in the land of ‎Egypt, and all his brothers and all his servants took him and they embalmed Joseph according ‎to their custom, and his brothers and all Egypt wept over him for seventy days. And they ‎placed Joseph into a coffin filled with spices and all kinds of perfumery, and they buried him on ‎the side of the river Thiebor, and his sons and all his brothers, and the entire house hold of his ‎father, made for him a mourning of seven days.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 2] And after the death of Joseph all the Egyptians began to rule over the children of Israel in ‎those days, and Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who was reigning instead of his father, took upon ‎himself all the laws and government affairs of Egypt, and everything was under his control, and ‎he ruled securely over his people. And at the revolution of the year which was the seventy ‎second year of the children of Israel’s going down to Egypt, after the death of Joseph, Zepho ‎the son of Eliphaz son of Esau escaped from Egypt with his men, and they came to Danhabah, ‎to Augias, king of Africah, and Augias received them with great honors, and he made Zepho ‎the chief of his hosts. And Zepho found favor in the eyes of Augias and in the eyes of all his ‎people, and Zepho was chief of hosts unto Augias, king of Africah, for many days. And Zepho ‎enticed Augias, king of Africah, to assemble all his armies, and to go to war with the Egyptians ‎and with the sons of Jacob, and to avenge on them the cause of his brothers. But Augias was ‎not willing to listen unto Zepho to do this thing, for Augias knew the strength of the sons of ‎Jacob, and what they had done unto his armies in their war with the children of Esau. And in ‎those days Zepho was very great in the eyes of Augias and in the eyes of all his people, and he ‎always enticed Augias to fight with Egypt, but he would not. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 4] And at that time Pharaoh, king of Egypt, commanded all his people to build unto him a strong ‎palace in Egypt, and he commanded the sons of Jacob likewise to assist in the erection of the ‎building, and the Egyptians built a beautiful and costly palace for the king's residence, and he ‎dwelt therein, and he renewed his government and he reigned securely. And Zebulun, the ‎son of Jacob, died in that year, which was the seventy-second year of the Israelite's going ‎down into Egypt, and Zebulun was one hundred and fourteen years old when he died, and he ‎was placed into a coffin and given into the hands of his children; and in the seventy-fifth year ‎his brother Simeon died, he was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, and he was ‎also put into a coffin and transferred to his children. And Zepho, the son of Eliphaz, the son of ‎Esau, chief of the hosts of Augias, king of Africah, was still enticing Augias day after day to ‎wage war and to fight against the sons of Jacob; but Augias would not consent to do this thing, ‎for his servants had told unto him all concerning the strength of the sons of Jacob, and what ‎they had done unto them in their war with the children of Esau. And after some days Augias ‎listened unto Zepho’s voice, and he consented to fight in Egypt against the sons of Jacob. And ‎Augias collected all his people, a people very numerous even like the sand upon the sea shore, ‎and he turned his face to go towards Egypt to battle. And there was among the servants of ‎Augias a certain youth fifteen years of age, and his name was Balaam, the son of Beor, and the ‎youth was very wise and learned in the art of sorcery. And Augias said unto Balaam: Conjure ‎thou for us with witchcraft, that we ascertain who is to be victorious in this battle, into which ‎we are now going. And Balaam commanded them to bring unto him some wax, and he shaped ‎it into chariots and horsemen, representing the army of Augias and the army of Egypt, and he ‎placed all into water which he had prepared wisely for that purpose, and he took into his ‎hands palm branches, and he bewitched with them the water in his wisdom, and there ‎appeared unto him in the water the likeness of the army of Augias falling before the army of ‎Egypt and the sons of Jacob.‎‏ ‏And Balaam told these things unto Augias, and Augias was ‎discouraged, and he would not arm to go down and fight the Egyptians, but he remained in his ‎city.‎‏ ‏ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 5] And when Zepho saw that Augias was discouraged and would not go to battle, Zepho fled ‎from Augias and he went to the land of Chittim.‎‏ ‏And all the people of Chittim received him ‎with great honors, and they engaged him to fight their battles all the days, and Zepho became ‎exceedingly wealthy; and the troops of the king of Africah made frequent incursions to the ‎land of Chittim in those days.‎‏ ‏And the sons of Chittim assembled and they went into the ‎mountains of Kuptizah from before the troops of Augias, king of Africah, that have come over ‎them. And it came to pass on a certain day that Zepho lost a young heifer, and he went in ‎search of it, and he heard the heifer's lowing about in the mountain; and Zepho advanced and ‎he saw, and behold, at the foot of the mountain there was a cave and there was a large stone ‎at the mouth of the cave. And Zepho shattered the stone and he entered the cave, and he ‎saw and behold, a large animal was devouring the heifer, the upper half of that animal was ‎after the form of a man, and the other half resembled a beast, and Zepho rose up against the ‎animal and slew it with his sword. And when the people of Chittim heard of this thing they ‎rejoiced greatly, and they said: What shall we do unto this man who hath slain the beast that ‎destroyed our cattle? And they assembled and they set apart a cer tain day of the year to be ‎celebrated as a festival in his honor, and they named that day, Zepho, after his name, and they ‎offered up drink offerings in his behalf on that day, and they brought unto him gifts. And at ‎that time Janiah, the wife of Augias, became ill, and her illness fell heavily upon Augias and his ‎officers, and the king said unto his wise men: What shall I do for Janiah, and how shall I cure ‎her of this illness? And the wise men said unto him: Behold, the air of our country is not like ‎the air of the land of Chittim, her native land, and our water is not like their water, and this ‎hath caused the illness of our queen. For she took sick because the air around her, and the ‎water, were changed, and even in her own country she drank only the water coming from ‎Purmah, which their forefathers had brought over on bridges. And Augias commanded his ‎servants and they brought from the waters of Purmah in vessels, and when they weighed the ‎water of Purmah against all the waters of Africah, they found the water of Purmah to be the ‎lightest of all. And when Augias saw these things, he ordered all his officers to collect stone ‎cutters in thousands and in tens of thousands, and they hewed stones beyond number, and ‎the builders came and built a very strong bridge, and they transported the spring of water ‎from the land of Chittim unto Africah. And these waters were intended for queen Janiah for all ‎her uses, for drinking, and for baking, and for washing, and for bathing, and likewise for the ‎watering of all the fruits and vegetables she was to eat. And from the soil of the land of Chittim ‎the king commanded to have brought over in ships, and they brought it in great many ships, ‎and they brought also building stones, and the builders erected thereof a grand palace for ‎queen Janiah, and thus the queen was healed from her illness.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 6] And at the revolution of the year the troops of Africah came once more into the land of ‎Chittim to plunder it as before, and when Zepho, the son of Eliphaz heard the news he went ‎forth against them, and he fought with them, and they fled from before him, and he freed the ‎land of Chittim from these men. And when the sons of Chittim saw the strength of Zepho, ‎they counseled together, and they crowned Zepho king over them, and under his rule they ‎went to humble the sons of Tubal and all the islands around them. And with Zepho, their king, ‎at their head, they fought with Tubal and the islands, and they conquered them; and on ‎returning from the battle they renewed Zepho's kingdom, and they built a very large palace ‎for the seat of his government and his royal dwelling, and they made for him a lofty throne, ‎and Zepho ruled the land of Chittim and the land of Italiah for fifty years. In that year, the ‎seventy-ninth year of Israelite's going down to Egypt, Reuben, the son of Jacob, died in Egypt, ‎and Reuben was one hundred and twenty-five years old when he died, and they placed him ‎into a coffin and gave him into the hands of his children. And in the eightieth year died Dan, his ‎brother, at the age of one hundred and twenty-four years, and he also was put into a coffin ‎and transferred into the hands of his children. In the same year died Chusham, king of Edom, ‎and Hadad, son of Bedad, ruled after him for thirty-five years. And in the eighty-first year died ‎Issachar, son of Jacob, one hundred and twenty-two years old, and he was put into a coffin ‎and given into the hands of his children; and in the eighty-second year died Asher, his brother, ‎being one hundred and twenty years old at the time of his death, and he was put into a coffin ‎in Egypt and placed into the hands of his children. And in the eighty-third year Gad died, and ‎he was one hundred and twenty-five years old when he died, and he was put into a coffin in ‎Egypt and given into the hands of his children. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 7] And in the eighty-sixth year died Judah, the son of Jacob, and he was one hundred and ‎twenty-nine years old at his death, and they embalmed him, and put him into a coffin and he ‎was given into the hands of his children; ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 8] and in the eighty-ninth year died Naphtali, one hundred and thirty two years old, and he was ‎put into a coffin and given into the hands of his children. And in the ninety-third year Levi, the ‎son of Jacob, died in Egypt, he was one hundred and thirty-seven years old when he died, and ‎they put him into a coffin and they gave him into the hands of his children. And it came to pass ‎after Levi’s death, when the Egyptians saw that all the sons of Jacob, Joseph’s brothers, had ‎died, the Egyptians began to afflict the children of Israel, and to embitter their lives from that ‎day on even unto the day of their going out of Egypt; and they took away from their ‎possession all the vine yards which Joseph had given unto them, and all the fine houses in ‎which the children of Israel were dwelling, and all the fat of Egypt, everything the Egyptians ‎took away from the children of Israel in those days. And the land of Egypt grew heavy upon ‎the children of Israel in those days, and the Egyptians mistreated them until the children of ‎Israel were wearied of their lives on account of the Egyptians. And in those days, in the one ‎hundred and second year of the Israelites’ going down to Egypt, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, ‎died, and his son Melol reigned in his stead, and all the valiant men of Egypt, and all the ‎generation that knew Joseph and his brethren died in those days. And there rose up another ‎generation which had not known the sons of Jacob, and all the good which they had done unto ‎them, and how much they had added to the strength of Egypt. Therefore all Egypt began to ‎embitter the lives of the children of Jacob from that day on, and to afflict them with hard labor, ‎for they knew not their ancestors who had saved them in the days of the famine. And it was ‎from the Lord that this should befall the children of Israel in order to be benefited at the end, ‎and that all the children of Israel might know the Lord their God, and in order that they might ‎know the signs and fearful wonders which the Lord enacted in Egypt on account of Israel his ‎people, and in order that the children of Israel might fear the Lord, the God of their ‎forefathers, and that they might walk in all his ways, they and their seed after them forever. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 9] Melol was twenty years of age when he assumed the kingdom, and for ninety-four years he ‎ruled over Egypt, and all the Egyptians called him by the name of Pharaoh, after the name of ‎his father, as it was their custom to call every king that reigned over them in Egypt. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 11] And Balaam, the son of Beor, who was with Augias, saw that Zepho had prevailed over the ‎men of Augias, and Balaam fled from Danhabah, and he came unto Chittim, and Zepho and the ‎children of Chittim received him with great honors, for Zepho knew Balaam’s wisdom, and he ‎gave unto Balaam many gifts that he should remain with him.‎‏ ‏And when Zepho had returned ‎from the battle against the people of Africah, he commanded that all the children of Chittim ‎who had gone to battle with him be counted, and behold there was not one man of them ‎missing; and he rejoiced greatly at this thing, and he renewed his kingdom, and he made a ‎feast to all his servants. But Zepho did not remember the Lord, neither did he reflect that the ‎Lord had delivered him and his people from the hands of the people of Africah, but he ‎continued to walk in the ways of the sons of Chittim and in the ways of the wicked sons of ‎Esau, and he served other gods as the sons of Esau had taught him; therefore it is * said: From ‎the wicked goeth forth wickedness.‎‏ ‏And at that time, when Zepho had seen how he prevailed ‎over all the people of Africah whom he had smitten at the edge of the sword, Zepho held ‎counsel with the children of Chittim to go unto Egypt against the children of Jacob and against ‎Pharaoh the king of Egypt; for Zepho had heard that all the valiant men of Egypt had died, and ‎that Joseph and his brothers, the sons of Jacob, were dead, and that all their children, the ‎children of Israel, had remained in Egypt.‎‏ ‏And Zepho concluded to go and fight against them ‎and against all Egypt, in order to avenge the cause of his brethren, the sons of Esau, whom ‎Joseph, and his brothers with all Egypt had smitten in the land of Canaan, when they had gone ‎up to bury Jacob in Hebron.‎‏ ‏And he sent messengers unto Hadad, son of Bedad, king of Edom, ‎and to all his relatives, the children of Esau, saying: Have ye not said that you refused to fight ‎against the king of Africah because he was a party to your covenant? Yet I have fought against ‎him and I have smitten him with all his people.‎‏ ‏And now I have fixed my mind upon fighting ‎against Egypt and against the children of Joseph who are there, and I will take revenge on ‎them for what his brothers have done unto us in the land of Canaan, when they went up to ‎bury their father in Hebron.‎‏ ‏And now if ye be willing to come to our assistance, to fight against ‎them and the Egyptians, then come and let us avenge the cause of our brethren.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 12] And the children of Esau hearkened unto the words of Zepho, and they gathered themselves ‎together, a people very numerous, and they went to assist Zepho and the sons of Chittim in ‎their battle.‎‏ ‏And Zepho sent messages likewise to all the people of the east and to the ‎children of Ishmael, in the same words, and they assembled and came to assist Zepho and his ‎people in their battle against Egypt.‎‏ ‏And all * these kings, the kings of Edom, and the people of ‎the east, and all the sons of Ishmael, and Zepho, went forth, and they came and arrayed their ‎hosts in Hebron.‎‏ ‏And the camp was exceedingly heavy three days journey in length, a ‎numerous people like the sand on the sea shore which cannot be numbered, and all these ‎with their hosts marched down before Egypt to give battle, and they encamped themselves ‎together in the valley of Pithros.‎‏ ‏And when all Egypt heard the news of their coming, they also ‎gathered together, all the people of Egypt and of all the cities belonging unto Egypt, about ‎three hundred thousand men.‎‏ ‏And the people of Egypt sent also for the children of Israel who ‎were dwelling in Goshen in those days, to come unto them to fight against those kings, and ‎some of the men of Israel assembled and they were about one hundred and fifty men, and ‎they went to assist the Egyptians in their battle.‎‏ ‏And the men of Israel and Egypt went forth ‎about three hundred thousand and one hundred and fifty men, and they posted themselves ‎outside of Goshen, opposite Pithros. And the Egyptians had no confidence in the Israelites to ‎go with them together into battle, for they said: Mayhap the children of Israel will deliver us ‎into the hands of the children of Esau and Ishmael, for they are their relatives.‎‏ ‏And all the ‎Egyptians said unto the children of Israel: Remain ye here in your present position, and we will ‎go to fight against the children of Esau and Ishmael, and if they should prevail over us then all ‎of you will come over them to assist us; and the children of Israel did so.‎‏ ‏And Balaam, the son ‎of Beor, the Aramite, was with Zepho in the camp, for he had come with the children of ‎Chittim, and Balaam was highly honored in the eyes of Zepho and his men.‎‏ ‏And they said unto ‎Balaam: Do thou employ thy knowledge of witchcraft in our behalf, that we may know who will ‎be victorious in this battle, we or the Egyptians.‎‏ ‏And Balaam rose up to undertake his ‎divination, and although he was skilled in that art he was confused this time, and his work ‎failed in his hands.‎‏ ‏And he attempted it again, but without success, and Balaam was despaired ‎of it, and he abandoned it, ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 13] for it was the will of God, in order that the Lord might cause Zepho and his people to fall into ‎the hands of the children of Israel, who trusted in their wars only in the Lord the God of their ‎ancestors. And Zepho and Hadad arrayed their armies for the fight, and all the Egyptians went ‎against them alone, about three hundred thousand men, and there was not a single Israelite ‎among them. And the kings overpowered the Egyptians in that battle, and there fell of the ‎Egyptians on that day about one hundred and eighty men, and about thirty men of the people ‎of the kings, and all the Egyptians retreated from before the kings, and the children of Esau ‎pursued the Egyptians, smiting them continually until they reached the place where the camp ‎of the children of Israel was. And all the Egyptians cried unto the children of Israel: Hasten and ‎come to our assistance, and save us from the hand of the children of Esau and Ishmael and ‎Chittim! And the one hundred and fifty men of the children of Israel hastened and ran from ‎their position unto the camps of those kings, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord their ‎God to deliver them. And the Lord hearkened unto the Israelites, and he delivered into their ‎hands all the men of the kings, and the children of Israel smote of them about four thousand ‎men. And the Lord sent great confusion into the camp of the kings, and the fear of the ‎children of Israel fell upon them. And all the armies of the kings fled from before the children ‎of Israel, and they pursued them, smiting them continually, until they reached the boundaries ‎of Cush; and the children of Israel slew of them about two thousand more men on the road, ‎while of the children of Israel not even one man did fall. And when the Egyptians saw this small ‎number of Israelites fighting against those kings, and that the battle was so very disastrous, ‎the Egyptians were greatly afraid on account of the heavy battle, and they hid themselves all ‎along the road, and they left the Israelites alone in the fight. And the Israelites smote a terrible ‎smiting among the men of the kings, and after driving them to the borders of Cush, the ‎Israelites returned. And all the Israelites knew what the Egyptians had done unto them, and ‎that they had fled from the battle leaving them alone in the fight. And the children of Israel ‎acted likewise deceitfully, and when they returned from the battle they met some of the ‎Egyptians and they slew them, ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 14] saying unto them: Wherefore have you gone away from us and left us so few in numbers, to ‎fight against those kings, who had a numerous people to smite us, in order to save yourselves? ‎And betimes they would meet some of the Egyptians, and the children of Israel would say to ‎one another: Smite him for he is an Ishmaelite, or an Edomite, or from the children of Chittim, ‎and they stood up over him and slew him, although they knew he was an Egyptian; and the ‎children of Israel acted thus cunningly against the Egyptians, because they had left them in the ‎fight and fled from them, and the children of Israel slew of the Egyptians in that manner about ‎two hundred men. And when the people of Egypt saw the evil which the children of Israel had ‎done unto them, all the Egyptians were in great fear of the children of Israel, for they had seen ‎their strength, and that not one man had fallen amongst them. And the children of Israel ‎returned rejoicing on their way to Goshen, and the rest of the Egyptians returned likewise to ‎their homes. And after this all the counselors of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, assembled, and also all ‎the elders of Egypt, and they came into the presence of the king, and they bowed down ‎before him to the ground, and they seated themselves before him. And the counselors and ‎elders of Egypt spoke unto the king saying: Behold, the people of the children of Israel are ‎more numerous and mightier than we are, and thou knowest all the evil which they have done ‎unto us on the road, when we were returning from the battle; and thou hast seen likewise ‎their great strength which they have inherited from their fathers, by reason of which only a ‎few of them maintained their position against a people numerous like the sand, smiting them ‎at the edge of the sword, while not one man of them fell, and if they had been many all of ‎their enemies would have been exterminated. And now we want thy advice, what hath to be ‎done with them in order to wipe them out gradually from our midst, before they become too ‎numerous for us in the land; for if the children of Israel be allowed to increase, then they ‎would be a great obstacle in our way, and in case of war they might join our enemies to fight ‎against us, and destroy us from the land with their great strength, or to cause us to go away ‎from it. And the king answered unto the elders of Egypt, and he said unto them: This is my ‎advice concerning the children of Israel from which we cannot turn. Behold, Pithros and ‎Rameses are cities not sufficiently fortified to stand in war, and now it is your duty and ours to ‎build fortifications; go ye therefore and act likewise cunningly towards them, and proclaim it ‎through Egypt and Goshen at the king's command, saying: Hear ye men of Egypt, and of ‎Goshen, and of Pithros and all inhabitants thereof, the king hath commanded us to build up ‎Pithros and Rameses, and to fortify them against war; all those amongst you people of Egypt, ‎and children of Israel and inhabitants of the cities, who will come to build with us, shall receive ‎their hire day after day, by command of the king. And then go ye cunningly and assemble in ‎Pithros and Rameses and commence building;‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 15] and while you are at work cause ye the proclamation to be made through all Egypt day after ‎day at the king's command, and when some of the Israelites will come to build with you, pay ‎them their wages for a few days.And after they shall have been engaged in the work for their ‎daily hire, depart ye from them daily one by one in secret, and then you shall rise up and ‎become their task masters and overseers, and you shall cause them to continue the work ‎without wages, and if they refuse then you all will force them to do the building. And if ye will ‎surely do this thing, then it will be well unto us in having fortified our land, and it will result in ‎great evil to the children of Israel, for by reason of the fatigue in building they will become ‎diminished, as you will keep them away from their wives day after day. And when the elders ‎of Egypt heard the king's counsel it seemed good in their eyes and in the eyes of all the ‎servants of Pharaoh, and they did as the king had spoken. And all the servants of the king ‎went away, and they caused it to be proclaimed through all Egypt, and Goshen, and the cities ‎around Egypt, saying: You have seen what the sons of Esau and Ishmael have done unto us, ‎who came to fight against us and to exterminate us. And now the king hath commanded that ‎we fortify our land to build up Pithros and Rameses and to fortify them for battle, in case our ‎enemies should come again upon us. All those willing to come and build with us shall receive ‎their daily hire from the king according to his commandment unto us. And when the Egyptians ‎and the children of Israel heard this proclamation by the servants of Pharaoh, many of the ‎Egyptians and the children of Israel came to build up Pithros and Rameses, but of the sons of ‎Levi no one came to build with their brethren. And all the servants and the princes of Pharaoh ‎came at first with cunning, to build together with the Israelites for daily hire, and they paid the ‎children of Israel their daily wages in the beginning, and the servants of Pharaoh were thus ‎engaged in the work with the children of Israel for one month. And at the end of one month ‎the servants of Pharaoh began to withdraw gradually and secretly, day after day, from the ‎children of Israel, but the Israelites continued their work at that time, for they received their ‎daily hire, and because some of the Egyptians were still working with them; and the Egyptians ‎gave unto the children of Israel their hire, so that the Egyptians who still worked with them ‎might also receive the wages for their work.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 16] And at the end of one year and four months all the Egyptians had withdrawn, so that only the ‎children of Israel remained to do the work. And after all the Egyptians had finally withdrawn, ‎they returned and became their task masters and overseers, and some of them were placed ‎over the children of Israel to take away from them all they had received in wages. And the ‎Egyptians treated the children of Israel in this manner, in order to afflict them in their work, ‎and when the children of Israel were the only ones engaged in the work, the Egyptians ‎refused from that day on to pay unto them their daily hire. And when some of the Israelites ‎would not work without receiving their wages, the task masters and servants of Pharaoh ‎afflicted them, and they gave them a terrible beating until they were forced to return and ‎work with their brethren; and so did the Egyptians do unto the Israelites all the time. Thus all ‎the children of Israel had to build Pithros and Rameses, part of them were making bricks, and ‎part of them did the building, and the children of Israel fortified all the land of Egypt and its ‎walls, and they continued in that work for many years, until the Lord remembered them and ‎brought them out of Egypt; and the children of Levi were the only ones who did not work with ‎their brethren from the beginning on even unto the day that they went out of Egypt. For the ‎children of Levi knew that the Egyptians spoke deceitfully unto the children of Israel, and ‎therefore the children of Levi abstained from going to work with their brethren. Nor did the ‎Egyptians care to have the children of Levi work afterwards, since they had not been at work ‎with their brethren from the beginning, and therefore all the Egyptians left them alone. And ‎the hand of the Egyptians grew always heavier upon the children of Israel in their labor, and ‎the Egyptians made them work with rigor. And the Egyptians embittered the lives of the ‎children of Israel with hard labor, in mortar and in bricks, and also in all kind of work in the field; ‎and the children of Israel called Melol, the king of Egypt, “Meror,” because in his days the ‎Egyptians embittered their lives with all kind of work.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 17] And in all the work which the Israelites were compelled to perform, the Egyptians were very ‎rigorous, in order to afflict the children of Israel; but the more they afflicted them the more ‎they multiplied and grew, and they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And at that ‎time Pharaoh, king of Egypt, heard the report, saying: Samlah, king of Edom, has resolved to ‎fight against the children of Chittim and afterwards he will come to war with Egypt. And the ‎Egyptians heard this thing and they increased the work of the Israelites, for fear that the ‎children of Israel might do unto them, as they had done unto them in their war with the ‎children of Esau, in the days of Hadad. And the Egyptians said unto the children of Israel: Make ‎ye haste in doing your work and finish your task to fortify the land, lest the sons of Esau, your ‎brethren, come and fight with us, for only on your account will they come against us. And the ‎children of Israel did all the work of the Egyptians day after day, and the Egyptians afflicted ‎them in order to decrease them in the land; but the more the Egyptians added to the work of ‎the children of Israel the more did the children of Israel increase and multiply, and all Egypt ‎became full of them. And in the one hundred and twenty-fifth year of the Israelites’ going ‎down to Egypt the Egyptians saw that their plan against the Israelites was not successful, for ‎they multiplied so exceedingly that both the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen were full of ‎the children of Israel. And therefore all the elders and wise men of Egypt came before the ‎king, and they bowed down before him to the ground, and they seated themselves before ‎him. And all the elders and wise men of Egypt said unto the king: May the king live forever! ‎thou, oh king, hast given us thy counsel against the Israelites, and we have done unto them ‎according to thy words; but the more we add to their labor the more do they increase, and ‎behold, now the whole country is full of them. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 18] Now, oh lord our king, the eyes of all Egypt are turned unto thee to give them counsel ‎according to thy wisdom, so that they may prevail over the Israelites to exterminate them, or ‎to lessen them in the land. And the king answered unto them saying: Counsel ye in this matter ‎that we may know what should be done unto them. And one of the king's counselors, and his ‎name was Job, from Mesopotamia, in the land of Uz, answered unto the king saying: If the ‎king please let him listen to the counsel of his servant. And the king said unto him: Speak. And ‎Job spoke before the king and the princes and the elders of Egypt, saying: Behold the counsel ‎which the king hath counseled in these days, concerning tasking the Israelites with work is very ‎good, and it should not be departed from forever, but this would be my counsel whereby they ‎could be lessened, if it please the king to afflict them; behold, we have been for a long time in ‎fear of war, and we have said, if Israel become fruitful in the land they will drive us away from ‎the land in case of war. And now, if it please the king, let a royal decree be issued, and let it be ‎recorded in the laws of Egypt, and let it be made irrevokable, that every male child born unto ‎Israel, shall have its blood spilt upon the ground. And if you do this and all their male children ‎shall have been slain, the evil they could do us in case of war would be removed. Let, then, the ‎king send for the midwives of the Hebrews, and order them to do according to this thing. And ‎this counsel seemed good in the eyes of the king and princes, and the king did as Job had ‎spoken, and the king sent for the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah, ‎and the name of the other Puah, and the midwives appeared before the king, and they stood ‎before him, and the king said unto them: When ye do the office of a midwife for the Hebrew ‎women and see them upon the stools, if it be a son then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter ‎then she shall live. And if you will not do this thing, then I will burn you and all your household ‎with fire. But the midwives feared God and they did not listen to the voice of the king of Egypt, ‎but when the Hebrew women brought forth to the midwife, be it a son or a daughter, the ‎midwife would do everything that was wanted for the child, and they let it live. Thus did the ‎midwives do all the days. And this thing was told unto the king who had the midwives called, ‎and he said unto them: Why have ye done this thing and have saved the male children alive? ‎And the midwives answered unto the king, saying: Let not our king imagine that the Hebrew ‎women are like unto the Egyptian women, for all the children of Israel are lively and are ‎delivered ere the midwives come in unto them; and as to us, thy handmaids, for many days no ‎Hebrew women hath been delivered by us, because all the Hebrew women are their own ‎midwives for they are all lively. [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 19] And Pharaoh hearing their words believed them in this thing, ‎and the midwives departed from Pharaoh; and the Lord did well unto them, and the people ‎increased and became very powerful. And there was a man in the land of Egypt, from the seed ‎of Levi, and his name was Amram, son of Kehath, son of Levi, the son of Israel. And this man ‎went and took for a wife Joshebed, the daughter of Levi, the sister of his father, and she was ‎one hundred and twenty-six years of age when he came unto her. And the woman conceived ‎and bare a daughter, and she called her name Miriam, for in those days the Egyptians ‎embittered the lives of the children of Israel; and she conceived again. And bare a son, and she ‎called his name Aaron, for in the days of her pregnancy Pharaoh began to spill the blood of the ‎male children in Israel. In those days Zepho, son of Eliphaz, son of Esau, the king of Chittim ‎died, and Janias ruled in his stead, and the days that Zepho reigned over the children of ‎Chittim were fifty years, and he died and was buried in the city of Nobua, in the land of ‎Chittim, and Janias, one of the valiant men of the children of Chittim, reigned after him. And ‎after the death of Zepho, Balaam, the son of Beor, fled from Chittim, and he went and came ‎unto Egypt, and Pharaoh received him with great honors, for he had heard of his wisdom, and ‎he gave him gifts and made him his coun selor, and exalted him. And Balaam dwelt in Egypt ‎with great honor, and all the princes of Pharaoh exalted him, for they were very eager to learn ‎his wisdom. And it came to pass in the one hundred and thirtieth year of Israel’s going down ‎into Egypt, and Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he sat upon his regal throne, and he saw, and ‎behold, an old man stood opposite him, and in the hand of the old man was a pair of scales like ‎unto the scales of the merchants, and the old man took the scales. And cast them down ‎before Pharaoh. And the old man took all the elders of Egypt and all the princes and great ‎men, and he tied them together and placed them into one scale; and then he took a kid and ‎placed it into the other scale, and the kid was heavier than all the elders, princes and great ‎men. And Pharoah awoke and behold, it was a dream. And when Pharaoh rose up in the ‎morning and he related his dream unto his servants, the men were all in great fear. And ‎Pharaoh said to all of his wise men: I pray you, interpret the dream which I have dreamed, and ‎let me know its meaning. And Balaam, the son of Beor, answered unto the king, and he said ‎unto him: This can have reference to nothing else but to a great evil, which will grow up against ‎Egypt in the latter days; for behold, a son will be born unto Israel, who will lay all Egypt into ‎ruins, and destroy all its inhabitants, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt with a powerful hand.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 20] And now, our lord and king, reflect over this matter and crush the strength of Israel, and their ‎hope, before this great evil grows up over all Egypt.‎‏ ‏And Pharaoh replied unto Balaam: And ‎what is it that we can do unto the Israelites? for have we not had our plans concerning them ‎time and again, and yet we could not prevail over them ? And now give thou thy counsel ‎concerning what we should do unto the children of Israel. And Balaam answered unto the ‎king, saying: Send now for thy two counselors and let us see what they will advise concerning ‎this, and afterwards thy servant will speak. And the king sent for his two counselors, for Reuel, ‎the Midianite, and Job, the Uzite, and they came and seated themselves before the king, and ‎the king said unto them: Behold, both of you have heard the dream I have dreamed, as also its ‎interpretation, and now counsel ye and reflect concerning what hath to be done unto the ‎children of Israel in order that we prevail over them, before their evil will grow upon us. And ‎Reuel, the Midianite, answered unto the king saying: May the king live; may the king live ‎forever: If it please the king let him desist from the Hebrews and leave them to themselves, ‎and let him not stretch out his hand against them; for they are the people whom the Lord hath ‎chosen in days of old, and he took them as the portion of his inheritance from the midst of all ‎the nations of the earth and the kings of the earth; and who is he that hath ever put forth his ‎hand against them with impunity, without being punished by their Lord? Verily, thou knowest ‎that when Abraham fled unto Egypt, Pharaoh, one of the first kings of Egypt, saw his wife ‎Sarah and took her unto himself for a wife, after Abraham had declared she was his sister, for ‎fear lest the Egyptians might slay him on account of his wife; and when the king of Egypt had ‎taken Sarah, God visited him and his household with fearful plagues, and he was not healed ‎until he restored unto Abraham his wife.‎‏ ‏And Abimelech, the Gerarite, was likewise punished ‎by the Lord on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and the Lord closed up among them every ‎womb, from men even unto beast.‎‏ ‏And their God came unto Abimelech in a dream of night ‎and terrified him, in order to return unto Abraham Sarah whom he had taken away; and after ‎all the people of Gerar were smitten on account of Sarah, and Abraham prayed in their behalf ‎unto the Lord, and his God was entreated of him and healed them. And when the king saw all ‎the evil that had come upon him and his people, he restored unto Abraham Sarah his wife, and ‎he gave him many gifts along with her.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 21] And now, our lord and king, reflect over this matter and crush the strength of Israel, and their ‎hope, before this great evil grows up over all Egypt.‎‏ ‏And Pharaoh replied unto Balaam: And ‎what is it that we can do unto the Israelites? for have we not had our plans concerning them ‎time and again, and yet we could not prevail over them ? And now give thou thy counsel ‎concerning what we should do unto the children of Israel. And Balaam answered unto the ‎king, saying: Send now for thy two counselors and let us see what they will advise concerning ‎this, and afterwards thy servant will speak. And the king sent for his two counselors, for Reuel, ‎the Midianite, and Job, the Uzite, and they came and seated themselves before the king, and ‎the king said unto them: Behold, both of you have heard the dream I have dreamed, as also its ‎interpretation, and now counsel ye and reflect concerning what hath to be done unto the ‎children of Israel in order that we prevail over them, before their evil will grow upon us. And ‎Reuel, the Midianite, answered unto the king saying: May the king live; may the king live ‎forever: If it please the king let him desist from the Hebrews and leave them to themselves, ‎and let him not stretch out his hand against them; for they are the people whom the Lord hath ‎chosen in days of old, and he took them as the portion of his inheritance from the midst of all ‎the nations of the earth and the kings of the earth; and who is he that hath ever put forth his ‎hand against them with impunity, without being punished by their Lord? Verily, thou knowest ‎that when Abraham fled unto Egypt, Pharaoh, one of the first kings of Egypt, saw his wife ‎Sarah and took her unto himself for a wife, after Abraham had declared she was his sister, for ‎fear lest the Egyptians might slay him on account of his wife; and when the king of Egypt had ‎taken Sarah, God visited him and his household with fearful plagues, and he was not healed ‎until he restored unto Abraham his wife.‎‏ ‏And Abimelech, the Gerarite, was likewise punished ‎by the Lord on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and the Lord closed up among them every ‎womb, from men even unto beast.‎‏ ‏And their God came unto Abimelech in a dream of night ‎and terrified him, in order to return unto Abraham Sarah whom he had taken away; and after ‎all the people of Gerar were smitten on account of Sarah, and Abraham prayed in their behalf ‎unto the Lord, and his God was entreated of him and healed them. And when the king saw all ‎the evil that had come upon him and his people, he restored unto Abraham Sarah his wife, and ‎he gave him many gifts along with her.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 22] And also unto Isaac he did in like manner, when they drove him away from Gerar, and the Lord ‎worked wonders in his behalf, that all its fountains of water became dry and their fruit trees ‎did not bring forth, until Abimelech from Gerar went to him, with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, ‎and Phichol, the chief captain of his army, and they bowed down before him to the ground, ‎and they begged him to entreat the Lord in their behalf; and the Lord was entreated of him ‎and they were healed. And Jacob, the plain man, also was delivered, by reason of his piety, ‎from the hands of his brother Esau, and from the hands of Laban, his uncle, who were seek ing ‎his life; and also from the hands of all the Canaanitish kings, who had all come together over ‎Jacob and his sons to exterminate them; the Lord hath delivered them, for where is there a ‎man who hath put forth his hand against them with impunity? And hath not Pharaoh, thy ‎father's father, exalted Joseph, the son of Jacob above all the princes of Egypt, when he saw ‎his wisdom? for by his wisdom he delivered all the inhabit ants of the land from the famine; ‎and after this Pharaoh ordered Jacob and his sons to be brought down to Egypt, that by reason ‎of their virtue, the land of Egypt and Goshen be saved from the famine. And now, if it ‎seemeth good in thine eyes, desist thou from harming the children of Israel, and if it be not in ‎thine heart to have them dwell in Egypt, send them away and let them depart unto the land of ‎Canaan, the former dwelling place of their fathers. And when Pharaoh heard the words of ‎Jethro he was exceedingly angry, and Jethro rose up in shame and departed from the ‎presence of the king, and he left Egypt on the same day and he went into his land, unto ‎Midian, taking along with him the stick which belonged unto Joseph.‎‏ ‏And the king said unto ‎Job, the Uzite: What sayest thou, and what is thy counsel concerning the Hebrews? And Job ‎said: Behold all the people of the land are in the hand of the king, let then the king do as it ‎seemeth best in his eyes.‎‏ ‏And then Balaam said unto the king: From all the plans of the king ‎against the Hebrews they will be delivered, for the king will not prevail against them with all his ‎counsels. For if thou thinkest to lessen them with flaming fire thou canst not succeed, for hath ‎not their God delivered Abraham, their father, from the fire of Ur Chasdim? and if thou ‎wouldst destroy them with the sword, remember that Isaac, their father, was delivered from ‎it, and a ram was given to destruction in his stead.‎‏ ‏And if thou thinkest to prevail against them ‎with hard and rigorous labor, surely thou wilt fail, for hath not Jacob, their father, served unto ‎Laban in all kinds of rigorous work, and he was prosperous? ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 23] And Pharaoh commanded his officers day by day, to go through Goshen to search for the new-‎born infants of the Israelites. And in their searching, if they found a male child, they would ‎take it from the lap of its mother and cast it into the river, but if it was a female child, they left ‎it with its mother; and thus did the Egyptians unto the children of Israel all the days. And at ‎that time the spirit of God came over Miriam, daughter of Amram, the sister of Aaron, and she ‎went around prophesying through the house, saying: Behold a son will be born unto us from ‎my father and mother this time, and he will deliver the children of Israel from the hands of ‎Egypt. And when Amram heard the words of his daughter he went and reclaimed his wife, and ‎he brought her back into his house, for he had separated from her, after Pharaoh had ‎commanded that all the male children of the house of Jacob be cast into the river. And Amram ‎reclaimed his wife in the third year of their separation, and she conceived; and after seven ‎months she bare a son, and at the time of his birth the whole house was filled with a great ‎light, like unto the light of the sun and the moon in their shining. And when the woman saw ‎that he was so comely and pleasing to behold, she concealed him in her innermost chamber, ‎and kept him hidden for three months. In those days all the Egyptians were united in their ‎purpose to destroy the Hebrews, and the Egyptian women went to Goshen among the ‎Hebrew women, with their infants upon their shoulders. For in those days the Hebrew women ‎concealed their male children from before the Egyptians, so that they should not destroy them ‎from the earth, and, therefore, the Egyptian women came to Goshen with their babes that ‎could not speak, and when they entered the houses of the Hebrews they caused their babes ‎to cry, and the babes hidden in the innermost chamber would answer, and then the Egyptian ‎women went and told it in the house of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh sent his servants to take the ‎children and to slay them; thus did the Egyptians unto the Hebrew women all the days. And it ‎was at the time, in the third month of Jochebed’s concealment of her son, that the thing was ‎made known unto Pharaoh’s household. And the woman hastened to remove her son before ‎the officers came, and she procured an ark of bulrushes, and she daubed it with slime and with ‎pitch, and she put the child therein, and she placed the ark among the flag near the bank of ‎the river, and his sister Miriam stationed herself at a distance to know what would become of ‎him and of her prophecy. And the Lord sent on that day a scorching heat into the land of Egypt, ‎which burnt the flesh of men like the sun when in his zenith, and it annoyed the Egyptians ‎exceedingly, [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 24] and all the Egyptians went down to bathe in the river on account of the terrible heat. And ‎Bathia, Pharaoh’s daughter, went also to bathe in the river on account of the fearful heat, and ‎her maidens and all the women of Egypt were walking about by the side of the river. And ‎Bathia lifted up her eyes and saw the ark in the water, and she sent her maiden to fetch it. And ‎she opened the ark and behold a weeping babe was in it, and she had com * passion on it, and ‎said: This is one of the Hebrews’ children. And all the Egyptian women, that were walking by ‎the river's side, offered him suck, but he refused it; and this was so ordained by the Lord, in ‎order to restore him to the breast of his mother. And Miriam was at that time among the ‎Egyptian women by the river, and seeing this thing she said unto Pharaoh’s daughter: Shall I go ‎and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee: And ‎Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her: Go. And she went and called the child’s mother. And ‎Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her: Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee ‎wages, two pieces of silver for each day. And Jochebed took the child and nursed it, and at the ‎end of two years when the child grew up, she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter and he ‎became her son. And she called his name Moses, and she said: Because I drew him out of the ‎water. And his father Amram called his name Chabar, for he said: It was on his account that I ‎have associated again with my wife after having separated from her. And Jochebed called his ‎name Jekuthiel, for she said: I have hoped to the Lord, and he hath restored him unto me. And ‎his sister Miriam called him Jared, saying: I have gone down after him to the river, to know ‎what will be his end. And Aaron called him Abizonach, saying: My father hath abandoned my ‎mother, but he reclaimed her on his account. And Kehath, Amram’s father, called his name ‎Abigdor, saying: The Lord re paired the breach of the house of Jacob on his account. And they ‎did no more cast their male children into the water. And his nurse called his name Abi-Socho, ‎saying: In his tabernacle was he concealed three months, on account of the sons of Ham. And ‎all Israel called his name afterwards, Shemayah, son of Nathaniel, saying: In his days God hath ‎heard our cries, and he hath rescued us from the hands of our oppressors. And Moses was in ‎the house of Pharaoh, and he was unto Bathia a son, and Moses grew up among the children ‎of the king.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 25] And when Pharaoh saw that Balaam's counsel did not succeed, and that the children of Israel ‎continued to be fruitful and multiply throughout the land of Egypt, then Pharaoh commanded ‎it to be proclaimed through all Egypt, saying: No man shall diminish aught of his daily labor; and ‎he who shall be found wanting in the performance of his daily task in mortar or in bricks, shall ‎have his youngest son put in to fill the vacant place in his work. And the labor of the children of ‎Israel was very oppressive in those days, and if a man diminished even one brick in his daily ‎task, the Egyptians took forcibly his youngest son from his mother, and immured him into the ‎building instead of the brick, of which his father had been deficient. But the tribe of Levi did ‎not work with their brethren from the beginning even unto the end. And in the third year ‎from the birth of Moses, Pharaoh, with Alpharanith, the queen, at his right hand, and Bathia at ‎his left, was sitting at a feast, and the boy Moses was lying on Bathia's bosom, and Balaam with ‎his two sons and all the princes of Egypt were sitting around the table before the king. And the ‎boy put forth his hand upon the head of the king, and he took the crown from Pharaoh’s head ‎and he placed it upon his own head. And when Pharaoh and the princes saw this thing they ‎were greatly terrified and astonished, and Pharaoh said unto his princes around the table: ‎What say you concerning this thing, oh ye princes, and what shall be the judgment against this ‎lad for doing this thing? And Balaam said unto Pharaoh: Remember now, my lord, the dream ‎which thou hast dreamed some time since and the interpretation thereof by thy servant. For ‎behold, this is a Hebrew child, and the spirit of God is in him, and let not my lord think that this ‎lad hath done this thing without his knowledge; for he hath done this with wisdom, though a ‎mere child, to select for himself the kingdom of Egypt. And this is the manner of the Hebrews ‎to deceive their kings and princes, and they do these things cunningly, in order to cause the ‎kings and princes of the earth to stumble.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 26] And verily, thou knowest that Abraham their father acted in like manner to deceive the hosts ‎of Nimrod, king of Babel, and of Abimelech, king of Gerar, and that he appropriated the land of ‎the children of Heth and all the kingdoms of Canaan. And that he went down unto Egypt and ‎declared Sarah his wife to be his sister, in order to lead astray the Egyptians and their king. And ‎his son Isaac acted even so when he went down to Gerar to dwell there, and his strength ‎triumphed over the hosts of Abimelech, king of the Philistines, and he likewise desired the ‎stumbling of the kingdom of the Philistines by saying that Rebekah, his wife, was his sister. ‎And Jacob, too, acted deceitfully against his brother, depriving him of his birthright and of his ‎blessing, and then he fled to Padan-aram into the house of Laban, his uncle, and obtained ‎from him with cunning his daughters and his cattle and all belonging unto him, and then he ran ‎away and returned unto the land of Canaan, to his father. And his sons sold their brother ‎Joseph, and he went down to Egypt and he became a slave, and was finally put into the prison ‎house for twelve years, until one of the first Pharaohs dreamed certain dreams, and he had ‎him taken out of the prison house, and he exalted him above all the princes of Egypt, because ‎of his interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams. And when the Lord sent a famine into the land, he had ‎his father and his brothers and all his father's household brought down, and he supported ‎them all without any price or payment, while he bought all the Egyptians to be his slaves. And ‎now, oh my lord, behold, this child is rising up in Egypt in their stead to do according to their ‎actions, and to triumph over all the kings, princes and judges. If it seemeth good unto the king ‎let us at once spill his blood upon the ground, before he take away the government from thy ‎hand, and all the hope of Egypt perish under his reign. And Pharaoh said unto Balaam: Let us ‎invite all the judges and wise men of Egypt, and let them determine, whether the judgment of ‎death is due to this lad, as thou hast said, and then we will slay him. And Pharaoh sent for all ‎the wise men of Egypt and they came before him, and an angel of the Lord came amongst ‎them, and he had the semblance of one of the wise men. And the king said unto the wise ‎men: You have surely heard what this Hebrew boy, who is in my house, hath done, and such is ‎Balaam’s judgment concerning this matter; and now judge ye and decide what is due this boy ‎for the deed which he hath done. And the angel, who seemed to be one of the wise men of ‎Pharaoh, answered, and said: If it please the king, let the king send that they bring before him ‎an onyx stone and a coal of fire, and set them both before the child; and if he will put forth his ‎hand to take the onyx stone, then we shall know that the youth hath done with his wisdom all ‎that he hath done. But if he stretch forth his hand to grasp after the coal, then we will know ‎that he hath done this thing without any understanding. [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 27] And the thing seemed good in the eyes of Pharaoh and his princes, and the king did as the ‎angel of the Lord had spoken, and the king ordered an onyx stone and a coal to be brought ‎and placed before Moses. And when they placed the lad before them he stretched forth his ‎hand to take the onyx, but the angel of the Lord, un seen by any of the others, turned his ‎hand to the coal, and Moses took it and the coal became extinguished in his hand, and he ‎lifted it up and put it into his mouth, and he burned part of his lips and tongue, and thus he ‎became slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And when the king and princes saw this thing, ‎they were convinced that Moses had not acted with understanding when he took the crown ‎from Pharaoh’s head and they desisted from slaying the child. And Moses grew up in ‎Pharaoh’s house, and the Lord was with him, and he was robed in purple, and he was brought ‎up among the children of the king; and Bathia considered him her son, and all the household of ‎Pharaoh honored him, and all the men of Egypt were afraid of him. And he visited daily the ‎land of Goshen where his brethren were dwelling, and he saw them in shortness of breath ‎and in hard labor day after day. And Moses asked them, saying: Wherefore must you perform ‎this work day after day? And they told him all that hath befallen them, and they acquainted ‎him with all the laws which Pharaoh had burdened them with before Moses was born, and all ‎the counsels which Balaam had counseled against them, and also what he had counseled ‎against him, in order to have him slain for taking the king's crown from his head. And Moses ‎heard these things and his anger was kindled against Balaam, and he resolved to kill him, and ‎he lay in wait for him day after day. And they informed Balaam saying: Behold, the son of ‎Bathia seek eth thy life. And Balaam was in fear of Moses, and he went away from Egypt with ‎his two sons, and they fled for their lives to Kikianus, king of Cush. And Moses was still in the ‎house of Pharaoh, going out and coming in, and the Lord caused him to find favor in the eyes ‎of Pharaoh and his servants and all the people of Egypt, and they loved Moses greatly. And ‎Moses went again to Goshen to see his brethren, and he saw their affliction and hard labor, ‎and Moses was very grieved on their account. And Moses returned unto Egypt to the house of ‎Pharaoh, and he came before the king and he bowed down before him.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 28] And Moses said unto Pharaoh: My lord, I have come to ask a small favor of thee, and I pray ‎thee not to turn my face away empty; and Pharaoh said unto him: Speak. And Moses said unto ‎Pharaoh: Grant thou that thy servants, the children of Israel, be given one day to rest from ‎their labor. And Pharaoh said: Behold, I will grant that request, for thy sake. And Pharaoh ‎ordered it to be proclaimed through all Egypt and Goshen, saying: Thus said the king unto you, ‎all ye children of Israel: For six days you shall do your work and on the seventh day you shall ‎rest and not perform any labor; thus shall ye do all the days accord ing to the commandment of ‎the king and of Moses, son of Bathia. And Moses rejoiced greatly at the thing with which the ‎king had favored him, and all the children of Israel did as Moses had commanded unto them. ‎And this was ordained by the Lord, for the Lord had begun to remember the children of Israel ‎to deliver them for the sake of their fathers. And when Moses was eighteen years of age, he ‎desired to see his father and mother, and he went unto them to Goshen, and he saw the ‎burden of his brethren, and he saw an Egyptian smiting one of his brethren, the Hebrews. And ‎when the smitten man saw Moses he ran unto him for help, for Moses was greatly respected ‎in the house of Pharaoh, and he said unto him: My lord, I pray thee, this Egyptian came unto ‎my house by night and he bound me and defiled my wife in my presence, and now he seeketh ‎to take my life. And when Moses heard of this wicked action he was very wroth at the ‎Egyptian, and he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he ‎slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand, and delivered the Hebrew from the hand of his ‎oppressor. And when the man returned home he desired to separate from his wife, for it was ‎not lawful in the house of Jacob for any man to come unto his wife if she was defiled; and the ‎woman went and informed her brothers and they wanted to slay him; but he fled into his ‎house and escaped. And on the second day, when Moses went forth to his brethren and ‎behold the two men were quarreling, and Moses said to the wicked one: Wherefore smitest ‎thou thy fellow And he answered unto him and said: Who made thee a prince and a judge ‎over us? intendest thou to kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian And Moses feared and said: ‎Surely, this thing is known.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 29] And when Pharaoh heard of this occurrence he ordered Moses to be slain, but God sent his ‎angel and he appeared in the guise of a captain of the guards before Pharaoh. And the angel ‎seized the sword from the hand of a captain of the guard and he cut off the captain's head, for ‎the likeness of the captain was turned into the likeness of Moses. And the angel took Moses ‎by the right hand and transferred him from Egypt a distance of forty days’ journey. And Aaron, ‎his brother, remained alone in the land, and he prophesied unto the people of Israel, saying: ‎Thus says God the Lord of your ancestors, cast ye away, each one among you, the ‎abominations of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. But the children ‎of Israel would not listen unto Aaron at that time, and the Lord should have destroyed them, ‎were it not for the covenant which he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And the hand ‎of Pharaoh continued to be rigorous upon the Israelites at that time, and he afflicted and ‎oppressed them up to the time when God fulfilled his word and he remembered them. And in ‎those days was a heavy war between the people of the east and Aram, for they rebelled ‎against the king of Cush, under whose hands they had been. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 30] And when Kikianus with all the captains of his hosts approached the city they lifted up their ‎eyes and they saw the walls of the city raised to a very great height, and they were greatly ‎astonished at this change. And they said to each other: It was done because the people have ‎seen that we tarried too long in the battle, and therefore they have built up the walls of the ‎city and fortified them, that the kings of Canaan might not come to fight against them. And the ‎king with his armies approached the gates of the city and behold, all the gates were closed, ‎and they called unto the watchmen, saying: Open unto us that we enter the city. But the ‎gatemen refused to open for them, by order of Balaam, the magician, their king, and they ‎would not suffer them to enter the city. And they attacked them and they fought against ‎them opposite the gates of the city, and thirty men of the host of Kikianus fell on that day. And ‎on the second day they renewed the battle from the side of the river, and they attempted to ‎cross the river, but they could not, and many of them fell into the pits and died. And the king ‎commanded to cut down trees and make rafts in order to cross the river upon them, and they ‎did so. And when they came to the place of the ditches the waters began to revolve, like mill ‎stones, and two hundred men were drowned upon ten of the rafts. And on the third day they ‎came to fight from the corner of the serpents, but they could not approach it, and the ‎serpents slew of them one hundred and seventy men, and they ceased fighting against Cush; ‎but they lay siege to the city that no man could enter or leave Cush for nine years. And it was ‎at the time of the war and siege of Cush that Moses fled from Egypt and he came into the ‎camp of Kikianus who was besieging Cush at that time, and Moses was nine years in the camp, ‎through all the time of the siege of Cush. And the king and the princes and all the soldiers ‎loved Moses, for he was very efficient and worthy, his stature and strength was like a lion’s, ‎and his countenance beamed like the sun, and he was the king's counselor. And at the end of ‎nine years Kikianus fell sick—it was the disease of which he died, for his sickness overpowered ‎him and he died on the seventh day. And his servants embalmed him and they carried him ‎away and they buried him opposite the gates of the city northwards of Egypt, and they ‎erected over him a lofty and costly building, and they placed large stones upon it, and the ‎scribes of the king wrote down upon these stones all the heroic deeds of Kikianus, and all the ‎wars in which he participated, and behold they are there in writing even to this day.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 31] And after the death of Kikianus, his people were very grieved on account of the war, and they ‎said to each other: Let us counsel together what we are to do, for we have been living in the ‎wilderness away from our homes, nine years this day. If we continue to fight against the city, ‎then many of us will be wounded and slain, and if we keep up the siege we shall die likewise. ‎For now all the Kings of Aram and the people of the east will hear that our king is dead, and ‎they will come upon us suddenly, and they will fight against us, and they will not leave of us a ‎remnant. Come then and let us select a king and continue the siege until the city is given into ‎our hands. And they searched all the army of Kikianus for a man fit to be king over them, and ‎they found none like Moses worthy to be king over them; and they hastened and stripped ‎themselves of their garments and cast them upon the ground, and they made a great heap. ‎And placed Moses upon it, and they rose up and blew the trumpets and they exclaimed ‎before him, saying: May the king live; may the king live. And all the princes and the people ‎swore to give him for a wife Adoniah, the queen of Cush, wife of Kikianus, and they crowned ‎Moses their king on that day. And all the people of Cush proclaimed in a loud voice: Every man ‎must give unto Moses something of what he hath in his possession. And they spread out a ‎cloth upon the heap and every man threw into it something of what he had, nose rings and ‎coins, and onyx stones, and baellium, and pearls and rare stones, and silver and gold in great ‎abundance, and Moses took all that the sons of Cush had given unto him, and he put it into his ‎treasury; and Moses was king over the sons of Cush from that day on instead of Kikianus, their ‎former king. In the fifty fifth year of Pharaoh’s being king over Egypt, which is the one ‎hundredth and fifty-seventh year of the Israelites going down to Egypt, Moses was made king ‎of Cush; he was twenty-seven years of age when he began reigning, and for forty years did he ‎reign. And the Lord caused Moses to find grace in the eyes of the sons of Cush, and they loved ‎him greatly, and Moses was liked by the Lord and by men. And in the seventh day of his ‎reigning all the sons of Cush assembled and they came before Moses, and they bowed down ‎before him to the ground, and they spoke unto their king, saying: Give us an advice as to what ‎we shall do concerning this city, for it is nine years now since we are in siege before the city, ‎and we have not seen our children and wives ever since.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 32] And the king answered unto them, saying: If ye will listen unto my voice in all that I will ‎command you, then the Lord will give the city into our hands and we will take it; for if we will ‎continue to fight as we did before the death of Kikianus, many of us will be smitten as at first. ‎And all the armies replied unto the king, saying: Whatsoever our lord shall command we will ‎do. And Moses said unto them: Go ye and pro claim in a loud voice unto all the people of the ‎camp, saying: Thus saith the king: Go ye into the forest and bring you young storks, and each ‎of you come with a young stork in his hand. And whosoever faileth to bring with him a young ‎stork, the same will be put to death, and the king will take away all that is belonging unto him. ‎And when ye shall have brought them, you shall raise them until fully grown, and you shall ‎teach them to dart upon their prey after the manner of the young hawks. And all the people ‎did so, and they went into the forests, and they climbed the cypress trees, and they caught ‎each man his young stork, and they brought them into the desert, and they raised them and ‎they trained them to dart like young hawks, according to the order of the king. And after the ‎young storks were fully grown, the king commanded to hunger them for three days, and all ‎the people did so. And on the third day the king said unto them: Be ye courageous and valiant, ‎and mount your horses and take your storks in your hands, and we will rise up and fight against ‎the city from the place where the serpents are. And all the people did, according to the words ‎of the king, and they took their storks in their hands and marched on. And when they reached ‎the place of the serpents the king said unto them: Send forth all your storks against the ‎serpents. And they let loose their storks as the king had commanded, and the young storks ‎darted down upon the serpents and devoured them, and they exterminated all of them from ‎that place. And when the king and the people saw that all the serpents were destroyed from ‎that place, all the people shouted a great shouting, and they drew near the city and fought ‎against it, and they took the city by storm, and they entered it. And they slew on that day ‎among the people of the city, one thousand and one hundred men, all that were in the city, ‎but of the besiegers not one man died; and all the sons of Cush went to their houses, to their ‎wives and children, and unto all belonging to them. [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 33] And when Balaam, the magician, saw that ‎the city was taken, he opened the gate and fled unto Egypt, to Pharaoh, with his two sons and ‎eight brothers, and they are the magicians and sorcerers men tioned in the book of the law, as ‎standing up against Moses when the Lord brought the plagues over Egypt. And after Moses ‎had captured the city through his wisdom, the sons of Cush placed him upon the throne ‎instead of Kikianus, their king, and they put the regal crown upon his head, and they gave him ‎Adoniah, their queen, for a wife. But Moses feared the Lord the God of his ancestors, and he ‎never came near unto her, nor did he turn even his eyes towards her. For Moses re ‎membered that Abraham caused his servant Eliezer to swear, saying: Thou shalt not take for ‎my son Isaac a wife from the daughters of Canaan, and that Isaac did likewise, when Jacob fled ‎from before his brother, saying unto him: Thou shalt not take a wife from the daughters of ‎Canaan, and not intermarry with all the sons of Ham, for the Lord our God gave Ham, the son ‎of Noah, with all his children and his seed, for slaves to the children of Shem and Japhet, and ‎to their seed after them, to be slaves unto them forever. And therefore Moses inclined ‎neither his heart nor his eyes to the wife of Kikianus, all the days that he reigned over Cush; ‎and Moses feared the Lord his God all his life, and he walked before the Lord in truth with all ‎his heart and with all his soul, and he did not turn neither to the right nor to the left from the ‎way in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked. And Moses strengthened himself in his ‎kingdom, and he guided the sons of Cush in accordance with his wisdom, and Moses was ‎prosperous in his kingdom.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 35] And all the children of Cush loved Moses, through all the days that he ruled over them, and all ‎the inhabitants of Cush were greatly afraid of Moses. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 36] And in the fortieth year of the kingdom of Moses over Cush, Moses was sitting upon his ‎throne with queen Adoniah before him, and all the princes were seated around them, and ‎Adoniah spoke before the king and the princes saying: What is this thing which you have done, ‎oh children of Cush these many days? Know ye not that within the forty years that this man ‎reigned over Cush he hath not come near me, nor hath he served the gods of the children of ‎Cush. Now, therefore, hear me, oh children of Cush, and suffer this man no longer to rule over ‎us, for he is not of our flesh; behold here is my oldest son Menaeris, and let him be your king, ‎for verily it is better for you to serve the son of your master, than to serve a stranger, a former ‎slave to the king of Egypt. And the people heard the words which Adoniah had spoken in their ‎hearing, and they were in consultation until evening, and next morning they arose and made ‎Menaeris, the son of Kikianus, king over Cush.‎‏ ‏And all the sons of Cush were afraid to put forth ‎their hands against Moses, for the Lord was with him, and the sons of Cush remembered the ‎oath which they have sworn unto Moses, and therefore they would do him no harm; but they ‎gave unto Moses many gifts and they sent him away from them with great honors. Thus ‎Moses left the land of Cush and he went his way after he ceased to be king over Cush; and ‎Moses was sixty seven years of age when he departed from the land of Cush, and this was ‎ordained by the Lord, for the time had come which he had appointed in times of old, when he ‎was to bring forth the children of Israel from the affliction of the sons of Ham.‎‏ ‏And Moses ‎went to Midian, as he was afraid to return unto Egypt on account of Pharaoh, and he went and ‎seated himself at the well of water in Midian.‎‏ ‏And the seven daughters of Reuel, the ‎Midianite, went forth to feed the sheep of their father, and they came to the well to draw ‎water for their father's flocks; but the shepherds of Midian came and drove them away, and ‎Moses stood up and assisted them, and watered their sheep.‎‏ ‏And they came home to Reuel, ‎their father, and they told him what Moses had done for them, and they said: An Egyptian ‎man hath delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he drew up for us the water, and ‎he watered the sheep.‎‏ ‏And Reuel said unto his daughters: And where is he, why have ye left ‎the man? And Reuel sent for him, and brought him into his house and he ate with him bread.‎‏ ‏And Moses related unto Reuel, that he had fled from Egypt and that he had been reigning for ‎forty years over Cush, and how they had deprived him of his kingdom, and sent him away in ‎peace with honor and with gifts.‎‏ ‏And when Reuel heard the words of Moses he said within ‎himself: I will put this man into the prison house and gain favor by the children of Cush on his ‎account, for he hath surely fled from them; and they took him and put him into the prison ‎house, and Moses remained in prison for ten years.‎‏ ‏And while Moses was in the prison house, ‎Zipporah, Reuel’s daughter, had pity upon him, and she supplied Moses with bread and with ‎water all the time.‎‏ ‏And all the children of Israel were still in the land of Egypt, and they served ‎the Egyptians in all manner of hard labor, and the hand of Egypt continued in its rigor over the ‎children of Israel in those days. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 37] At that time the Lord smote Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, with the plague of leprosy, from the ‎sole of his foot to the crown of his head, and on account of the rigorous labor of the children of ‎Israel this plague was visited upon Pharaoh at that time by the Lord; for the Lord had listened ‎unto the prayer of Israel, his people, and their crying came before him on account of their hard ‎labor.‎‏ ‏And for all that, Pharaoh’s anger was not turned away from them, and his hand ‎continued outstretched against the children of Israel, and Pharaoh stiffened his neck before ‎the Lord and he made the yoke of Israel heavier, and he embittered their lives in all manner of ‎hard work.‎‏ ‏And when the Lord had smitten Pharaoh, he sent for all his magicians and wise ‎men to come and cure him.‎‏ ‏And his wise men and magicians said that the blood of little babes ‎be put upon the wounds, and they would be healed.‎‏ ‏And Pharaoh listened unto them, and he ‎sent his officers to Goshen, to the children of Israel, to take away their little babes.‎‏ ‏And ‎Pharaoh’s officers went and they tore away the little infants forcibly from the breasts of their ‎mothers, and they brought them unto Pharaoh day after day, one infant each day, and the ‎physicians slaughtered them, and applied the blood to his sores, and thus did they all the days.‎‏ ‏And the number of infants that Pharaoh had slaughtered in this manner, was three hundred ‎and seventy-five; but the Lord did not hearken unto the physicians of the king, and the plague ‎grew always more painful, and Pharaoh continued to suffer the plague of that disease for ten ‎years, and yet Pharaoh's heart grew always in cruelty against the children of Israel.‎‏ ‏And at the ‎end of ten years the Lord added blow upon blow and sore upon sore unto the king of Egypt, ‎and the Lord smote him with malignant sores and abdominal diseases, and the plague ‎assumed its worst forms. At that time two of the king's officers had returned from Goshen and ‎they said unto Pharaoh: We have seen the children of Israel very careless of their work, and ‎very negligent in their labor.‎‏ ‏And when Pharaoh heard the words of his officers, Pharaoh’s ‎anger was kindled against the children of Israel, for he was at the time suffering from great ‎physical pain, and he answered, saying: Behold, now, since the children of Israel know that I ‎am sick, they turn around and deride us; but hasten ye now and harness my chariot, that I go ‎to Goshen and see the children of Israel, and the manner in which they are deriding me.‎‏ ‏And ‎his servants harnessed for him the chariot, and they seated him upon the horse, for he was ‎not able to ride in the chariot, and he took with him ten horsemen and ten footmen, and he ‎went to the children of Israel unto Goshen.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 38] And when they had reached the boundary of Egypt, the horse of the king passed into a narrow ‎place which was elevated between the hollows of the vineyards, with a fence on one side and ‎the depth of the plain on the other side. And when the horses were running and passed that ‎place, they pushed against one another, and the horse of the king was pushed off the narrow ‎place, and it fell into the depth of the plain below, with the king riding upon it. And in falling, ‎the chariot turned and fell upon the king's face, and the horse, too, fell upon the king, and ‎Pharaoh cried out in agony, for his flesh pained him terribly. And the flesh of the king was torn, ‎and his bones were broken, and all this hath befallen him by the will of God, for the Lord had ‎hearkened unto the cries of the children of Israel in their affliction. And his servants carried ‎him upon their shoulders, one a little, and another a little, and they brought him back to Egypt, ‎and the horsemen that were with him returned unto Egypt likewise. And when they lay him ‎upon his bed the king knew that his end was drawing nigh for him to die, and Queen Alpha ‎ranis, his wife, came and lamented over the king, and the king wept exceedingly with her; and ‎all his officers and servants came on that day, and when they saw his great suffering they wept ‎bitterly over their king. And the princes of the king and all his counselors, advised the king to ‎select one of his sons to reign over the land in his stead; and the king had three sons and two ‎daughters born unto him by Alpharanis, outside of the children of the king from his ‎concubines, and these were their names: The first born Othroo, and the second Adicom, and ‎the third Moryon; and their sisters, the name of the oldest, Bathia, and of the youngest ‎Acuzia. And Othroo, the first born of the king, was a foolish man, hasty and precipitate in all his ‎words. But Adicom was a very cunning and wise man, and versed in all the wisdom of Egypt, ‎but of very ungainly appearance, very stout and short of body, his height being only one cubit. ‎And when the king saw that his son Adicom was so cunning and wise in all matters, the king ‎decided upon him to be king in his place after his death. And he took for his wife, Gedudah, ‎the daughter of Abilot, when he was only ten years of age, and she bare unto him four sons. ‎And afterwards he went and took three more wives, and he begat eight sons and three ‎daughters. And the disease prevailed exceedingly upon the king, and his flesh was stinking like ‎the flesh of a carcass which is exposed upon the field in summer time to the heat of the sun. ‎And when the king saw that his disease had overpowered him, he sent for Adicom, his son, ‎and he was brought before him, and they made him king over the land in Pharaoh’s place. And ‎at the end of three years the king died in shame and disgrace, and his servants carried him up ‎and they buried him among the graves of the kings of Egypt, in Zoan Mizraim. But they did not ‎embalm him after the manner of the kings, for his flesh was rotten and they could not come ‎near him to embalm him on account of the stench, and they buried him hastily. And this evil ‎came upon him from the Lord, for the Lord had requited him according to his wickedness, ‎which he had practiced in his days against the children of Israel. And he died in agony and ‎terror, and Adicom his son reigned in his stead. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 39] Adicom was twenty years old when he assumed the government, and he reigned for four ‎years. In the two hundred and sixth year of Israel's going down to Egypt, Adicom reigned over ‎Egypt, but he did not lengthen his days in his kingdom as his fathers did, for his father, Melol, ‎ruled over Egypt ninety-four years, but he lay sick for ten years and died because he had been ‎wicked before the Lord. And the Egyptians called the name of Adicom, Pharaoh, after the ‎name of his father, according to the custom in Egypt to do so. But the wise men of Pharaoh ‎called the name of Adicom, Abuz, because he was so short, and short is called abuz in the Egyp ‎tian tongue. And Adicom was extremely ugly, only one cubit and a span in hight, and he had a ‎very long beard which reached to his ankles. And Pharaoh sat upon the throne of his father, ‎and he managed the government of Egypt in his wisdom. And in his reigning he was even ‎more wicked than his father, and all the kings that ruled before him, and he made his yoke ‎very heavy upon the children of Israel; and he went with his servants to Goshen to the ‎children of Israel, and he made their work more oppressive than before, and he said unto ‎them: Finish ye your daily task and do not neglect your work in future as it was your habit in ‎the days of my father; and he placed over them overseers from among the people of Israel, ‎and over those overseers he placed task masters from the midst of his servants, and he ‎assigned for them the number of bricks which they had to make daily, and then he returned to ‎Egypt. And at that time the task masters of Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the children ‎of Israel according to Pharaoh’s order, saying: Thus saith Pharaoh: Do ye the work of your daily ‎task, and the tale of bricks ye shall observe to have fulfilled every day, according to measure, ‎ye shall not diminish aught thereof. And if it happen that you are wanting in your daily ‎measure of bricks, I will put your little children in instead of the bricks. And the task masters of ‎Egypt did according to Pharaoh’s commandment in those days, and whenever they were ‎deficient in their daily task, the task master of Pharaoh would go to the wives of the children of ‎Israel and take away their infants, according to the deficiency of bricks, and they would tear ‎them away from the laps of their mothers and put them into the walls of the building, in place ‎of the bricks, midst the weeping and lamentations of their fathers and mothers, who heard ‎the crying of their infants in the walls of the building.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 40] And the task masters forced the Israelites to put their children into the building, and a man had ‎to take his own child and place him into the wall and put mortar over him, though his eyes ‎were weeping and his tears streamed down upon his child. And the task masters of Pharaoh ‎did so for many days, and they had no pity and mercy upon the infants of the children of Israel; ‎and the number of children that were caused to die in the building was two hundred and ‎seventy. And the labor of the children of Israel was heavier upon them in the days of Adicom ‎than in the days of his father, and the children of Israel sighed every day in the hardship of ‎their labor, saying: Behold, when Pharaoh died and his son was crowned we hoped to have ‎our work lightened, and now the rigor of the latter is by far greater than of the former; and the ‎children of Israel sighed on that account, and their cries ascended to the Lord, and the Lord ‎heard their cries in those days, and he remembered unto them the covenant which he had ‎made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he resolved to deliver them. Meantime Moses, the ‎son of Amram, was still confined in the prison house in those days, in the house of Reuel, the ‎Midianite, and his daughter Zipporah supplied Moses secretly with food day after day. And at ‎the end of ten years, which was the first year of the kingdom of the new Pharaoh, Zipporah ‎said unto Reuel, her father: Behold, the Hebrew man whom thou hast bound in the prison ‎house is there for ten years, and yet no man inquired or searched for him; and now if it ‎seemeth good in thine eyes, let us send and see whether he be dead or alive; and her father ‎knew not that she had supported him. And her father said unto her: Hath ever such a thing ‎come to pass, that a man could stand to be ten years in prison without eating and live? And ‎Zipporah answered unto her father, saying: Verily, thou hast heard that the God of the ‎Hebrews is great and fearful, and that he works wonders in their behalf at all times. It is he ‎who hath delivered Abraham from Ur Chasdim, and Isaac from his father's sword, and Jacob ‎from the angel of the Lord at the ford of Jabbok; and with this man also he hath done many ‎things, for he delivered him from the river of Egypt, and from the sword of Pharaoh, and from ‎the sons of Cush, and in the same way he can save him from starvation and keep him alive. ‎And the thing seemed good in the eyes of Reuel, and he did according to the words of his ‎daughter, and he sent to the prison to see what had become of Moses, and he saw and ‎behold, the man was alive in the pit, standing upon his feet, engaged in singing praises and ‎praying to the God of his fathers.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 41] And Reuel commanded that Moses be brought forth from the pit, and they shaved him and he ‎changed his prison garments, and he ate bread; and afterwards he went into Reuel's garden, ‎which was back of the house, and there he prayed unto the Lord his God, who had done with ‎him such great wonders. And whilst he was praying he looked before him, and beheld a rod of ‎the saphir tree, which had been planted in the midst of the garden. And he approached the ‎rod, and looking at it closer, he saw the name of the Lord, the God of hosts, engraved upon ‎the rod in distinct characters. And he read it, and put forth his hand, and he extracted it from ‎the ground wherein it was rooted, like a tree in the forest. And this is the rod with which all the ‎wonders of our God have been performed from the day he finished heaven and earth and all ‎their hosts, the oceans and streams, and all their fishes. And when God drove Adam from the ‎Garden of Eden, Adam took this rod along with him, and he went to till the ground whence he ‎was taken. And the rod was transmitted to Noah and through him to Shem and his ‎descendants, and then it came into the hands of Abraham, the Hebrew; and when Abraham ‎gave all his property unto Isaac, his son, he gave him this rod likewise. And when Jacob fled to ‎Padan-aram he took that rod with him, and when he returned to his father the rod was not ‎forgotten. And when Jacob went down to Egypt he gave that rod unto Joseph, saying: I have ‎given to thee a portion above thy brethren which I took out of the hands of the Amorite; for ‎Jacob took it forcibly from Esau, his brother. And after the death of Joseph, when the princes ‎of Egypt came into his house, the rod fell into the hands of Reuel, the Midianite, and when he ‎left Egypt he took it along and planted it into his garden. And whenever a man came to ask ‎Zipporah for a wife, Reuel would tell him to extract the rod from the ground, for she would not ‎be given for a wife to any man who could not pluck it. And all the powerful men of the Kanites ‎tried to pluck that stick, for they endeavored to get Zipporah, his daughter, but they could not. ‎Thus that rod remained in Reuel's garden until the man came who had the right to take it. And ‎when Reuel saw the rod plucked by the hand of Moses, he was greatly astonished, and he ‎gave his daughter Zipporah unto Moses for a wife. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 42] And Zipporah walked in the way of the women of Jacob; she never failed in the least from the ‎righteousness of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah. And Zipporah conceived and bare a son, ‎and he called his name Gershom, for he said: I have been a stranger in a strange land. But ‎Moses did not circumcise him, at the command of Reuel, his father-in-law. And she conceived ‎again and bare a son, whom he did circumcise, and he called his name Eliezer, saying: The God ‎of my father was my helper, and he delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh, ‎the king of Egypt, continued to increase the labor of the children of Israel, and to make his ‎yoke heavier upon them in those days, and he ordered it to be proclaimed throughout all ‎Egypt, saying: Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as hereto fore; let them ‎go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of bricks which they did make heretofore, ye ‎shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof, for they are negligent in their work. ‎And when the children of Israel heard this, they mourned and sighed, and they cried unto the ‎Lord in the bitterness of their souls. And the Lord became jealous of his people and of his ‎inheritance, and he heard their voice, and he decided to bring them forth from the affliction of ‎Egypt, and to give unto them the land of Canaan for a possession. And in those days Moses ‎was feeding the sheep of his father-in-law, Reuel, the Midianite, beyond the wilder ness of ‎Zin, and the rod which he took from his father in-law he had with him. And one day a kid of the ‎goats ran astray from the flock, and Moses searched for it and pursued it, until he came to the ‎mountain of God, to Horeb. And when he came to Horeb the Lord appeared unto him in the ‎bush, and he saw the bush burning with fire, but the fire could not prevail over the bush to ‎consume it. And Moses was greatly astonished at the sight, and he wondered why the bush ‎was not consumed; and he drew nigh to examine that awful thing. And the Lord called unto ‎Moses from the midst of the fire, and he commanded him to go down to Pharaoh, king of ‎Egypt, to release the children of Israel from bondage. And the Lord said unto Moses: Go thou ‎and return to Egypt, for all those men are dead who sought thy life, and speak unto Pharaoh, ‎that he send forth the children of Israel from his land. And the Lord showed unto him how to ‎perform signs and wonders in Egypt before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, so that they ‎might believe that the Lord had sent him; and Moses hearkened to all that the Lord ‎commanded unto him, and Moses returned to his father in-law and informed him of this thing, ‎and Reuel said: Go in peace.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 43] And Moses rose up to go to Egypt, and he took with him his wife and his sons, and when he ‎was at an inn on the road an angel of the Lord came down and sought to kill him, on account of ‎his first born son whom he had not circumcised at the command of Reuel, thus transgressing ‎the covenant, which the Lord established with Abraham. And Zipporah hastened and took a ‎sharp rock and circumcised her son, and she delivered her husband and her son from the hand ‎of the angel. And Aaron, the son of Amram, brother of Moses, was in Egypt walking about by ‎the side of the river, and the Lord appeared unto him on that day, saying unto him: Go now to ‎meet Moses in the wilderness; and he went and he met him on the mountain of God, and he ‎kissed him. And Aaron lifted up his eyes and he saw Zipporah, the wife of Moses, with her ‎children, and he said unto Moses: Who are these here unto thee? And Moses said unto him: ‎They are my wife and my sons, whom the Lord hath given unto me in Midian; and he said unto ‎Moses: Send away the woman with her children to the house of her father; and Moses ‎hearkened to the voice of his brother and he did so. Zipporah returned therefore with her ‎children, and they went and returned to the house of Reuel, and they tarried there until the ‎time had come when the Lord remembered his people to deliver them from Egypt, from the ‎hand of Pharaoh. And Moses and Aaron came to Egypt to the congregation of Israel, and they ‎told unto them all that the Lord had spoken, and the people rejoiced greatly; and they rose up ‎early next morning, and they went unto Pharaoh, and the rod of God was in the hand of ‎Moses. And at the king's gate two young lions were fastened with iron chains, so that no one ‎could enter or leave the house of the king, unless it was the pleasure of the king; and then the ‎conjurors came and subdued the lions with their incantations, and brought the person before ‎the king. But when Moses approached the gate, he lifted up the rod against the lions and he ‎released them, and Moses and Aaron entered the king's house, and the lions also came with ‎them in great joy, and they followed them rejoicing, even as the dog rejoiceth with his master ‎when he returneth from the field.‎ And when Pharaoh saw this thing he was greatly astonished and terrified, for their appearance ‎was like to the sons of God; and Pharaoh said unto Moses and Aaron: What desire ye? and ‎they answered unto him saying : The Lord God of our people hath sent us unto thee, saying: ‎Send forth my people that they may serve me. [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 44] And when Pharaoh heard their words he was ‎exceedingly terrified, and he said unto them: Go ye away to-day and return to-morrow; and ‎they did according to the words of the king. And when they had left him Pharaoh sent for ‎Balaam, the magician, and for Janus and Jambrus, his sons, and for all the magicians and ‎sorcerers and counselors which belonged to Pharaoh, and they came and sat before the king. ‎And the king told unto them all the words of Moses and his brother, and they said unto the ‎king: And how could these men come before thee on account of the lions, which are chained ‎to the gate? And the king said unto them: They have raised their rod upon the lions, and ‎released them; and they came before me, and the lions rejoiced with them, as the dog ‎rejoiceth before his master. And Balaam, the magician, answered unto the king, saying: These ‎can be nothing else but magicians like unto ourselves, and therefore send and let them come ‎and we will try them; and the king did so. And Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron to come ‎before the king, and they took the rod of God and they came to the king and spoke unto him, ‎saying: Thus, said the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Send away my people that they may ‎serve me. And the king said unto them: And who will believe you that you are the messengers ‎of God, and that by his order you have come to me? Now, give unto us a wonder or a sign ‎concerning this thing, and then your words can be believed. Then Aaron hastened and cast ‎down his rod from his hand before Pharaoh and his servants, and the rod turned into a ‎serpent; and the sorcerers did likewise, and they cast their rods to the ground and they turned ‎into serpents. And the serpent of Aaron's rod lifted up its head and opened its mouth to ‎swallow up the serpents of the sorcerers’ rods. And Balaam, the magician, said: This thing is ‎since times of old, that one serpent should swallow up another, and that living beings should ‎devour one another. But turn thy serpent into a rod as before, and we likewise shall restore ‎our rods as they were at first, and then if thy rod will swallow up our rods we will know that ‎the spirit of God is within thee, otherwise thou art only an artificer like ourselves. And Aaron ‎stretched out his hand hastily and seized the tail of the serpent, and it became a rod in his ‎hand, and the sorcerers did also restore their rods in like manner, and after being turned into ‎rods again, the rod of Aaron swallowed up their rods. And when the king saw this thing, he ‎commanded to bring the records of the kings of Egypt, and they brought before him the ‎chronicles of the land of Egypt, wherein all the idols of Egypt were registered.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 45] And they read the book of Egyptian idols before the king, in order therein to find the name of ‎Jehovah, but they found it not. And his wise men spoke unto the king, saying: We have heard ‎that the God of the Hebrews is the son of wise men, of some of the former kings. And ‎Pharaoh said unto Moses and unto Aaron: I know not that Jehovah of whom you speak, nor ‎shall I send away his people. And they replied, saying unto the king: Jehovah, the God of gods, ‎is his name, and he hath called his name over us in the days of our ancestors, and he hath sent ‎us, saying: Go ye unto Pharaoh and say unto him, send away my people that they may serve ‎me. Now, therefore, send us away, that we go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, to ‎sacrifice unto him, for since the days of the going down to Egypt he hath not received from our ‎hands any offerings. But if thou wilt not send us, then his anger will kindle against thee and he ‎will smite all Egypt with pestilence or with the sword. And Pharaoh said unto them: Relate unto ‎me something concerning his power and might. And they said: He created the heaven and the ‎earth, and the seas with all their fishes, he produced the light and created the darkness, he ‎lets rain fall upon the earth to water it, and he causeth the grass and herbs to sprout, he ‎created man and cattle and the beasts of the forest, and the fowls of heaven and the fishes of ‎the sea; and by his mouth they live and die. Verily, he created thee in thy mother's womb, and ‎he gave unto thee the breath of life, and he made thee great and placed thee upon the ‎throne of Egypt's kingdom, and he will take from thee thy breath and thy soul, and return thee ‎to the ground whence thou hast been taken. And the anger of the king was kindled at their ‎words, and he said unto them: And who among all the gods of the nations could have made ‎my river, which I have made myself? And he drove them away from his presence, and he ‎commanded to make the labor of Israel heavier than yesterday or day before yesterday; and ‎Moses and Aaron went forth from the presence of Pharaoh. And they saw the children of ‎Israel in the evil that the task masters of Pharaoh had made their labor heavier than before, ‎and Moses returned unto the Lord and said: Wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this ‎people? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to the children of ‎Israel. Then the Lord said unto Moses: Now shalt thou see that with a strong hand and under ‎terrible plagues, Pharaoh will drive the children of Israel out of this land.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 46] And at the end of two years the Lord sent Moses once more unto Pharaoh, to bring forth the ‎children of Israel and to send them away from the land of Egypt; and Moses came to the ‎house of Pharaoh and he spoke unto him according to the words of the Lord, but Pharaoh ‎would not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah, and the Lord concluded to show his might in ‎Egypt, on Pharaoh and his servants. And God smote Pharaoh and his people with very terrible ‎plagues, and he turned by the hands of Aaron all the waters of Egypt into blood, and when an ‎Egyptian came to drink and drew water and he looked into his pitcher, behold it was turned ‎into blood, and also when a woman kneaded her bread or cooked her meals, all had the ‎appearance of blood. And the Lord sent again, and he caused all the waters to produce frogs, ‎so that the frogs came into the houses of the Egyptians, and when the Egyptians drank the ‎water, their stomachs were filled with frogs, and they leaped within them like in the river. And ‎all the water they used for cooking and drinking turned into frogs, and when they lay upon ‎their beds, they perspired frogs from their body. But for all that the anger of the Lord did not ‎turn from them, and his hand was still out stretched upon all Egypt, to smite them with all the ‎terrible plagues; and he sent and turned their dust into lice, so that the ground of Egypt was ‎covered with lice two cubits in height. And the lice were also upon the flesh of man and beast ‎among all the people of Egypt, and also upon the king and the queen, and Egypt was greatly ‎afflicted on account of the lice. But for all that the anger of the Lord did not turn, and his hand ‎was still outstretched over Egypt, and the Lord sent all the beasts of the field, and they came ‎and destroyed man and beast, and the trees, and all that was in Egypt. Then the Lord sent fiery ‎serpents, and scorpions, and mice, and rats, and weasels, and other vermin, that creepeth in ‎the dust, as also flies and fleas and all sorts of insects, and they came and tortured the ‎Egyptians, entering even their eyes and their ears. Then the hornets came over them also, and ‎they drove them to hide in their innermost chambers, and the Egyptians had to hide ‎themselves from the swarms of vermin and they locked the doors after them. But the Lord ‎commanded the Tulzoth, the great monster of the sea to come up and invade Egypt; and she ‎had very long arms, ten cubits in length according to the cubits of a man, and she went up and ‎unroofed their houses, and she put forth her arms into the houses and removed the bolts and ‎bars and opened the houses of the Egyptians, and the swarm of animals filled the houses of ‎the Egyptians, to torture them exceedingly.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 47] But for all that the anger of the Lord did not turn from Egypt, and his arm was still outstretched ‎upon them, and he sent the pestilence to rage in Egypt amongst horses, and asses, and ‎camels, and oxen, and sheep, and man, and when the Egyptians rose up in the morning to ‎drive their cattle to pasture, they found it dead. And there remained only one out of ten of ‎the cattle of the Egyptians, but of the cattle belonging to the Israelites in Egypt not one died. ‎And God sent burning heat into the bodies of the Egyptians that their flesh burst and turned ‎into malignant sores on all the Egyptians from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their ‎heads, and they had ulcers all over their bodies that their flesh sloughed away in stench. But ‎the Lord’s anger did not turn for all this, and his hand was still outstretched upon Egypt, and he ‎sent a heavy hail storm which smote their vines, and injured their fruit trees, so that they dried ‎up and finally fell upon the people. And every green herb became blighted and destroyed, for ‎fire was mingled with the hail, and therefore the fire and hail consumed all things on the field, ‎also man and beast that were found in the streets, so that the villages became depopulated. ‎Then the Lord brought into Egypt all sorts of locusts in great numbers, and they devoured all ‎that was left after the hail. Then all the Egyptians were pleased with the locusts, although they ‎consumed all the productions of the field, for the Egyptians caught them in great numbers and ‎salted them for food; but the Lord turned a mighty sea wind which carried away all the locusts, ‎even those that were salted, and cast them into the Red Sea, and not a single locust remained ‎within the boundaries of Egypt. And the Lord sent darkness over Egypt, and the whole land of ‎Egypt was so dark for three days that a man could not see his hand when he put it even to his ‎mouth. In those days many of the children of Israel died, all those that had rebelled against the ‎Lord, and would not hearken unto Moses and believed not that God had sent him, and said: ‎We will not go away from Egypt to die of starvation in the barren wilderness. And the Lord ‎punished them in those days of darkness, and the children of Israel buried them in those days, ‎so that the Egyptians should not know and rejoice over them; and the darkness was so intense ‎in Egypt for three days, that any man who stood up when the darkness came had to remain ‎standing in his place, and he that was sitting had to remain sitting, and he that was lying had to ‎keep on lying, and he that was walking remained fixed to the ground, and thus it was with all ‎the Egyptians until the darkness had subsided.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 48] And when the days of darkness were over, the Lord sent Moses to the children of Israel, ‎saying: Celebrate ye your feast and prepare your passover, for behold I will come at midnight ‎in the midst of the Egyptians, and I will slay all their first born, from the first born of man to the ‎first born of beast, and when I will see your passover I will pass over you; and the children of ‎Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded unto Moses. And at midnight the Lord ‎passed through Egypt, and he slew all the first born of the Egyptians, from the first born of ‎man to the first born of beast; and Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all ‎the Egyptians, and there was a great crying in Egypt; for there was not one house where there ‎was not one dead; and even the likenesses of the first born, which were engraved upon the ‎walls of their houses, fell broken to the ground, and the bones of their first born, which had ‎died before and lay buried in their houses, were raked up by the dogs of Egypt in that night, ‎and dragged about before the eyesight of the Egyptians. And when the Egyptians saw the ‎great evil which had befallen them so suddenly, they cried with a loud voice, so that all the ‎families of Egypt were weeping in that night, one for his son and one for his daughter, their ‎first born, and the consternation and noise of Egypt resounded in the distance on that night. ‎And Bathia, Pharaoh’s daughter, went forth with the king in search of Moses, and they found ‎him eating and drinking and rejoicing with all the Israelites, and Bathia said unto Moses: Shall ‎this be the reward for my kindness towards thee, for raising and elevating thee, that thou ‎bringest now upon me and upon the house of my father this evil? And Moses answered unto ‎her: Behold the Lord hath brought ten plagues over Egypt, and hath ever one annoyed thee? ‎And she said: No. And Moses said: Behold, although thou art the first born of thy mother thou ‎shalt not die, neither shall any evil befall thee. And she replied: Of what good is that to me ‎after I see my brother, the king, and all the household of my father, and all his servants in that ‎great evil, for their first born perish with all the first born of Egypt? And Moses said unto her: ‎Surely, thy brother and his household and his servants, the families of Egypt refused to listen ‎to the words of God and therefore this evil hath come over them. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 49] Then Pharaoh, king of Egypt, approached Moses and Aaron and part of the children of Israel ‎that were with them in that place, and he entreated them, saying: Rise up and get you forth ‎from among my people, and take your brethren, all the children of Israel that are in the land, ‎with their sheep and oxen, and all belonging unto them, leave nothing here, but pray ye unto ‎the Lord in my behalf. And Moses said unto Pharaoh: Behold, thou art the first born of thy ‎mother, but fear thou not as thou shalt not die, for the Lord hath commanded that thou ‎shouldst live, in order to show unto thee his great might and his outstretched arm. And ‎Pharaoh commanded that all the children of Israel be sent away, and the Egyptians were ‎urgent upon the people to send them away in haste, for they said: We be all dead men. And all ‎the Egyptians sent the children of Israel away with great riches, with sheep, and oxen, and ‎valuables, according to the oath of our Lord between him and Abraham our father. But the ‎children of Israel were unwilling to depart at night, and when the Egyptians came to cause ‎them to leave they said unto them: Are we thieves to leave at night? And the children of Israel ‎asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment, and they spoiled the ‎Egyptians. And Moses hastened and brought up from the river of Egypt the coffin of Joseph, ‎and he took it with him, and the children of Israel brought up likewise every one of them the ‎coffins of his ancestors, and the coffins of the tribe of his people. And the children of Israel ‎from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside their ‎children and wives. And a mixed multitude went up also with them, and flocks and herds, even ‎very much cattle. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt in servitude ‎was two hundred and ten years, and at the end of two hundred and ten years the Lord ‎delivered them from Egypt with a strong hand, and the children of Israel journeyed from ‎Egypt, and from Goshen and from Rameses, and they encamped in Succoth on the fifteenth ‎day of the first month. And the Egyptians buried all the first born whom the Lord had slain, and ‎the Egyptians buried their dead for three days. And the children of Israel journeyed from ‎Succoth and encamped in Etham, at the end of the wilderness. And on the third day, after the ‎Egyptians had buried all their first born, many men among the Egyptians rose up and they ‎went after the children of Israel to bring them back into Egypt, for they were sorry to have ‎sent away the children of Israel from their servitude, and they said to each other: Surely, ‎Moses and Aaron spoke unto Pharaoh, saying: Only a three days journey will we go into the ‎wilderness, and we will bring sacrifices to the Lord our God. Let us therefore rise up in the ‎morning to bring them back, and if they actually return unto Egypt to their masters, then will ‎we know that there is faith in them, but should they refuse to return, then we will cause them ‎to come back, with great force and with a powerful arm.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 50] And they rose up in the morning, all the princes of Pharaoh with their people, about seven ‎hundred thousand men, and the Egyptians went forth on that day, and they came to the place ‎where the children of Israel were encamped, and all the Egyptians saw, and behold Moses and ‎Aaron and all the children of Israel sat before Pi-hachiroth eating and drinking and celebrating ‎the feast of the Lord. And all the Egyptians said unto the children of Israel: Have ye not said: ‎We will go a three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to our God and then we will ‎return? And now it is four days since your going away, and why do you not return unto your ‎masters? And Moses and Aaron said unto them: Because the Lord our God hath instructed us ‎saying: Ye shall return no more unto Egypt; but we will go unto a land flowing with milk and ‎honey, as the Lord our God had sworn to our fathers to give it unto us. And when the princes ‎of Egypt saw that the children of Israel would not listen unto them to return, they assembled ‎to fight with the children of Israel. But the Lord strengthened the hearts of the children of ‎Israel over the Egyptians, and they smote them a great smiting, and the battle was very ‎disastrous upon the Egyptians, and they fled from before the children of Israel for many of ‎them were slain by the hand of Israel. And the princes of Pharaoh went to Egypt unto ‎Pharaoh, and they spoke unto Pharaoh saying: The children of Israel have fled and refuse to ‎return to Egypt, and thus did Moses and Aaron speak unto us. And when Pharaoh heard this ‎thing his heart turned against Israel, and also the hearts of all his servants, and they repented ‎having sent away the Israelites, and all the Egyptians counseled Pharaoh to pursue the children ‎of Israel, and to force them to return to their servitude; and they said to each other: Why have ‎we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And the Lord hardened the hearts of ‎the Egyptians to pursue the children of Israel, for it was the pleasure of the Lord to cast all the ‎Egyptians into the Red Sea. And Pharaoh made ready his chariot, and he commanded and they ‎assembled all Egypt, not one man remained, save the children and women. And all Egypt went ‎forth with Pharaoh to pursue the children of Israel, and the army of Egypt was exceedingly ‎large, about one million of men, and this entire army moved on in pursuit of the children of ‎Israel and overtook them encamped by the Red Sea. ‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 51] And the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, ‎and they were afraid, and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And the children of ‎Israel divided themselves into four parties in their views concerning the Egyptians, for they ‎were afraid of the Egyptians, and Moses spoke to every one of those parties. The first party ‎consisted of the children of Reuben, and Simeon and Issachar, who thought to cast ‎themselves into the sea, so exceedingly afraid were they of the Egyptians, and Moses said ‎unto them: . Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to ‎you to-day. The second party consisted of the children of Zebulun, and Benjamin and Naphtali ‎and they thought they would return unto Egypt with the Egyptians, and to them Moses said: ‎Fear ye not, for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more ‎forever. The third party consisted of the children of Judah and Joseph, and they thought to go ‎against the Egyptians to fight with them, and to them Moses said: Maintain your position, the ‎Lord will fight for you and ye hold your peace. And the fourth party consisted of the children of ‎Levi, and Gad, and Asher and they thought to go among the Egyptians and confound them, ‎and to them Moses said: Maintain your position and fear ye not, only call upon the Lord to ‎deliver you from the hand of the Egyptians. And after this Moses stood up in the midst of the ‎people, and he prayed unto the Lord, saying: Oh Lord, God of all the earth, deliver now thy ‎people, whom thou hast brought forth from Egypt and let not all the Egyptians say that they ‎have a powerful hand ' And the Lord said unto Moses: Wherefore cryest thou unto me? speak ‎unto the children of Israel that they go forward. But lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thine ‎hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the ‎sea. And Moses did so, and he lifted up his rod over the sea and he divided it. And the waters ‎of the Red Sea were divided into twelve sections, and the children of Israel passed through ‎the sea on foot, and in their shoes, as a man walketh over a beaten road, and the Lord thus ‎showed unto the children of Israel his wonders, through Moses and Aaron, both in Egypt and ‎on the sea. And when the children of Israel had come unto the sea the Egyptians followed ‎them, and the waters of the sea returned upon them and they sank all into the water; and ‎there was not left of them one man, save Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who rendered thanks unto ‎the Lord and confessed his belief in him, and therefore the Lord did not cause him to die at ‎that time with the Egyptians, but the Lord commanded one of his angels, and he cast him into ‎the land of Ninevah, where he reigned for many days. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from ‎the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and Israel ‎saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and in the sea. [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 52] Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, on the day when the Lord ‎caused the Egyptians to fall before them, and all Israel took up the song, saying: I will sing unto ‎the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and the rider hath he thrown into the sea; ‎behold it is written in the book of the law of God. And after this the children of Israel ‎journeyed and encamped in Marah, and the Lord gave them statutes and judgments in Marah, ‎and the Lord commanded the children of Israel to walk in his ways and to serve him. And they ‎journeyed from Marah and they came to Elim; and in Elim were twelve springs of water, and ‎three score and ten palm trees, and the children of Israel encamped there by the waters. And ‎they journeyed from Elim and they came into the wilderness of Zin, on the fifteenth day of the ‎second month after their going out of Egypt, and at that time the Lord gave the manna to the ‎children of Israel to eat, and thus the Lord caused food to rain from heaven for the children of ‎Israel, day after day. And the children of Israel ate manna for forty years, all the days of their ‎being in the wilderness, until they came to the land of Canaan to possess it.And they ‎journeyed from the wilderness of Zin and encamped in Alush, and they journeyed from Alush ‎and encamped in Rephidim.‎‏ ‏And when the children of Israel were in Rephidim, Amalek, the ‎son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, brother of Zepho, came to fight against Israel, and there came ‎with him eight hundred and one thousand men, magicians and sorcerers, and they arrayed ‎themselves for a fight with Israel in Rephidim.‎‏ ‏And they fought a very terrible battle with ‎Israel, but the Lord delivered Amalek and his people into the hands of Moses and the children ‎of Israel, and into the hands of Joshua, son of Nun, the Ephratite servant of Moses, and the ‎children of Israel smote Amalek at the edge of the sword, but the battle was very disastrous ‎upon the children of Israel.‎‏ ‏And the Lord said unto Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book ‎and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, thy servant, and thou shalt command it unto the children ‎of Israel, saying: When thou shalt come into the land of Canaan thou shalt utterly put out the ‎remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.‎‏ ‏And Moses did so, and he took the book and ‎made the following record, saying: Remember what Amelek hath done unto thee on the road ‎when thou wast going out of Egypt, for he surprised thee on the road and followed thee up to ‎smite the feeble ones in thy rear, when thou wast weak and weary, and he had no fear of ‎God. Therefore, when the Lord thy God shall have given thee rest from all thy enemies around ‎thee, in a land which the Lord thy God giveth unto thee for a possession, shalt thou wipe out ‎the remembrance of Amalek from under the heaven, forget it not.‎‏ ‏And it shall come to pass, if ‎a king will have pity upon Amalek, and upon his memory, and upon his seed, behold I will ‎require it of him, and I will blot him out from the midst of his people.‎‏ ‏And Moses wrote down ‎all these words in the book, and he gave the children of Israel commandments concerning this ‎matter.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 53] And the children of Israel journeyed from Rephidim and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai, ‎in the third month after their going out of Egypt. At that time Reuel, the father-in-law of ‎Moses, came with Zipporah his daughter and her two sons, for he had heard of the wonders ‎which the Lord had done in behalf of Israel, that he delivered them from the hand of Egypt; ‎and Reuel came to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped on the mountain of ‎God; and Moses went to meet his father-in-law with great honors, and all Israel went with ‎him, and Reuel with his children remained for many days in the midst of the children of Israel, ‎and he knew the Lord from that day on. And in the third month after the children of Israel ‎went forth from Egypt, in the sixth day of the month, the Lord gave the commandments unto ‎Israel on Mount Sinai, and all Israel heard these commandments, and they all rejoiced greatly ‎in the Lord on that day. And the glory of the Lord was resting upon Mount Sinai, and he called ‎unto Moses from the midst of the cloud, and Moses came in the midst of the fire and went up ‎the mount. And Moses was upon the mount forty days and forty nights, he ate no bread, ‎neither did he drink water, and the Lord gave him statutes and judgments to teach the ‎children of Israel. And the Lord wrote the ten commandments, which he had commanded ‎unto the children of Israel, upon two tables of stone, to give them unto Moses, in order to ‎command them unto the children of Israel. And at the end of forty days and forty nights, when ‎the Lord had ceased speaking unto Moses on Mount Sinai, the Lord gave unto Moses the ‎tables of stone, written with the finger of God. And when the children of Israel saw that ‎Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together ‎unto Aaron and said: As for this man Moses we wot not what is become of him, now ‎therefore, up, make us gods which shall go before us, lest thou shalt die. And Aaron was ‎greatly afraid of the people, and he commanded, and they brought unto him gold, and he ‎made a molten calf unto the people. And the Lord said unto Moses before he had gone down ‎from the mountain: Go, get thee down, for the people which thou broughtest out of the land ‎of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have made a molten calf and have bowed down to ‎it. Now therefore, let me alone, that I may consume them from the earth, for they are a stiff ‎necked people. And Moses entreated the Lord, and he prayed to the Lord in behalf of the ‎people, concerning the calf which they had made, and after wards he went down from the ‎mount with the two tables which God had given unto him to command unto the Israelites. And ‎when Moses approached the camp and beheld the calf which the people had made, Moses’ ‎anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them beneath the mount. ‎And Moses entered the camp, and he took the calf and burnt it in fire and ground it to ‎powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.‎ [Sefer HaYashar (midrash) / Book of Exodus / 54] And there died of the people, by the swords of one another, about three thousand men, who ‎have caused the making of the calf. And on the next morning Moses said unto the people: I ‎will go up unto the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sins, which you have ‎committed against the Lord; and Moses went up once more unto the Lord and he tarried with ‎the Lord forty days and forty nights. And during the forty days Moses was praying unto the ‎Lord in behalf of Israel, and the Lord hearkened unto the prayer of Moses, and the Lord was ‎entreated of him concerning Israel. Then said the Lord unto Moses: Hew thee two tables of ‎stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were on the first ‎tables, which thou hast broken. And Moses did so, and he went down and hewed the two ‎tables, and he went up to the Lord and the Lord wrote the ten commandments upon the ‎tables; and Moses remained again with the Lord forty days and forty nights, and the Lord ‎taught him statutes and judgments for the children of Israel. And the Lord commanded him ‎that the children of Israel should make a sanctuary to dwell in their midst, and the Lord ‎shewed unto him the model of the sanctuary, and the model of each vessel therein. And at ‎the end of forty days Moses came down from the mount with the tables in his hand, and ‎Moses came to the children of Israel and he said unto them all the words of the Lord, and he ‎taught them the laws, and statutes, and judgments, which the Lord had taught him. And when ‎Moses told unto the children of Israel the word of the Lord, that they should build a sanctuary ‎for the Lord to dwell in the midst of Israel, the people rejoiced exceedingly at all the good ‎which the Lord had spoken concerning them through Moses, and they said: We will do as the ‎Lord hath spoken unto thee; and the people arose like one man, and they brought liberal ‎contributions towards the sanctuary, and each man brought the offering of the Lord for the ‎work of the sanctuary, and for all its service. And every man in Israel brought of whatsoever ‎was found in his hand for the work of the sanctuary of the Lord, gold, and silver, and brass, and ‎everything that could be utilized for the sanctuary. And all the wise men skilled in work, came ‎and made the sanctuary of the Lord according to all that the Lord had commanded unto ‎Moses; and all the men who had wisdom in their hearts made the sanctuary, and its furniture ‎and the vessels for the holy service, as the Lord had commanded unto Moses, and the work of ‎the tabernacle was completed at the end of five months, and the children of Israel have done ‎all that the Lord had commanded unto Moses, according to the models which the Lord had ‎shown unto Moses. And they brought the sanctuary unto Moses, and he saw and behold, ‎they have done it as the Lord had commanded, and Moses gave them his blessing. ‎