Book of the Bee

Historical scan page 81

THE HISTORY OF MOSES ’ ROD. 53 am God.’ And Moses and Aaron did everything that God had com¬ manded them. Moses was eighty-three years old when God sent him to Egypt. And God said to him, ‘ If Pharaoh shall seek a sign from thee, cast thy rod upon the ground, and it shall become a serpent.’ Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and threw down Moses’ rod, and it became a serpent. The sorcerers of Egypt did the same1, but Moses’ rod swallowed up those of the sorcerers ; and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not send away the people. And God wrought ten signs by the hands of Moses : first, turning the waters into blood ; second, bringing up frogs upon them ; third, domination of the gnats ; fourth, noisome creatures of all kinds ; fifth, the pestilence among the cattle ; sixth, the plague of boils ; seventh, the coming of hail-stones ; eighth, the creation of locusts ; ninth, the descent of darkness ; tenth, the death [00.3] of the firstborn. When God wished to slay the first¬ born of Egypt, He said to Moses, ‘This day shall be to you the first of months, that is to say, Nisan and the new year. On the tenth of this month, let every man take a lamb for his house, and a lamb for the house of his father; and if they be too few in number (for a whole lamb), let him and his neighbour who is near him share it. Let the lamb be kept until the fourteenth day of this month, and let all the children of Israel slay it at sunset, and let them sprinkle its blood upon the thresholds of their houses with the sign of the cross. This blood shall be to you a sign of deliverance, and I will see (it) and rejoice in you, and Death the destroyer shall no more have dominion over you and Moses and Aaron told the children of Israel all these things. And the Lord commanded them not to go out from their houses until morning ; for ‘ the Lord will pass over the Egyptians to smite their firstborn, and will see the blood upon the thresholds, and will not allow the destroyer to enter their houses.’ When it was midnight, the Lord slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting upon his throne down to the last. And Pharaoh sent to Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘ Depart from among my people, and go, serve the 1 The Oxford MS. adds the names of the sorcerers, Jannes and Jambres. For accounts of them see 2 Timothy iii. 8 ; Abulpharagius, Hisioria Dynast ., ed. Pococke, p. 17; and Fabricius, Cod. Pseud. Vet. Test., vol. i, p. 819.