Book of the Bee

Historical scan page 84

56 THE BOOK OF THE BEE. the day of the Sabbath ; honour thy father and thy mother ; thou shalt not do murder ; thou shalt not commit adultery ; thou shalt not steal ; thou shalt not bear false witness ; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s or brother’s house ; thou shalt not covet the wife of thy kinsman or neighbour, nor his servants, nor his handmaidens. When the children of Israel saw that Moses tarried on the mountain, they gathered together to Aaron and said to him, ‘ Arise, make us a god to go before us, for we know not what has become of thy brother Moses.’ Aaron said to them, ‘ Bring me the earrings that are in the ears of your wives and children.’ When they had brought them to him, he cast a calf from them, and said to the people, ‘ This is thy god, O Israel, who brought thee out of Egypt and they built an altar, and the children of Israel offered up sacrifice upon it. God said to Moses, ‘ Get thee down [VI to the people, for they have become corrupt.’ And Moses returned to the people, and in his hands were the two tablets of stone, upon which the ten commandments were written by the finger of God. When Moses saw that the people had erred, he was angry and smote the tablets upon the side of the mountain and brake them. And Moses brought the calf, and filed it with a file, and threw it into the fire, and cast its ashes into water ; and he commanded the children of Israel to drink of that water. And Moses reproached Aaron for his deeds, but Aaron said, ‘ Thou knowest that the people is stiffnecked.’ Then Moses said to the children of Levi, ‘ The Lord commands you that each man should slay his brother and his neighbour of those who have wrought iniquity;’ and there were slain on that day three thousand men. And Moses went up to the mountain a second time, and there were with him two tables of stone instead of those which he brake. He remained on the mountain and fasted another forty days, praying and supplicating God to pardon the iniquity of the people. When he came down from the mountain with the other two tablets upon which the commandments were written, the skin of his face shone, and the children of Israel were unable to look upon his countenance by reason of the radiance and light with which it was suffused ; and they were afraid of him. When he came to the people, he covered his face with a napkin ; and when he spake with God, he uncovered his face. And Moses said to Hur, the son of his father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, ‘ We will go to the land