Chapter 9.
CONCERNING THE AFFLICTIONS THAT BEFELL THE HEBREWS IN EGYPT,
DURING FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.(16)
As to the affliction of Abraham's posterity for 400 years, see Antiq. B.
I. ch. 10. sect. 3; and as to what cities they built in Egypt, under Pharaoh
Sesostris. and of Pharaoh Sesostris's drowning in the Red Sea, see Essay
on the Old Testament, Append. p. 132-162.FJAJ 2.56
1. NOW it happened that the Egyptians grew delicate and lazy, as to
pains-taking, and gave themselves up to other pleasures, and in particular
to the love of gain
They also became very ill-affected towards the Hebrews,
as touched with envy at their prosperity; for when they saw how the nation
of the Israelites flourished, and were become eminent already in plenty
of wealth, which they had acquired by their virtue and natural love of
labor, they thought their increase was to their own detriment
And having,
in length of time, forgotten the benefits they had received from Joseph,
particularly the crown being now come into another family, they became
very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them;
for they enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river,
and to build walls for their cities and ramparts, that they might restrain
the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating, upon its running over
its own banks: they set them also to build pyramids, (17)
Of this building of the pyramids of Egypt by the Israelites, see Perizonius
Orig. Aegyptiac, ch. 21. It is not impossible they might build one or more
of the small ones; but the larger ones seem much later. Only, if they be
all built of stone, this does not so well agree with the Israelites' labors,
which are said to have been in brick, and not in stone, as Mr. Sandys observes
in his Travels. p. 127, 128.
and by all this wore them out; and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanical
arts, and to accustom themselves to hard labor
And four hundred years
did they spend under these afflictions; for they strove one against the
other which should get the mastery, the Egyptians desiring to destroy the
Israelites by these labors, and the Israelites desiring to hold out to
the end under them.FJAJ 2.57
2. While the affairs of the Hebrews were in this condition, there was
this occasion offered itself to the Egyptians, which made them more solicitous
for the extinction of our nation
One of those sacred scribes, (18)
Dr. Bernard informs us here, that instead of this single priest or prophet
of the Egyptians, without a name in Josephus, the Targum of Jonathan names
the two famous antagonists of Moses, Jannes and Jambres. Nor is it at all
unlikely that it might be one of these who foreboded so much misery to
the Egyptians, and so much happiness to the Israelites, from the rearing
of Moses.
who are very sagacious in foretelling future events truly, told the king,
that about this time there would a child be born to the Israelites, who,
if he were reared, would bring the Egyptian dominion low, and would raise
the Israelites; that he would excel all men in virtue, and obtain a glory
that would be remembered through all ages
Which thing was so feared by
the king, that, according to this man's opinion, he commanded that they
should cast every male child, which was born to the Israelites, into the
river, and destroy it; that besides this, the Egyptian midwives (19)
Josephus is clear that these midwives were Egyptians, and not Israelites,
as in our other copies: which is very probable, it being not easily to
be supposed that Pharaoh could trust the Israelite midwives to execute
so barbarous a command against their own nation. (Consult, therefore, and
correct hence our ordinary copies, Exodus 1:15, 22. And, indeed, Josephus
seems to have had much completer copies of the Pentateuch, or other authentic
records now lost, about the birth and actions of Moses, than either our
Hebrew, Samaritan, or Greek Bibles afford us, which enabled him to be so
large and particular about him.
should watch the labors of the Hebrew women, and observe what is born,
for those were the women who were enjoined to do the office of midwives
to them; and by reason of their relation to the king, would not transgress
his commands
He enjoined also, that if any parents should disobey him,
and venture to save their male children alive, (20)
Of this grandfather of Sesostris, Ramestes the Great, who slew the Israelite
infants, and of the inscription on his obelisk, containing, in my opinion,
one of the oldest records of mankind, see Essay on the Old Test. Append.
p. 139, 145, 147, 217-220.
they and their families should be destroyed
This was a severe affliction
indeed to those that suffered it, not only as they were deprived of their
sons, and while they were the parents themselves, they were obliged to
be subservient to the destruction of their own children, but as it was
to be supposed to tend to the extirpation of their nation, while upon the
destruction of their children, and their own gradual dissolution, the calamity
would become very hard and inconsolable to them
And this was the ill state
they were in
But no one can be too hard for the purpose of God, though
he contrive ten thousand subtle devices for that end; for this child, whom
the sacred scribe foretold, was brought up and concealed from the observers
appointed by the king; and he that foretold him did not mistake in the
consequences of his preservation, which were brought to pass after the
manner following: -FJAJ 2.58
3. A man whose name was Amram, one of the nobler sort of the Hebrews,
was afraid for his whole nation, lest it should fail, by the want of young
men to be brought up hereafter, and was very uneasy at it, his wife being
then with child, and he knew not what to do
Hereupon he betook himself
to prayer to God; and entreated him to have compassion on those men who
had nowise transgressed the laws of his worship, and to afford them deliverance
from the miseries they at that time endured, and to render abortive their
enemies' hopes of the destruction of their nation
Accordingly God had
mercy on him, and was moved by his supplication
He stood by him in his
sleep, and exhorted him not to despair of his future favors
He said further,
that he did not forget their piety towards him, and would always reward
them for it, as he had formerly granted his favor to their forefathers,
and made them increase from a few to so great a multitude
He put him in
mind, that when Abraham was come alone out of Mesopotamia into Canaan,
he had been made happy, not only in other respects, but that when his wife
was at first barren, she was afterwards by him enabled to conceive seed,
and bare him sons
That he left to Ismael and to his posterity the country
of Arabia; as also to his sons by Ketura, Troglodytis; and to Isaac, Canaan.
That by my assistance, said he, he did great exploits in war, which, unless
you be yourselves impious, you must still remember
As for Jacob, he became
well known to strangers also, by the greatness of that prosperity in which
he lived, and left to his sons, who came into Egypt with no more than seventy
souls, while you are now become above six hundred thousand
Know therefore
that I shall provide for you all in common what is for your good, and particularly
for thyself what shall make thee famous; for that child, out of dread of
whose nativity the Egyptians have doomed the Israelite children to destruction,
shall be this child of thine, and shall be concealed from those who watch
to destroy him: and when he is brought up in a surprising way, he shall
deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they are under from the Egyptians.
His memory shall be famous while the world lasts; and this not only among
the Hebrews, but foreigners also: - all which shall be the effect of my
favor to thee, and to thy posterity
He shall also have such a brother,
that he shall himself obtain my priesthood, and his posterity shall have
it after him to the end of the world.FJAJ 2.59
4. When the vision had informed him of these things, Amram awaked and
told it to Jochebed who was his wife
And now the fear increased upon them
on account of the prediction in Amram's dream; for they were under concern,
not only for the child, but on account of the great happiness that was
to come to him also
However, the mother's labor was such as afforded a
confirmation to what was foretold by God; for it was not known to those
that watched her, by the easiness of her pains, and because the throes
of her delivery did not fall upon her with violence
And now they nourished
the child at home privately for three months; but after that time Amram,
fearing he should be discovered, and, by falling under the king's displeasure,
both he and his child should perish, and so he should make the promise
of God of none effect, he determined rather to trust the safety and care
of the child to God, than to depend on his own concealment of him, which
he looked upon as a thing uncertain, and whereby both the child, so privately
to be nourished, and himself should be in imminent danger; but he believed
that God would some way for certain procure the safety of the child, in
order to secure the truth of his own predictions
When they had thus determined,
they made an ark of bulrushes, after the manner of a cradle, and of a bigness
sufficient for an infant to be laid in, without being too straitened: they
then daubed it over with slime, which would naturally keep out the water
from entering between the bulrushes, and put the infant into it, and setting
it afloat upon the river, they left its preservation to God; so the river
received the child, and carried him along
But Miriam, the child's sister,
passed along upon the bank over against him, as her mother had bid her,
to see whither the ark would be carried, where God demonstrated that human
wisdom was nothing, but that the Supreme Being is able to do whatsoever
he pleases: that those who, in order to their own security, condemn others
to destruction, and use great endeavors about it, fail of their purpose;
but that others are in a surprising manner preserved, and obtain a prosperous
condition almost from the very midst of their calamities; those, I mean,
whose dangers arise by the appointment of God
And, indeed, such a providence
was exercised in the case of this child, as showed the power of God.FJAJ 2.60
5. Thermuthis was the king's daughter
She was now diverting herself
by the banks of the river; and seeing a cradle borne along by the current,
she sent some that could swim, and bid them bring the cradle to her
When
those that were sent on this errand came to her with the cradle, and she
saw the little child, she was greatly in love with it, on account of its
largeness and beauty; for God had taken such great care in the formation
of Moses, that he caused him to be thought worthy of bringing up, and providing
for, by all those that had taken the most fatal resolutions, on account
of the dread of his nativity, for the destruction of the rest of the Hebrew
nation
Thermuthis bid them bring her a woman that might afford her breast
to the child; yet would not the child admit of her breast, but turned away
from it, and did the like to many other women
Now Miriam was by when this
happened, not to appear to be there on purpose, but only as staying to
see the child; and she said, "It is in vain that thou, O queen,
callest for these women for the nourishing of the child, who are no way
of kin to it; but still, if thou wilt order one of the Hebrew women to
be brought, perhaps it may admit the breast of one of its own nation."
Now since she seemed to speak well, Thermuthis bid her procure such a one,
and to bring one of those Hebrew women that gave suck
So when she had
such authority given her, she came back and brought the mother, who was
known to nobody there
And now the child gladly admitted the breast, and
seemed to stick close to it; and so it was, that, at the queen's desire,
the nursing of the child was entirely intrusted to the mother.FJAJ 2.61
6. Hereupon it was that Thermuthis imposed this name Mouses upon
him, from what had happened when he was put into the river; for the Egyptians
call water by the name of Mo, and such as are saved out of it, by
the name of Uses: so by putting these two words together, they imposed
this name upon him
And he was, by the confession of all, according to
God's prediction, as well for his greatness of mind as for his contempt
of difficulties, the best of all the Hebrews, for Abraham was his ancestor
of the seventh generation
For Moses was the son of Amram, who was
the son of Caath, whose father Levi was the son of Jacob, who was the son
of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham
Now Moses's understanding became
superior to his age, nay, far beyond that standard; and when he was taught,
he discovered greater quickness of apprehension than was usual at his age,
and his actions at that time promised greater, when he should come to the
age of a man
God did also give him that tallness, when he was but three
years old, as was wonderful
And as for his beauty, there was nobody so
unpolite as, when they saw Moses, they were not greatly surprised
at the beauty of his countenance; nay, it happened frequently, that those
that met him as he was carried along the road, were obliged to turn again
upon seeing the child; that they left what they were about, and stood still
a great while to look on him; for the beauty of the child was so remarkable
and natural to him on many accounts, that it detained the spectators, and
made them stay longer to look upon him.FJAJ 2.62
7. Thermuthis therefore perceiving him to be so remarkable a child,
adopted him for her son, having no child of her own
And when one time
had carried Moses to her father, she showed him to him, and said she thought
to make him her successor, if it should please God she should have no legitimate
child of her own; and to him, "I have brought up a child who is of
a divine form, (21)
What Josephus here says of the beauty of Moses, that he was of a divine
form, is very like what St. Stephen says of the same beauty; that Moses
was beautiful in the sight of Acts 7:20.
and of a generous mind; and as I have received him from the bounty of the
river, in , I thought proper to adopt him my son, and the heir of thy kingdom."
And she had said this, she put the infant into her father's hands: so he
took him, and hugged him to his breast; and on his daughter's account,
in a pleasant way, put his diadem upon his head; but Moses threw it down
to the ground, and, in a puerile mood, he wreathed it round, and trod upon
his feet, which seemed to bring along with evil presage concerning the
kingdom of Egypt
But when the sacred scribe saw this, (he was the person
who foretold that his nativity would the dominion of that kingdom low,)
he made a violent attempt to kill him; and crying out in a frightful manner,
he said, "This, O king! this child is he of whom God foretold, that
if we kill him we shall be in no danger; he himself affords an attestation
to the prediction of the same thing, by his trampling upon thy government,
and treading upon thy diadem
Take him, therefore, out of the way, and
deliver the Egyptians from the fear they are in about him; and deprive
the Hebrews of the hope they have of being encouraged by him." But
Thermuthis prevented him, and snatched the child away
And the king was
not hasty to slay him, God himself, whose providence protected Moses, inclining
the king to spare him
He was, therefore, educated with great care
So
the Hebrews depended on him, and were of good hopes great things would
be done by him; but the Egyptians were suspicious of what would follow
such his education
Yet because, if Moses had been slain, there was no
one, either akin or adopted, that had any oracle on his side for pretending
to the crown of Egypt, and likely to be of greater advantage to them, they
abstained from killing him.FJAJ 2.63