Book of Jasher (Sefer haYashar) 14 part 2/4

~217~ And when they had killed them, they said to them like these words, why did you come from above us and leave us when there are few people to fight these kings who are in a great nation to strike us and escape with your lives. And there are those whom the children of Israel will find on the road, and the children of Israel will speak to them one to another according to these words. They beat him because he was an Ishmaelite or an Edomite or a sectarian, and they stood over him and killed him and they knew he was an Egyptian. And the children of Israel did these things by treachery against Egypt, whom they left in the war and fled from them. And the Israelites killed about two hundred people from the people of Egypt on the road in this act. And all the people of Egypt saw the evil that the children of Israel had done to them, and all the Egyptians were very afraid of the children of Israel because they saw their great valor and that not one of them fell. And all the children of Israel returned with joy to their way to Goshen, and the rest of Egypt returned every man to his place. And after that, all the counselors of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and all the elders of Egypt were gathered, and they all came before the king and bowed to him with their noses to the ground and sat before him. And the counselors and all the elders of Egypt spoke before the king as follows. Here is the people of Bnei Israel, more numerous and vast than him, and you knew all the evil they did to us on the way back from the war. And you also saw their strong valor, for they have valor from their fathers. Because when a few people stood against a blue rabbi and fell by the sword and not one of them fell, even if there were many because then they would all be destroyed. Now give us advice on what to do with them until we destroy them and destroy them little by little all above us, lest they multiply us in the land. For if the children of Israel multiplied in the land and they were against Satan, and it happened that war would be called, and he would also join us in his strong might with our enemies, and they would fight against us and destroy us from the land and come up from it. And the king answered the elders of Egypt and said to them, This is the advice that is given to Israel and we will not deviate from it. Are the land of Pithom and Ramses cities unstrengthened by the war for us, and we will go to build them and strengthen them. And now you also go and sail about them, and spread the word in Egypt and Goshen according to the commandment of the king as stated. To you all the people of Egypt and Goshen and Patrus and all their inhabitants, the king ordered us to build Pithom and Ramses and fortify them from the war. Who among you of all the Egyptians and of the children of Israel and of all the inhabitants of the cities built our people and gave their wages daily according to the commandment of the king, and you went first and did deceitfully and gathered together and came to Pithom and Ramses to build.

~218~ And when you have built, you will convey the sound like this throughout Egypt every day according to the commandment of the king. And it happened when the children of Israel came with you to live with you, and you gave them their wages day by day for several days. And it was when they built with you day by day in their wages, and you escaped from them day by day one by one in hiding, and you got up and were on them to the approachers and the policemen. And you left them after that to build without wages, and it would have been if they had done this, and it would have been good for us to strengthen our country, and bad for the Israelites. Because from the arrival of the building and the work, the children of Israel will decrease, because you will kill them over their wives day by day. And all the elders of Israel listened to the king's advice and the advice was good in their eyes and in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants and in the eyes of all the Egyptians, and they did as the king said. And all the servants of Pharaoh went out from before the king, and they spread a voice throughout Egypt, and in Bathpanchas, and in Goshen, and in all the cities that are around Egypt, saying, You have seen what the sons of Esau and Ishmael did to us, who came to fight against us and said to destroy us. And now here is the king commanding us to fortify the land, build the cities of Pithom and Ramses and fortify them from the war when they come against us. Who among you in all Egypt and the children of Israel will come to build with us, and will be given his wages daily by the king according to his commandment. And it came to pass when Egypt and all the children of Israel heard all that Pharaoh's servants had spoken, and they came from Egypt and all the children of Israel to build Pithom and Ramses with Pharaoh's servants, but all the sons of Levi did not come with Israel to build their brothers. And all the servants of Pharaoh and his ministers came deceitfully on the first day to build with all Israel as daily wage earners, and they gave Israel their wages day after day on the first day. And Pharaoh's servants built over all Israel, and they did that work with Israel for a month. And it came to pass at the end of a month of days, that all of Pharaoh's servants began to flee from the people of Israel, hiding one day at a time. And the Israelites are still working at that time, but they are still taking their wages every day at that time, because people from the Egyptians are still working at that time with Israel, therefore the Egyptians are giving Israel their wages in those days, for the Egyptians will also take their brothers' wages

~219~ And at the end of days and four months all the Egyptians fled from the children of Israel, and the children of Israel were left alone doing the work. And it came to pass when all the Egyptians fled from the children of Israel, and they returned, and the guards and the police were upon them. And of those who stood over the children of Israel as tax officials, to take from them all that they had given them as wages for their work. And the Egyptians did to the children of Israel like this act every day, in order to answer Israel in all their work. And all the children of Israel will be alone doing the work, and all the Egyptians will refrain from giving wages to the children of Israel from that day forward. And it came to pass when every man of Israel believed in doing a work for which no reward was given, and all those who approach them and all the servants of Pharaoh approached him and beat him with vigorous blows and brought him back with strength to work with his brothers, so shall all the Egyptians do to the children of Israel forever. And all the children of Israel will be very afraid of the Egyptians in this matter, and all the children of Israel will return and work alone without pay. And the children of Israel built Pithom and Ramses, and all the children of Israel did the work, some of them whites and some builders. And the children of Israel built and strengthened the whole land of Egypt and all its walls, and the children of Israel did that work for many years and days until the day God remembered them and brought them out of Egypt. But all the sons of Levi were not with Israel their brothers in that work from the beginning, until the day you came out of Egypt. For all the sons of Levi knew that all the Egyptians had spoken deceitfully to Israel all these things, therefore all the sons of Levi ceased to work together with their brothers. And all the Egyptians did not turn their faces to the sons of Levi to worship after that, after they were not with their brothers from the beginning, therefore all the Egyptians left them. And the hand of the people of Egypt became more and more difficult for the Israelites in that work, and the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites with hardship. And the Egyptians made the lives of the Israelites bitter with hard work in material and bricks, and also in any work that the Egyptians had in the field. And the children of Israel called Malol the king of Egypt Meror the king of Egypt, because in his days the Egyptians made their lives miserable in every work.

~220~ And in whatever work the Egyptians make the Israelites work, they will make them work hard, in order to answer the Israelites. But when they torture them, so will the children of Israel multiply, and so will they break out, and Egypt will be cut off from the children of Israel. At that time, Hadad ben Badad, king of Edom, died, and a dress from Shirka, from the land of the ancients, reigned under him. In the thirteenth year of Pharaoh king of Egypt is the year of one hundred years and fifteen years for Israel to come down from Egypt, the king of Shemla on Edom eighteen years. And it came to pass in his reign, that an army went out to fight against Zfu the son of Eliphaz and the sons of Kitim, for whom they fought with Angias, king of Africa, and destroyed all his army. But he did not fight with him, because Esau's sons prevented him from saying that he was their brother. And he heard the voice of the sons of Esau, and he went and sat down with all his army in the land of Edom and did not go to fight Zfu ben Eliphaz. And Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, heard this saying, he advised Shalma, the king of Edom, to fight the heathens, and later he would come to fight the Egyptians. And it came to pass when the Egyptians heard this thing, that they made the work more difficult for the children of Israel, lest Israel should do to them as they did to the children of Esau in their war in the days of Hadad. And the Egyptians said to the children of Israel, hurry and do your work and complete your deeds and strengthen the land, lest the children of Esau, your brothers, come against us to war, because for your sake they come to us. And the children of Israel did the work of all the people of Egypt every day, and the Egyptians tortured the children of Israel in order to make them few in the land. But when all the Egyptians multiply by working for the children of Israel, so will the children of Israel multiply and so will they break out and fill all Egypt with the children of Israel. And it came to pass in the year one hundred and five and twenty years that Israel came down from Egypt, when all Egypt saw that their counsel was not established in Israel, but they multiplied and broke out, and the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen were filled with the children of Israel. And all the elders of Egypt and its wise men went and came before the king, and bowed down to him and sat before him. And all the elders of Egypt and all her wise men said to the king, May the king live forever. Yeoz gave us the advice that you gave to the Israelites, and we will do to them according to the word of the king. And when the work was too heavy for them, they multiplied and multiplied in the land, and behold, the whole land is full of them.

~221~ And now, Lord King, the eyes of all Egypt, you must give them advice with your wisdom, as for Israel to lose them and diminish them from the land. And the king answered them saying, "Here are you for advice on this matter and we will know what to do with them." And a eunuch, one of the king's advisers, named Job from Aram Naharim, from the land of Oz, told the king. If it is good for the king, please listen to his servant's advice, and the king will say something to him. And Job spoke before the king and the ministers, and before all the elders of Egypt as said. Here is the advice of the king who advised in those days about the work of the Israelites, it is very good and you will not stop that work from them forever. However, this is the counsel that advises them that you can belittle them, if it is good for the king to do it. Here we are afraid of the war for many days and it is said in the cows of Israel in the land, we will be expelled from the land when war is called. If it is good for the king, the word of the kingdom will come out from before him and it will be written in the religion of Egypt and it will not pass away, so that every trace of the Hebrews will shed their blood on the ground. And let this thing be done by you when every male member of the children of Israel dies, and the evil of their wars ceases from us. Pharaoh will do and call all the Hebrew midwives, and command them to do this thing. And the thing was good in the eyes of the king and the ministers, and the king did as Job said. And Pharaoh sent and called the Hebrew midwives. And the midwives came before the king, and she stood before him. And the king said to them, Take the Hebrews and see on the stones if it is a boy and put him to death and if it is a girl and live. And if you do not do this thing, I will burn you and all your houses with fire. And the midwives despised God, and did not listen to the king of Egypt and all his words. And the Hebrew woman's ballad about the midwife had a son or a daughter and the midwife took care of all the child's needs and revived him, this is how midwives will do all the days. And this thing was told to the king and he sent and called the midwives and said to them, why did you do this thing and bathe the children. And the midwives answered and they both spoke before the king to say. Let not the king say that like the Hebrew Egyptian women, because all the daughters of Israel live here before the midwife comes to them and they give birth. And we who are your servants have not given birth to a Hebrew woman for many days, because all the women of Israel give birth for their own sake because they live here.

~222~ And Pharaoh heard their words, and believed them on this matter. And the midwives went out from before Pharaoh, and God was kind to them, and the people multiplied and became very strong. There was a man in the land of Egypt of the seed of Levi, and his name was Amram son of Kohath, son of Levi, son of Israel. And that man went and took Yochaved daughter of Levi, his father's sister, as a wife, and she is one hundred and six and twenty years old, and he came to her. And the woman conceived and gave birth to a daughter and called her name Miriam, because in those days Egypt made the lives of the Israelites bitter. And she conceived again and gave birth to a son and called his name Aaron, because during the days of her pregnancy Pharaoh began to shed the blood of the sons of Israel. In those days, Zefu ben Eliphaz ben Esau, king of Kitim, died, and Janyush reigned under him. And the days that he reigned over all the people of Kitim fifty years, and he died and was buried in the city of Nebana in the land of Kitim. And Janyush, one of the heroes of the Bnei Katim, will reign after him over all the Bnei Katim, and he will reign fifty years. And it came to pass after the death of Zefu, king of the Hittites, that Balaam son of Boor fled from the land of the Hittites, and went and came from Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Pharaoh received him with great honor because he heard his wisdom, and he gave him gifts and made him a counselor and raised him. And Balaam sat in Egypt in honor with all the king's ministers, and the ministers married Balaam because they all wanted to learn his wisdom. And it came to pass in the year one hundred and thirty years that Israel came down from Egypt, and Pharaoh dreamed, and he was sitting on his throne, and lifted up his eyes, and saw, and behold, an old man standing before him, and in the old man's hand scales from the scales of the merchants. And the old man took the scales and bowed before Pharaoh. And the old man took all the elders of Egypt and all her ministers and all her elders and imprisoned them together, and they weighed them in one balance. And a lamb will take one milk and put it in the other spoon of scales, and the lamb will kneel them all. And Pharaoh lamented over that terrible vision of why the lamb would kneel them all, and Pharaoh lamented and behold a dream. And Pharaoh got up in the morning and called all his servants and Pharaoh told them the dream, and the people saw a great awe. And the king said to all his wise men, please solve for me this dream that I dreamed and we will know. And Balaam son of Boor answered the king and said to him, This is nothing but a great evil that will spring up over Egypt in the last days. For here is a son born to Israel who will destroy all Egypt and destroy all its inhabitants, and bring Israel out of Egypt with a strong hand.

~223~ And now our Lord the King has given you advice on this matter and you have lost the trust of the children of Israel and their hope, before this evil grows on all of Egypt. And the king said to Balaam, what shall we do to Israel that is not like this and like this we counseled them in the beginning and we could not over them. And now you also give us advice about them, what we can do to them. And Balaam answered the king saying, Please send and call your two counselors and let's see what their advice is on this matter and then your servant will speak. And the king sent and called his two advisers, Reuel the Midianite and Ayyob Hautzi, and they came and sat before the king. And the king said to them, here you have all heard the dream that I dreamed and its solution. And now please advise and know and see what to do to the Israelites and what we can do against them, before their evil grows against us. And Reuel the Midini answered the king and said, Long live the king long live the king forever. If it is good for the king, let him stop over the Hebrews and leave them and let him not lay his hands on them. Because their God chose them from ancient times, and fought to inherit his inheritance from all the nations of the earth and from all the kings of the earth. And he who put his hand in them and cleansed them, and their God did not take vengeance on him. Didn't you know that Abraham, their father, left Egypt, and Pharaoh, the ancient king of Egypt, saw his wife Sarah and took him as his wife. Because Abraham said, she is my sister, because he was afraid that the people of Egypt would kill him for his wife. And the king of Egypt took Sarah, and their God afflicted him and his household with great plagues until he returned Sarah his wife to Abraham, then they were healed. And also to Abimelech the Harari, king of the Philistines, God rebuked him for Sarah, Abraham's wife, by withholding from them all mercy for man and beast. And his God came to Abimelech in a night dream and frightened him, so that he would return to Abraham Sarah whom he had taken. After that, all the people of Gerra argued about Sarah, and Abraham prayed to his God about them and he submitted to him and he healed them. And Abimelech saw all the evil that was coming upon him and his people, and he took Sarah his wife to Abraham, and gave him many portions and gifts with her.

~224~ And to Yitzchak he did the same thing in Gerar, and his God performed wonders with him, and all my descendants dried up from the waters of Gerar, and their fruitful trees did not grow until Abimelech came to him from Gerar and the estate of his pasture and the chief of his army, and bowed down and bowed down to him to the ground. And they asked him for a plea to pray to God for them, and God granted him and healed them. And Jacob the man of Tam was overshadowed in his death immediately by his brother Esau, and immediately by Laban the Aramean, his mother's brother who sought his life. And also from the hand of all the kings of Canaan, who all came together against him and his sons to destroy them, and the Lord saved them from their hand, and they turned against them and made them orphans, for he who laid his hand on them was clean. Didn't the ancient Pharaoh, your father's father, raise Joseph son of Jacob above all the ministers of the land of Egypt when he saw his wisdom, because with his wisdom he saved all the inhabitants of the land from famine. After that he ordered Jacob and his sons to be brought down from Egypt, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen would escape from the famine by their grace. Now if it is good in your eyes, stop corrupting the children of Israel, and if it is not in your heart to resettle them from Egypt, send them away from there and they will go to the land of Canaan, the land of their ancestors. And when Pharaoh heard Jethro's words, he was very angry with him, and he stood up from the king's face in shame, and he left Egypt that day and went to his country Medina, and Joseph took a staff in his hand. And the king said to Job the Uzzi, what will you say, Job, and what will be your advice to the Hebrews. And Job said to the king, are not all the inhabitants of the land in your hand as is good in the eyes of the king? And the king said to Balaam, what will you say Balaam, speak your words and we will listen. And Balaam said to the king, whatever the king advises against the Hebrews, they will escape from her and the king will not be able to do anything against them. For if with a flame of fire you say to belittle them, you will not be able to overcome them with it, because their God did not save Abraham their father from the light of the Chaldeans. If with the sword you say to destroy them, will not Isaac their father escape from her and a ram will be given in his stead. And if through toil and difficulty you say to belittle them, you will not be able to do that, because Jacob their father worked for Laban in all hard work and succeeded.

~225~ And now, my lord the king, please listen to my words, and this is the advice that advises them with which you will prevail over them, and from which you will not depart. If it is good for the king to be ordered to throw their children who will be born from that day forward into the water, because with this you can protest their names because not one of them and their ancestors were used in this matter. And the king heard the words of Balaam, and it was good in the eyes of the king and the ministers, and the king did as Balaam said. And the king commanded and a voice was passed and a religion was given throughout the land of Egypt to the effect that every male child born to the Hebrews from this day forward shall be thrown into the water. And Pharaoh called to all his servants, saying, Go out, please, and seek in all the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel are, and see every son born to the Hebrews who is a virgin, you shall throw him away, and every daughter shall be banished. And it came to pass when the children of Israel heard the thing which Pharaoh had commanded to throw away their remembrances into the wilderness, and some of the people separated from their wives, and some of them clung to Hannah. And it happened from that day forward at the time of the religion of the women of Israel who were still speaking here, and they went out to the field to go there, and they gave birth in the field, and their children left it on the face of the field, and they returned to their homes. And God, who swore to Abraham to multiply them, sent them an angel from His servants in heaven to bathe them in water, to wash them, to anoint them, and to clothe them, and to hold in his hand two pebbles, from one of which he would suck milk, and from the other he would suck honey. And he also grows the hairs of his head up to his elbows, so that he may be covered with them to delight and cling to him in his mercy. And it was in God's mercy upon them and in his desire to multiply them on the face of the earth, that he commanded to destroy his land and receive them to be kept among them until the time of their greatness. And after that the earth opened its mouth and vomited them up, and they sprang up from the city like the grass of the earth and like the weeds of the forest, and each returned to his family and each to his ancestors and clung to them. And the children of the children of Israel shall be in the earth like the grass of the field, by God's mercy upon them. And all the Egyptians saw this thing, and all the Egyptians went out, every man to his field, every man with his yoke of oxen and his plough, and plowed on his back like a robber of the earth at the time of sowing. And it happened that they were afraid and could not harm the children of the sons of Jacob, and the people multiplied and became very strong.

~226~ And Pharaoh commands his eunuchs to go to Goshen every day, to ask for the children of the Israelites. And when they asked for it, and when they found the boy, they took him from his mother's bosom with care and threw him into the forest, and left the daughter with her mother. This is what the Egyptians will do to Israel forever. And it happened at that time that the Spirit of God came upon Miriam, the daughter of Amram, the sister of Aaron, and she went and prophesied inside the house, saying, Behold, a son has been born to us from my father and mother at this time, and he will save Israel from the hand of Egypt. And when Amram heard his daughter's words, he went and took his wife and brought her back to his house after he had banished her, at the time when Pharaoh commanded that every trace of the house of Jacob be thrown away. And Amram took Yochaved his wife in the third year of divorce, and he came to her and conceived for him. And at the end of seven months at the time of her conception, she gave birth to a son, and the whole house was filled with a great light like the light of the sun and the moon at their rising. And the woman saw the child because he was good and nice to look at, and she hid him three moons in the inner room. In those days the secret of all the Egyptians was piled up, to lose all the Hebrews there. And the women of Egypt shall go to Goshana, which is the name of the children of Israel, and shall carry their calves on their shoulders, their children, who shall not speak. And all the women of the children of Israel were born in those days, and the woman chastened her son from the Egyptians for the ignorance of the Egyptians and for her daughter so that they would not be corrupted from the earth. And the Egyptian women came with their children on their shoulders before they could speak, and when the Egyptian came to the Hebrew house and the girl stammered in her language. And when they stuttered and answered the northern child from the room, and the Egyptians went away and said to them the house of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh sends his policemen to take the children to kill them. This is what all Egyptians will do to Hebrews forever. And it happened at that time, about three months in the northern time, that his son would be honored, and Pharaoh's household knew about it. And the woman hurries before the police come to take her son, and takes him a rubber box and hardens it with clay and tar, and puts the child in it and finally puts it on the edge of the wall. And Miriam his sister stood afar off, to know what he would do to him and what her words would be. And God sent at that time a fire and heat in the land of Egypt, and it consumed the flesh of man when the sun shone in its time, and created a great deal for the Egyptians.

~227~ And all the Egyptians went down to bathe in the heather, because of the heat of the burning in the skin of their flesh. And her daughter Pharaoh's daughter also went down to bathe on the heather because of the heat of the burning, and her maidens walked by the heather and all the women of Egypt were priests. And Bethiah, Pharaoh's daughter, raised her eyes to the light and saw the ark on the surface of the water, and she sent her hand and took it. And you shall open it and see the child, and here is a boy crying, and you shall have mercy on him and say, This is one of the children of the Hebrews. And all the women of Egypt who walk by the edge of the mountain to breastfeed him and his father did not leave, because this word was from God to the child because he returned to his mother's breasts. And Miriam his sister was at that time with the Egyptian women on Hior, and she saw this thing. And you said to Pharaoh's daughter, I went and called you a nursing woman from the Hebrews and she will nurse the child for you. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her go, and the maiden went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to Jochebed, take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you two shekels a day, and the woman took the child and nursed him. And it came to pass at the end of two years, and the child grew up, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she had a son, and she called his name Moshe, and she said, "From the waters is Moses. And Amram his father called his name Hevar, because he said for him Hevar with his wife whom he had sent away. And Jochebed his mother called his name Yekutiel, because she said that he was with me from God, and his God is with me. And Miriam his sister called him Yared, to say that she went after him into the wilderness to know what his afterlife would be. And Aharon his brother called his name Avi Zanouch, that is to say, my father abandoned my mother and went to him for his sake. And the father of Amram called his name, Avi Gador, because for him God fenced the breach of the house of Jacob and they did not stop to throw away their remembrances from the water. And when he was nursing he called him Abi Sukko, because in Sukko three moons were hidden from the sons of Ham. And all of Israel called his name after that Shemiah ben Nathaniel, because they said that in his days God heard their cries and would immediately remove their oppressors. And Moses was in Pharaoh's house, and there was Bethiah, Pharaoh's daughter, to Laban, and Moses grew up among the king's sons.

~228~ And the king of Edom died in those days in the eighteenth year of his reign, and was buried in his palace that he had built for his kingship in the land of Edom. And the sons of Esau sent to Petura, which is on the river, and they took from there a young man with beautiful eyes and good eyesight, whose name was Saul, and they made him king over them under a cloak. And Saul reigned over all the children of Esau in the land of Edom forty years. And Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, saw that his counsel which Balaam counseled the children of Israel in those days was not carried out, but the children of Israel would multiply and multiply and flourish in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh commanded in those days, and they sent a voice throughout Egypt to the children of Israel, saying, Let no one detract from his work day by day. And there was the man who would deduct from his work, who would work day in and day out either in the material or in the bricks, and he gave his little son under them. And the work of the Egyptians strengthened the children of Israel in those days, and every man who lacked one brick of his work day by day, and the Egyptians took his little boy from his wife by force and put him in a building under the brick that was missing from his father. And all the people of Egypt did to all the children of Israel like this act every day and all the days, many days. But the entire tribe of Levi would not have done the work at that time with Israel, their brothers from the beginning, because the Levites knew the deceit of Egypt which they had heaped upon Israel in the beginning. And it happened in the third year of the birth of Moses, and Pharaoh was sitting to eat, and the queen Alferanith was sitting on his right and her daughter was sitting on his left, and the boy Moses was sitting on her lap, and Balaam son of Boor and his two sons and all the royal ministers were sitting on the table before the king. And the boy stretched out his hand on the king's head and took the crown from the king's head and put it on his head, and the king and the ministers saw what the boy had done, and the king and the ministers were frightened by this thing, and the people were puzzled one by one. And the king said to the ministers who were before him on the table, what will you say and what will you ministers say about this matter and what will be the judgment of this Hebrew boy for this act. And Balaam son of the sorcerer answered before the king and the ministers and said, Please, my lord the king, remember the dream which you have dreamed for many days and which your servant has solved for you. And now is this not the one who disappeared from the children of the Hebrews, who have the Spirit of God among them. And don't let my lord the king think that Keton did this thing without thinking, because he is a Hebrew boy and wisdom and understanding with him even while he was a boy and wisdom he did this and chose the kingdom of Egypt for him. For so was the trial of all the Hebrews to imitate the kings and their great men to do all these things in deceit, in order to fail the kings of the land and their people.

~229~ Did you not know that this is what their father Abraham did, who denied the army of Nimrod, king of Babylon, and Abimelech, king of Gerar, and inherited the land of the sons of Hat and all the kingdoms of Canaan. And he came down from Egypt and said about Sarah his wife, she is my sister, because he failed Egypt and Malka. And Yitzchak his son also did the same when he went to Gera, and fled there and strengthened his strength from all the army of Abimelech king of the Philistines. And also he said to fail the Philistine kingdom, saying about Rebekah his wife is my sister. And Jacob also went to Aqaba with his brother, and took his birthright and his blessing from his hand. And Padna Aram went to the house of Laban, his mother's brother, and took from his hand his daughters and all his wealth and all that he had, and fled and dwelt in the land of Canaan with his father. And his sons sold their brother Joseph, and he came down from Egypt and became a slave, and was put in prison for twelve years. Until the ancient pharaoh dreamed dreams and took him out of the prison and raised him above all the princes of Egypt, for solving his dreams. And it came to pass that God starved the whole earth, and he sent and brought to his father and all his brothers and all his father's house and destroyed them without price or wealth and bought Egypt and all its people as slaves. And now, my lord the king, here is this boy also rising up under them in Egypt, to do according to their deeds and impose on every king, minister and judge. If it is good for the king, please pour his blood on the earth, lest he grow up and take the kingdom from your hand, and the hope of Egypt will perish after his king. And the king said to Balaam, we will also call all the judges of Egypt and all its wise men and it will be known that there is a death sentence for this boy when you spoke and then he was killed. And Pharaoh sent and called all the wise men of Egypt and they came before the king, and the angel of the Lord came among them and resembled one of the wise men of Egypt. And the king said to the wise men, haven't you heard what the Hebrew boy who was in the house did and such and such Balaam judged the matter. And now please judge yourselves and know what the boy's sentence is for the deed he did. And the angel who appeared to one of Pharaoh's wise men answered and said before all the wise men of Egypt and before the king and the ministers to say, if it is good for the king, the king will send and bring before him a calumny stone and coals of fire and put them before the child. And if the boy reached out his hand and took the shovel, and we knew that the boy did everything he did out of wisdom, we killed him. And if he puts his hand on the embers, and we know that he did this thing not knowingly and he will live.

~230~ And the matter was good in the eyes of the king and the ministers, and the king did as God's angel said. And the king ordered, and they brought before him the stone of ash and the coal and placed them before Moses. And they seated the boy in front of them, and the boy asked to send his hand to the embers, and the angel of God took his hand and put it on the embers, and the embers were extinguished with his hand. And he sighed and gave in his mouth and his lips burned a little and his tongue a little, and he was heavy in the mouth and heavy in the tongue. And the king and the ministers saw this thing, and knew that it was not wise for Moses to carry the crown over the king's head. And the king and the ministers stopped killing the child, and Moses was in Pharaoh's house growing bigger and the Lord was with him. And when the boy was in the king's house, he was clothed in scarlet clothes and grew up among the king's sons. And it came to pass when Moses grew up in the king's house, that Bethiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, considered him a son, and all the house of Pharaoh respected him, and all the people of Egypt feared him. And he went out and came day by day to the land of Goshen, where his brothers had put all the children of Israel, and Moses saw them with impatience and hard work day after day. And Moshe asked them to say, what is this work you talk about day by day. And they will tell him all the stories, and all the laws that Pharaoh put on them before he was born. And they told him all the advice that Balaam ben Boor had advised on, and that he had also advised him to kill him by taking the king's crown over his head. And Moses heard these words, and Moses also hated Balaam and sought to kill him and lay in wait for him day after day. And it came to pass in days, and it was told to Balaam, saying, Behold, the son of Bethiah seeks to kill you, and behold, he lies in wait for you day by day. And Balaam was afraid of Moses, and he arose and his two sons with him and left Egypt and fled and saved their souls and went to the land of Cush to Cycanus the king of Cush. And it came to pass, when Moses was in the king's house, he went out and came into the house, and God gave him favor in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants and in the eyes of all the people of Egypt, and they loved Moses very much. And it came to pass today that Moshe Goshana went to see his brothers, and he saw the children of Israel in their suffering and their hard work, and Moshe felt very sorry for them. And Moses sat down from Egypt and came to Pharaoh's house, and came before the king and Moses bowed before the king.