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Flavius
Josephus
The
Antiquities of the Jews
Characters
The Hebrews (see
footnote pyramids)
2:9:1:203 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, and by all this wore them out;
and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanical arts, and to
accustom themselves to hard labor. (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.
Moses marries Tharkis, daughter of
the Ethiopian king
2:10:2:252 Tharbis was the daughter
of the king of the Ethiopians: she happened to see Moses as he led
the army near the walls, and fought with great courage; and admiring
the subtility of his undertakings, and believing him to be the
author of the Egyptians' success, when they had before despaired of
recovering their liberty, and to be the occasion of the great danger
the Ethiopians were in, when they had before boasted of their great
achievements, she fell deeply in love with him; and upon the
prevalency of that passion, sent to him the most faithful of all her
servants to discourse with him about their marriage. He thereupon
accepted the offer, on condition she would procure the delivering up
of the city; and gave her the assurance of an oath to take her to
his wife; and that when he had once taken possession of the city, he
would not break his oath to her. No sooner was the agreement made,
but it took effect immediately; and when Moses had cut off the
Ethiopians, he gave thanks to God, and consummated his marriage, and
led the Egyptians back to their own land.
Moses found by
Pharoah's daughter, Moses' description, prophecy fulfilled
pg 78-80:4-7 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. 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. 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. 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, 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.
Moses was an Egyptian
general
10:1:241 The Egyptians, under this
sad oppression, betook themselves to their oracles and prophecies;
and when God had given them this counsel, to make use of Moses the
Hebrew, and take his assistance, the king commanded his daughter to
produce him, that he might be the general of their army.
Jousha made like Moses
3:2:1:49 So Moses sorted all that
were fit for war into different troops, and set Joshua, the son of
Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, over them; one that was of great
courage, and patient to undergo labors; of great abilities to
understand, and to speak what was proper; and very serious in the
worship of God; and indeed made like another Moses, a teacher of
piety towards God.
Moses, a private man
3:8:8:213-213 But Moses refused all
that honor which he saw the multitude ready to bestow upon him, and
attended to nothing else but the service of God. He went no more up
to Mount Sinai; but he went into the tabernacle, and brought back
answers from God for what he prayed for. His habit was also that of
a private man, and in all other circumstances he behaved himself
like one of the common people, and was desirous to appear without
distinguishing himself from the multitude, but would have it known
that he did nothing else but take care of them. He also set down in
writing the form of their government, and those laws by obedience
whereto they would lead their lives so as to please God, and so as
to have no quarrels one among another. However, the laws he ordained
were such as God suggested to him; so I shall now discourse
concerning that form of government, and those laws.
Moses goes to God
4:8:48:325 Now as soon as they were
come to the mountain called Abarim, (which is a very high mountain,
situate over against Jericho, and one that affords, to such as are
upon it, a prospect of the greatest part of the excellent land of
Canaan,) he dismissed the senate; and as he was going to embrace
Eleazar and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud
stood over him on the sudden, and he disappeared in a certain
valley, although he wrote in the holy books that he died, which was
done out of fear, lest they should venture to say that, because of
his extraordinary virtue, he went to God.
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Part 6
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