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the wall and the rivers, insomuch, that when the waters came with the greatest violence, it can never be drowned; which ramparts make it next to impossible for even such as are gotten over the rivers to take the city. However, while Moses was uneasy at the army's lying idle, (for the enemies durst not come to a battle,) this accident happened: 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 subtilty of his undertakings, and believing him to be the author of the Egyptian 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 upon 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.

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How Moses fled out of Egypt into Midian.

1. Now the Egyptians, after they had been preserved by Moses, entertained an hatred to him, and was very eager in compassing their designs against him, as suspecting that he would take occasion, from his good success, to raise a sedition, and bring innovations into Egypt; and told the king he ought to be slain. The king had also some intentions of himself to the same purpose, and this as well out of envy at his glorious expedition at the head of his army, as out of fear of being brought low by him; and being instigated by the sacred scribes, he was ready to undertake to kill Moses. But when he had learned beforehand what plots there were against him, he went away privately; and because the public roads were watched, he took his flight through the de

serts, and where his enemies could not suspect he would travel; and though he was destitute of food, he went on, and despised that difficulty courageously. And when he came to the city Midian, which lay upon the Red Sea, and was so denominated from one of Abraham's sons by Keturah, he sat upon a certain well, and rested himself there after his laborious journey, and the affliction he had been in. It was not far from the city; and the time of the day was noon, where he had an occasion offered him, by the custom of the country, of doing what recommended his virtue, and afforded him an opportunity of bettering his circumstances.

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2. For that country having but little water, the shepherds used to seize on the wells before others came, lest their flocks should want water; and lest it should be spent by others before they came. There were now come therefore to this well seven sisters, that were virgins, the daughters of Raguel, a priest, and one thought worthy by the people of the country of great honour: these virgins, who took care of their father's flocks, which sort of work it was customary and very familiar for women to do in the country of the Troglodytes, they came first of all, and drew water out of the well in a quantity sufficient for their. flocks, into troughs, which were made for the reception of that water. But when the shepherds came upon the maidens, and drove them away, that they might have the command of the waters themselves, Moses, thinking it would be a terrible reproach upon if he overlooked the young women under unjust oppres sion, and should suffer the violence of the men to prevail over the right of the maidens, he drove away the men who had a mind to more than their share, and afforded a proper assistance to the women; who, when they had received such a benefit from him, came to their father, and told him how they had been affronted by the shepherds, and assisted by a stranger, and entreated that he would not let this generous action be done in vain, nor go without a reward. Now the father took it well from his daughters that they were so desirous to reward their benefactor, and bid them bring Moses into his presence, that he might be rewarded as he deserved. And when Moses came, he told him what testimony his daughters bare to him, that he had assisted them; and that, as he admired him for his virtue, he said, that Moses had bestowed such his assistance on persons not insensible of benefits, but where they were both able and willing to return

the kindness, and even to exceed the measure of his generosity. So he made him his son, and gave him one of his daughters in marriage; and appointed him to be the guardian and superintendant over his cattle, for of old all the wealth of the barbarians was in those cattle.

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Concerning the burning bush, and the rod of Moses.

1. Now Moses, when he had obtained the favour of Jethro, for that was one of the names of Raguel, stayed there, and fed his flock; but some time afterward, taking his station at the mountain called Sinai, he drove his flocks thither to feed them. Now this is the highest of all the mountains thereabouts, and the best for pasturage, the herbage being there good; and it had not been before fed upon, because of the opinion men had that God dwelt there, the shepherds not daring to ascend up to it. And here it was that a wonderful prodigy happened to Moses; for a fire fed upon a thorn-bush; yet did the green leaves and the flowers continue untouched, and the fire did not at all consume the fruit branches, although the flame was great and fierce. Moses was affrighted at this strange sight, as it was to him; but he was still more astonished when the fire uttered a voice, and called to him by name, and spake words to him, by which it signified to him how bold he had been in venturing to come into a place whither no man had ever come before, because the place was divine; and advised him to remove a great way from the flame, and to be contented with what he had seen; and though he were himself a good man, and the offspring of great men, yet that he should not pry any farther: and he foretold to him, that he should have glory and honour among men, by the blessing of God upon him. He also commanded him to go away thence with confidence to Egypt, in order to his being the commander and conductor of the body of the Hebrews, and to his delivering his own people from the injuries they suffered there: " For," said God, "they shall inhabit this happy land which your forefather Abraham inhabited, and shall have the enjoyment of all sorts of good things; and thou, by thy prudence, shalt guide them to those good things." But still he enjoined him, when he had

brought the Hebrews out of the land of Egypt, to come to that place, and to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving there. Such were the divine oracles which were delivered out of the fire.

2. But Moses was astonished at what he saw, and much more at what he heard; and he said, "I think it would be an instance of too great madness, O Lord, for one of that regard I bear to thee, to distrust thy power, since I myself adore it, and know that it has been made manifest to my progenitors: but I am still in doubt how I, who am a private man, and one of no abilities, should either persuade my own countrymen to leave the country they now inhabit, and to follow me to a land whither I lead them; or, if they should be persuaded, how can I force Pharaoh to permit them to depart, since they augment their own wealth and prosperity by the labours and works they put upon them."

3. But God persuaded him to be courageous on all occasions, and promised to be with him, and to assist him in his words when he was to persuade men, and in his deeds when he was to perform wonders. He bid him also to take a signal of the truth of what he said, by throwing his rod upon the ground; which, when he had done, it crept along, and was become a serpent, and rolled itself round in its folds, and erected its head, as ready to revenge itself on such as should assault it, after which it became a rod again as it was before. After this God bid Moses to put his right hand into his bosom; he obeyed, and when he took it out it was white, and in colour like to chalk, but afterward it returned to its wonted colour again. He also, upon God's command, took some of the water that was near him, and poured it upon the ground, and saw the colour was that of blood. Upon the wonder that Moses showed at these signs, God exhorted him to be of good courage, and to be assured that he would be the greatest support to him; and bid him make use of those signs in order to obtain belief among all men, that thou art sent by me, and dost all things according to my commands. Accordingly I enjoin thee to make no more delays, but to make haste to Egypt, and to travel night and day, and not to draw out the time, and so make the slavery of the Hebrews and their sufferings to last the longer.

4. Moses having now seen and heard these wonders, that assured him of the truth of these promises of God, had ne room left him to disbelieve them, he entreated him to grant him that power when he should be in Egypt; and besought

him to vouchsafe him the knowledge of his own name, and since he had heard and seen him, that he would also tell him his name, that when he offered sacrifice he might invoke him by such his name in his oblations. Whereupon God declared to him his holy name, which had never been discovered to men before; concerning which it is *not lawful for me to say any more. Now these signs accompanied Moses, not then only, but always when he prayed for them: of all which signs he attributed the firmest assent to the fire in the bush; and believing that God would be a gracious supporter to him, he hoped he should be able to deliver his own nation, and bring calamities on the Egyptians.

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How Moses and Aaron returned into Egypt to Pharaoh.

1. So Moses, when he understood that the Pharaoh, in whose reign he fled away, was dead, asked leave of Raguel to go to Egypt, for the benefit of his own people and he took with him Zipporah, the daughter of Raguel, whom he had married, and the children he had by her, Gersom and Eleazar, and made haste into Egypt. Now the former of those names, Gersom, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies, that he was in a strange land; and Eleazar, that, by the assistance of the God of his fathers, he had escaped from the Egyptians. Now when they went near the borders, Aaron his brother, by the command of God, met him, to whom he declared what had befallen him at the mountain, and the com mands that God had given him. But as they were going forward, the chief men among the Hebrews having learned

*This superstitious fear of discovering the name with four let ters, which of late we have been used falsely to pronounce Jehovah, but seems to have been originally pronounced Jahoh, or Jao, is never, I think, heard of till this passage of Josephus; and this super tition, in not pronouncing that name, has continued among the Rabbinical Jews to this day, (though whether the Samaritans and Caraites observed it so early does not appear.) Josephus also durst not set down the very words of the ten commandments, as we shall see hereafter, Antiq. B. iii. ch. v. 4. which superstitious s lence has yet not been continued even by the Rabbins. It is however no doubt but both these cautions concealments were taught "osephus by the Pharisees, a body of men at once very wicked, and very superstitious.

Vol. 1,

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