1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.Time to break out the popcorn, as the Moses story starts with a bang!
2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.
7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.
9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the women took the child, and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
17 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
In a time of mortal risk to any Hebrew boy, he is cast adrift on the waters of fate. He appears to be a child of destiny, surviving various brushes with danger, including his discovery — and rescue — by Pharaoh's own daughter!
Excellent epic storytelling. Did these guys read Joseph Campbell?
I was thrown by verse 13, but checking with other translations, "strove" here apparently means "fought," and "smite" is in the hitting sense, not the slaying sense. Apparently the Egyptian on whom Moses went pre-medieval on also was hitting, not killing. So, Moses isn't just a self-appointed judge, he's a Charles Bronson character.
I've never read the Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land, but the title is most memorable — and I hadn't known that it came from the Bible.
I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what God does for the groaning, put-upon Hebrews!
6 comments:
I have read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. I'd spoil it for you by telling you why I didn't like the ending -- and haven't read any of his works since then.
Pretty skimpy backstory for Mo'...
C'mon Naomi, let's cut Mr. Bible Writer Man some slack here.
This is classic epic storytelling -- nice shorthand indicating a "man of destiny." Efficient narrative has been in short supply here, so I'll give credit where it is due.
Frankly, whenever they have given backstory to a character, it's totally ruined any hope for "rooting interest," because the characters are all more unlikable than anyone in "Blood Simple."
Do you know what Moses means?
The explanation the text gives is wrong. Its a Hebrew explanation (Moses sounds like the Hebrew term for "draw out"). The princess was Egyptian; she wouldn't give him a Hebrew name - she wouldn't even know Hebrew, the language of slaves.
Moses means "child of...". There's a bit missing. Ever heard of Ramesses? That's Ra-Moses = "child of Ra". What about Tutmose; that's Tut-Moses = "child of Thoth" [Thoth is pronounced 'Tut']. Moses' name is censored, for religious reasons, couldn't have a hero with a name like "child of Ra". Its odd really, considering that "child of Yahweh" (Yah-moses = James) would probably have been acceptable; unless of course it was the name of some other deity.
Anyway, isn't it odd that Exodus 2:1 doesn't mention the parents' names, and makes it seem like several generations from Levi himself; especially as Exodus 6 does name them, and makes the mother an actual child of Levi. Explanation:documentary hypothesis, Exodus 2 is the Elohist. Exodus 6 is the Priestly source.
What's Exodus 6 about? Its trying to explain why there were four different kinds of Levite - Gershonites, Merarites, Aaronids, and Kohathites - ideally, Aaron would be the fourth son of Levi, but that idea's fucked up by the story of Moses (brother of Aaron) which makes both of Moses' parents descendants of Levi; that leaves the next best thing (except for a brother's incest with a sister) - note that there's still that fourth child of Levi.
Used to be all you had to do is give water to some sheep and BAM you got yourself a girl. Wouldn't have wanted to be a women in those days.
The other thing to mention here, is that the whole basket thing is basically copied from Sumerian legend about Sargon of Agade. Sargon was a real person, who lived in about 2300BC; Sargon managed to conquer Mesopotamia, and Assyria (aka Syria), and even Caphor (aka Crete). But Sumerian legend adds to this by stating that he was born somewhere on the upper Euphrates, and his mother put him in a cradle and sent him drifting down the Euphrates; at Babylon he was rescued and attained royal favour, but eventually usurped the thrown and founded a new capital city, which became the greatest of all. [The city in question is Agade, and the person who rescued him is named as "Akki the Irrigator"].
good job here! it is EPIC WWWWOOOOOOOOO!!!
also glad someone mentioned Sargon of Agade.. just shows that there were many other cultures that were telling similar stories.. funny that we don't consider them literal and authoritative. ummmmm...
Post a Comment