Signs and Wonders (21 page)

Then Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh and said: “The Lord, God of Israel, has spoken. He says, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.’ ”

“Who is this lord,” said the Pharaoh, “that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know this lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

“The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” said Aaron. “We beseech you, O Pharaoh, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, or He will fall on us with pestilence and with the sword.”

“Your people have labors to perform here in Egypt,” said the Pharaoh. “And you, Moses and Aaron, are interfering with their work. Get out of my sight and let your people take up their burdens again.”

Moses and Aaron departed. The Pharaoh called his taskmasters together and said: “The Hebrews must not rest from their labors. Their burdens shall be increased. Do not give them straw to make their bricks, as you have until now. They shall gather up their own straw for bricks, and still make as many bricks each day as before. For they grow idle. They are putting aside their task and saying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our lord.’ They are slaves. Slaves need no god. So lay more work upon them, and do not spare the lash.”

The taskmasters went among the slaves and told them they must gather their own straw for bricks and still make as many bricks each day as before. And the people went searching for straw but could not make as many bricks as before. The taskmasters flogged them brutally, and they suffered under the lash. The elders went to the Pharaoh and said, “Why do you treat us so? We are given no straw and are told to make as many bricks as before, which is impossible. We fall under the taskmaster’s lash; we are flogged until we die. We pray you, O Pharaoh, be merciful.”

“You are idle, you are idle!” cried the Pharaoh. “You say, ‘Let us go sacrifice to the lord.’ Now return to your tasks. You shall be given no straw, and I want to hear no more complaints, or it shall be worse for you.”

When the elders came out of the palace they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them. The elders berated the brothers, saying, “Let the Lord look upon you and judge. You have made us stink in the nostrils of the Pharaoh. You have put a sword in his hand and he slays us.”

Moses spoke to the Lord: “I have done what you said and it has made the people suffer. Why did you send me? Since I came to the Pharaoh and spoke in your name, he has done evil to us. And you have not delivered us.”

The Lord answered: “Now you shall see what I will do to the Pharaoh. Now you shall see the strength of my hand. Your people shall be delivered from the Pharaoh. For I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and they knew me by the name of God Almighty. But you shall know me by a new name—
JEHOVAH
—which they did not know. Also, I established my covenant with them and gave them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. I have heard the groans of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Now I say this to you: I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rid you of your bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments. I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God. And I will bring you to the land that I promised.”

Moses and Aaron went again among the Hebrews and spoke the Lord’s words. But the people were anguished in their spirit. They were crushed under their cruel burdens, and they did not heed the brothers.

Moses spoke again to the Lord, saying, “They will not heed me.”

The Lord said: “Go to the Pharaoh again.”

“I did speak to him!” cried Moses. “I spoke to him through Aaron, but he did not heed my words. My people groan under their burdens; they die under the lash.”

The Lord spoke: “Go again to the Pharaoh and speak my words again, demanding that he send the people of Israel out of Egypt. If he refuses, he will feel the weight of my displeasure. I will lay my hand on Egypt and summon disaster. I will utter great judgments and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.”

Again Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh, and Aaron spoke the Lord’s commands. But the Pharaoh did not heed their words. Then Aaron cast down his staff and it became a serpent. The Pharaoh summoned his sorcerers and they cast down their staffs, which became serpents. “Behold!” cried the Pharaoh. “Your magic is ordinary, and not to be feared.”

“But the serpent that had been Aaron’s staff pursued the other serpents and devoured them. “Your serpent does not terrify me,” said the Pharaoh. “Get out of my sight! Your burdens shall be increased.”

The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, “The Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Return to him and show him another sign, which I shall teach you.”

Moses and Aaron returned to the Pharaoh. He met them on the palace grounds near the riverbank. Aaron said: “The Lord, God of the Hebrews, has sent us to you. He says, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.’ ”

“The very words I heard yesterday,” said the Pharaoh. “They have not changed. Nor have I changed.”

“Behold,” said Aaron. He raised his staff and smote the river. There before the eyes of the Pharaoh and his servants the water turned to blood. Moses and Aaron departed.

In the days that followed the fish of the river died. And the river stank. The Egyptians could not drink its waters. Their wells and fountains gushed blood, and they could not drink. The Pharaoh consulted his oracles and his magicians and his wise men, and did not relent. He ordered new wells dug and sought clean water. But the river ran blood.

The Lord spoke again to Moses. “Return to the Pharaoh. Repeat my words.”

Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh, and Aaron said: “Our Lord says to you, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me.’ ”

“I will not,” said the Pharaoh.

“Behold,” said Aaron. He stretched his rod over the river. Frogs leaped out of the river, a multitude of frogs. They climbed out of the river and swarmed into the palace. Moses and Aaron departed.

In the days that followed, they stretched their staffs over the streams, over rivers and over ponds, and frogs swarmed out of all waters—into houses, into bedchambers, and onto the beds, into ovens and kneading troughs. The land of Egypt was covered with frogs. They were unclean; they were a vermin and a pest.

The Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said: “Ask your lord to take the frogs away, and I will let your people go.”

“When?” said Moses.

“Tomorrow.”

“By tomorrow the frogs will have departed from your houses, your bedchambers, and your kitchens,” said Aaron. “We will entreat our God, who shall call off this pest of frogs.”

They left the palace, and Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Your will has prevailed. Call off the frogs.”

The frogs died in the houses, in the villages, in the fields. The people gathered them into heaps, and the land stank. But when the Pharaoh saw that the frogs were dead, he broke his promise.

The Lord spoke again to Moses and instructed him. And Aaron stretched out his rod and smote the dust of the earth, and the dust turned to lice. And lice crawled upon men and beasts, and all the dust was lice.

“Can you do such enchantments?” cried the Pharaoh to his sorcerers. They took heaps of dust and tried to make lice, but the dust remained dust. Then they spoke spells, trying to kill the lice on man and beast, but they could not. And the lice crawled and were foul.

“We can do nothing, O King!” cried the sorcerers. “We cannot match these enchantments. This is the finger of their god.” But the Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not heed his counselors.

Moses and Aaron returned to the Pharaoh and said: “Let our people go.”

“No!” cried the Pharaoh.

“Hearken,” said Aaron. “If you do not obey the Lord in this, He shall send a plague of fires. Swarms of flies shall descend like a black cloud and shall come into your houses and on the food that you eat, and on your cattle. They shall bite fiercely and crawl with their filthy feet. Observe, O Pharaoh. Flies shall be everywhere but in the land of Goshen, where the Hebrews dwell, so that you may know that God has separated His people from yours, and you will understand His sign.”

The Pharaoh did not answer. Aaron raised his rod, and the sky blackened with a swarm of flies. They hung between earth and sky and made a foul dusk. They swarmed upon the Egyptians and into their houses, into barns and sheds. They crawled upon man and beast and bit and moved upon them with filthy feet.

Then the Pharaoh called upon Moses and Aaron and said: “Sacrifice to your god, if you must. But do not go into the desert. Sacrifice here.”

“No,” said Aaron. “We cannot do that.”

“Why not?” cried the Pharaoh.

“We sacrifice calves. We take a calf and cut its throat, and roast its meat, and offer its tender parts upon a stone altar that we raise to the Lord—a calf or cow, as the case may be. But we cannot do that here, O Pharaoh, in your land, where the cow is worshipped as a goddess, as Hathor, your cow goddess. If we sacrifice here, before the Egyptians, they will stone us to death. We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord according to our own manner.”

“Go into the wilderness,” said the Pharaoh. “Sacrifice to your god in your own way. But call off the flies.”

“We shall entreat the Lord to do so,” said Aaron. “But see to it, O Pharaoh, that you let our people go and do not deal deceitfully with us.”

They departed and spoke to the Lord, and the flies disappeared. When the Pharaoh saw that the flies were gone, he broke his promise again. Moses called upon the Lord and was told what to do. Moses spoke to Aaron, and they went again to the Pharaoh.

Aaron said: “The Lord, God of Israel, sends this message: ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me. If you do not let them go; if you harden your heart again, then I will send the cattle pest to attack your herds. Your cattle shall die, and your horses, your donkeys, your camels, your oxen—all shall die of the pest. Your cow goddess shall not save them. And observe, O Pharaoh, that not one head of cattle belonging to the Hebrews shall die. The pest falls tomorrow.’ ”

Aaron and Moses departed. The next day pestilence began to rage among the royal herds. It spread from herd to herd. The cows’ udders dried up and they gave no milk. They parched and died. Also, bulls and calves, all the cattle. The plague spread to horses, to donkeys, to camels, to goats, and fell upon the sheep. They died and lay in heaps in the field. The plague raged through all the herds and flocks of the Egyptians, cutting down the animals like grass. But the herds and flocks belonging to the children of Israel were untouched; not one beast died. The Pharaoh turned away from this dread sight, and he did not let the Hebrews go.

The brothers returned to the Pharaoh. They found him in the place where bread was baked. “Out of my sight!” he cried. “Foul enchanters! Leave my presence before I slay you.”

Moses reached into an oven and took a handful of ashes and tossed it into the air. The ashes were taken by the breeze and floated upward, and became a small dust. The dust spread and fell upon the faces of the Egyptians. As the Pharaoh watched, the faces of his wise men and magicians and captains and bakers all broke out in running sores. Boils swelled on their faces, and broke, and became sores that did not heal. The dust spread, and the priests of Egypt were afflicted with boils and sores and could not perform their rites, for now they were unclean.

The Pharaoh was stubborn. He hardened his heart and turned away, and did not obey the word of the Lord.

“What shall I do?” said Moses.

The sky spoke: “Go again to the Pharaoh. Go to the hard-hearted one and have Aaron say what I tell you.”

Again Moses and Aaron entered the throne room and stood before the Pharaoh. Aaron said: “These are the words of the Lord, God of the Hebrews: ‘I will plague you and I will plague your people, O Pharaoh, so that you may know there is none like me on all the earth. I will stretch out my hand and smite you and your people, and you shall be cut off from the earth. I will show you my power that my name may be declared throughout all the land.’ ”

The Pharaoh sat on his throne and said nothing. Moses and Aaron raised their hands. Hail began to fall out of the blue sky. Strangely it stormed when the brothers called. The hail was mixed with fire, and the blue sky thundered. Fire ran along the ground, and there was a storm of hail throughout the land of Egypt. Man and woman and beast were killed in the field. And the hail blasted the grass of the field and scorched the crops and broke every tree that stood. But in the land of Goshen where the Hebrews dwelt, no hail fell.

The Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said: “I have sinned again. Your lord is righteous and I am wicked. Now entreat your god to cease his mighty thundering and his fire and hail, and I will let you go.”

Aaron said: “As soon as we are gone out of the city the thunder shall cease, and no hail shall fall.”

They departed. The thunder stopped, and the lightning, and there was no more hail. But as soon as the storm stopped, the Pharaoh hardened his heart again, and again broke his promise.

Moses and Aaron returned to the Pharaoh. “How long, O King?” cried Aaron. “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before our Lord? How long before you let our people go? If you do not do this, our Lord will send another plague, one more terrible.”

The Pharaoh conferred with his wise men, who said: “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the Hebrews go, or Egypt will be destroyed.”

The Pharaoh said to Moses: “If I let you go, whom will you take with you?”

Aaron said: “We shall go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and our flocks and our herds. We shall go into the desert and hold a feast unto our Lord.”

And the Pharaoh said: “No! I will not let you all depart, only the men. The women and children I will hold hostage so that I know you will return to your tasks.”