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The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
The Antiquities of the Jews
Written by Flavius Josephus
Translated by William Whiston
Book Two
Chapter 10
How Moses Made War With The Ethiopians
1. Moses, therefore, when he was born, and brought up in the
foregoing manner, and came to the age of maturity, made his
virtue manifest to the Egyptians; and showed that he was born
for the bringing them down, and raising the Israelites. And the
occasion he laid hold of was this: - The Ethiopians, who are
next neighbors to the Egyptians, made an inroad into their
country, which they seized upon, and carried off the effects of
the Egyptians, who, in their rage, fought against them, and
revenged the affronts they had received from them; but being
overcome in battle, some of them were slain, and the rest ran
away in a shameful manner, and by that means saved themselves;
whereupon the Ethiopians followed after them in the pursuit, and
thinking that it would be a mark of cowardice if they did not
subdue all Egypt, they went on to subdue the rest with greater
vehemence; and when they had tasted the sweets of the country,
they never left off the prosecution of the war: and as the
nearest parts had not courage enough at first to fight with
them, they proceeded as far as Memphis, and the sea itself,
while not one of the cities was able to oppose them. 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 (22) of their army. Upon which, when she
had made him swear he would do him no harm, she delivered him to
the king, and supposed his assistance would be of great
advantage to them. She withal reproached the priest, who, when
they had before admonished the Egyptians to kill him, was not
ashamed now to own their want of his help.
2. So Moses, at the persuasion both of Thermuthis and the king
himself, cheerfully undertook the business: and the sacred
scribes of both nations were glad; those of the Egyptians, that
they should at once overcome their enemies by his valor, and
that by the same piece of management Moses would be slain; but
those of the Hebrews, that they should escape from the
Egyptians, because Moses was to be their general. But Moses
prevented the enemies, and took and led his army before those
enemies were apprized of his attacking them; for he did not
march by the river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful
demonstration of his sagacity; for when the ground was difficult
to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents, (which
it produces in vast numbers, and, indeed, is singular in some of
those productions, which other countries do not breed, and yet
such as are worse than others in power and mischief, and an
unusual fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out of the
ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men at
unawares, and do them a mischief,) Moses invented a wonderful
stratagem to preserve the army safe, and without hurt; for he
made baskets, like unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with
ibes, (23) and carried them along with them; which animal is the
greatest enemy to serpents imaginable, for they fly from them
when they come near them; and as they fly they are caught and
devoured by them, as if it were done by the harts; but the ibes
are tame creatures, and only enemies to the serpentine kind: but
about these ibes I say no more at present, since the Greeks
themselves are not unacquainted with this sort of bird. As soon,
therefore, as Moses was come to the land which was the breeder
of these serpents, he let loose the ibes, and by their means
repelled the serpentine kind, and used them for his assistants
before the army came upon that ground. When he had therefore
proceeded thus on his journey, he came upon the Ethiopians
before they expected him; and, joining battle with them, he beat
them, and deprived them of the hopes they had of success against
the Egyptians, and went on in overthrowing their cities, and
indeed made a great slaughter of these Ethiopians. Now when the
Egyptian army had once tasted of this prosperous success, by the
means of Moses, they did not slacken their diligence, insomuch
that the Ethiopians were in danger of being reduced to slavery,
and all sorts of destruction; and at length they retired to
Saba, which was a royal city of Ethiopia, which Cambyses
afterwards named Mero, after the name of his own sister. The
place was to be besieged with very great difficulty, since it
was both encompassed by the Nile quite round, and the other
rivers, Astapus and Astaboras, made it a very difficult thing
for such as attempted to pass over them; for the city was
situate in a retired place, and was inhabited after the manner
of an island, being encompassed with a strong wall, and having
the rivers to guard them from their enemies, and having great
ramparts between the wall and the rivers, insomuch, that when
the waters come 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 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.
Continue on to
Book
Two,
Chapter 11,
The Antiquities of the Jews
by
Flavius Josephus
Return to
The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
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