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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 15
How The Hebrews Under The Conduct Of Moses
Left Egypt
1. So the Hebrews went out of Egypt, while the Egyptians wept,
and repented that they had treated them so hardly. - Now they
took their journey by Letopolis, a place at that time deserted,
but where Babylon was built afterwards, when Cambyses laid Egypt
waste: but as they went away hastily, on the third day they came
to a place called Beelzephon, on the Red Sea; and when they had
no food out of the land, because it was a desert, they eat of
loaves kneaded of flour, only warmed by a gentle heat; and this
food they made use of for thirty days; for what they brought
with them out of Egypt would not suffice them any longer time;
and this only while they dispensed it to each person, to use so
much only as would serve for necessity, but not for satiety.
Whence it is that, in memory of the want we were then in, we
keep a feast for eight days, which is called the feast of
unleavened bread. Now the entire multitude of those that went
out, including the women and children, was not easy to be
numbered, but those that were of an age fit for war, were six
hundred thousand.
2. They left Egypt in the month Xanthicus, on the fifteenth day
of the lunar month; four hundred and thirty years after our
forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but two hundred and fifteen
years only after Jacob removed into Egypt. (28) It was the
eightieth year of the age of Moses, and of that of Aaron three
more. They also carried out the bones of Joesph with them, as he
had charged his sons to do.
3. But the Egyptians soon repented that the Hebrews were gone;
and the king also was mightily concerned that this had been
procured by the magic arts of Moses; so they resolved to go
after them. Accordingly they took their weapons, and other
warlike furniture, and pursued after them, in order to bring
them back, if once they overtook them, because they would now
have no pretense to pray to God against them, since they had
already been permitted to go out; and they thought they should
easily overcome them, as they had no armor, and would be weary
with their journey; so they made haste in their pursuit, and
asked of every one they met which way they were gone. And indeed
that land was difficult to be traveled over, not only by armies,
but by single persons. Now Moses led the Hebrews this way, that
in case the Egyptians should repent and be desirous to pursue
after them, they might undergo the punishment of their
wickedness, and of the breach of those promises they had made to
them. As also he led them this way on account of the
Philistines, who had quarreled with them, and hated them of old,
that by all means they might not know of their departure, for
their country is near to that of Egypt; and thence it was that
Moses led them not along the road that tended to the land of the
Philistines, but he was desirous that they should go through the
desert, that so after a long journey, and after many
afflictions, they might enter upon the land of Canaan. Another
reason of this was, that God commanded him to bring the people
to Mount Sinai, that there they might offer him sacrifices. Now
when the Egyptians had overtaken the Hebrews, they prepared to
fight them, and by their multitude they drove them into a narrow
place; for the number that pursued after them was six hundred
chariots, with fifty thousand horsemen, and two hundred thousand
foot-men, all armed. They also seized on the passages by which
they imagined the Hebrews might fly, shutting them up (29)
between inaccessible precipices and the sea; for there was [on
each side] a [ridge of] mountains that terminated at the sea,
which were impassable by reason of their roughness, and
obstructed their flight; wherefore they there pressed upon the
Hebrews with their army, where [the ridges of] the mountains
were closed with the sea; which army they placed at the chops of
the mountains, that so they might deprive them of any passage
into the plain.
4. When the Hebrews, therefore, were neither able to bear up,
being thus, as it were, besieged, because they wanted
provisions, nor saw any possible way of escaping; and if they
should have thought of fighting, they had no weapons; they
expected a universal destruction, unless they delivered
themselves up to the Egyptians. So they laid the blame on Moses,
and forgot all the signs that had been wrought by God for the
recovery of their freedom; and this so far, that their
incredulity prompted them to throw stones at the prophet, while
he encouraged them and promised them deliverance; and they
resolved that they would deliver themselves up to the Egyptians.
So there was sorrow and lamentation among the women and
children, who had nothing but destruction before their eyes,
while they were encompassed with mountains, the sea, and their
enemies, and discerned no way of flying from them.
5. But Moses, though the multitude looked fiercely at him, did
not, however, give over the care of them, but despised all
dangers, out of his trust in God, who, as he had afforded them
the several steps already taken for the recovery of their
liberty, which he had foretold them, would not now suffer them
to be subdued by their enemies, to be either made slaves or be
slain by them; and, standing in midst of them, he said, "It is
not just of us to distrust even men, when they have hitherto
well managed our affairs, as if they would not be the same
hereafter; but it is no better than madness, at this time to
despair of the providence of God, by whose power all those
things have been performed he promised, when you expected no
such things: I mean all that I have been concerned in for
deliverance and escape from slavery. Nay, when we are in the
utmost distress, as you see we ought rather to hope that God
will succor us, by whose operation it is that we are now this
narrow place, that he may out of such difficulties as are
otherwise insurmountable and out of which neither you nor your
enemies expect you can be delivered, and may at once demonstrate
his own power and his providence over us. Nor does God use to
give his help in small difficulties to those whom he favors, but
in such cases where no one can see how any hope in man can
better their condition. Depend, therefore, upon such a Protector
as is able to make small things great, and to show that this
mighty force against you is nothing but weakness, and be not
affrighted at the Egyptian army, nor do you despair of being
preserved, because the sea before, and the mountains behind,
afford you no opportunity for flying, for even these mountains,
if God so please, may be made plain ground for you, and the sea
become dry land."
Continue on to
Book
Two,
Chapter 16,
The Antiquities of the Jews
by
Flavius Josephus
Return to
The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
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