rpose of trafficking; and the multitude of them increasing
there in the course of many years began to be a cause of suspicion to
the Egyptian rulers, and Pharaoh ordered them to be oppressed by
exceeding heavy tasks[52] and afflicted them with grievous burdens. At
length God, minded to set at naught the tyranny of the king of Egypt,
divided the Red Sea--a marvel such as nature had never known before--and
brought forth His host by the hands of Moses and Aaron. Thereafter on
account of their departure Egypt was vexed with sore plagues, because
they would not let the people go. So, after crossing the Red Sea, as I
have told, they passed through the desert of the wilderness and came to
the mount which is called Sinai, where God the Creator of all, wishing
to prepare the nations for the knowledge of the sacrament to come, laid
down by a law given through Moses how both the rites of sacrifices and
the national customs should be ordered. And after fighting down many
tribes in many years amidst their journeyings they came at last to the
river called Jordan, with Joshua the son of Nun now as their captain,
and, for their crossing, the streams of Jordan were dried up as the
waters of the Red Sea had been; so they finished their course to that
city which is now called Jerusalem. And while the people of God abode
there we read that there were set up first judges and prophets and then
kings, of whom we read that after Saul, David of the tribe of Judah
ascended the throne. So from him the royal race descended from father to
son and lasted till the days of Herod who, we read, was the first taken
out of the peoples called Gentile to bear sway. In whose days rose up
the blessed Virgin Mary, sprung from the stock of David, she who bore
the Maker of the human race. But it was just because the whole world lay
dead, stained with its many sins, that God chose out one race in which
His commands might shine clear; sending it prophets and other holy men,
to the end that by their warnings that people at least might be cured of
their swollen pride. But they slew these holy men and chose rather to
abide in their wanton wickedness.

And now at the last days of time, in place of prophets and other men
well-pleasing to Him, God willed that His only-begotten Son should be
born of a Virgin that so the salvation of mankind which had been lost
through the disobedience of the first man migh