tly the Pithom of the Biblical account, and at the
same time also the Succoth of Exod. xii. 37, xiii. 20, the
first station of the Bne-Israel after leaving Ramses.
** _Exod,_ i. 13, 14.
The national traditions of the Hebrews inform us that the king, in
displeasure at seeing them increase so mightily notwithstanding his
repression, commanded the midwives to strangle henceforward their male
children at their birth. A woman of the house of Levi, after having
concealed her infant for three months, put him in an ark of bulrushes
and consigned him to the Nile, at a place where the daughter of Pharaoh
was accustomed to bathe. The princess on perceiving the child had
compassion on him, adopted him, called him Moses--saved from the
waters--and had him instructed in all the knowledge of the Egyptians.
Moses had already attained forty years of age, when he one day
encountered an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, and slew him in his anger,
shortly afterwards fleeing into the land of Midian. Here he found an
asylum, and Jethro the priest gave him one of his daughters in marriage.
After forty years of exile, God, appearing to him in a burning bush,
sent him to deliver His people. The old Pharaoh was dead, but Moses and
his brother Aaron betook themselves to the court of the new Pharaoh, and
demanded from him permission for the Hebrews to sacrifice in the desert
of Arabia. They obtained it, as we know, only after the infliction
of the ten plagues, and after the firstborn of the Egyptians had been
stricken.* The emigrants started from Ramses; as they were pursued by a
body of troops, the Sea parted its waters to give them passage over the
dry ground, and closing up afterwards on the Egyptian hosts, overwhelmed
them to a man. Thereupon Moses and the children of Israel sang this song
unto Jahveh, saying: "Jahveh is my strength and song--and He has become
my salvation.--This is my God, and I will praise Him,--my father's God,
and I will exalt Him.--The Lord is a man of war,--and Jahveh is His
name.--Pharaoh's chariots and his hosts hath He cast into the sea,
--and his chosen captains are sunk in the sea of weeds.--The deeps cover
them--they went down into the depths like a stone.... The enemy said: 'I
will pursue, I will overtake--I will divide the spoil--my lust shall
be satiated upon them--I will draw my sword--my hand shall destroy
them.'--Thou didst blow with Thy wind--the sea covered them--they sank
as lead in the mighty w
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