The Chronicles of Moses

In the one hundred and thirtieth year after the children of Israel went down to Egypt, sixty years following the death of Joseph, Pharaoh dreamed another dream. In this dream, there was a certain old man standing before him, with scales in his hand. He placed all the residents of Egypt, men, women, and children on one pan of the scales, while placing a single lamb on the other pan, and the lamb outweighed all of Egypt. He, himself, was staring and wondering at this great wonder. And Pharaoh woke, and behold it was a dream. He gathered together all the wise men of Egypt, and all of its magicians and Pharaoh told them his dream. All the people were very afraid of the dream, until one of the ministers came before the king and said to him, “This dream portends a great evil for Egypt, and terror.” The king replied, “And what is it?” He responded, “A son will be born from the children of Israel, who will destroy all Egypt. But now, my lord the king, I will give you good advice. You should issue a command that every son born to Israel should be killed, and then perhaps this dream will not come to fruition.”

Pharaoh and his servants thought this was a good idea, and the king of Egypt called to the Hebrew midwives . . . But the midwives feared [God] . . . for they are lively [ḥayot] (Exodus 1:15–19), that is, similar to animals [ḥayot] who do not need midwives. And Pharaoh charged all his people, [saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive”] (Exodus 1:22). When the children of Israel heard about this command issued by Pharaoh, to throw the sons into the river, some of them separated from their wives, but others cleaved to them, in order to bear children.

They left their children in the open field, and the Lord, who had sworn to their forefathers to make their seed like the dust of the earth [see Genesis 13:16], sent His angels to them, to wash them, smear them with oil, and swaddle them. They also placed for them two round stones, from one of which [the infant boy] would nurse milk while from the other he would eat honeyed food [see b. Sotah 11b], which caused his hair to grow to his knees, so he would be covered, to delight and pamper him, in His mercy upon him. Since the blessed Lord had compassion upon them [i.e., the Jewish children], and He sought to multiply them upon the face of the entire earth, He commanded His world to accept them and guard them until maturity. After that, the earth opened her mouth and spat them out, and they sprouted like the grass of the earth. Each young man then returned to his father and his family and cleaved to them. They would also construct underground booths and hide them there, and the Egyptians would plow over them but would be unable to harm them, as it is written: The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows (Psalms 129:3) [see b. Sotah 11b].

There was a Levite in the land of Egypt, and his name was ‘Amram, son of Kohath, son of Levi, son of Israel. The man went and took Jochebed, his father’s sister, for a wife. The woman conceived and bore a daughter, and she called her Miriam, for at that time the Egyptians, the children of Ham, began to embitter [limror; see Exodus 1:14] the lives of the children of Israel. She conceived again and bore a son, and she called him Aaron, for in the days of the pregnancy Pharaoh began to pour the blood of their male children to the ground, and some of them he cast into the river. But the Lord spread mercy upon them, and not one of those who were cast into the river died. Their sustenance was from the Holy One, while those whom they threw in the field were nourished by the ministering angels, who would save them and bring them to their fathers as grown youths.

It came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was publicized (Esther 2:8) to cast the sons into the river, and many of the commoners were separating from their wives, that ‘Amram also separated from his wife. And it was then, at the end of three years, that the spirit of the Lord came upon Miriam, and she prophesied within the home, “Behold, a son will be born to my father and to my mother, on this occasion, who will save Israel from the hand of Egypt” [see b. Sotah 12b–13a]. When ‘Amram heard the girl’s words, he took [again] his wife from whom he had separated at the time of the decree; [this was] three years later. By the end of six months, she had conceived and borne a son. At the time of his birth, the entire house was filled with a great light, like the light of the rising sun and the moon. When the woman saw that he was a goodly child, and pleasant to look upon, she hid him for three months in her chamber.

At that time, all of Egypt plotted schemes to annihilate the name of the Jews, and the women of Egypt went to the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were located, while carrying their own young on their shoulders, before they had learned to speak. When an Israelite woman would give birth to a boy—and she would hide her son from the Egyptians, so that the Egyptians should not know the time of her birth, in order that they would not destroy them—the Egyptian women would come to Goshen with their children. When the Egyptian women entered the homes of the Hebrew women, the Egyptian child would speak, stuttering, in their manner, and then the Hebrew boy, who was hidden in her chamber, would respond to him according to his writing and according to his language (Esther 8:9). The Egyptian women would then go and inform their husbands, and Pharaoh would send his officer, and he would take them.

It came to pass, about three months after Jochebed had given birth to the boy, that the matter became known in Pharaoh’s house. So the woman hurried before the officers arrived, and she took an ark of bulrushes and put the child inside it and set it among the reeds on the bank of the river. And his sister stood far off, and the Lord sent a great, parching heat throughout the land of Egypt. People’s skins burned from the heat of the sun in its might, and they suffered from the excessive heat. So the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river because of the heat, and her maidens walked along by the riverside (Exodus 2:5), and all the Egyptian women also acted likewise. The daughter of Pharaoh saw the ark floating on the surface of the water and she sent her handmaid, who fetched it. And she opened it and saw it, the child (Exodus 2:5–6). The Egyptian women who were walking by the riverside came to nurse it, but he did not want to nurse from them. This was from God, to restore him to his mother’s breasts. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call for you a nurse from the Hebrew women?” And she said to her, “Go!” She went and called his mother, and she said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages [see Exodus 2:7–9], two silver coins a day.”

After the passage of two years, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became for her as a son, and she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him [meshitihu] out of the water” (Exodus 2:10), but his father called him Ḥaver, since he had renewed his companionship [nitḥaber] with his wife on his account. His mother called him Jekuthiel because she nursed him [henikatehu] from her breasts. His sister called him Jered because she went down [yardah] after him to the river to see what would become of him. Aaron called him Abi Zanoah, because “My father [avi] abandoned [zanaḥ] my mother, but he brought her back for this.” His elder Kohath called him Avigdor, since through him the Lord fenced up a breach [gadar peretz] in Israel, for the Egyptians did not continue throwing sons into the river. His wet-nurse called him Abisukko, because God will hide him in a booth [sukkah; see Psalms 27:5] from the attacks of the Egyptians. And Israel called him Shemaiah the son of Nethanel, for in his days the Lord will hear [yishma‘] their groaning [see b. Megillah 13a].

In the third year after the birth of Moses, Pharaoh was sitting at the table, eating, while his lady was sitting to his right, Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh to his left, and his ministers and servants sitting before him, and the lad was sitting with his daughter Bithiah. The lad then stretched out his hand and took the crown from the king’s head and placed it on his own head. The kings and his ministers were shocked by this act, and they marveled at each other. Balaam the magician, one of the king’s attendants and counselors, raised his voice and declared, “Please recall, my lord the king, the dream you had, which was interpreted by your servant. Do you not know that this young man is one of the Hebrews’ children? The spirit of the Lord is within him, and he did this with cunning; this one will destroy Egypt. Now, let the king quickly issue the order and have his head removed.” The king and his beloved ones liked the idea, but God sent the angel Gabriel, who came in the image of one of the ministers and confidants. He said to him, “My lord the king, it is not a good idea to slay an innocent person, for the lad does not understand what he is doing. But now, issue a command and let a precious stone be brought before you, along with a fiery coal. If he stretches forth his hand and takes the precious stone, this will indicate that he does understand what he is doing, and he will be liable to death and we will bring him to justice, but if he stretches forth his hand and takes the coal, this will indicate that he does not understand what he is doing, and he will be spared.” All his wise men responded by saying, “This is a good idea.” They brought the stone and the coal, and the lad stretched forth his hand to take the stone, but the angel pushed his hand and diverted it so that he took the coal. He put it to his mouth, and it touched his lips and the edge of the tongue, and he became slow of speech and of a slow tongue (Exodus 4:10), and in this manner he was spared.