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First Paul Dry Books edition, 2010
Pal Dry Books Inc.Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniawpdryb0kc"m
Originally pblished as Ja z
Cpyriht 1960 1974 S Fischer Verla GmbHrankfurt am Main
Translation, Introdction andAfterword copyriht 2010 Paul Dry Books Inc
All rihts reserved
Printed in the Unite States of Americaibrary of Conress Cataloi-in-Pblication Data
Mann Thomas, 875955(esetz Enlish)The tables of the law Thmas Mann; translated by Marin Faber
and Stephn Lehmann st Paul Dry Books edcm
Oriially ublished as: Das esetz 1944ISBN 98158988053 alkpaer
. Moses Biblical leadeFiction Faber Marin I ehmannStephe III Title
PT2625A44G5 00833912dc2
200003618
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Ctet
Introduction v
THE TABLES OF THE LAW 3
Afterwo 3
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Moses story, to bring these fr nd legendry gres lose
to the modern reder in n intimte, ntrl nd convinc
ing mnner This reqired mch phntsy nd certin
ctionte brnd o hmor "
Th Tbs of h w grew ot of proposl by theAstrinborn pblisher, impresrio, librettist, nd lit
erry gent Armin Robinson to prodce ovie tht
would drmtize to the world the Nzi desecrtion of the
Mosic ecloge, whih represented the very fond
tion of civiliztion nd morlity Robinson discssed theie with Mnn nd even broght him long to meet
ing with Hollywood mogl ois . Myer, the hed of
MGM The movie didn't terilie, bt Rbinson went
forwrd with proposl to gther the contribtions of
ten writersone per ommndmentinto book Mnngreed to write n introdtory essy nd signed on
trct r one thosnd dollrs
Mnn's introdction qickly evolved into long story
tht he sent to Robinson with the oer how sincere we
cnt know) to ct it rdiclly. Robinson, not srprisingly,ws hppy to cept it s Mnn hd given it to hi nd
decided to se it s the rst of the ten stories in the n
thology After few lse strts, Ds sz fond trns
ltor in George Mrekt the time msic writer, lter n
RCA exectivewho worked nder Mnn's spervisionTh Tn Condmns: Tn Sho Nos o H's
W Agns h o Cod ws pblished by Simon nd
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Schster in tie for Christs 943. Hern Rsch
ning, who had been n eary Nzi bt by 943 was a con
vinced opponent and a feow refugee, wrote the preface
He set the stage for the coections stories by describing
eeting he hd ttended with Hiter, Goebbs, JisStreicher, nd others: The dy wi coe," Hiter is sup
posed to hve sid, hen sh hod p ginst these
condents the tbes of new w . . Aginst the
soced ten condents, ginst the we re ght
ing" Historins now beieve tht Rchnings acconths itte bsis in fct)
Mnns story ws the rst in the coection. An inter
nation roster of thors, soe of th t th ti
ost as proinent as Mnn hisef, wrote the other
nine Rebecc West, Frnz Werfe, John Erskine, BrnoFrank, Jes Roins, Andr Mrois, Sigrid Undset,
Hendrik Wie Vn Loon, and Lois Broed Mnn
cied to be ipressed by the inep t in the end
was conteptos of the others contribtions. The one
thousanddor fee, he coented, seeed to hve beentheir ony inspirtion, nd none of the erts was worth
it; he regrded the coection s a fire" fro which his
own story stood ot.
The writing f Th Tabs of th aw trned ot to
be the easy prt n the onths nd yers tht foowed,Mnns diries nd correspondence track the seeingy
endess bickering ong pbishers, gents, nd trns
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tors ver who owned what rihts to the text The stuid-
est and most muddled usiness that has ever haened to
any work of mine" is how he characterzed the situation
to hs Germanlanuae ubsher ottfried ermann
Fsher.The dsutes arose when ermann Fischer, Alfred
Knof (Mnn's US ublisher), Rbinson, and Felix Gu
enheim (whose Paic Press ulished the story in a ri
vte, luxury" rntn) found themselves buttin heads
over the coyrght Althouh contractually bound to ermann Fischer, and throuh him to Knof, Mann had un
thnkinly sned over t Roinson the rihts to this one
story awyers were called in nd cntentios letters and
telerams crisscrossed the country nd the Atlantic
As f this weren't enouh, Knof nsisted on havn theEnlish versin of the story done aain from scratch y
Mann's reulr trnsltr, elen T. owePorter, a drec
tive Mann descred n his diary as a terrile blw for
Marek," addin, am disusted y these trvilties."
e was much less ertured by a number of critical resonses to hs story from Jewish commentators who o
jected to what they erceived as a neative ortrayl of
the Jews (the horde"), thouh he was sorry for what he
took to be a misunderstandn of his motivations and a
misreadin of the iecen Roinson's colecton, each of the contributns
carried as its title one of the commandments; Mann's
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story, s the rst, ws ven the ttle Thou Shlt ve
No Other Gods Before Me" Althouh he exlned tht
hs more enomssn Germn ttle, s stz lter
lly, The Lw"), ws desnton not only of the ec-
loue, ut of morl lw s whole, humn cvztontsel'' Mnn hmself uthorzed h Tbls of t aw for
the LowePorter trnslton. Becuse of ts sety, s
well s ts resonne nd weht, we hve held to ths ttle
for our own trnlton.
f Mrek's trnslton lcks the verve nd olsh of tssource, t s metulous. The sme cnnot e sd of Lowe
Porter's, of whom Mnn's son Golo lter wrote, . . . we
lwys thouht [her trnsltons] were very ood Of
course, we d them no ttenton. Grdully t turned
out tht they were retty d" Whle her work reds u-ently, she tends to smlfy Mnn's lnue or omt df-
fcult elements ltoether. Furthermore, oth erler
trnstors often eloy nowntquted vocury
tht my kee twentyrstentury reder from re
tn the story's Voltreneted humor, whose centrl-ty to hs coneton Mnn stressed n nd n (nd
whch he desred of seen relzed n trnsltn).
And ndeed, the chllenes nherent n ny trnsl-
ton of work y Thoms Mnn re ret. Hs mster
fu, erfetly lnced erodc senteneswhose lenthycluses succeed one nother wth comete lrty thnks
to the Germn nue's rh vrety of endered rt
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es and declined nounsbecome unwieldy or obscure
in Enlish and must often be divided into smaller units,
lihtenin the character and quickenin the ace of the
narrative Mann's style is characterized by the use of leit
motifs, with certain eithets or hrases recurrin in analmost Wanerian manner throuhout the text; because
no two words hve entirely the same range of meanin in
oth ngues, an ttemt to reserve these markers" in
transltion is nother chlene. Mann's frequent use of
wordly and uns, rhaic formultions, and neooismsadds to the dicuty. All these stylistic elements create a
unique tone, both erudite and arch, dinied and layful,
whih is an essential comonent of Mann's identity as a
writer. n this new transltion our overarchin objective
ws to be true to this identity.Mann's noted enhant for arahrasin other works
or even imortin assaes into his writing was also an
issue, for he often inorortes voaulary hrases, and
sometimes short sections from the ible i his telin of
the Moses story. Where Mann quotes directly from Martin uther's trnslation of the ible, we have used the
Kin James Version s our Enlishlanuae equivalent
On March 13, 1943, Mann wrote in his diary: n
the mornin nished the story as sz on the 93r
ae Afterward corrcted the beinnins of the tyesrit." On Mrch 14: Thouhts about my old lan for a
Novele on r Faust.' ookin around for readin" (One
X
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sees why he wrote of his roductivity as a nrcoti) Doc
to ustus woud e the drkest of Manns majo noves,
s fr as ossile from the lihtness he strov for in
bls of th w whose imssioned conclusion, how-
ever, can e red as a kind of modultion to the reat,rim work that followed ndeed, for l its humor and
irreverence, Mnn's Cifornian renderin of the nient
Jewish story is informed y the traedy yin out k
in Germny, the drk enter of its comic form.
Mron Fbr
Sthn mnn
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T TABL
O T LA
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O
i BITH ws irrulr, and so he ssiontely lovedreulrity the inviolle, commnment nd too
As a youn man, he hd killed in a ery outurst, nd
so he knew etter thn thse with no exerience tht
to kill my e sweet, ut to hve killed is hstly in the
extreme, and tht you should not kill
His senses were hot, and so he yerned for siritulity,
urity, nd holinessthe invisile, whih seemed to him
siritul, holy, and ure
Because he had killed mn more ut tht shortly),
he had een forced to ee Eyt, the lnd of his irth, to
live amon the Midinites, usy herders and trders dis-
ersed in the dsert There he mde the quintne of
od whom you could not see, ut who sw you; moun-
tain dweller who at the sme tim sat invisile uon a
ortle rk in tent, where he issued orles y cst-
in lots For the children of Midian this numen clld
Yhweh was one od mon mny; they did not thinkmuch out their duties to him dischrin them only
for safety's sake and just in case t had ocurred to them
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that amon the many ods there mht ossly e one
whom they could not ee, a formless one, and they made
sacrices to him only so as to omt nothn, to ond
no one, and to avod unleasantness from any ossble
quarterThanks to hs lonn for urit and holiness, Moses,
by contrast, ws deely imressed by Yahweh's invsibl-
ty; he eleved that no vsile od could mtch an nvis-
ile one r holness and was mazed tht the chldren of
Mdian were so quick to dismss an attrbute tht to himseemed full of oundless mlcatons In lon, dicult,
and viorous delberatons in the desert while tendin
the shee that eloned to the rother of his Midiante
wife, shaken y insrations and revelations, which in one
artculr case even broke forth from inside hm and vis-ted his soul as a min external vision, as a literally en-
etratin revelton nd n inescaable mission, he became
convined that Yahweh must e none other thn El
Elyon, the o most hh, El Roi, the od who sees me
the One who has alwys een called El Shad," theod of the mountain," El Olm, the od of the world and
the everlastnn a word, none other than the God of
Abrham, Isaac, and Jaco, the God of hs fathers, that s
to sy, of the fathers of those tries ck home in the land
o Eyt, oor, dark, efuddled in ther worshi, rootlessand enslaved, whose lood on his father' side owed in
his own, in Moses', vens.
4 T H O S N
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For that reson, and lled wth ths dscovery, hs soul
heavy wth ts msson but also trembln wth the lon
in to resond to the command, he broke o hs sojorn
of many years mon the chldren of Md n, set uon an
as hs wfe Zorah (a most atrn womn, ben adauhter of Reuel, the restkn n Man, and the ss-
ter of hs sheeownn son Jethro), lso tkin alon hs
two sons, Gerhom and Elezer, nd fter a journey of
seven days throuh mny deserts, returned west ak to
the lnd of Eyt, that s, to the fllow lowlands wherethe Nle dvide and where, n a reon clled Kessn or
sometmes Gesn, Gesem, or Goshen, the blood kn of
hs father lved nd labored
There he bean at once, wherever he walked or stood,
in the huts and at the worksites and sture rounds, toexlan to ths blood kn hs ret revelton, dnln hs
arms n a rtculr way and shkn hs sts tremulously
on both sdes of hs body e nformed them that the
God of ther fthers had been redscovered, tht e hd
seen t to reveal mself to hm, Moshh ben Amram, atthe mountin of oreb n the wlderness of Sn, from a
bush that burned and was not consumed; that s name
was Yhweh, whh s to be understood s m tht
am, from everlstn to everlastn," but lso as wan
breeze nd a ret ror; that e hd tken a fancy to theirblood kn nd ws reared under certan conditons to
seal wth them a ovenant of electon from all eoles,
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assumin, that is, that they would swear alleiance to
im and im alone and establish a confederacy to serve
the nvisible One alone, free of idols
e oaded them relentlessly with this messae, while
his sts trembled at the end of his extraordinarily broadwrists And yet he was not quite honest with them, evad
in various matters, even the heart of the matter, for fear
of unnervin them e told them nothin, then, of the
imliations of invisibility, that is of sirituality, urity,
and holiness, and referred not to oint out to them thatas the sworn servants of the nvisible ne they wold
have to be a eole aart, siritual, ure, and holy e ket
this from them for fear of frihtenin them; for they were
such a miserable, oressed lk, befuddled in their wor-
shi, this blood kin of his father, and he mistrusted themalthouh he lovd thm ndeed, when he roclaimed to
them that Yahwh, the nvisible One, ha taken a fancy
to them, he atttd t te od and located in him what
miht have ben t d's, but was also at least in art his
own: he himelf tken a fancy t his father's bloodkin, as the ston fancies the shaeless lok from
whic he intend t ve a ne, noble shae, the work
of his hands e tremblin lonin, alon with
reat heavin te command, that had suused
him when h s ut f'm dianut wat e ikwis l back was the seond half
of te comm tr i had een twofold Not only was
6 lil
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to annonc to s trbsmn t rdsovry of t
God of tr fathrs wo fancd tm bt was aso
to ad tm ot of t Eytan os of bonda nto
t on and trou many dsrts nto t Promsd
Land t and of tr fatrs. Ts msson was jondto and nxtrcaby ntrtwnd wt tat of t rva
ton. Godan braton for t rtrn m; th nvs-
b Onand sakn o t yok of x: t was on and
t am tout for hm But h dd nt yt t t o-
abot t bcas knw tat t on woud foowfrm t otr and aso bcas od t av t
scond on hs own wt Parao t kn of Eyt to
wom was osr tan on mt tnk.
Now wtr bcas s tak dsasd t o
(for sok swy and atny and oftn cod notnd s words) or bcas at t trmbn sak o s
sts ty snsd and markd wat was md by nvs
bty and by t or of a ovnant (tat wantd to
r tm nt xastn and danrous tns) ty
rmand dstrustf stnkd and farfu n t facof s oadn. W snakn a ook at tr Eytan
taskmastrs ty muttrd abot Moss:
Wy ar y on on k ts? And wat sorts of
tns ar yo on on about? Has somn st you abov
s as our cf or or jd? And wo mt tat b?"Ts was notn nw for m H ad ard tm
say t arr bfr d to Mdan.
B L E S F LW 7
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WO
1 FATHE was not his father, nor was his mother hismotherso irreuar was his birth Protected by her
guards, the Pharaoh Ramesses' second daughter had been
enjoying herself with her ladiesinwaiting in the roya
arden by the Nie There she became aware of a Herew
aorer wh was drawig water, and was overcome with
desire for him He had sad eyes, a it of fuzz aout his
chin, and stro arms, visible as he drew the water He
toied by the sweat f his row and had his share of trou-
es, but for Pharaoh's dauhter he was a icture of lovei-
ness and desire She ordered that he be brouht to her in
her aviion, and there she ran her exquisite itte hand
throuh his sweatsoaked hair, kissed the muses of his
arm, and so teased his manhood that he, the foreign save,
overowered her, the rincess When they had done, she
dismissed him, but he did not o far after thirty aces he
was sain and buried hastily so that nothing remained of
the sundauhter's amusementPoor man," she said whe she heard aout it. You
guards are aways so overeager He woud have ket quiet
8
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AmenMoses or RMoses, nmed s the sons of their
ods. Amrm nd Jocheed, however, referred to leve
out the nme of od, nd clled the boy Moses ure
nd simle So he ws quite simly son." ut the ques
tion remined, Whose?"
0 M S M N N
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TR
E GREW UP as one of te mmants and soke n tedaet. One dun a eod of dout onte o-
cas ad ven te anestos of ts bood kn emsson
to ome nto te and as stavn Bedouns of Edom" as
aao's sbes caed tem and tey ad been assned
te dstct of Gosen n te owands fo use as az
n and. Anyone wo tnks tey wee aowed to aze
tee fo fee does not know mu aout te osts
te den of Eyt Not ony dd tey ave to ve
some of te catte n taxes and so many tat t t
bt eveyone wt any stent ad to do wok as we
enfoced abo n te vaous ojects n a an
ke Eyt ae aways ben but. But t was eseay
afte Ramesses te seond of s name beame aao
n Tebes tat te bdn became excessvet was s
easue and s oya det. He but extavaant tem-
es touout te and and down by te estuaes e
not ony enewe and vey mu moved te on-neeted ana w onnected te easten am of te
Ne wt te Btte Lakes tus jonn te eat sea wt
1 1
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the ti of the Red Sea, but alon the course of the canal he
aso eected two wole teasurecities, caed Pithom and
Raamses, and fo these the childen of the immirants,
the brim, were called uon to bake and tow bricks, and
save by the sweat of thei bodies under the Eytan odn truth, this rod was merely the emblem of Phaaoh's
oveseers; the bim wee not beaten with it unneessar-
iy. They aso had enouh to eat whie they labore len-
tiful sh from the Nile, bread, beer, and bee as muh
as they needed. Nevetheess, it coud not be sad thatthe labo suited o aealed to them, for they were of a
nomadc bood, wit the tadition of a fee, wandein
ife, and fo them, workn reur hours, bein made to
sweat, was dely alien and annoyin. ut these tribes
were aliated too osey and wee not sucienty awareof themselves to aee on and be of one mind about their
isleasure. ecause they had camed fo sevea enea-
tions in a transit and between the home of ther fathes
and Eyt roe, the sou was formless, with a siit
tat wavered, and without a rm doctine; they had for-otten much, had halfleaned new thins, and because
they lacked a tue cente, they did not trust thei own
feelins, not even the ane fueled by their servtude, r
the sh, be, and beef added thei brains.
When Moses, aleedy the son of Amram, outrewhis youthful yeas, he would have ha to make brcks for
Pharah, too. ut that did not haen; instead the youth
2 M S M N N
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was taken from hs arents and brouht to a school n
er yt, a very rened born shool where the
sons of Syran ords were educted aon wth sons of
the local nobty. That s where he was laced, r hs nat
ural mother, Pharaoh's ch, who hd delvered hm ntothe reeds, a echerous creature, to be sure, but not wth-
out hert, had thouht of hm n conseraton of hs
hastly bured fther, the waterdrawer wth the bt of
fuzz and sad eyes, and she dd not wnt hm t reman
amon the svaes, but to be edutd s an ytan ndto ttan oston t the ourt, n seret semrecon
ton of hs dvne semnblty. So Moes, dressed n
wht nn and wth a w uon hs hed, lerned astron
omy nd eorahy, cllrhy and law, lthouh he was
not relly hy amon the dandes of the eent bord-n shoo, but ket to hmse reelled by the ytn
entty nd ts leasures, whh hd ven brth t hm.
The bood of the hsty bured mn who hd served ths
lesure ws stroner n hm thn th ytn oton,
nd n hs hert he ws true to the oor, frmless souls athome n Goshen, who d not hve the coure of ther
ner. He ws true to them n the fe of the eherous
arrone of hs mother's blood.
What s your nme aan?" the comrde at school
woud ask hm.'m cled Mses," he would answer.
AchMoses or PthMoses?" they ske.
E B L E S F E L W 1 3
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No, ust Moses," he relied
Tht's thetic nd weird," sid the snooty oys, nd
he rew so nry he would hve lked to sly them nd
ive them hsty uril For he understood tht such
questions were ment only to ry into his irreulr irth,whose wverin outlines everyone lredy knew Tht
he ws nothin ut the secret fruit of Eytin lesure
not even he would hve known hd it not een com-
mon knowlede, however vueknwn ll the wy u
t Phroh, who hd een left s little in the drk outhis child's coquetry s Moses ws out the fct tht con-
temtile, murderous lesure hd turne Rmesses, the
uilder, into his lecheyrndfther Yes, Moses knew
this nd lso knew tht Phroh knew it, nd t tht
thouht he nodded his hed threteninly in the direc-tion of Phrh's throne.
1 4 M S M N
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OR
FTE HE ha ive for two years amon th fos at theen sch, he cud stand t no oner. e made hs
esce over the wa by niht and wandered home to
hs father's bod kn n Goshen Wth a itter fe he
roamed amon them, and one day aon the cana near
amsses' new udns h saw an ytan overser
take his rod and beat one of the aorers, who had ro-
ay been nent or contrary urnn ae an with
ery eyes, he chaene the Eytn who, nstea of v-
in him ny knd of answer, unched in the bride o hs
nose, so that for the rest of hs fe it had a roken, ty
indented bon But Moses seized the ro from th over-
seer, took a mihty swin an crushed the man's sku,
kilin him on the sot He hadn't even oked aroun
t see whether anyone was watchin. But it was a dso-
te ace and no one ese was neary S he hasty ur-
d the sn man ute on hs own, for th feow he hd
defende ha taken to the his; and it semd to hmthat he'd aways had it in mn to say someody an
bury him hasty
1 5
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is ery deed remained hidden, at least rom the
Egytians, who never ound out why their man had
not turned u, and days and years assed over the deed
Moses continued to roam amon his ather's eole and
meddled in their disutes with a strane hihhanded-ness. One time he saw two I brim laborers quarreling with
one another, on the brink o coming to blows. Why are
you quarreling and even about to ght?" he said to them.
aven't you sunk low enough? Shouldn't you stand by
your own kind instead o barin your teeth at one an-other? That one is in the wron, I saw it e should give in
and be stil, and the ther one shouldn't lord it over him"
But as soon as he had nished seaking, the two o
them were suddenly united aainst him, sayin, Why
are you interering in our aairs?" The one who had beenound at ault was esecially snotty and said quite loudly,
That's the absolute limit! Who are you to o stickin
your oatnose into thins that don't concern you? Oh
yes, that's riht, you're Mosheh, the son Amram, but
that's nt saying much and nobody really knows whoyou are, not even you. We'd like to know who aointed
you over us as our jude and master Maybe you'd like to
stranle me, too, the way you stranled the Eytian that
time and buried him hastily?"
Be quiet!" said Moses, aalled, and he thouht, owhas that otten around? On the very same day he real-
ized that this country could no longer be his dwellin
6 T H M S M N N
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le, n he rossed the order where it ws not seured,
throuh the mudts ner the Bitter Ses He wndered
throuh mny eserts of the lnd of Sini nd m t
Miin, to the Midinites nd their riestkin, Reuel.
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FIVE
WHEN HE returned to Egypt, lled with his iscovery oGod nd i misson, ws a man in his prie, surdy,
wth a at ose, prominent cheekbones, a parted beard,
wdeset yes, n broa wristswhich were espeily
obvious whn, as frequenly happened, he was brooding
and covered hs mout ber wth h right had
From hut o hut and from labor site o lbor site went,
and shakig his sts by his thighs he spoke o the Ivs
ble One, he od of his fthers, who ws prepared to
eter ito a covenat. For ll tets a purposes, how
ever, he could not spek, or he ws essentilly bottle up
by natre, ad whe gitated was iclned to have a thick
tongue Furthermore, he wasn' really at hoe in any n
gue ad whe spekg would cas about i three: Ara
aic SyroChldean, which his ther's blod ki spoke
and which he had learned rom his parents, had bee
overlai by Eyptian, whch he hd hd to acqire at
school, nd i additio Midnite Arabic, which he hadspoke or many yers i the desert So he was always
jumblng them up
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Most ef to im s is broter, Aaron, a rny,
ente mn it a back berd and back rinets don
is neck, o iked to kee is are, ronded eyeids
iosy oered Moses ad initited im into every
tin, ad comletey on im over to te idea of tenvisible One nd its imictions, nd since Arn
s b t sek tr is berd it ntos
ency, e say accomanied Mses on is recritment
rnds nd soke in is sted, in a drin oiy mnner,
to e sre, nd not ematicy eno, s tt Msesd try it skin sts to t more re into is
rds nd ften interrted im, iedyiedy, in
ArmiytinArbic
Arns ife s named iseb, te dter of
Ammindb; se to s rty to te vo nd te rand, s s Miriam, yner sister of Mses nd
Aron, n rdnt mn cd sin nd y te tim
bre Bt Moses s eseciy fnd f yn mn o,
for is art, s devted ert nd s to im, is reve
tion, n is ans, nd never ft is side He s ty nmed Hose, te son of Nn i mens s")
f rims cn Bt Mses d iven im te Ye
nme f Yeos, so sortened to Jos, nd e bre
tat name it ridea stritbcked, iry yon mn
it ed f oy air, rominent Adms ae,nd a ir of artiary dee frrs beten is eye
brs, o d is on int of vie abot te e
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thing, ot the religious point o view so much s the mi
itry Yahweh, the Go o his thers, was or oshua the
Go o hosts above al ese, a i his min the thought
o escape out o the house o bonage, which ws inex
triby linke with Gos me, was combine with theconquest o new settlemet reas o their own or the
ebrw tribeswhich ws logil, because they ha to
ive smewhere, n no ln, promise or ot, woul just
be hn over to them.
oshua, s young s he was, carrie ll the pertinentfts in his woolly hea, with its rm, steay gze a he
incessanty iscusse them with Moses, his oler rien
mster. Without hving the wherewith or n
curate enus, he ha estimte tht the strength o the
clns camping in Goshen n resiig i the storagcitiesPithom n Raamses, as well s those clan members scat
ter over the rest o the an as sves, came t approxi
mately twelve or thirteen thousn ha, l in al, which
woul onstitute a weaponsreay orce o approximatey
thre thousn Later the numbers were wiy exaggerte, but oshu ws more or ess right bout them, a
they int suit him t l. Three thousn men ws not a
rtiularly terriying army, ot eve i ou ssume that
one yu were n your way l sorts o relte boo kin
wh were wring aroun in the esert wu join thisueu to nquer the ln You coun't contempte a
serious unertking bse solely on a orce o this ize; to
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rely o it to strike ito the Proised Ld wold e ill
dvised osh derstood tht, d for tht reso he
ws tryig to d ple ot i the ope where the lood
ki old rst estlish themselvesd where der
resoly fvorle irstes they old e le togrow t their trl rte for while, whih, if Josh
kew his peple, e to tw d oe hlf er hred
eh yer The yg kept his eye ot for ple
where they old preserve d rote theselv to
irese their rmed fore, d he ofte oslted withMses ot this reveling i the proess tht he h
srprisigly ler grsp of how oe ple relted to n
other in the world, keeping i his hed kind of p of
ptetil trts of ld ordig to their sizes, dylong
mrhes, nd wterig holes, d espeilly the elliosity f their ihitts
Moses kew wht he hd i his osh, kew well
tht he wol hve need of hi, d loved his itet
ess, lthogh its immeite oets di not oner him
h Coverig moth d erd with his right hn,he listeed to the yog s strtegi prononeents
d thoght of other thigs Of orse, Moses, too,
thoght of hweh i oetio with exost
ot siply ilitry pig to oqer ld rther n
exods ito ope ld d ito prtess t et thtsoewhere ot there i the ope he wold hve for hi-
self ll this mss of ewildered esh wverig og vr
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ios radiions, hese proreain en, laain woen,
iplsive yohs, snoynosed hildren, he blood kin o
his aher; ha he wold nlae he wih he holy
invisible God he pre, he spirial one; ha he old
se p his God as heir oleive, orave ener andshae he in is iage They wold e a people dier
en ro all ohers, belonging o God, a people ored
and dened by wha is holy and spirial, isingished
ro all ohers by heir dread orbearane, awe ha is
o say, by heir ear o he hogh o priy, by a ode oresrain whih, sine he Invisible One was aally God
o he whole world, wold bind all people ogeher in he
re, b was rs o be dereed or he an heir a
ere privilege aon he heahens.
This was Moses' any or hs her's blood kin, hisany as a reaor, whih or h was a one wih he
enevolen hoie God had ade and s wiinness o
ener ino a ovenan. Sine he believed ha he ora
ion in God's iage had o ake preedene over all other
venres ha he yong Jsha had in ind, and rherore ha his reqired ie, ree ie o in open land
he dd no mind ha here was sill a hih in osha's
pans and ha hey were syied by he inadeqae n
ber o weaponseady men Josa needed ie so ha
he people old nrease by naal eansand also, byhe way, so ha he, hisel old grow older and e per
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mttd to appont hmslf thr commandr; and Moss
ndd tm for th work of cratng, hh h srd
n th nam of God. And so whl holdng drng vw-
ponts, thy wr n agrmnt.
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SIX
EANWHILE HOWEVER, Gos emissy, lon with hisclosest isciples, the eloquent Aon, Elisheb, Miim,
oshu, n one Cleb, who ws the sme e s oshu
n his bosom fien, nothe ston, simple, bve youn
mnmenwhile not one of them wste sinle y in
spein mon hei own the messe of hweh, the
nvisible One n His ttein oe of covennt, while
simultneously fuelin the bitteness t thei wok une
the Egyptin o n isin the ie tht they shoul
shke o this yoke n emigte Ech one i it in his
own wy: Moses himself with hltin wos n shkin
sts, Aon in wlin, uent iscouse, Elisheb with
wheelin chtte, oshu n Cleb like mility com
mnes, in clippe slogns; Miim, who ws soon clle
the pophetess," i it in loftie tone, to timbel ccom
pniment. No i thei semons fll pon h oun;
the thouht of swein leince to Moses' covent
fncyin Go, of eictin themselves to the melessOne s His people n of mitin une Him n His
spokesmn into open ln, took oot mon the tibes
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an began to for their unifying enterthis was espe
iay so beause Moses proise or rather oere the
hopee expettion tht he wou negotite with
the ost powerfu authorities perission for them to
ee Egypt so tht it wou no he to tke the form of risky uprising but rather ou ow upon an aiabe
greeent They were famiiar if ony auey with his
hafEgyptin birth into the rees they knw bout th
eegant euation he enoye for whie an the rk
retionship that he oane with the ourt Whtone ha been a reason to istrust an rejet hi tht is
his ixe boo an that he ha one foot in gytin i
was now trnsfore into a soure of trust n ent hi
uthority Certiny if anyboy ou he ws the an to
stn before Phraoh an argue their ase. An so theyoissione hi to try to persuae esses bui
n sester to reease thean not ust Mses
but aso his mikbrother Aaron for Moses intene to
take hi ong rst beuse he hisef ou not speak
oherenty an Aaron ou an so beause Aron wsaopishe in ertin seightsofhan whih they
hope wou ke n ipression t ourt to the gory
of ahweh He ou ke a obra sti as r by press
ing on its nek but if he then ast the ro to the groun
it wou ur an transform itsef into serpent" Neither Moses nor Aron ntiipate the fat tht Phraoh's
agiians were aso fiiar wih this ire an tht it
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wold thereore ot be able to serve as terryng proo o
Yahwehs power.
They had o lck whatsoeverlets say t at oceo
matter how cnngly they preseted the case theyd
pt together wth yog osha ad Caleb ad the warcocl Thy had decded to ask the kg oly or per
mso or the ebrew people to travel three days ds
tace beyod the brder ot to the desert to celebrate a
sacrce to the Lord ther God who had called them, ad
the retr to work They hardly eected Pharaoh to betake by ths et ad beleve that they wold retr
It was oly a getler, mre corteos orm o sbmttg
a plea r emacpaton, bt t ddnt er them ay grat
tde rom the kg.
The brothers dd scceed, however, actally gettgnto the Great oe and ront o Pharaohs throne,
ad ot merely oce, bt through doggedly pertet e
gotatos over ad over aga I ths respect Mse had
ot promsed hs people too ch, or he was cotg o
the act that Ramesses was hs secret lecherygradatherad that each o them kew that the other kew t It e
aled Moses to pt a great deal o pressre o the kg,
ad eve thgh t was ever eogh to wrg rom hm
hs conset t ther eods, t dd make Moses a seros
egotator ad gaed hm repeated access to the powerl ma, who eared hm A kgs ear s dageros, o
corse, ad all ths tme Moes was playg a rsky game
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e ws brvehow brve he ws nd wht n impression
he mde on his people, we shll see very soon It would
hve been esy for messes to hve him strngled qu
etly nd hstiy buried, so tht in the end rely nothing
would be eft of his chids sensul whim But te priness retined sweet memory of tht ltte hour nd did
not wnt ny hrm to come to her oy of the reedshe
stood under her protetion, howevr ungrtefully he re
sponded t her eorts on his behl her plns fr his edu-
ction nd promotinSo Mses nd Aron were permitted to stnd efre
hro, but he roundy denied their reust for s-
ri ody out in open lnd to wh their God d
llegedy cled their people It ws no use tt Aron
spoke with untuus oherene while Moes ssintelyshook his sts by his thighs or did it hel tht Arn
turned his rod into serpent, for hrohs mgiins
id the sme thing on the spot, thereby provng tht the
nvisible ne, in Whose nme te two were speng,
ought t be orded no remrkbe powers nd tt roh didnt hve to listen to the voie of ths ord f we
dont mke three dys journey into the widerness nd
prepre fest for the ord, our tribes will be visited by
pestilence or the sword," sid the brothers But th king
nwered, Tht does not oncern us You re numerousenough, more thn tweve tousnd strng, nd you n
ertiny ber some redution, whether throug pesti
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lene or the sword or harsh work. You Moses and Aaron
you only want to inulge your people in idleness and give
the respite from the ervie they owe me. I annot tol
erate that and will not allow it. I ave several faulous
temles in the works and also want to uild a thrd treasurety esides Pithom and aamses to add to those
tw and for that I need te arms of your people. I tank
you r your alypresented proposal and you Moses I
even smiss you in seial favor willynilly. ut no more
t of lidays in te desert!"Thus was the audiene termnated and not only did
noting god ome of it but denite evil ame of it after
war. For Pharaoh onded in his hunger for uildings
and annoye that he ould not very well strangle Moses
ause if he did his aughter would make a senerdered that the Goshenpeople e given a workload
even arsher tan efore an that they not e spared the
rod if they were slak lt them have plenty to do so that
they would work until they dropped and all their idle
tughts of desert festivals for their god would disapearAnd that's what happened. eause Moses and Aaron had
soken efore Pharaoh te laor grew harsher frm one
day t the net. No lnger did the eople reeive delv
ery of the straw to e burned in their briks for eam
ple now they had to go to the stubleelds themselvesto gather the neessary straw. Yet the number f briks
to e manufatured was not redued for that reason the
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same qta had t be led r ese the rd wd dnce
n the pr mens bcks. n vin did the Hebrew remen
spervising the peple cmpain t the thrities bt
nreasnabe demands The answer was, Yre ide, idle
is what y are, and thts why y cry t nd sy, Wewant t leave here and celebrate a sacrice. Bt the rdr
stands: yll keep getting the strw yrselves nd yl
keep making the sme nmber of briks"
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SEVEN
foR M nd Aro this ws no s ebrrssent The oreen sid to the There o hve it
Tht's or rewrd or the ovennt with or God nd
r Moses' onnetions. A o've done is int s in the
presee of Phroh nd his en nd pt the sword into
their hnds to destro s"
There ws not h to be sid in response, d
Moses hd soe diut rivte hors with the God o
the burnin bsh s he donished i tht he Moses
hd een ded se is kin on this mission ro the
srt tht he hd sked i rih o to send none ese
js no hi sine he ws so inrtite Bt the Lord
hd swered hi ht Aron er ws eoqent
Yes o orse e hd done he tkin bt in h too
oi nner nd it jst went to show how preposter
os it ws to tke on se i o orse hve thik
tonue nd hve o et other peope step in nd spek
or o Bt ro withi hi the God omorted ndreked him nd nswered ht he shod be shed
o his int her; his exss were pre ettion or
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at bottom he himsel had bee itchig or the call, sice
he acied his people ad a chace to shape them just
as much as the God did, act, ad you cot rely
stguh hs ow acy rom that o the God's at al,
rather it was at oe with it it was a god's acy that haddrve hm to the task, ad he should be ashamed to ose
heart at the rst deeat
oses acepted this, d all the more because i the
war oucil with Joshua, Caleb, Aaro, ad the rdet
wome, they had coluded that the crese opresso, however muh bad blood t mht geerte, ws
upo loser ispetio ot such a terrble rst resut;
or it ws creatg bd blood ot oly towrd oses but
bove a toward the Egypts, ad t wou make th
peope all the more receptive to the all o th vorGodad the thought o a exodus to ope lad Ad thus it
was; the agtto about the straw ad brks grew amog
the aborers, ad the reproah that oses had tated
them d doe them othig but harm reeded behid
the wish that Amrm's so might exploit his coectiosgai ad go oe more to Pharoh or their sake
Ad that he dd, this tme ot wth Aro, but aloe,
whatever his togue might do; he shook his sts beore
the throe ad demaded i halti blurted words the
exodus o hs pope to the ope, der the ame o sacricial estival i the desert Ad he did this, ot one
time oly, but maybe eve te, or oses' coectios
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were so ood that Pharaoh cold t very well dey h
access to hs throe There olded a strle doed
ad protracted betwee h ad the kg ever leadn
t s tre to the latter's aree to Moses' dead bt
stead to oe e day whe rather tha releas thethe Eyptas pshed ad drove the oshepeople ot
o ther lad jst ld the ed to be rd o the.
Abot ths strle ad the pressre exerted o the
stborly resstat k drg the corse o t there
has bee ch chatter ot wthot soe hstorcalderps t stroly characterzed by ebellsh-
met There's talk o the te plaes that Yahweh vs
ted pon the Eyptans oe ater the other n orer to
wear Pharaoh down whle at the sae te nteto-
ally harde Pharaohs heart aanst Moses' appeal sothat e wold have a chace to deonstrate s power
wth ever ew plages. Blood ros ver wld a-
als bols pestece hal locsts darkess an death
o the rstborthose were the te plaes ad oe
o the wold be mpossble bt t s a ope qestowhether wth the excepton o the last one (whch was
a especally obsre case ever really cleared p) they
scatly aected the al otcoe There are cod-
tos der whch the Nle takes o a bloodred color ts
water becoes teporarly drkable and the sh deSh ths happe jst as the ros o the swap ds
proportoately crease ber or the everpreset
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ice ppate to a eve tht woud appoch an inest
tion And thee wee sti ot o ions aound too om
in at the ede o the deset and ukin in the junes y
the diedup ive hnnes and i the nume o apa
cious ttacks on man nd est ineased you coud oahead nd cal it a paue And aent scies an ois
comon in the nd o Eypt and how esiy miht not
evi bains ise up out o unninss nd ete s pesti
ne mon th peope? The sky is usuy ue in those
pts and thus the moe deep n impessin wouda ae vint thundestom mke when e descend
in om the couds omines with dense pebbes o
hi poundin the cops nd thashin the tees even i
it wee not onnecte to ptiu intent Locusts a
toomii uests n mnkind hs inventd vious means o scin nd wadin them when thy
ppoach en msse thouh thei avenousness os
win out in the end so tht entie ds e educe to
nwedown baness And nyone who hs eve expei
enced the anxious omy mood spad ov the eath y osmicy shaded sun wi undestnd quite we that
pepe pamped y iht woud ive suh n eipse th
nme pue"
And with tht the nume o epoted evis is at n
end o the tenth one the dth o the ston doesnot actuy eon in this count but constitutes n am
iuous ypodut o the exous itse unanny in its
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etals Perhaps only soe o the other oes happene
orstribute over a longer pero o tmeperhaps all
o the we rell ust conser ther names as nothng
ore than ebroier crculocutons or the one s
le pressure that Moses lways use ast Raesses
that s the act tht Pharoh was his lecherygrana
ther an that Moses ws in poston to brocast this
aroun More thn once, the kng was about to cve n
to ths pressure t the least, he de gret oncessions.
He woul perit the en to leve or the scrcil estvl, but the woen, chlren an hers woul have
to rein behin. Moses not ccept that: young n
od sons nd ughters sheep n ctte ll ust leve
or ths concerne a estival or the Lor Then Ph
roh woul perit woen an osprng too, excluing only the livestock whh ws to rean behn as
olteral. ut where, Moses dened were they to
get their buthere n burnt oerngs or the estvl
they in't hve their livestock with them? Not one hoo
could sty behin he nsstewhch de it very clerhe wsn't talkin about holy but an exous.
The hooves resulte in a lst stormy scene between
the gypti majesty an ahweh's eissary Durng
the whole neotiton Moses ha shown great patene,
but stshkin choler also lay wthin hs nature Fnlly Pharaoh reache hs lmt n literally chse hm
rom the room Out!" he crie An tke cre that yo
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never come before me gin Otherwise it will men
your deth," whereupon Moses, who ws still very gi
tted, grew completly clm nd nswered simply, ou
hve spoken m going nd wil not come bfore you
gin" As he took his leve with such feru serenity, histhoughts turned to things tht were not rey to hi lik
ing They were, however, to te liking of young oshu
nd Cleb
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IGH
THIS IS rk pter c cn nly be relte n frgmente vele pre Tere cme y r rter
ngt grm veer r en Ye ent but r
ngel f et n vte te tenth plue upn
te lren f Egypt r rter rtn f em te
Egytn element mng te nbnt f Gen
ell f te te f Ptm n Rme le mt
tn n rng te ut n e he rpt
ere mere t bl nl
Wt d e ? e et n mtn yn te yng f
te rtbrn mn te Egyptn element n by n
e fulle mny ecret n elpe mny ec
nbrn t cme nt n metn tt ultere ve been ene m Plee nte te tnc
tn beteen Yeh n h nel f eth: t etble
tt t nt Ye hmelf ent but but n
fct ngel f ethmre precely crefully en
t nel u hever yu nt t reuce tem t ngle mnfettn tere ren t tnk f Y
e' ngel f et trgtbcke gure f yut
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wit ed of wooy i, pominent Adm's ppe,
n eep fows etween is eyows, n ne om
tt stin tt wys ejoices wen yo've pt n end to
seess neotitions nd cn poceed to ction
Tee d een no ck of peptions fo decisive cts din oses' tencios neotitions wit P-
oh: s fo oses imsef, they d een conned to his
secety sendin is wie nd sons ck to idin, to his
oteinw eto, in ntiiption of dict events to
ome, so s not to e dened wit woies ot tem.Bt os, wose etionsip to oses ws nmistk-
y simi to tt of te ne o det to Ywe, d
ted in is own sion, nd sine e di not possess te
mens no yet te epttion to moiize nde his com-
mnd tose tee thosnd eodied oodcomdes,e d t est seeted sqd fom tem, d med,
ie, nd disipined tem so tt they co hiee
sometin om te stt.
Wt ppee ten is sode in dknessin the
dkness o tht vespe nit tt the ien of Eyptsw s nit of ceetion fo te on sves w
ived mon tem t seemed tt tese sves wnd to
mke p o te vetoed scici festiv i te deset
with nten festiv to tei od, compete wit n-
qet, it ee t ome, nd tey d even oowedod nd sive vesse fo it om tei yptin nei-
os Howeve, comined wit tis event, o te, in
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sea o it tha angel o eah went abo an n evey
omiile tha a bndle o hyssop ha not smeaed wh
bloo he sbon ied Ths vsiaon bogh with it
sch geat consion sch a suen evesal o he ela
ionships o law an enilemen hat om one hou ohe ne he oa o o the lan not only soo open o
Moses' people b hey ee viually oce ono i an
ouln' ake i quickly enogh to si he Egypans
atally oes seem tha the seconbon wee less eage
o avenge he eah o hose whose plae hey took hanhey wee to ge he people who case hei elevaion
to clea ot
Accoing o aiion his enh plage ha nally
boken Phaaoh's pide so that he ha elease he bloo
kin o Moses' ahe om thei bonage He i howeve pomply send a ivision o hs amy in psuit o
the escapees hogh it maclosly came o a ba en
Be hat as i may the emigaion ook on he om o
an eplsion an he hase wih which this happene
is ecode in this eail: No one ha time o eaven thebea o he ouney; hey ol pove only hose
a cakes o aicion ha Moses atewa une ino
a commemoaive celebaoy cstom o all me Fo
he es all o them bg an small ha been compleely
eady o se o Even as he angel o eah went abouhey ha sa net o hei loae cas hei loins ge
hei shoes aleay on hei ee thei walkngstas in
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their hnds They brought long the gold nd silver ves-
ses they hd borrowed from the los
My friends At the exodus out o Egypt there ws
both killing nd steling t ording to Moses rm
will it ws to be for the lst time How should mn wresthimsef from impurity without mking one lst s
rie to it nd polluting himself thoroughly in the pro-
ess? Moses now hd the inrnte objet o his retive
fny this formless umnkind is ers od in
fee in open nd, nd reedom or him ws the relm osntition
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NIE
THE WANDERING mss o peopler ewer in its hedcount thn wht leend would clm, but diicult
enough to mne, to control, nd to eed, sciently
hevy burden on the shoulders o the mn responsible
or their te, or thir survivl out in the opentook the
rote tht utomticlly presented itsel i (or goo r
son) they were to void the ortitios tht egn on
the Eytin border, north o the itter Ses This route
le through the reion o the slt ses into ih the
lrer, westernmost rm o the Red S ows, shpin
the lnd o the Sini into peninsul Moses knew this
territory, hvng pssed through it on his iht into Mid
in nd his return thence More thn the young oshu,
whose only mp ws mentl one, Moses ws milir
with its contours, te nture o those reedy mudts,
whih t times ormed the itter Ses open connection
to the ul nd through which, under certn conditions,
one could rech the lnd o Sini dryshod For i stronest wind ws blowing nd the ses were driven bck, the
mudts oeed open pssgend thnks to Yhwehs
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ter or us to have served the Egptias tha to die b the
sword i the wilderess! Moses heard this a thousad
times, ad it eve embittered him about ther rescue,
whh tured out to be overwhelg He was the ma
Moses, who led us out o Egpt"whch meat souts opraise as log as everthig was oig well ut i ths
wet badl, t quickl took o a dieret toe ad meat
a grumbl reproach that was ever ver ar rom the
thught o a stoig
The, ater a sort perio o alar, thigs took aembarrassgl d ubelievabl good tur Moses stood
tere, ver regal troug ve mracle, a was the
ma, who le us out Egpt"w eat te other a
rou agai The blood ki pus through the draed
mudats, te Eptia arm chasi behd them ither charits Sudel the wid des ow, the tide re
turs, ad me ad steeds pers urgli i te eul
ig waters
t was a uparalleled triumph Miriam, the prophet
ess, Aaros sister, sa to her tmbrel, leadi the womei their sigig ad dacig: Sig uto the orda glr
ous deedthe horse ad his riderath He throw ito
the sea" She had writte ths hersel ou must imagie
it sug to timbrel accompaimet
The people were deepl oved The words might,"hol," terriig," admirable," ad miracleworkg"
issued edlessl rom their lips, ad it was uclear
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whethe they wee itended f the gdhead f
Mses, Gds head a, whse d, they assued had
bught the dwig dwates dw up Egypt's
fces was easy t get the tw cfused Wheneve
te pepe weent gbg abt hi, Mses wyshad his hands fu tyng t keep the f thnkng
that he hsef was a gd, the ne he ws paing
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TN
n EALLY that wasn't so ridiulous, or wht he wasbeginnin to expet o these poor souls went r beyond
te huan norm nd ould hrdly hve originated in the
mind of a ort t mde your jw drop to think about it
Ater Miri's sining and daning, he imediately r-
bde any rther rjoiin t the Eyptins' deise e
prlied: Evn Yhweh's heavenly ries had been
bout to join in the vitory song, but the oly One re
buked theWht's this? My reatures drown in the
se and you wnt to sing" e spred this short, but as
tonishing story round nd added, Thou shlt not re-
joie at the all o thine enemy; let not your hert be la
at his isortune" t was the rst time tht the entire
horde, twelve thousnd nd a ew hundred hed o the,
inluding the three thousnd ablebodied men, hd been
appeled to with thou," that or o address whih en-
opassed their totaity and at the sae tme traned an
eye n eh o the, man and woan, young nd old, as
if pking a nger in the hest of every one Thou shat
rais no ries f joy at te fall o thine eney" Tat was
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positively unntul But obviously tis unntulness
ws onneted to te invisibility o Moses Go wo
wnted to be their God It begn to dwn on the moe
let membes o te brown ode wt tt ment nd
ow mysteious nd llenging it ws to ve swon lle-gine to n invisible god
Tey wee in te lnd o Sini moe peisely in
te wildeness o Su n uniendly tein tt tey
would leve only to rive in nte ust s lmentle
the wildeness o Pn Why tese wildernesses ddient nmes is mystey tey utted one noter
in tei idness te sme used oky eds wt
out wter or vegettion extending in line o dd ills
s long s tee dys ouney nd even ou nd ve It
ws good ting tt Moses d so quikly inused teespet oded im t te Se o Reds wit tt supe
ntul dimension o ow ll o sudden e ws gin
tis mn Moses wo ld us out o Eypt wi mnt
wo bougt misotune upon us nd loud gum
bling ssulte is es Ate tee dys te wte teyd bougt bme tikle Thousnds were tirsting
te relentless sun on their eds nd unde tei eet te
ben desotion o te wilderness o Suri it wsnt
by now te wildeness o Pn Wt e we to drn?
tey ied loud sowing no sensitivity to te sungo tei lede unde te weigt o is esponsibility He
wised tt e lone would dink nting nevr gin
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hve ythig to drik i oly hy ight hve soe-
thig so tht he did't hve to her their hy did yo
ke s leve Egypt?" To ser loe is sll goy o-
pred ith tht hvig to ser or sh horde d
Moses s very brdeed d sted tht yever ter brdeed bove ll e o erth
Very soo there s't thig let to et either or
ho log old the hstily pked tbred hold ot?
ht re e to et?" This r resoded o to sob-
big d soldig d Moses hd soe difilt pri-vte hors ith God e he doished im or is
hrshess i hvig lid the brde o this etire people
po hi is srvt Am I the o ho oeivd d
bore ll these people" he sked so tht o sy to e
Crr the i yor rs' here I to et the oodto give ll these people? They re eepig beore e d
syig Give s et so tht e et!' I ot rr
so y oe It is too hrd r e Ad i tht's the y
Yo t to tret e plese strge e isted so tht I
do ot hve to itess y isorte d theirs"Ad Yheh did ot leve hi opletely i the
lrh As or ter o the th dy hile rossig
high plte the spotted treeied sprig hih
by the s lso mrked s the Sprig o Mrh o
the p tht osh rried i his hed Its ter tstedo it's tre de to plest ditres eliitig bit
ter disppoitet gret ves o grmbig Bt
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Moses me invenive by necessiy ppie kin of -
ering evie a kep back e nasy impriies i no
enirey a les in goo mesre n so performe a
kin of springmirce ransforming e ocries ino
ceers an greay eping o resore is repion eprase wo e s o of Egyp" once gin oo on a
rosy connoion
As for foo ere occrre ye aner mirce
wic a rs rigere oyf mzemen. For i rne
o rge res of e wierness o Prn were ov-ere wi icen a one co e mannien sg-
ary felike sbsance ron n sml ike corianer
sees in pperance n ike beim in coor spoie
qicky an begn o smell ba if i wsn een rig
awy b oerwiseron beaen r prepre s s-ckesi ws qie oerbe in pin sing mos ike
wfers wi oney some peope si n ers sai ike
oike
was e rs posiive men b i in
s Soon even afer s few ys e peope eng of e nn n were ire of ing p on i
As eir ony norismen i qicy beme repgnan
an nasee em so ey compine Were
rememberin e a we c e r ree n gy
e pmpkins mrrow sqa eeks onions an gar-ic B now or sos are weary for or eyes see noing
bu mnn."
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That's what Moses head to his pai, aog with
the peditable questio hy did you make us eave
Egypt" ht he asked Gd ws hat sould I do with
these peope They do't wat to eat maa aymoe
Just wat You'll see eoe log they' l be stoig me"
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LV
WAS moe o ess poteted om tht te thnks tohis sie Yehosh nd the med sd he h th
eed toethe in Goshen whih sonded the ie
to s soon s ny thetenn mes epted mon
the e Fo the moment it ws sm sq o yon
men wth Ce s etennt t osh ws st wt
in o n oppotnity to estish himse s ommnde
nd hmpion in ode to det the eoded men
thee thosnd o them odin to his w And he
knew tht ths oppotnty ws mminent
Moses ety ved the yon mn whm h hd
desinted with the nme o God; wtht hm he
wod sometimes hve een qite ost Moses ws si
t mn nd his mnness stdy nd ston s it ws
with his wists s od s stoneve's ws spiit
n intoveted mniness estned nd eey ed
p y God emoved om the wod onened ony
with the hoy th kind o itheness tht ontstedstney with his s oodn medittions when he
oveed his moth nd bed with his hnd he hd on
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ned ll hs houghts nd deeds to setng hs her's
blood kn pr or hmsel lone n order o shpe t nd
o crve unhndered holy me o God ou o he hope
less mss tht he loved. e hd orred not t ll or only
lle bout he dngers o reedom the dcules ohe desert or he queson o ho so mny rbble ere o
be brought hrough t nc or even bou where o tke
those people An he s n no wy prepre or prccl
ledershp So he could only be greul to hve oshu t
hs sde ho or hs prt revered the sprul mnlnessn oses nd unreservedly pu hs on strghtbked
utterly extrovered youthul mnlnss hs dsposl
t ws hnks o oshu th hey ctully se orh n
the deser th rm objectve nd ddn' wer hem
selves out n mless wnderng. e determned the drecton or ther mrch by the strs clulted he dylong
mrhes nd took cre tht hey ould rech he wter
ng plces n berble somemes only just berble
ntervls I s he who hd gured out ht hey could
e the round lchen In ord he proteed hs mster'sreputton s lder nd s o th he phrse ho
led us ot Egypt" whenever t h beome grum
blng ook on s ludory sense gn e hd the des
nton clerly n hs hed nd gued by h srs n
greemen h ses he seered tord by he shorest wy possble. For he o oncurred bou needng
rs desnon xed lso emporry ccommod
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tion, a dwelling plae where they old live omfortably
and gain some time, in fat mh time: party in Josh-
a's mind) so that the people od mltiply and provide
him as he matred with a greater nmber of abebodied
res, party in Moses' mind) so tht he old, above a,nally shape the horde toward the image f Go and hew
frm it something deent and hly, a pre reation, dedi
ated to the Invisible Onethis is what his spirit and his
wrists were raving
The destintion was the oasis of Kadesh. Jst as thewilderness of Sr abtted the widerness of aran so the
latter abtted the widerness of Sin n the sothbt
not everywhere and not diretly. omewhere i btwn
lay the oasis of Kadesh, by ontrast a delihtfl plain, a
green brething spae in the arid land, with three rbstsprings and a nmber of smaller nes, t, a day's jr
ney long and haf a day's wide, dotte wit freh astres
and farmland, an aring streth of and rih in animas
and vegetation and lrge enogh t shelter and norish
headont ie theirs.Yehosha nw abt this ttrtive little iee of
land, whih was very learly mared on the map he ar
ried in his mind. Moses new bt it, too, bt the fat
tht they hose Kadesh as their destination nd heade
o for it was Josha's oing Here was his opportnityA pearl sh as Kadesh, of orse, did not jst sit there
withot an owner, that goes withot saying. t was in
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rm hadsbut ot too rm, Joshua was hopig If they
wated to have it, they would have to ght for it agaist
the ma who cotrolled it, ad that ma was Amalek
Some of the Amale kite cla had possessio o Kadesh
ad would defed it Joshua made it clear to oses thatthere would have to be a war, a attle betwee ahweh
ad Amalek, eve if it should result i a eteral emity
betwee them, from geratio to geeratio They had
to hae the oasis; it was the perfect space for growth as
well as for sacticatiooses was dubious He believed that oe of the impli-
atios of ods ivisibility was that you shouldt covet
yur eighbors huse, ad he reproahed hs dscple
to this et ut the latter aswered that adesh was
t Amaleks house, ad if he kew all about space heaso kew all about tims past, ad he kew that previ
ousl f curse he uld say whe adesh ha bee
ihated b Hebrew people, blood ki, descedats of
their father, who had bee scattered by the Amalekites
Kadesh had bee robbed from them, ad what had beerobbed could be robbed back
oses doubted that, but he ha his ow reasos for
thikig that Kadesh was atually ahwehs territory ad
should be accorded to those who were i coveat with
aheh It wast just because of its atural charms thatKadesh was amed as it was, that is to say, Satuary"
a certai sese it was the sactuary of th idiaite
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Yahweh, whom Moses had reognized as the God of his
fathers Not fa away, towa the east and toward Edm
in a line of other montains, lay Mont Hoeb, whih
Moses had visited from Midian and on hose slpe the
God had revealed Himsel to hi in a brning bshHoeb, the montain, was Yahwehs seatone o them,
at least. His original seat, Moses kne, was ont Sinai,
in the montain range that lay towad the deep midday
Bt between Sinai and Hoeb, te site of Moses om
missioning, there was a lose onnetion. After all, Yah-weh sat pon both of them: yo old eqate them, yo
old all Horeb Sinai too, and Kadesh was name as
it was bease, loosely spaking, it lay at the foot of te
holy mont
Fo that reason, Moses agreed to Joshas plan and lethim prepare for Yahehs ampaign against Amalek.
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W VE
TH BATTL took placethis is an historical atan itwas a very icult battle, seesawing back an rth Bu
Israel emerge triumphant Moses actually conerre tis
name, Israel, which means o wages war, on his bloo
kin bere the bttle, to give them strength, explaining
tat it was a very old name that had simply allen into
oblivion; even acb, the patriarch, ha taken it an calle
his people by it. This served the bloo kin well: however
losely their tribes had been connecte, they were now
all called Israel and tey out united under tis elli
cose name, asemble in battle ranks and led by oshua,
the commaning young man, and Caleb, his lieutenant.
The Amalekites ha ha no oubts about what the
approah o this mass o wanering people meant; ap
proaches like that can mean only one thing. Without
waiting r an attack on the oasis, they ha come out into
the esert in ull rce, larger than Israel in their num
bers, an better arme, too, an ami highswirling ust,turmoil an battle cries, the struggle ensue. oshuas
people suere an ade isavantage, being tormente
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by trst and or many days avng eaten ony mnna.
But s recompense tey ad osua, the young mn th
te stragt gaze, ho directed their movements, and
tey ad Moes, te mn o Go
At te begnnng o te skrmis, Moses tdrealon t Aron, s halbroter, and Mram, te
propetess, to a l ro h they oud ovrook
t btteed His mnness s not o rke sort
Rter, t s presty unton n everyone red
thout hesttion tat ts one oul e is unton) to lt up arms and cal upon od in nenry
rases, or exmple, Rse up, Yeh, beore te myr
ds, bore sre's tousnds, so tt Your eneies ds
perse, so tht Your ters ee rom Your vge"
Tey dd not ee nd tey dd not dsers, or tydd, ony nearby nd qute teporary; or toug
t s true tat sre as nrged by thrst n surit o
mnna, tere ere more o Amleks myrads, and tr
a pssng oss o nerve ty kpt dvnng, t tes dan
gerousy ose to te ookout i. But t proved true itout exeption tt as ong s Moses kept s rms rsed
n pryer tord eaven, Isre prevaed, tou e
et s arms snk don, ten Amek oud trump.
For tat reson, and beause e coud not keep s arms
rased uninterruptedy on is on, both Aron and Mrim supported under s armpts and lso grbbed
onto s rms so tat tey oud stay up You n mg
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ine ht tht entiled y reckonin tht the bttle lsted
from morning until ening, in ll of hich time Moses
hd to mintin his pinful posture You see ho hrd
it cn be for spiritu mnliness up on its pryerhl
certnly hrder thn for the men ho slug it out donbelo in te fry
Nor could they keep it up the hole dy ln no
nd then his compnions hd to loer te mster's rms
fr moment, but tht lys cost the Yeh ghters
mu blood nd dtress So his supporters hoisted hisrms gin nd the peole don belo gined ne our
ge t the sight They lso proted fro their commnder
Yehoshu's tlent in ledn the bttle to fvorble con
lusion He s strtegic youn rrior ith ides nd
obectives ho thought up mneuvers tht ere copletely ne unherd of to tht point in time t lest in
the iderness nd he s lso ommnder ith nerves
strong enough to tolerte temporry bndonment of
terrtory.
He gthered selection of his best forces, the ngelsof deth, t the right in of his enemy, pressed tord
it decisively, repelled t nd climed victory t this posi
tion, lthough Amlek's min force menhile enoyd
gret dntge over Isrel's rnks storin hed nd
innng lot of territory from them ut by mens of hisbrekthrough on their nk Yehohu reched Amlek's
bck obliging hi to turn tord hi hile t the sme
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time ghting Isrels min forces which hd lmost been
dted but were now dvncing gin with new energy
All this cused Amlek to lose his he nd depir of his
mission Trechery!" he crid All is lost! oe no more
or victory! Yhweh is bve us god of fthomless per-dy!" And with this despiring ormultion mlek let
the swrd sink from his hnds nd ws cut down
Only few f his pepl were ble to ee t the north
where they were reunitd wit teir in n Isrl
however moved into the osis f Kdesh whih provedt be trversed y wide rushing brook lined with seed
bering shrubs nd fruit trees nd lled with bees song
birds quils nd hres The childrn of Amlek w
were le in the settlments incresed the number f Isr
els desendnts Amlks wen becme wives ndmidservnts o Isrel
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HIR
LTHOUGH HS ARMS contined to pin him for ontime, Moses ws hppy mn e so remined mch
brdened one, bove men on eth, s wi be shwn
Bt for now he ws vey hppy bot the wy things were
prgressing he emigrtion hd been sccess, Ph-
hs venging frces hd drowned in te Se o Reeds,
the jrney in the widerness hd one o smoothy, nd
with Yhwehs he the btte for Kdesh hd ended in
victory. e stod there beore his thers bod kin,
reg in the recognition o his sccess, s the mn Moses,
who ed s ot o Egypt," nd tht ws wht he needed
to begin the work he rvedthe work of prifying nd
shping in the nme f the nvisibe One, of driing, chip-
ping wy, nd forming esh nd bood e ws try
py nw to hve this esh set prt for him in open
nd, in the osis ced Snctry t ws his wrkhop
e showed the peope the montin tht ws visi-
be mong the other montins cross the desert est ofKdes oreb, which cod so be ced Sini, ticky
bestrewn with bshes twothirds of the wy p, nd bre
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on top Ywes set Suc desgnton seemed pu
sbe for t was a strnge mountan dstngsed from
ts ssters by an unmovng coud tt ay above ts peak
ke a roo And we t appered gray by y t ngt t
gowed t was tere so te peope erd n te busysope of te mountan beow ts roky pek tt Y-
we d spoken to Mses out f te burnng bs nd
d mmssoned m to ead tem out f Egypt Tey
erd bout t wt fer nd trembng for ty were nt
yet capbe f awe nd reverence n trut of tmeven te gryberds woud wys wobbe t te knees
ke ysterca nnnes wenever ses pntd ut te
mountn wt te perpetu ud nd nformd m
tt ts ws te ome of a Gd wo tken fny
to tem nd wnted to be ter soe o kng ssts Moses sed tem bout ter cre evr nd
gmey mde t s cncern t grd tem r cosr re
tonsp wt Yawe by estbsng srne r Hm
rgt tere n ter mdst rgt n Kes
For Ywe d romng preenets ke somuc ese ws reated to Hs nvsbty e st upon
Sn He st pon Horeb and nw rdy tey en-
sconced temseves tte n te Amektes sette
ments before Moses creted a ome for Hm n Kdes
n a tent ner s own w e ad te meetng tentor gaterng tent and so te tberne nd were e
used oy obects as ds fr worspng te mgeess
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ne. They wee pimiy hings h Moses emem
bed nd boowed om he ul o he Midinie Yh
weh: kind o hest bove ll wih ying poles on
which oding to Moses (nd he hd o know) he
godhed ws enhoned invisible nd whih you ouldtke long ou to the eld nd y beoe you ino b
le hould Amlek o exmple y o close in on them
nd tke evnge. An ion od with sepen's hed lo
dubbed the Ion Sepent ws soed nex o he k o
commemoe Aon's wellinended ik beoe Phoh bu lso with the dded symbolism o being he od
tht oses hd exended ove he Se o Reed to mke i
pt. Espeilly howve he Yhwehtent shelteed he
soled ephod he tosingpouch om which png
Uim nd Thummim the lots o the ocles yes ono ih o wong good o evilwheneve diult
humnly unsolvle dipute ed hem t ppel di
etl to Yhwehs bition.
n the disputes nd legl quesions th opped up
mng the people it ws usully Moses himsel whojudged in Yhwehs plce. In he s thing he did in
Kdesh ws o esblish tibunl whee he settled dis
pute on ein dys nd dministeed jtice: hee
t he oue o he most bundn sping whih hd
lwys been lled MeMeibh th is o sy itigion Wes" thee he dminiseed jusie nd le i ow
om him in holiness he wy the wte spng om the
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erth. Cosiderig however tht he loe hd jdicl
thority over totl of twelve thosd ve nred
sos we cn pprecite te brden he d to crry
Since jstice ws somethg qite new to te bn
doned nd lost bloo kin who ntil now h hry evenkow tht it existed the more jstice seekers cme
rshing cotilly to his spring site Thre thy rne
rst tht jstice ws directly connected to nd prtectd
by the ivisibility of God nd His holiess bt scond
tht t lso encompssed injstice someting t took terbble ng tme to comprehend or thy togt tht
nywere tht justice ws owing everybody wod ve
t hve jstice on teir se. At rst tey nt wnt to
elieve tht somene cold lso receive jstice by being
jdged i the wrog nd hving t snk o dsppitdSch person mght well rgrt tht he hnt sttld his
dispte by foowing erlier methds by mens of stone
in the st whch mht hve e to drent otcoe.
Oly wth gret eort dd h lern from Moses tt ths
wod hve chenged God's invsbilty n tht no onwhom jstce hd jdged wrog shol slk o disp
poted for i its holy invisibility jstice ws bot be
tifl d digied whether it jdged yo right or wrong
o Moes d not ony to dnste jstce bt so
to tec jstice n ws mch brdend n s Thebnbordng school he hmself hd stded lw Egyptin
legl scros nd th codex of Hmmrbi te kng by te
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FOURTN
o TT RESON t ws get stoke o luk tt sbotenlw eto om Mdn pd m vst n
Kdes nd oed m pee o good dve w
gven s onsentous selelne e would not ve
dsoveed on s own Soon te s vl n t oss
Moses d equested tt s botbymge send
bk to m s we ppo nd s two sons w
d been selteed n etos tent down n Mdn u
ng te gyptn tbultons. And Jeto ws ood
enoug to ome msel to nd ove we n sns pe
sonlly to embe Moses tke look oun n e
om m ow eveytng d gone
He ws potly eeul sek wt geul det
gestues mn o te wold pne o vlzed soly
sopstted people Welomed wt get eemony
e took up lodgng wt Moses n s tent nd ed not
wtout mzement ow one o s own gods ndeed
te nvsble one wouldnt you know t) d done soextemely well o Moses nd s people nd ow e d
mnged to esue tem om te nd o te gytns
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Who would have thought he sad Appaently hes
geate than we supposed and what youe telling me
makes me nclned to woy that weve been emss n
ou attentons thus a ll make sue that we too accod
him geate hono n the utueFo the ollowng day Moses scheduled public bunt
oengs something he aely d He ddnt thnk espe
cially much o oings; they weent vtal he said
beoe e nvsble Oneand othes the people o the
wold wee in the habit o peoming them Yahwehhad sad Obey my voce above all else that is the voce
o my sevant Moses and then shall be you God and
you My people u n ths ocasin thee wee buth
eed and bunt oeings both o Yahwehs savoing
and to celebate Jethos aval The ollowing day ealyin the monng Moses took his bothebymaiage
alng to the tgaton Wates so that he could attend
cout o a day and see how Moses sat n judgment
ove his people who stood aound hm om monng
untl evening Thee was n hope o gettng thoughit all
Now beg you o heavens sake my dea bothe
nlaw sad the guest as he let the tibunal with Moses
look at how youe budening yousel Sitting thee
alone and eveyone and is bothe standing aound youom monng until evening Why ae you dong that?
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ave to," answered Moses e peope come to me
so tat jde between eac one and s nebor and
sow tem Gods jstce and Hs aws."
Bt my dear eow, ow can anyone be so pess"
sad Jetro n repy s tat te way to overn Does arer ave to drve mse so ard by don everytn
on s own Yore exstn yorse so, ts terrbe
sme. Yo can ardy see ot o yor eyes, an youve
ost yor voce rom jn. And te peoe are no ess
tred. s s not te wy to o abot t; yo nt o onorever settn every mtter yorse t snt even nec
essrysten to me yo represent te peoe beore
od nd brn te mportant matters, te ones tt
concern everybody, beore Hm, tats te eno
Bt," e sd estrn esy, o nd wbdn, moreor ess respected peope amon yor ore, nd set
tem above te oters: bove tosnd, above n
dred, even bove ty or ten, so tt tey cn jde
tem acordn to te jste nd accorn to te ws
tat yo ave presented to te peope. Let tm brnony te reay mportnt matters to yo; te esser ones
tey tae care o temsevesyo dont even ave to
now bot tem wodnt ve my tte pn nd
codnt ave otten away to py yo a vst tot
d to now abot everytn nd rn n crcese yo."
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ut the juges will take its an will n or the
goless ones," Mses answere ejectely For gits make
seeing men blin an pervert the just man's ause"
I know, I kno," replie ethro. m quite aware o
that ut that's the ice you have to pay I you'e goingto aminister justice an create orer, it oen't matter
so much i gits omplicate the situatin a it. Look, the
ones who take gis, theyre oriay olk, but the people
ae also compose o oinay olk that's why they appe
ciate what's orinary an can adjust to it comortablysies, i someone has his case subverte by a jue
overten, because the llow took something rom a go
les one, then h shol o thouh ocial channels an
have reourse to legal proess; he shoul all pon the
jugeovery an the jugeoverahunre an ultimately the jugeoveathousan, who ets more gits
than anyone an threore has a clearer view Your man
wll n justice with him, i he hasn't rown too bore
with the whole thing by then"
hus ethro uttered his opinion with the graceul gestures that mae lie easier or all who saw them, showin
that he was the iestkin o a civilize eset peple
Moses listene to him ejectely an noe He ha
the impressionable sol o a lonely, spirital man who
nos reectively at the cleverness o the worl an un-erstans that it may well be corret nee, he ollowe
the avice o his et brotherymarriageit was quite
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navodabe He apponed ay jdges wo e jse ow
aorng o s eangs aongsde e arge sprng and
aongsde e smaer ones Tey adjdae e uno
em ases f an ass ad faen no a p, r exame),
and ony e apa ases ame o m, Go's pres, aog e reay bg ones were dedd by y os.
And so e was no onger exessvey ag p n ese
maers, and nsead a s arms free for e fer
spng a e nende o o on e formess body
of e peope, an fr w osa, e sraeg youngman, ad won m a woksop, namey, e oass of Ka-
de. se was an mporan exampe of e mpa
ons of Go's nvsby, eany, bu was reay ony
an exape, and wou be a anng, engy ask, o
be aeve w anger and w paene, s spnfom e nry e no merey a peope ke or peo-
pesr wom e odnary was omforabeb rae
an exraornary peope, a peope apa, a pre reaon,
ereed o e nvsbe One and saned o Hm.
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FIFTEE
THE BOOD KIN soon realzed what t meant to haveallen nto the hands o a workman lke Moses, both angry
and patent, n servce to the Invsble One. They realzed
that the unnatural dretve to rase no cry o oy at ther
eneys drownng had been only a begnnngt was n
act an antcpaton, located ar nto the realm o purty
and holness, wth many precondtons to be met beore
one could reah the pont o eperencng a demand lke
that as not comletely unnatural. The true nature o the
horde and how muh they were only raw ateral o esh
and blood, lakng the undamentals o purty and hl
ness; how much Moses had to bein rom the bennn
and nstrct them n rst thingsths an be seen by the
prmtve precepts wth whch he bean to get to work on
them, to hsel and to chp awayand not to ther plea
sure. The blok o tone does not cheer or the master but
aganst hm, and the rst thns that happen durn ts
ormaton seem to t the most unnatural o all.Moses, wth hs wdeset eyes and hs pushedn noe,
was always among them, now here, now there, now deep
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in one enmpment and now in anothe, shing his sts
fom thei boad wists. Cping and avilng, he oggled
and staightened out thei natue, epimnded, ligned,
nd lened it up as needed, all the while taing s his
touhstone the invisibility of God, of Yhweh, who hdled them out of Egypt to tae them as His people, and
who wanted them to be a holy peole, holy lie imsel
At pesent they wee nothing but abble, whih ws dem
onstted when they emptied thei bodies wheeve tey
happened to be, even in thei mp. Tht was disgeand n aition You should hve ple outside the
amp to wal out to if its needed, do you he me? And
you should hve little shovel to dig with bee you sit
down; and afte youve sat down you should ove it ove,
the Lod you God wals witin you mp, whihshould theefoe be holy mp, namely, len one, so
tat He will not old His nose and tun wy fom you.
Fo holiness begins with leanliness, and suh puity in
oase things is the ose beginning of all puity id
you get tht, Ahimn, nd you, mistess Nemi? Nexttime ome by, want to see eveyone with a little shovel,
o the angel of death shall be visited upon you!
You should be len and bthe often with fesh wte
fo the sae of you health, beause without that, thee
n be no puity o holiness, and disese is unlen fyou think tht vulgity is helthie thn len pties,
you e fool and should be stu with aundie, pim
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as food no oe an is e ig wi you soud no
ea eie fo i as ove ooves b does no ew e
ud An eefoe disiguish!
Eveying in e wae a as ns and sales a
ay you ea bu waeve is siding aoun wioue salaandes and ei ilk ey ae also o God o
be sue b as food ey sould be an avesion o yo.
Among e bids you sod sn e eag e ossi-
age e osey e vlue and ei ie; in aiion
al avens e osi e igawk e ukoo esee owl e swa e gea owl e ba e oo-
an e sok e eon and awing as we as e swa-
ow fgo e oooeyou soud avoid i oo. And
who wold wa to ea a weasel a ose a oa o a
edgeog? Wo is so abbeike as o onsue e iade oe and e sowwo o anying else a ees
on e ea an awls on is belly? Bu is you ae doig
ad uing you souls io a essool! Te ex eson
see eaing a sowwo wi ean fo e e ad way
neve o do i again. Fo eve oug e won die o iad i will do im no a it is disgaeful and e ae
any ings a you shoul nd disgaefl. And ee
foe you su ea no aion Besides i's afu.
And so e gave e ees fo eaing and esied
e in maes of nouismen bu no only in hesee aso did i in aes of lus and love beause in a
ea oo eveying was osyvy in e way of
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true rabbe. You shoud ot break the arriae vow, he
tod the, or it is a ho barrier But do ou kow what
ese is iplied b ot breaki the vow? It eas a hu
dred restrictios or the sake o Gods hoiess, ad ot
o that ou shoud ot covet our eihbors wiethatis the east o it For ou ive in the esh, but are swor
t the Ivisibe One, ad arriae is the epite o a
purit i the siht o God For that reaso ou shud ot
take a wo ad her other as wel, to ive o one
exap Tht is usee. Nor shoud u ever, ever iewith our sister, to see her shae a she ours, or that
is iest You shoudt eve lie with our aut, that is
either worth o her or o ou, ad ou shoud shrik
bak ro it Whe a woa has her aiet, ou shoud
avoid her d ot approach the source o her boo. Adi soethi shaeu happes to a a i his seep, he
sha be ipure uti the ext evei a bathe hise
assiduousl i water
I hear that ou are uri our dauhter ito whori
ad taki a whores waes ro her? Do that o ore,or i ou persist in it, I wi have u stoed hat are
ou thiki o, to seep with a bo as with a woa?
That is a absurdit ad a aboiatio ao the peo
pe, ad both o ou shoud die r it. A i soeoe,
be it a a or woa, takes up with a beast, that perso shoud be copete eradicated, ad strled ao
with the beast
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Jst imine their dismy t ll these restrictions At
rst they hd the elin tht if they dhered to ll these
thins life s they knew it wold e no more. He ws
hippin wy t them with the chisel so tht the chips
were yin, nd tht ws to e tken very literlly, for hewsn't okin bot the pnishments to e meted ot r
the worst trnsressions, nd kin p his interditions
stood yon Josh nd his nel of eth.
I m the Lrd thy God," Moses sid, rnnin the risk
tht they miht in trth tke him r God, who rohtyo ot of the lnd of Eypt nd set yo prt rom ll
peoples For tht reson, yo too shold set prt th pre
from the impre nd not follow otr peopls in whor
dom, t e holy nto Me. For I, the Lord, m hly nd
hve set yo prt so yo cn e ine. The most imrethin of ll is to ttend to ny od t Me, for I m el
os God. Te most impre thin o ll is to mke n
ime, whether it look like mn or womn, n ox or
hwk, sh or worm, for if yo do tht it is postsy
inst Me, even if the ime is ment to represent Me,nd yo miht st s well sleep with yor sister or with
bestit's t smll step from one to the other.
e on rd! I m mon yo nd see everythin.
If nyone oes whorin with the Eyptin ods o ni
mls or the ded, I will seek venence. I will hse h
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