Chapter 65
of Zepho and his men.
27. And Zepho said unto Balaam, try by divination for us that we may know who will prevail in the battle, we or the Egyptians.
28. And Balaam rose up and tried the art of divination, and he was skilful in the knowledge of it, but he was confused and the work was destroyed in his hand.
29. And he tried it again but it did not succeed, and Balaam despaired of it and left it and did not complete it, for this was from the Lord, in order to cause Zepho and his people to fall into the hands of the children of Israel, who trusted in the Lord, the God of their ancestors, in their war.
30. And Zepho and Hadad put their forces in battle array. And all the Egyptians went alone against them, about three hundred thousand men, and not one man of Israel was with them.
31. And all the Egyptians fought with these kings opposite Pathros and Tachpanches, and the battle was severe against the Egyptians.
32. And the kings were stronger than the Egyptians in that battle, and about one hundred and eighty men of Egypt fell on that day, and about thirty men of the forces of the kings, and all the men of Egypt fled from before the kings; so the children of Esau and Ishmael pursued the Egyptians, continuing to smite them unto the place where existed the camp of the children of Israel.
33. And all the Egyptians cried unto the children of Israel, saying, hasten to us and assist us and save us from the hands of Esau, Ishmael and the children of Chittim.
34. And hundred and fifty men of the children of Israel ran from their station to the camps of these kings, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord their God to deliver them.
35. And the Lord hearkened to Israel, and the Lord gave all the men of the kings into their hand, and the children of Israel fought against these kings, and the children of Israel smote about four thousand of the king's men.
36. And the Lord threw great consternation in the camp of the kings, so that fear of the children of Israel fell upon them.
37. And all the hosts of the kings fled from before the children of Israel, and the children of Israel pursued them continuing to smite them unto the borders of the land of Gush.
38. And the children of Israel slew of on the road yet another two thousand men, and of the children of Israel not one fell.
39. And when the Egyptians saw that the children of Israel had fought with so few men against the kings, and that the battle was so very severe against them,
40. all the Egyptians were greatly afraid of their lives on account of the strong battle, and all Egypt fled, every man hiding himself from the arrayed forces, and they hid themselves along the road, and they left the Israelites to do the fighting.
41. And the children of Israel inflicted a terrible blow upon the king's men, and they returned after they had driven them to the border of the land of Gush.
42. And all Israel knew what the men of Egypt had done to them, that they had fled from them in battle and left them to fight alone .
43. So the children of Israel also acted with cunning. As the children of Israel returned from battle they found some of the Egyptians along the road and smote them there.
44. And whilst they slew them, they said unto them these words:
45. Wherefore did you go from us and leave us, being a few people, to let us fight against these kings who had a great people to smite us, that you might thereby deliver your own souls?
46. And of some that the Israelites met on the road, they the children of Israel spoke to each other, saying, smite, smite, for he is an Ishmaelite or an Edomite, or from the children of Chittim, and they stood over him and slew him, whilst they knew he was an Egyptian.
47. And the children of Israel did these things cunningly against the Egyptians, because they had deserted them in battle and had fled from them.
48. And the children of Israel slew of the men of Egypt along the road in this manner, about two hundred men.
49. And all the men of Egypt saw the evil that the children of Israel had done to them. So all Egypt feared greatly the children of Israel, for they had seen their great power, and that not one man of them had fallen.
50. So all the children of Israel returned with joy on their road to Goshen, and the rest of Egypt returned, each man to his own place.
1. AND it came to pass after these things, that all the counsellors of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all the elders of Egypt assembled and came before the king and bowed down to the ground, and they sat before him.
2. And the counsellors and elders of Egypt spoke unto the king, saying:
3. Behold the people of the children of Israel is greater and mightier than we are, and thou knowest all the evil which they did to us on the road when we 148 . returned from battle.
4. And thou hast also seen their strong power, for this power is unto them from their fathers, for but a few men stood up against a people numerous as the sand, and smote them at the edge of the sword, and of themselves not one has fallen, so that if they had been numerous they would then have utterly destroyed them.
5. Now therefore, give us counsel what to do with them, so that we gradually destroy them from amongst us, lest they become too numerous for us in the land.
6. For if the children of Israel should increase in the land, they become an obstacle to us, and if any war should happen to take place, they will join our enemy against us with their great strength and fight against us to destroy us in the land, and go away from it.
7. So the king answered the elders of Egypt and said unto them: This is the plan conceived against Israel, from which we will not depart.
8. Behold, in the land are Pithom [called Per-Atum ] and Rameses [called Avaris, the capital of Egypt under the Hyksos ], cities unfortified against battle. It behoves you and us to start building there, and to fortify them.
9. Now therefore, go you also and act cunningly toward them, and proclaim with a voice in Egypt and in Goshen at the command of the king, saying:
10. All ye men of Egypt, Goshen, Pathros and all their inhabitants! The king has commanded us to build Pithom and Rameses and fortify them for battle; who amongst you of all Egypt, of the children of Israel and of all the inhabitants of the cities, are willing to build with us, each shall have his wages given to him daily at the king's order; so go you first and do cunningly, and gather yourselves and come to Pithom and Rameses to build.
11. And whilst you are building, cause a proclamation of this kind to be made throughout Egypt every day at the command of the king.
12. And when some of the children of Israel shall come to build together with you, you shall give them their wages daily for a few days.
13. And after they shall have built together with you for their daily hire, draw yourselves away from them daily, one by one in secret, and then you shall rise up and become their task masters and officers, and you shall leave them afterward to build without wages, and should they refuse, then force them with all your might to build.
14. And if you do this, it will be well with us to strengthen our land against the children of Israel, for on account of the fatigue of the building and the work, the children of Israel will decrease, because you will deprive them from their wives day by day.
15. And all the elders of Egypt heard the counsel of the king, and the counsel seemed good in their eyes and in the eyes of the servants of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all Egypt, and they did according to the word of the king.
16. And all the servants went away from the king, and they caused a proclamation to be made in all of Egypt, in Tachpanches and in Goshen, and in all the cities which surrounded Egypt, saying:
17. You have seen what the children of Esau and Ishmael did to us, who came to war against us and wished to destroy us.
18. Now therefore, the king commanded us to fortify the land, to build the cities Pithom and Rameses, and to fortify them for battle, if they should again come against us.
19. Whosoever of you from all Egypt and from the children of Israel will come to build with us, he shall have his daily wages given by the king, as his command is unto us.
20. And when Egypt and all the children of Israel heard all that the servants of Pharaoh had spoken, there came from the Egyptians and the children of Israel to build with the servants of Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses, but none of the children of Levi came with their brethren to build.
21. And all the servants of Pharaoh and his princes came at first with deceit to build together with all the people of Israel as daily hired laborers, and they gave to Israel their daily hire at the be ginning.
22. And the servants of Pharaoh built with all the people of Israel, and were employed in that work with Israel for a month.
23. And at the end of the month, all the servants of Pharaoh began to withdraw secretly from the people of Israel daily.
24. And Israel went on with the work at that time, but they then received their daily hire, because some of the men of Egypt were yet carrying on the work with Israel at that time; therefore the Egyptians gave Israel their hire in those days, in order that they, the Egyptians their fellow workmen, might also take the pay for their labour.
25. And at the end of a year and four months all the Egyptians had withdrawn from the children of Israel, so that the children of Israel were left alone engaged in the work.
26. And after all the Egyptians had withdrawn from the children of Israel they returned and became oppressors and officers over them, and some of them stood over the children of Israel as task masters, to receive in their stead all that they were given for the pay of their labour.
27. And the Egyptians did in this manner to the children of Israel day by day, in order to afflict the Israelites in their work.
28. And all the children of Israel were alone, engaged in the labor, and the Egyptians refrained from giving any pay to the children of Israel from that time forward.
29. And when some of the men of Israel refused