Chapter 67
the whole country is filled with them.
14. Now therefore our lord and king, the eyes of all Egypt are upon thee to give them advice with thy wisdom, by which they may prevail over Israel to destroy them, or to diminish them from the land; and the king answered them, saying, give you counsel in this mattter that we may know what to do unto them.
15. And an officer, one of the king's counsellors, whose name was Job, from Mesopotamia in the land of Uz, answered the king, saying:
16. If it please the king, let him hear the counsel of his servant. And the king said unto him, speak!
17. And Job spoke before the king, the princes, and before all the elders of Egypt, saying:
18. Behold, the counsel of the king which he advised formerly in respect to the labor of the children of Israel is very good, and you must not remove from them that labor forever.
19. But this is the advice counselled by which you may lessen them, if it seems good to the king to afflict them.
20. Behold, we have feared war for a long time, and we said, when Israel becomes fruitful in the land, they will drive us from the land if a war should take place.
21. If it please the king, let a royal decree go forth, and let it be written in the laws of Egypt which shall not be revoked, that every male child born to the Israelites, his blood shall be spilled upon the ground.
22. And by you doing this, when all the male children of Israel shall have died, the evil of their wars will cease. Let the king do so and send for all the Hebrew midwives and order them in this matter to execute it. So the thing pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Job.
23. And the king sent for the Hebrew midwives to be called, of which the name of one was Shephrah, and the name of the other Puah.
24. And the midwives came before the king, and stood in his presence.
25. And the king said unto them, when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then you shall kill him, but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
26. But if you will not do this thing, then will I burn you up and all your houses with fire.
27. But the midwives feared God and did not hearken to the king of Egypt nor to his words, and when the Hebrew women brought forth to the midwife son or daughter, then did the midwife do all that was necessary to the child and let it live; thus did the midwives all the days.
28. And this thing was told to the king, and he sent and called for the midwives and he said to them, why have you done this thing and have saved the children alive?
29. And the midwives answered, and spoke together before the king, saying:
30. Let not the king think that the Hebrew women are as the Egyptian women, for all the children of Israel are hale [or lively], and before the midwife comes to them they are delivered, and as for us thy handmaids, for many days no Hebrew woman has brought forth upon us, for all the Hebrew women are their own midwives, because they are hale.
31. And Pharaoh heard their words and believed them in this matter, and the midwives went away from the king, and God dealt well with them, and the people multiplied and waxed exceedingly.
1. THERE was a man in the land of Egypt of the seed of Levi whose name was Amram, the son of Kehath son of Levi, the son of Israel.
2. And this man went and took a wife, namely Jochebed, the daughter of Levi his father's sister, and she was one hundred and twenty six years old, and he came unto her.
3. And the woman conceived and bare a daughter, and she called her name Miriam, because in those days the Egyptians had embittered the lives of the children of Israel.
4. And she conceived again and bare a son and she called his name Aaron, for in the days of her conception Pharaoh began to spill the blood of the male children of Israel.
5. In those days king Zepho of Chittim died, the son of Eliphaz son of Esau, and Janeas reigned in his stead.
6. The time Zepho reigned over the children of Chittim was fifty years, and he died and was buried in the city of Nabna in the land of Chittim.
7. And Janeas, one of the mighty men of the children of Chittim, reigned after him and reigned fifty years.
8. And it was after the death of the king of Chittim that Balaam the son of Beor fled from the land of Chittim, and he went and came to Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9. And Pharaoh received him with great honor, for he had heard of his wisdom, and he gave him 151 . presents and made him a counsellor and aggrandized him.
10. And Balaam dwelt in Egypt, in honor with all the nobles of the king. And the nobles exalted him, because they all coveted to learn his wisdom.
11. And in the hundred and thirtieth year of Israel going down to Egypt, Pharaoh dreamed that he was sitting upon his kingly throne and that he lifted up his eyes and saw an old man standing before him, and there were scales in the hands of the old man, such scales as are used by merchants.
12. And the old man took the scales and hung them before Pharaoh.
13. And the old man took all the elders of Egypt and all its nobles and great men, and he tied them to gether and put them on one scale.
14. And he took a milk kid and put it on the other scale, and the kid preponderated over all.
15. And Pharaoh was astonished at this dreadful vision, why the kid should preponderate over all, and Pharaoh woke up and behold it was a dream.
16. And Pharaoh rose up early in the morning and called all his servants and related to them the dream, and the men were much frightened.
17. And the king said to all his wise men, interpret I pray you the dream which I dreamed, that I may know its interpretation .
18. And Balaam, the son of Beor, answered the king and said unto him: This means nothing else but a great evil that will spring up against Egypt in the latter days.
19. For a son will be born to Israel, who will destroy all Egypt and its inhabitants, and bring forth the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand.
20. Now therefore, King, take counsel upon this matter, that you may destroy the hope of the children of Israel and their expectation before this evil arises against Egypt.
21. And the king said unto Balaam: What shall we do unto Israel? Surely after a certain manner did we at first counsel against them and could not prevail over them.
22. Now therefore give you also advice against them by which we may prevail over them.
23. And Balaam answered the king, saying, send now and call thy two counsellors, and we will see what their advice is upon this matter and afterward thy servant will speak.
24. And the king sent and called his two counsellors Reuel the Midianite and Job the Uzite, and they came and sat before the king.
25. And the king said to them, behold you have both heard the dream which I dreamed, and the interpretation thereof; now therefore, give counsel and know and see what is to be done against the children of Israel, whereby we may prevail over them before their evil shall spring up against us.
26. And Reuel the Midianite answered the king and said: May the King live, may the King live forever.
27. If it seem good to the King, let him desist from the Hebrews and leave them, and let him not stretch forth his hand against them.
28. For these are they whom the Lord chose in days of old, and took as the lot of his inheritance from amongst all the nations of the earth and the kings of the earth; and who is there to stretch his hand against them with impunity, of whom their God was not avenged?
29. Surely thou knowest that when Abraham went down to Egypt, Pharaoh, the former king of Egypt, saw Sarah his wife, and took her for a wife, because Abraham said, she is my sister, for he was afraid, lest the men of Egypt should slay him on account of his wife.
30. And when the king of Egypt had taken Sarah then God smote him and his household with heavy plagues, until he restored unto Abraham his wife Sarah, then was he healed.
31. And Abimelech the Gerarite, king of the Philistines, God punished on account of Sarah wife of Abraham, in stopping up every womb from man to beast.
32. When their God came to Abimelech in the dream of night and terrified him, in order that he might restore to Abraham Sarah whom he had taken. And afterward all the people of Gerar were punished on account of Sarah, and Abraham prayed to his God for them, and he was intreated by him, and He healed them.
33. And Abimelech feared all this evil that came upon him and his people, and he returned to Abraham his wife Sarah, and sent her with many gifts to be given to him.
34. He did so also to Isaac when he had driven him from Gerar. God had done wonderful things to him, that all the water courses of Gerar were dried up, and their productive trees did not bring forth.
35. This kept on until Abimelech of Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Pichol the captain of his host, went to him and bent and bowed down before him to the ground.
36. And they requested of him to supplicate for them, and he prayed the Lord for them, and the Lord was intreated of him and He healed them.
37. Jacob also, the plain man, was delivered through his integrity from the hand of his brother Esau, and the hand of Laban the Syrian, his mother's brother, who had sought his life; likewise from the hand of all the kings of Canaan who had come together against him and his children to destroy them. And the Lord delivered them out of their hands, that they turned upon them and smote them, for who had ever stretched forth his hand against them with impunity?
38. Surely, Pharaoh the former, thy father's father, raised Joseph the son of Jacob above all the princes of the land of Egypt, when he saw his wisdom, for 152 . through his wisdom he rescued all the inhabitants of the land from the famine.
39. After which he ordered Jacob and his children to come down to Egypt, in order that through their virtue, the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen might be delivered from the famine.
40. Now, therefore, if it seem good in thine eyes, cease from destroying the children of Israel, but if it be not thy will that they shall dwell in Egypt, send them forth from here, that they may go to the land of Canaan, the land where their ancestors sojourned.
41. And when Pharaoh heard the words of Jethro he was very angry with him, so that he rose with shame from the king's presence and went to Midian, his land, and took Joseph's stick with him.
42. And the king said to Job the Uzite, what sayest thou Job, and what is thy advice respecting the Hebrews?
43. So Job said to the king, behold all the inhabitants of the land are in thy power, let the king do as it seems good in his eyes.
44. And the king said unto Balaam, what dost thou say, Balaam, speak thy word that we may hear it.
45. And Balaam said to the king: Of all that the King has counselled against the Hebrews they shall be delivered, and the King will not be able to prevail over them with any counsel.
46. For if thou thinkest to lessen them by the flaming fire, thou canst not prevail over them, for surely their God delivered Abraham their father from Ur Casdim [The Hebrew 'ur' – aleph, waw, resh – translates as 'fire', which refers to the blazing oven in which Abram was thrown – see chapter 12, from which God delivered him. ]; and if thou thinkest to destroy them by the sword, surely Isaac their father was delivered from it, and a ram was placed in his stead.
47. And if by hard and rigorous labor thou thinkest to lessen them, thou wilt not prevail even in this, for their father Jacob served Laban in all manner of hard work, and prospered.
48. Now therefore, O King, hear my words, for this is the counsel which is counselled against them, by which thou wilt prevail over them, and from which thou shouldst not depart.
49. If it please the King, let him order all their children that shall be born from this day forward, to be thrown into the water, for by this canst thou wipe out their name, for none of them, nor of their fathers, were tried in this manner. [They did not have any escape from water yet — but during the Exodus from Egypt, at the time of crossing the Red Sea, God saved them miraculously. ]
50. And the king heard the words of Balaam, and the thing pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Balaam.
51. And the king ordered a proclamation to be issued and a law to be made throughout the land of Egypt, saying, every male child born to the Hebrews from this day forward shall be thrown into the water.
52. And Pharaoh called unto all his servants, saying, go now and seek throughout the land of Goshen where the children of Israel are, and see that every son born to the Hebrews shall be cast into the river, but every daughter you shall let live.
53. And when the children of Israel heard this thing which Pharaoh commanded, to cast their male children into the river, some of the people separated from their wives and others adhered to them.
54. And from that day forward, when the time of delivery arrived to those women of Israel who had remained with their husbands, they went to the field to bring forth there, and they brought forth in the field, and left their children upon the field and returned home.
55. And the Lord who had sworn to their ancestors to multiply them, sent one of his ministering angels which are in heaven to wash each child in water, to anoint and swathe it and to put into its hands two smooth stones from one of which it sucked milk and from the other honey. And through his compassion for it [the child], He caused its hair to grow to its knees by which it might cover itself, and He caused it to be comforted by the angel and to cleave to it [the angel]. [Just like John the Baptist, who was brought up by an angel after the death of Elisabeth, in order to escape Herodes' fury. ]
56. And when God had compassion over them and desired to multiply them upon the face of the land, he ordered his earth to receive them to be preserved therein till the time of their growing up, after which the earth opened its mouth and vomited them forth and they sprouted forth from the city like the herb of the earth and the grass of the forest, and they returned each to his family and to his father's house, and they remained with them.
57. And the babes of the children of Israel were upon the earth like the herb of the field, through God's grace to them.
58. And when all the Egyptians saw this thing, they went forth, each to his field with his yoke of oxen and his ploughshare, and they ploughed it up as one ploughs the earth at seed time.
59. And when they ploughed they were unable to hurt the infants of the children of Israel. So the people increased and waxed exceedingly.