Chapter 78
Zipporah answered her father, saying, surely thou hast heard that the God of the Hebrews is great and awful, and does wonders for them at all times.
33. It was Him who delivered Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans [Ur in Hebrew is also 'a fire’, which alludes to the oven into which Abraham was thrown ], and Isaac from the sword of his father, and Jacob from the angel of the Lord who wrestled with him at the ford of Jabbuk.
34. With this man too He has done many things, He delivered him from the river in Egypt and from the word of Pharaoh, and from the children of Cush, so also can He deliver him from famine and make him live.
35. And the thing seemed good in the sight of Reuel, and he did according to the word of his daughter, and sent a servant to the dungeon to ascertain what had become of Moses.
36. And he saw, and behold, the man Moses was living in the dungeon, standing upon his feet, praising and praying to the God of his ancestors.
37. And Reuel commanded Moses to be brought out of the dungeon. So they shaved him and he changed his prison garments and ate bread.
38. And afterward Moses went into the garden of Reuel, which was behind the house, and there he prayed to the Lord his God, who had done mighty wonders for him.
39. And it was that whilst he prayed, he looked opposite him, and behold a sapphire stick was placed in the ground, which was planted in the midst of the garden.
40. And he approached the stick and he looked, and behold the name of the Lord God of hosts was engraved thereon, written and developed upon the stick. [According to the Talmud God's ineffable Name was written upon the stick. ]
41. And he read it and stretched forth his hand and he plucked it like a forest tree from the thicket, and the stick was in his hand.
42. And this was the stick with which all the works of our God were performed, after He had created heaven and earth, and all the host of them, seas, rivers and all their fishes.
43. And when God had driven Adam from the garden of Eden, He took the stick in his hand and went and tilled the ground from which it was taken.
44. And the stick came down to Noah and was given to Shem and his descendants, until it came into the hand of Abraham the Hebrew.
45. And when Abraham had given all he had to his son Isaac, he also gave to him this stick.
46. And when Jacob had fled to Padan-Aram, he took it into his hand, and when he returned to his father he had not left it behind him .
47. Also when he went down to Egypt he took it into his hand and gave it to Joseph, one portion above his brethren, for Jacob had taken it by force from his brother Esau. [compare to Genesis, ch. 48, v. 22: a portion ]
48. And after the death of Joseph, the nobles of Egypt came into the house of Joseph, and the stick came into the hand of Reuel the Midianite, and when he went out of Egypt, he took it in his hand and planted it in his garden.
49. And all the mighty men of the Kinites tried to pluck it when they endeavored to get Zipporah his daughter, but they did not succeed.
50. Therefore the stick remained planted in the garden of Reuel until the one came who had a right to it, and took it.
51. And when Reuel saw the stick in the hand of Moses, he wondered at it, and he gave him his daughter Zipporah for a wife.
1. AT that time Balchannan died, son of king Achbor of Edom, and was buried in his house in the land of Edom.
2. And after his death the children of Esau sent an envoy to the land of Edom, and took from there a man who was in Edom, whose name was Hadad, and they made him king over them in the place of Balchannan, their king.
3. And Hadad reigned over the children of Edom for forty eight years.
4. And when he reigned, he resolved to fight against the children of Moab, to bring them under the power of the children of Esau as they were before, but he was not able to do so, because the children of Moab heard this thing, and they rose up and hastened to elect a king over them from amongst their brethren.
5. And they afterward gathered together a large crowd, and sent to the children of Ammon, their brethren, a request for help in their fight against king Hadad of Edom.
6. And Hadad heard what the children of Moab had done, and was greatly afraid of them, and refrained from righting against them.
7. In those days, Moses, the son of Amram, while in Midian, took Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel the Midianite, for a wife.
8. And Zipporah walked in the ways of the daughters