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3. But God persuaded him to be courageous on all occasions, and promised to be with him, and to assist him in his words1, when he was to persuade men; and in his deeds, when he was to perform wonders2. He bid him also to take a signal of the truth of what he said, by throwing his rod upon the ground, which, when he had done, it crept along, and was become a serpent, and rolled itself round in its folds, and erected its head, as ready to revenge itself on such as should assault it3; after which it become a rod again as it was before. (Verse 4:6) After this God bid Moses to put his right hand4 into his bosom: he obeyed, and when he took it out it was white, and in color like to chalk5, but afterward it returned to its wonted color again. He also, upon God's command, took some of the water that was near him, and poured it upon the ground, and saw the color was that of blood. Upon the wonder that Moses showed at these signs, God exhorted him to be of good courage, and to be assured that he would be the greatest support to him; and bid him make use of those signs, in order to obtain belief among all men, that "thou art sent by me, and dost all things according to my commands. Accordingly I enjoin thee to make no more delays, but to make haste to Egypt, and to travel night and day, and not to draw out the time, and so make the slavery of the Hebrews and their sufferings to last the longer."6

 

 

 

HOW MOSES AND AARON RETURNED INTO EGYPT TO PHARAOH.

1. SO Moses, when he understood that the Pharaoh, in whose reign he fled away, was dead, asked leave of Raguel to go to Egypt, for the benefit of his own people. And he took with him Zipporah, the daughter of Raguel, whom he had married, and the children he had by her, Gersom and Eleazer, and made haste into Egypt7. Now the former of those names, Gersom, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies that he was in a strange land8; and Eleazer, that, by the assistance of the God of his fathers, he had escaped from the Egyptians. Now when they were near the borders, Aaron9 his brother, by the command of God, met him, to whom he declared what had befallen him at the mountain, and the commands that God had given him. (Verse 29) But as they were going forward, the chief men among the Hebrews, having learned that they were coming, met them10: (Verse 30) to whom Moses declared the signs he had seen11; and while they could not believe them, he made them see them, So they took courage at these surprising and unexpected sights, and hoped well of their entire deliverance, as believing now that God took care of their preservation.

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FOOTNOTES

1 Josephus here omits both of the biblical references to this handicap. In the Bible when Moses objects (Exod. 4:10) that he has a speech impediment, God in exasperation (Exod. 4:14) becomes angry with him and tells him that Aaron will speak for him.

2 Josephus here, in an extra-biblical addition, speaks to Moses assuring him that he would supply persuasion (a factor that one would hardly associate with Moses, since Moses had a speech defect) and strength.

3 The picturesque description of the snake crawling and curling and raising its head menacingly is Josephus’ addition.

4 Exod. 4:6 does not specify the right hand.

5 According to Exod. 4:6, it was “leprous, as white as snow.”

6 Moses’ bravery is highlighted by virtue of the fact that whereas God tells him to return to Egypt, “for all the men are dead who sought thy life” (Exod. 4:19), there is no such assurance to be found in Josephus, where God simply tells Moses here to hasten to Egypt without further delay, pressing forward by night and day. In Exod. 4:18 it is Moses who takes the initiative in asking Jethro to permit him to return to the Israelites in Egypt. Josephus omits God’s statement (Exod. 4:21) that He will harden the heart of Pharaoh so as not to let the Israelites go, as well as His threat that He will kill Pharaoh’s first-born son if he refuses.

7 The dignity of a leader is crucial to his success. Hence, we find that the LXX (Exod. 4:20) avoids stating, as does the Hebrew, that Moses put his wife and his sons upon a donkey and sent them back to the land of Egypt; and instead, presumably because the donkey was regarded as such a lowly animal (cf., e.g., the clear disdain for the donkey implicit in the fact that when Midas is punished for challenging the verdict of Tmolus that Apollo was superior to Pan as a musician, his ears are lengthened to resemble those of a donkey [Ovid, Met. 11.172-93]), declares that Moses mounted them upon “beasts” without indicating the identity of these (this is one of the changes noted by the Talmud as introduced by the translators under divine inspiration [ Megillah 9a]). Josephus here goes one step further and says that Moses took his wife and sons and hastened away, without mentioning the means.

8 Exod. 2:22 explains the name of Gershon as meaning “I have been a sojourner ( גר) in a foreign land.” Josephus omits the element of “sojourner.”

9 Josephus omits the biblical statement (Exod. 4:27) that Aaron met Moses at the “mountain of God.”

10 According to Exod. 4:29, Moses and Aaron assembled all the elders together.

11 In Exod. 4:30 it is Aaron who recounts all that God had spoken to Moses.