but lately received the government, and told him how much he had done for the good of the Egyptians, when they were despised by the Ethiopians, and their country laid waste by them, and how he had been the commander of their forces, and had laboured for them, as if they had been his own people; and he informed him in what danger he had been during that expedition, without having any proper returns made him, as he had deserved. He also stated, distinctly, what things happened to him at Mount Sinai, and what God said to him, and the signs that were done by God in order to assure him of the authority of those commands which he had given him; he also exhorted him not to disbelieve what he told him, nor to oppose the will of God.

But when the king derided Moses, he made him see the signs that were done at Mount Sinai; yet was the king very angry, and called him a wicked man, who had formerly run away from his Egyptian slavery, and now come back with deceitful tricks, and wonders, and magical arts, to astonish him. And when he had said this, he commanded the priests to let him see the same wonderful sights; as knowing that the Egyptians were skilful in this kind of learning, and that he was not the only person who knew them, and pretended them to be divine: he also told him, that when he brought such wonderful sights before him, he would only be believed by the unlearned. Now when the priests threw down their rods, they became serpents; but Moses was not daunted at it, and said, "O king, I do not myself despise the wisdom of the Egyptians; but I say, that what I do is so much superior to what these perform by magic arts and tricks, as divine power exceeds the power of man; but I will demonstrate that what I do is not done by craft, or so counterfeiting what is not really true, but that they appear by the providence and power of God." When he had said this, he cast his rod down upon the ground, and commanded it to turn itself into a serpent. It obeyed him, and went all round and devoured the

Josephus seems here mistaken in his Egyptian chronology, when he says that this Pharaoh, who was then king, had but lately begun his reign; nor is it any wonder, since I have already observed, how greatly he was mistaken in this entire Egyptian chronology, and so in the king of Egypt, with whom Moses had to do.

rods of the Egyptians,† which seemed to be dragons, until it had consumed them all. It then returned to its own form, and Moses took it into his hand again.

However, the king was no more moved when this was done than before; but being very angry, he said, that he should gain nothing by this cunning and shrewdness against the Egyptians; at the same time commanding the chief task-master over the Hebrews to give them no relaxation from their labours, but to compel them to submit to greater oppressions than before; and though he allowed them chaff before for making their bricks, he would allow it no longer, but he made them to work hard at brick-making in the day time, and to gather chaff in the night. Now when their labour was thus doubled, they laid the blame upon Moses, because their labour and their misery were on his account become more severe. But Moses did not let his courage sink for the king's threatenings; nor did he abate of bis zeal on account of the Hebrews' complaints, but he supported himself, and set his soul resolutely against them both, and used his utmost diligence to procure liberty to his countrymen: so he went to the king and persuaded him to let the Hebrews go to Mount Sinai, and there to sacrifice to God, because God had enjoined them so to do. He persuaded him also not to counterwork the designs of God, but to esteem his favour above all things, and to permit them to depart lest he should lay an obstruction in the way of the Divine commands, and so occasion his suffering such punishments, as it was probable any one that withstood the Divine commands should undergo, since the severest afflictions arise from every object to those that provoke the Divine wrath against them; for such as these have neither the earth, nor the air, for their friends: nor are the fruits of the womb according to nature, but every thing is unfriendly and adverse towards them. He said farther, that the Egyptians should know this by sad experience, and that the Hebrew people should go out of their country without permission.

+ Exod. vii. 12.

CHAP. XIV.

OF THE TEN PLAGUES WHICH CAME UPON THE EGYPTIANS,

WHEN the king despised the words of Moses, and had no regard at all to them, grievous plagues seized the Egyptians; every one of which I will describe; both because no such plagues ever happened to any other nation as the Egyptians now felt; and because I would demonstrate that Moses did not fail in any one thing that he foretold them; and because it is for the good of mankind, that they may learn this caution, not to do any thing that may displease God, lest he be provoked to wrath, and avenge their iniquities upon them.

*

The Egyptian river ran with bloody water, at the command of God, insomuch, that it could not be drank; and they had no other spring of water. For the water was not only of the colour of blood, but it brought upon those that ventured to drink it great pains, and bitter torment. Such was the river to the Egyptians. But it was sweet and fit to drink to the Hebrews, and no way different from what it naturally used to be. As the king, therefore, knew not what to do in these surprising circumstances, and was in fear for the Egyptians, he gave the Hebrews leave to go away. But when the plague ceased, he changed his mind, and would not suffer them to go.

the ceas

But when God saw that he was ungrateful, and upon ing of the calamity would not grow wiser, he sent another plague upon the Egyptians: an innumerable multitude of frogst consumed the fruit of the ground. The river was also

* Exod. vii. 20.

Exod. viii. 6.

The river Nile naturally produces frogs; but so great an abundance appearing on a sudden, filling the country, and leaving the rivers and fields, to go into the cities and houses, was really miraculous. How they got into the cities and houses is not so hard a matter to conceive: for if expert generals, according to both ancient and modern history, have sometimes surprised an enemy by entering cities through the common sewers, with much less difficulty might the frogs, these armies of the Divine vengeance, find a conveyance into the cities, which stood all upon the banks of the river, by aqueducts and subterraneous communications; and being got into the cities, they might find apertures in the walls of the houses, which the inhabitants never perceived before. Bibliotheca Bibl. in locum. B.