My Word will be with the speaking of thy mouth, and will teach thee what thou shalt say.

And he said, I pray for mercy before the Lord. Send now Thy sending by the hand of Phinehas, by whom it is to be sent at the end of the days. [JERUSALEM. Send now by the hand of him by whom it is opportune to send.] And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Mosheh, and He said, Is it not manifest before Me that Aharon thy brother speaking can speak ? And, behold, also, he cometh forth to meet thee, and will see thee and rejoice in his heart. And thou shalt speak with him, and put the matter in his mouth, and My Word shall be with the word of thy mouth, and with the word of his mouth, and I will instruct you what you are to do. And he shall speak for thee with the people, and be to thee an interpreter, and thou to him the principal, seeking instruction from before the Lord. [Jerusalem. He shall be to thee an interpreter, and thou to him one inquiring instruction from before the Lord.] And this rod take thou in thy hand to work therewith the signs.

And Mosheh went, and returned unto Jethro his father-in-law, and said, I will now go to my brethren who are in Mizraim, to see how they now live. And Jethro said to Mosheh, Go in peace. And the Lord said unto Mosheh in Midian, Go, return to Mizraim; for they have come to nought, and gone down from their possessions; behold, all the men who sought to take thy life are reckoned as the dead.

And Mosheh took his wife and his sons, and made them ride on the ass, and returned to the land of Mizraim. And Mosheh took the rod which he had brought away from the chamber of his father-in-law; and it was from the sapphire Throne of glory, in weight forty sëin; and upon it was engraven and set forth the

Great and Glorious Name by which the signs should be wrought before the Lord by his hand. And the Lord said to Mosheh, In going to return into Mizraim, consider all the miracles that I have put in thy hand, and do them before Pharoh: and I will make obstinate the disposition (passion) of his heart, and he will not deliver the people. And thou shalt say to Pharoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My first-born son; and to thee I say, Let My son go free, that he may worship before Me; and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy first-born son.

But it was on the way, in the place of lodging, that the angel of the Lord met him, and sought to kill him, because Gershom his son had not been circumcised, inasmuch as Jethro his father-in-law had not permitted him to circumcise him: but Eliezer had been circumcised, by an agreement between them two. And Zipporah took a stone, and circumcised the foreskin of Gershom her son, and brought the severed part to the feet of the angel, the Destroyer, and said, The husband sought to circumcise, but the father-in-law obstructed him; and now let this blood of the circumcision atone for my husband. [Jerusalem. And she circumcised the foreskin of her son, and brought before the feet of the Destroyer, and said, The husband would have circumcised, but the father-in-law did not permit him; but now, let the blood of this circumcision atone for the fault of this husband.] And the destroying angel desisted' from him, so that Zipporah gave thanks, and said, How lovely is the blood of this circumcision that hath delivered my husband from the angel of destruction! [Jerusalem. And when the Destroyer had ceased from him, Zipporah gave thanks and said, How lovely is the blood of this circumcision which hath saved my husband from the hand of the angel of death!]

And the Lord had Mosheh in the desert. the mountain where was revealed the glory of the Lord, and he embraced him. And Mosheh delivered to Aharon all these words with which he had sent him, and all the signs that he had instructed him to work.

said to Aharon, Go and meet And he came and met him at

And Mosheh and Aharon went, and gathered together all the elders of the sons of Israel. And Aharon spake all the words which the Lord had spoken with Mosheh, and did the signs in the eyes of the people. And the people believed, and heard that the Lord had remembered the sons of Israel, and that their bondage was manifest before Him; and they bowed themselves and worshipped. [Jerusalem. And they kneeled down.]

V. And after this Mosheh and Aharon went in unto Pharoh, and said, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel Release My people, that they may make unto Me a festival in the wilderness. And Pharoh said, The name of the Lord is not made known to me, that I should receive His word to release Israel. I have not found written in the Book of the Angels the name of the Lord. Of Him I am not afraid, neither will I release Israel. And they said, The Name of the God of the Jehudaee is invoked by (or upon) us. We will go, then, to proceed three days into the desert, and offer the sacrifices of a festival before the Lord God, that death and slaughter befall us not. And the king of Mizraim said to Mosheh and Aharon, Why do you make the people cease from their labours? Go to your work. And Pharoh said, Behold, this people of the land are many, whom you would stop from their service. And Pharoh that day commanded the officers of the people and their exactors, saying, You shall no more give straw to the people to cast bricks as heretofore; let

them go and collect straw for themselves; but the (same) number of bricks which they have heretofore made ye shall lay upon them, and not diminish from it, because they are idle; therefore they clamour, saying, Let us go to offer the sacrifice of a festival before our God. Make their work strenuous upon the men, that they may be occupied with it, and not be setting their hopes upon lying words. And the officers and exactors of the people went forth, and said to the people, Thus saith Pharoh, I will not give you straw; you must go and take straw wherever you can find it; for your work will not in anywise be diminished. And the people were scattered abroad in all the land of Mizraim to gather stubble for the straw. But the officers were pressing, saying, Fulfil your work day by day, as you did when the straw was given you. And the exactors whom Pharoh set over them as officers beat the sons of Israel, saying, Why have not you fulfilled your appointment, to cast (the same number of) bricks as heretofore, to-day as yesterday? And the foremen came, and cried before Pharoh, saying, Why hast thou dealt thus with thy servants? Thou hast not given thy servants the straw, and (yet) say they to us, Make the bricks; and, behold, they beat thy servants, and the guilty treatment of thy people is strong-but it goeth up! But he said, You are idle, idle therefore you are saying, Let us go and offer the sacrifice of a festival before our God. And now, go, work; but the straw shall not be given you, yet the number of the bricks you shall produce. And the foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in evil, (in his) saying, Ye are not to withhold the assignment of your bricks from day to day. And they met Mosheh and Aharon, who stood before them when they came out from the presence of Pharoh, and they said to them, Our affliction is manifest before the Lord, but our

punishment is from you who have made our smell offensive before Pharoh and his servants; for you have occasioned a sword to be put into their hand to kill us. And Mosheh returned before the Lord, and said, O Lord, why hast Thou done evil to this people, and wherefore hast Thou sent me? From the hour that I went in unto Pharoh to speak in Thy name, this people hath suffered evil, and delivering Thou hast not delivered them.

VI. And the Lord said unto Mosheh, Now have I seen what Pharoh hath done: for by a strong hand shall he release them, and with a strong hand drive them forth from his land.

SECTION XIV.

3

VAERA.

And the Lord spake with Mosheh, and said to him, I am the Lord who revealed Myself to thee in the midst of the bush, and said to thee, I am the Lord. And I was revealed unto Abraham, and to Izhak, and to Jakob, as El-Shaddai; but My Name Ye-ya, as it discovereth My Glory, was not known to them. [Jerusalem. And the Lord was revealed in His Word unto Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jakob, as the God of Heaven; but the Name of the Word of the Lord was not known to them.] And I confirmed also. My covenant with them, to give them the land of Kenaan, the land of their sojourning in which they were sojourners. 3 Or, "in the face of My Shekinah.”

X