by baking, bake, and that which you prepare by boiling, boil, and all the remainder lay up to you, a store for the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Mosheh had instructed; and it did not corrupt, neither were there worms in it. And Mosheh said, Eat that today, for this day is Shabbath before the Lord; this day you would not find it in the field. Six days you shall collect it; but on the seventh day, the Shabbath, there will be none. And it was on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found it not. 8 And the Lord said to Mosheh, How long will you be unwilling to keep My commandments and My laws? See, because the Lord hath given you the Shabbath He hath therefore given you on the sixth day the bread for two days; let every man dwell in his resting, and not go out from his place on the seventh day. And the people reposed on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name of it Manna; and it was as the seed of Gida white, and its taste was like cake broiled with honey. And Mosheh said, This is the word which the Lord hath commanded. Fill an omera of it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread which I made you eat in the desert when I brought you forth from the land of Mizraim. And Mosheh said to Aharon, Take one vase, and put therein an omera full of manna, and lay it up before the Lord to be preserved for your generations. As the Lord commanded, so did Mosheh; and Aharon laid it up before the Testimony, to keep. And the children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to the land inhabited; they did eat the manna till they came to the confines of the land of Kenaan. And one omera is the tenth of three seahs. XVII. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the desert of Sin, according to their itinerations by the Word of the Lord; and they encamped in Rephidim: but the people had no water to drink; and the people were contentious with Mosheh, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Mosheh said, Why do you contend with me? why do you tempt before the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water, and the people were turbulent against Mosheh, and said, Why is this,—to have brought us from Mizraim, to kill me and my children and my cattle with thirst? And Mosheh prayed before the Lord, saying, What shall I do with this people? Yet a little, and they will stone me! And the Lord said to Mosheh, Pass over before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod wherewith thou didst smite the river take in thy hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there, upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink. And Mosheh did so in the eyes of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place, Temptation and Strife, because of the striving of the sons of Israel, and because they tempted before the Lord, saying, Is the Majesty of the Lord among us, or not? And Amaleq came, and warred battle with Israel in Rephidim. And Mosheh said to Jehoshua, Choose for us men, and go forth and do battle with Amaleq. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill, and the rod with which the miracles are wrought from before the Lord shall be in my hand. And Jehoshua did as Mosheh had said to him, and he did battle with Amaleq. And Mosheh, Aharon, and Hur ascended to the top of the hill. And it was that when Mosheh lifted up his hand, the house of Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, the house of Amaleq prevailed. But the hands of Mosheh became heavy, and they took a stone and placed it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aharon and Hur held up his hands, here one, and there one; and thus were his hands stretched out in prayer until the going of the sun. And Jehoshua shattered Amaleq and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said to Mosheh : Write this memorial in the Book, and set it before Jehoshua, That blotting, I will blot out the memorial of Amaleq from under the heavens. And Mosheh builded an altar, and ministered upon it before the Lord who had wrought (such) miracles for him. he said, With an oath hath this been declared from before the Fearful One whose Shekinah is upon His glorious throne; that war shall be waged with the house of Amaleq, to destroy it from the generations of the world. And SECTION XVII. YETHRO. XVIII. And Jethro, the rabba of Midian, the father-in-law of Mosheh, had heard of all that the Lord had done for Mosheh and for Israel His people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Mizraim. And Jethro, Mosheh's father-in-law, took Zipporah the wife of Mosheh, after he had let her go, and his two sons, the name of the one Gershom; For, he said, I have been a sojourner in a strange land; and the name of the other Eliezer; For (said he) the God of my fathers hath S been my helper, and hath delivered me from the sword of Pharoh. And Jethro the father-in-law of Mosheh came, and his sons, and his wife, to Mosheh in the desert where he had encamped at the mountain upon which was revealed the glory of the Lord. And he had told Mosheh, I, thy father-in-law Jethro, come to thee with thy wife, and her two sons with her. And Mosheh went forth to meet his father-in-law, and bowed, and kissed him, and each saluted the other with peace; and they entered the tabernacle. And Mosheh recounted to his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharoh and to Mizraim for Israel's sake; and all the tribulation that they had found upon the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro was glad over all the good which the Lord, who had saved him from the hand of Mizraim, had wrought for Israel. And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Mizraee, and out of the hand of Pharoh, and hath delivered the people from under the domination of the Mizraee. Now know I that the Lord is great, and that there is no God but He for by the thing by which the Mizraee had thought to punish (judge) Israel, they themselves are punished. And Jethro the father-in-law of Mosheh offered a burnt offering and sacrifices holy things before the Lord. And Aharon came, with all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with the father-in-law of Mosheh before the Lord. And on the day after, Mosheh sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Mosheh from morn till evening; and the father-in-law of Mosheh observed all that he did to the people. And he said, What thing is this that thou art doing to the people? Why dost thou sit alone, with all the people standing about thee from morn till evening? And Mosheh said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to ask instruction from before the Lord. When they have (a matter) for judgment they come to me, and I adjudicate between a man and his neighbour, and make them to know the statutes of the Lord, and His laws. But the father-in-law of Mosheh said to him, The thing thou art doing is not right; with weariness thou wilt be weary, thou and also this people who are with thee; for the thing is too weighty for thee, thou art not able to do it by thyself. Now hearken to me, I will give thee counsel, and the Word of the Lord shall be thy helper. Be thou for the people the seeker of instruction from the presence of the Lord, to bring the matters before the Lord and thou shalt admonish them in the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which to walk, and the work that must be done. And thou, look out from the whole people men of ability who fear the Lord, men of truth who abhor to take mammon; and superappoint them chiefs of thousands, and chiefs of hundreds, and chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens. And they shall judge the people at any time, and every great matter they shall bring to thee, but every small thing they shall judge; and they will lighten it from thee, and bear it with thee. If thou wilt do this, and the Lord teach thee, thou wilt be able to endure, and (of) all this people (every one) will go to his place in peace. And Mosheh hearkened to his father-in-law, and did all that he had said. And Mosheh chose men of ability from all Israel, and appointed them heads over the people; chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens; and they judged the people at all times; a weighty thing they brought to Mosheh, and every minor thing they judged themselves. And Mosheh sent his father-in-law away, and he went unto his land. 9 9 Sam. Vers., "scribes." |