Signs and Wonders

by Bernard Evslin

Moses and Aaron returned to the Pharaoh. He met them on the palace grounds near the riverbank. Aaron said: “The Lord, God of the Hebrews, has sent us to you. He says, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.’ ”

  “The very words I heard yesterday,” said the Pharaoh. “They have not changed. Nor have I changed.”

  “Behold,” said Aaron. He raised his staff and smote the river. There before the eyes of the Pharaoh and his servants the water turned to blood. Moses and Aaron departed.

  In the days that followed the fish of the river died. And the river stank. The Egyptians could not drink its waters. Their wells and fountains gushed blood, and they could not drink. The Pharaoh consulted his oracles and his magicians and his wise men, and did not relent. He ordered new wells dug and sought clean water. But the river ran blood.

  The Lord spoke again to Moses. “Return to the Pharaoh. Repeat my words.”

  Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh, and Aaron said: “Our Lord says to you, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me.’ ”

  “I will not,” said the Pharaoh.

  “Behold,” said Aaron. He stretched his rod over the river. Frogs leaped out of the river, a multitude of frogs. They climbed out of the river and swarmed into the palace. Moses and Aaron departed.

  In the days that followed, they stretched their staffs over the streams, over rivers and over ponds, and frogs swarmed out of all waters—into houses, into bedchambers, and onto the beds, into ovens and kneading troughs. The land of Egypt was covered with frogs. They were unclean; they were a vermin and a pest.

  The Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said: “Ask your lord to take the frogs away, and I will let your people go.”

  “When?” said Moses.

  “Tomorrow.”

  “By tomorrow the frogs will have departed from your houses, your bedchambers, and your kitchens,” said Aaron. “We will entreat our God, who shall call off this pest of frogs.”

  They left the palace, and Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Your will has prevailed. Call off the frogs.”

  The frogs died in the houses, in the villages, in the fields. The people gathered them into heaps, and the land stank. But when the Pharaoh saw that the frogs were dead, he broke his promise.

  The Lord spoke again to Moses and instructed him. And Aaron stretched out his rod and smote the dust of the earth, and the dust turned to lice. And lice crawled upon men and beasts, and all the dust was lice.

  “Can you do such enchantments?” cried the Pharaoh to his sorcerers. They took heaps of dust and tried to make lice, but the dust remained dust. Then they spoke spells, trying to kill the lice on man and beast, but they could not. And the lice crawled and were foul.

  “We can do nothing, O King!” cried the sorcerers. “We cannot match these enchantments. This is the finger of their god.” But the Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not heed his counselors.

  Moses and Aaron returned to the Pharaoh and said: “Let our people go.”

  “No!” cried the Pharaoh.

  “Hearken,” said Aaron. “If you do not obey the Lord in this, He shall send a plague of fires. Swarms of flies shall descend like a black cloud and shall come into your houses and on the food that you eat, and on your cattle. They shall bite fiercely and crawl with their filthy feet. Observe, O Pharaoh. Flies shall be everywhere but in the land of Goshen, where the Hebrews dwell, so that you may know that God has separated His people from yours, and you will understand His sign.”

  The Pharaoh did not answer. Aaron raised his rod, and the sky blackened with a swarm of flies. They hung between earth and sky and made a foul dusk. They swarmed upon the Egyptians and into their houses, into barns and sheds. They crawled upon man and beast and bit and moved upon them with filthy feet.

  Then the Pharaoh called upon Moses and Aaron and said: “Sacrifice to your god, if you must. But do not go into the desert. Sacrifice here.”

  “No,” said Aaron. “We cannot do that.”

  “Why not?” cried the Pharaoh.

  “We sacrifice calves. We take a calf and cut its throat, and roast its meat, and offer its tender parts upon a stone altar that we raise to the Lord—a calf or cow, as the case may be. But we cannot do that here, O Pharaoh, in your land, where the cow is worshipped as a goddess, as Hathor, your cow goddess. If we sacrifice here, before the Egyptians, they will stone us to death. We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord according to our own manner.”

  “Go into the wilderness,” said the Pharaoh. “Sacrifice to your god in your own way. But call off the flies.”

  “We shall entreat the Lord to do so,” said Aaron. “But see to it, O Pharaoh, that you let our people go and do not deal deceitfully with us.”

  They departed and spoke to the Lord, and the flies disappeared. When the Pharaoh saw that the flies were gone, he broke his promise again. Moses called upon the Lord and was told what to do. Moses spoke to Aaron, and they went again to the Pharaoh.

  Aaron said: “The Lord, God of Israel, sends this message: ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me. If you do not let them go; if you harden your heart again, then I will send the cattle pest to attack your herds. Your cattle shall die, and your horses, your donkeys, your camels, your oxen—all shall die of the pest. Your cow goddess shall not save them. And observe, O Pharaoh, that not one head of cattle belonging to the Hebrews shall die. The pest falls tomorrow.’ ”

  Aaron and Moses departed. The next day pestilence began to rage among the royal herds. It spread from herd to herd. The cows’ udders dried up and they gave no milk. They parched and died. Also, bulls and calves, all the cattle. The plague spread to horses, to donkeys, to camels, to goats, and fell upon the sheep. They died and lay in heaps in the field. The plague raged through all the herds and flocks of the Egyptians, cutting down the animals like grass. But the herds and flocks belonging to the children of Israel were untouched; not one beast died. The Pharaoh turned away from this dread sight, and he did not let the Hebrews go.

  The brothers returned to the Pharaoh. They found him in the place where bread was baked. “Out of my sight!” he cried. “Foul enchanters! Leave my presence before I slay you.”

  Moses reached into an oven and took a handful of ashes and tossed it into the air. The ashes were taken by the breeze and floated upward, and became a small dust. The dust spread and fell upon the faces of the Egyptians. As the Pharaoh watched, the faces of his wise men and magicians and captains and bakers all broke out in running sores. Boils swelled on their faces, and broke, and became sores that did not heal. The dust spread, and the priests of Egypt were afflicted with boils and sores and could not perform their rites, for now they were unclean.

  The Pharaoh was stubborn. He hardened his heart and turned away, and did not obey the word of the Lord.

  “What shall I do?” said Moses.

  The sky spoke: “Go again to the Pharaoh. Go to the hard-hearted one and have Aaron say what I tell you.”

  Again Moses and Aaron entered the throne room and stood before the Pharaoh. Aaron said: “These are the words of the Lord, God of the Hebrews: ‘I will plague you and I will plague your people, O Pharaoh, so that you may know there is none like me on all the earth. I will stretch out my hand and smite you and your people, and you shall be cut off from the earth. I will show you my power that my name may be declared throughout all the land.’ ”

  The Pharaoh sat on his throne and said nothing. Moses and Aaron raised their hands. Hail began to fall out of the blue sky. Strangely it stormed when the brothers called. The hail was mixed with fire, and the blue sky thundered. Fire ran along the ground, and there was a storm of hail throughout the land of Egypt. Man and woman and beast were killed in the field. And the hail blasted the grass of the field and scorched the crops and broke every tree that stood. But in the land of Goshen where the Hebrews dwelt, no hail fell.

  The Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said: “I have sinned again. Your lord i
s righteous and I am wicked. Now entreat your god to cease his mighty thundering and his fire and hail, and I will let you go.”

  Aaron said: “As soon as we are gone out of the city the thunder shall cease, and no hail shall fall.”

  They departed. The thunder stopped, and the lightning, and there was no more hail. But as soon as the storm stopped, the Pharaoh hardened his heart again, and again broke his promise.

  Moses and Aaron returned to the Pharaoh. “How long, O King?” cried Aaron. “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before our Lord? How long before you let our people go? If you do not do this, our Lord will send another plague, one more terrible.”

  The Pharaoh conferred with his wise men, who said: “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the Hebrews go, or Egypt will be destroyed.”

  The Pharaoh said to Moses: “If I let you go, whom will you take with you?”

  Aaron said: “We shall go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and our flocks and our herds. We shall go into the desert and hold a feast unto our Lord.”

  And the Pharaoh said: “No! I will not let you all depart, only the men. The women and children I will hold hostage so that I know you will return to your tasks.”

  “What the Lord wants must be given without stint or abridgment,” said Aaron. “That is not what the Lord wants or what we require.”

  The brothers departed. Aaron raised his staff over the land. He smote the air. An east wind sprang up, and blew all that day and all that night.

  And in the morning the east wind was freighted with locusts. An enormous swarm of locusts rode in on the east wind and covered the land like a living carpet. They covered Egypt, covered the realms within and the coasts beyond. No man had ever seen such a sight. Locusts covered the earth and the land was dark with them. They ate herb and stalk and every plant the hail had left standing. They ate the fruit off the trees, and ate and ate until no green thing remained.

  The Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and spoke in haste, crying, “I have sinned against the lord your god and against you. Now, therefore, forgive, I pray! Entreat your god to call away this crawling death.”

  There before the throne, Moses raised his hand and turned his palm. The wind turned. The east wind backed up and became a mighty west wind that blew away the locusts, blew them into the Red Sea and drowned them all. In an hour all the locusts were swept from the land of Egypt and not one remained. But when the Pharaoh saw that the locusts were gone, he hardened his heart again, and broke his promise.

  Moses obeyed the Lord and stretched out his hand toward heaven, and a darkness fell over the land of Egypt. A darkness so thick and heavy it was like a weight upon the head of each man. Never had there been such a thick darkness. And it lay on the land for three days. No flame could live in this choking blackness, flame of candle or flame of torch, and there was no light in the houses. But all the huts of the Hebrews were lighted by torch or candle.

  The Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to him and said: “I have decided to let you go. And you may take your women and your children. All of you may go. Leave only your flocks and your herds.”

  “It is not to be considered,” said Aaron. “Our cattle, also, shall go with us, and there shall not be a hoof left behind. The Lord requires our cattle, also.”

  “But your flocks and herds are the only ones left alive in Egypt. The others have been stricken by the plague.” The Pharaoh could not bear to see his land stripped of cattle, and he cried: “Get out of my sight! Take heed to yourself and never appear before my face again, for the day that I see you, you shall die.”

  Moses spoke now instead of Aaron. He spoke to the Pharaoh for the first time in his own voice and said: “You have uttered truth for the first time. I shall see your face no more.” And they left.

  The Lord said to Moses: “I will bring one plague more upon the Pharaoh. One more time shall my hand lie upon Egypt. Afterward you shall depart. Now speak to your people, Moses. Before you go, let every man take something of value from his Egyptian master, and let every woman take something from her mistress—all manner of treasure, whatever you can carry, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. Spoil the Egyptians.”

  The Pharaoh sat on his throne and waited. He had hardened his heart against the Hebrews and would not let them go, and had set the taskmasters upon them again. Nevertheless, he knew that another plague would fall upon the land, and he waited.

  God spoke to Moses, saying: “This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak now to all the congregations of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month each man shall take a lamb, a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year. And he shall keep it alive four days, until the fourteenth day of the month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill the lamb in the evening, and take of its blood and mark the two sideposts and upper doorposts of the houses. They shall roast the flesh in fire and eat of it with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Do not eat it raw or sodden with water, but roasted with fire. Eat it all up, and do not let anything remain; anything that remains burn with fire. But eat in haste—with sandals on your feet and staff in your hand. For this night I pass through the land and smite all the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast. Against all the gods of Egypt, cow god and falcon god and cobra god, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And as I pass over Egypt, smiting the firstborn, I shall recognize the blood upon your doorposts and it will be a sign to me that a Hebrew lives therein. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and will not smite your firstborn, but pass over and smite an Egyptian house.

  “It is the Lord’s Passover. And this day shall burn in your memory forever. You shall observe it as an ordinance forever. And it shall come to pass when your children shall say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for the Lord passed over the houses of the children of Israel when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.’ ”

  Moses went among the people and told them all that the Lord had said. They bowed their heads and worshipped.

  On the tenth day of the month each man selected a lamb. It was kept four days, then killed. On the fourteenth day, each man dipped his hand in the blood of the lamb and marked the doorposts of his house. Then the lamb was roasted and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. And the people waited.

  And the Pharaoh waited. He sat on his throne and waited. Nine times has that nameless god cursed us, he thought. He has killed our cattle and poisoned our waters and smitten us with vermin and sent strange storms upon us. Yet Egypt, wounded, still lives—and I still rule, and the Hebrews are my slaves. I will not let them go!

  Then, as he sat in his throne room that night, a sound came to him. A huge, formless sound like the wind, the wind crying in a human voice. A vast multitude of voices, growing louder and louder, coming nearer and nearer, drowning all other sounds in a giant howling of grief.

  A mob of people swept aside the guards and stormed into the palace. They stormed into the throne room and pressed about the throne, weeping. “Speak,” said the Pharaoh, and they stammered out their tales. And the Pharaoh knew the nature of the tenth plague. The firstborn child of every family in the land, the eldest son or daughter, all were being stricken in the hours of darkness. One moment, full of life and health; the next instant, without warning, their eyes rolled back, showing only the whites, their bodies went rigid, and they died where they stood.

  The Pharaoh rose from his throne, raising his arms to heaven. “No!” he cried. “Fiend god of an accursed race, you shall not rob me of my slaves. Do your utmost—I will not let them go!”

  Whereupon, he bade his guards herd the people from his throne room, and summoned his high council. His chief courtiers came to him, led by his son, prince of Egypt, the lean, hawk-faced young man who would succeed him on the throne.

  He arose to embrace his handsome son, the only person
in the world, man or woman, he had ever loved, and heard himself howling like an animal. The boy’s black eyes had gone white, the supple body was stiffening in his arms. The prince tried to speak but could not; the breath rattled in his throat and no words came. And the Pharaoh, the richest, most powerful man in the world, watched his son petrify and die, and could not help him.

  The Lord moved among the families of Egypt and death walked with him, scything down young men and women in the flower of their youth. Eldest son and eldest daughter, firstborn of servant and firstborn of priest. Firstborn of captain and firstborn of millhand—all were dying in the plague. It was the night of the Lord’s Passover, and He strode across the land, smiting the Egyptians with His sword of vengeance, and passing over the houses whose doorposts were marked with the blood of the lamb.

  Howling in his grief, the Pharaoh spoke names. Again and again he called for Moses and Aaron. Servants raced into the night and summoned the brothers. They came, and the Pharaoh cried, “Take your Hebrews and depart! Take your flocks and your herds and be gone! Go—and take your curse with you!”

  The Egyptians now were mad with haste. They refused the Hebrews nothing that would speed their departure. They gave gold and silver and treasure of every kind. “Begone!” they cried. “Go in haste or we all must die!”

  The Hebrews took their dough before it was leavened, and bound their kneading troughs to their shoulders. They coffered up what they had taken from the Egyptians, the gold, the silver, the gems, and the garments; they loaded their donkeys and departed.

  Moses went first to the tomb of Joseph. He broke open the sepulchre and took the coffin, thus fulfilling Joseph’s dying wish. The coffin rode behind Moses, as he led his people out of Egypt.

  The Red Sea

  Jacob had taken sixty-seven people into Egypt. Now Moses brought out six hundred thousand men and women, and a multitude of children. He led them into the wilderness and headed for the Red Sea. It was the largest migration ever to move over the face of the earth. They swarmed across the plain. They were a nation in size, but not a nation. They were a rabble. They had been slaves. Fear had been flogged into their bodies; shame had eaten into their souls. The men were less than manly. The women, concerned more about their children than about themselves, were stronger. But they, too, were terrified of the Egyptians, terrified of being pursued and slaughtered. They were tattered and filthy.