Treasury of Bible Stories

by Donna Jo Napoli

  In the morning, Joseph let his brothers head homeward, their bags full of food. But he also had their silver tucked into their bags and, in Benjamin’s bag, Joseph had his own goblet tucked as well. When the men were a short distance away, Joseph’s servants overcame them and accused them of having stolen their master’s goblet. The servants said the thief would have to stay in Egypt. And, of course, they found the goblet in Benjamin’s bag.

  LANGUAGE COMPLICATIONS

  Joseph can eavesdrop on his brothers because they don’t realize he understands their language. In that area of the ancient world, people spoke related languages—all in the family called Semitic. But people living in Canaan (like Joseph’s brothers) spoke Semitic languages that were quite distantly related to the Semitic languages the Egyptians were speaking. We can compare this situation to putting together speakers of English and of Russian today. English and Russian are both in the family called Indo-European. But they are, likewise, quite distantly related. An ancient Egyptian speaker who had not studied Hebrew might have as difficult a time understanding Hebrew as a modern English speaker trying to understand Russian.

  Joseph hid a goblet in his little brother Benjamin’s bag. Then he had his servants accuse the brothers of being thieves, so they had to stay in Egypt. When the brothers stood again in front of Joseph, he revealed who he was and told them to come with their father, Israel, to live in Egypt while the famine lasted.

  The brothers were distraught. They returned to Joseph’s house and threw themselves on the ground. They offered to stay as servants. But Joseph insisted that only Benjamin stay. That’s when Judah opened his heart. He described how their father doted on Benjamin. Benjamin was all that remained of his dear wife Rachel. Should Benjamin not return to his father, the old man would die.

  That admission must have rent Judah’s soul—and the souls of the other brothers.

  Judah begged the vizier to accept him as a servant, and let the rest of them go home.

  Joseph’s heart opened now, too. He wept and told them he was their brother Joseph. They were dumbfounded. But Joseph told them not to regret anything. All of this was God’s plan. For look—as vizier, Joseph had collected food and was helping people everywhere survive this famine. Surely, that was good. But only two years of famine had passed. For the next five, Israel and his sons and their families should move to Egypt.

  Pharaoh agreed: He promised them the best soil, in the part of Egypt called Goshen.

  That’s what they did—moved en masse in their wagons. Israel couldn’t wait to see Joseph again. Yet he was filled with trepidation; Egypt was not home. But God called to him, and Israel responded, “Here I am.” God told him his offspring would form a great nation in Egypt.

  When they arrived, Joseph wept on his father’s neck. Israel’s offspring became herders in Goshen. The famine was bitter, but all survived. In fact, they thrived, so they stayed on in Goshen. After 17 years, Israel became ill. He blessed his sons, so that each of the 12 would head a tribe that would multiply and thrive.

  When Israel died, Egypt mourned for 70 days. Israel’s sons brought his body to the cave in his homeland where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebekah were buried. Only Rachel, who had died while traveling, wasn’t there.

  The brothers and their families returned to Goshen. After all, Egypt was their home. For the time being.

  Hebrew newborn boys were condemned to be thrown in the river. But this woman hid her child for three months. Then she put him in a wicker basket and set him afloat, hoping for the best. The babe’s big sister watched the misery of her family from behind the foliage.

  THE BABY MOSES

  The 12 sons of Israel lived in Egypt in the land called Goshen: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.

  These Children of Israel, as they were known—the sons and their families—numbered 70 people. As the years passed, more offspring came. The original 12 brothers died, but their offspring prospered.

  Pharaoh also died. Then came a pharaoh who had never known Joseph. He looked around and saw the numerous Children of Israel. He told his people that the nation of the Children of Israel was a threat to Egypt and must be crushed. That made the Egyptians glare at the Children of Israel with fear and loathing. They assigned them the hardest labor, building with mortar and bricks in town and doing every kind of task in the field.

  Still, the Children of Israel thrived. So Pharaoh told the Hebrew midwives to kill newborn boys. In horror, the midwives disobeyed. They told Pharaoh that Hebrew women were so hardy, they gave birth on their own; they were already nursing their sons by the time the midwives arrived. Thwarted, Pharaoh ordered newborn Hebrew boys be thrown into the River Nile.

  Disaster had come.

  A man in the household of Levi already had a daughter and a little son. The next child, however, was another boy—oh no! By law, he would be thrown into the Nile. The wife kept the babe close for three months, but it was impossible to hide him longer. She made a wicker basket watertight with pitch, just like the giant ark that Noah had made, and set the child in it. She hid the basket in reeds along the riverbank. What could she have been thinking? Crocodiles haunted the river. Hippos tipped over boats. So many dangers! But desperate times could make one rash. The babe’s sister watched from a safe distance, to see what would happen next.

  THE NILE

  The Nile River and the Amazon River vie for the title of longest river in the world. The Nile River flows northwest over 4,000 miles (6,437 km) to empty into the Mediterranean Sea. It was the main highway through Egypt, deep, wide, and fast, with crocodiles and hippos living along and in it, and flocks of herons and pelicans relying on it. Since the Nile overflowed its banks every summer, the mud left behind was wonderfully fertile for growing crops. Today the river has many slow, marshy areas. But we know marshes were abundant in ancient times, too, since the ancient symbol of Lower Egypt was the papyrus (a source of paper), while the ancient symbol for Upper Egypt was the lotus, both water plants that grow in mud submerged in shallow water.

  Pharaoh’s daughter found a basket among the reeds of the River Nile. Inside was a tiny babe—a Hebrew, for sure. Her heart opened. She would save this boy.

  Pharaoh’s daughter and her maidens came to bathe in the river. She saw the basket and made a handmaid fetch it. When she heard the babe’s cries and gazed at his face, she knew he was a Hebrew. She pitied him.

  The babe’s big sister proved herself clever. She came to Pharaoh’s daughter and offered to summon a wet nurse from the Hebrews to suckle the babe. Then she brought back her mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to the woman, “Care for this child until he is weaned. I will pay you well for this.” The babe’s mother got to take her dear boy home again. When he was weaned, she brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter.

  Pharaoh’s daughter treated the boy like a son. She named him Moses, which meant “out of the water.” Moses knew that the Children of Israel were his kinsmen and he was curious. When Moses was a young man, he went to visit those kinsmen to know more about who he truly was. He saw an Egyptian man beating a man he identified as a Hebrew. Moses couldn’t bear unfairness. He looked around—not a witness in sight. So he struck down the Egyptian and buried his body.

  Moses’ mother had to give him up when he was older. She brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, who raised him as though he were her own.

  The next day Moses came across two Hebrews brawling. He broke up the fight. One of the men asked, “Who are you to act as ruler? Do you plan to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?” So Moses had been mistaken; there were witnesses to his crime. Soon Pharaoh learned of his crime, and Moses had to flee.

  He went to far-off Midian and rested by a well. Ah, another well. A well had appeared before Hagar when she needed to save her son Ishmael in the desert. When Israel—then known as Jacob—had gone to seek his uncle Laban to escape the wrath of Esau, he saw Rachel coming to water her sheep at a well. Wells meant salv
ation and love for Hagar and Jacob-Israel.

  This well meant the same for Moses. Soon after Moses arrived, along came seven daughters of a priest, to draw water for their father’s flock. Other shepherds bullied the girls and drove them off so they could serve their own flocks first. Moses played hero; he watered the girls’ flocks. The girls told their father Jethro that an Egyptian man had rescued them and watered the flocks. Jethro made his daughters bring Moses to him for a meal. The next thing Moses knew, he was living with them. He took the daughter Zipporah as his wife. They had a son named Gershom.

  Years passed and Pharaoh died. But the next pharaoh was even harsher toward the Children of Israel. And finally God remembered the covenant with Abraham, whereby Abraham’s descendants would place their trust in God and God would watch over them. The Children of Israel had lived in Egypt 430 years. God knew it was time to bring these people home.

  Moses had become a simple shepherd when God appeared to him in the form of a burning bush that told him it was time to lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt and home again, to the old country.

  THE TEN PLAGUES

  Moses was tending sheep in the wilderness when he wandered to the mountain of God called Horeb. A bush was on fire! Yet the fire didn’t consume it. He turned to look attentively. The Lord noticed that look. “Moses, Moses.” That voice seemed to come from the burning bush.

  “Here I am.”

  God told Moses to take off his sandals; this was holy ground. The Lord said the pain of the Children of Israel must stop. They must go to a land flowing with milk and honey. The Lord instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh the Children of Israel should leave.

  A land flowing with milk and honey? Egypt was not good grazing land—so milk was scarce. Rain was, too. To water the crops, you had to stomp in the mud to form irrigation troughs that trapped the river’s overflow in flooding season. In this new land, instead of beating the earth for water, you could look up to the rains from heaven. And honey! Oh, the tales the Children of Israel told of old days in the homeland when people made date honey. Moses drooled.

  Still, he was afraid of Pharaoh. “Who am I to speak to Pharaoh?”

  God answered, “I will be with you.”

  But Moses said, “I can’t just say our God gave me orders. People will want to know your name. Who are you?”

  God said, “I am what I am. I am the Lord, God of your fathers.”

  God told Moses to prepare the Children of Israel. Pharaoh would resist at first, but in the end, he would let them go. With riches.

  “No one will believe me,” said Moses. After all, he was new in this community.

  “What’s that in your hand?” said the Lord.

  “A staff.”

  “Throw it on the ground.”

  Moses flung the staff. It became a serpent.

  God gave Moses signs that he could show the Children of Israel and Pharaoh, so they would believe him. The first sign was this: Moses threw his staff on the ground and it turned into a serpent.

  “Grab its tail.”

  Moses forced himself to. The serpent turned into his staff again.

  “Put your hand inside your shirt.”

  Moses did. His hand came out dead white.

  “Put it back in your shirt.”

  Moses did. His hand came out healthy again.

  “If they don’t believe the first sign, they will believe the second. If not, throw water from the Nile on the ground. It will turn to blood. They will believe this, the third sign.”

  Moses knew the river was tainted with the blood of slain boys, babies from the Children of Israel whose death Pharaoh had ordered. Still, he didn’t want this task. His mouth felt heavy, his tongue fat. “I’m not a man of words.”

  “Who makes one mute or deaf or sighted or blind? Me. I will be your mouth.”

  Moses’ knees shook. “Please, send someone else.”

  “All right!” said the Lord in annoyance. “In Egypt you have an older brother Aaron. He can speak for you. I will speak through you both.”

  Moses took his wife and sons on donkeys to Egypt. Just then, Aaron came along. Moses explained everything to him, then Aaron explained everything to the Children of Israel. Moses performed the three signs; the Children of Israel believed them.

  But the Lord warned Moses that Pharaoh would resist. Indeed, the Lord would strengthen Pharaoh’s heart against Moses. Moses didn’t ask why. But he was soon to learn.

  Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh that the Children of Israel needed to leave Egypt for three days to worship God.

  Pharaoh refused. He needed the Children of Israel for labor. He now made their labor even harsher. Instead of supplying straw to add to the mud as they made bricks, from now on they’d have to gather straw for themselves and still make the same number of bricks daily.

  The Children of Israel complained. Pharaoh said they were shirkers. They turned on Moses and Aaron. Moses appealed to the Lord. The Lord said, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. He will end up driving away the Children of Israel.”

  Moses and Aaron went back to Pharaoh and said they were messengers of God.

  “Show me proof.”

  Aaron threw the staff on the ground; it turned into a serpent.

  Pharaoh called his magicians and had them do the same with their staffs. The ground writhed with serpents. Aaron’s serpent swallowed the others.

  Pharaoh didn’t flinch. His heart strengthened; the Children of Israel could not leave.

  Moses brought the first plague. He struck the water of the River Nile with his staff. It turned to blood. The fish died. A stink hovered everywhere. The people had to dig wells for drinking water.

  Moses brought plague after plague: a bloody river with dead fish, a swarm of frogs, lice, wild animals, a disease among the livestock, a cloud of burning ash, a hailstorm.

  After seven days, the water cleared and Moses asked Pharaoh again. When Pharaoh refused, Aaron brought the second plague. Aaron held his staff over rivers and ponds; frogs came. They hopped into bedrooms, ovens, kneading bowls. Pharaoh thought it was nothing more than froggy magic. He had his magicians make frogs appear, too. But Pharaoh needed the frogs to leave, so he told Moses to get his god to take away the frogs. In return he would let the Children of Israel leave.

  The frogs died, except those in the river. Their bodies were heaped high. The land reeked of death stench.

  Pharaoh strengthened his heart; he changed his mind.

  Aaron brought the third plague. His staff struck the dust. Lice surged everywhere. Pharaoh called his magicians so they could meet magic with magic. The magicians failed. They said, “This is the finger of God,” for they recognized what Pharaoh couldn’t. Pharaoh’s heart strengthened again.

  The fourth plague came. A horde of wild creatures entered houses and raced through fields, leaving ruination. Only the land of Goshen, where the Children of Israel lived, was spared. Pharaoh relented. “Go. But don’t leave Egypt.” Moses pleaded: The Children of Israel needed to sacrifice sheep to the Lord. Egyptians didn’t allow such things. They would stone them. At that moment, Pharaoh agreed. “But don’t go far.” The Lord made the horde of wild creatures go away. Then, of course, Pharaoh strengthened his heart and changed his mind, so the Children of Israel could not leave, after all.

  The fifth plague came. A disease afflicted livestock—donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep. They died. But the livestock of the Children of Israel stayed strong. Pharaoh saw and still the Children of Israel could not go.

  Moses and Aaron brought the sixth plague. Moses threw handfuls of kiln soot into the air; it coated everything and everyone, until their skin broke out in burning boils. Even the magicians were stricken till they could not stand. Yet the Lord strengthened Pharaoh’s heart. The Lord had motives that no one understood…not yet.

  The Lord had Moses warn Pharaoh of the seventh plague if Pharaoh continued to refuse to let the Children of Israel go. Hail would fall, unrelenting. Those Egyptians who believed Moses br
ought households and cattle indoors. The others didn’t. Moses stretched his staff heavenward; hail came in balls of ice and fire, with deafening thunder. People and animals, grass and trees, the budding barley and flax—all were smashed, except in the land of Goshen. Pharaoh was appalled. “The Lord is right. Egypt is wrong.” He promised to let the Children of Israel go if the hail stopped. Moses spread his hands; the hail ceased. But Pharaoh changed his mind again.

  The Lord was not yet done toying with the Egyptians. They had to learn that it wasn’t magic that mattered; it was humans’ relationship with God.

  Moses and Aaron brought the eighth plague. Locusts swarmed the land so thick people couldn’t see the dirt. Locusts ate the stubble that remained of the broken crops. They sullied homes. The Egyptians told Pharaoh to stop this nonsense.

  Pharaoh said to Moses, “Go.” Then he frowned and asked, “Who exactly will go?”

  “Old and young, men and women, cattle and sheep.”

  Pharaoh would allow only the men to go. That’s who was needed for worship.

  FOOD AND FASTING

  In this tale we see the origin of the requirement that Jews eat unleavened bread (matzo) during the celebration of Passover. Many religions require special eating habits during celebrations, including fasting, and many have dietary restrictions year-round. Often those restrictions involve whether or not you can eat animals, and, if so, which ones. For example, Buddhism promotes a vegetarian diet; Islam prohibits pork and certain birds; Hinduism prohibits beef and promotes a vegetarian diet; Judaism prohibits pork, shellfish, and certain other sea creatures; and Greek Orthodox Christianity has so many fasting days when meat, dairy products, and eggs are prohibited that they are vegetarians for more than half the year. Studies suggest such dietary restrictions have health benefits.