Treasury of Bible Stories

by Donna Jo Napoli

  Though this was not what Moses had asked for, it was a start. So Moses stretched out his staff; winds blew away the locusts. But when Pharaoh didn’t relent, Moses brought the ninth plague. He held his staff heavenward and darkness fell, heavy and palpable, like before creation. For three days no colors showed, no person could detect any other by sight. Only in Goshen were homes filled with light.

  Pharaoh called Moses. “Go. Take your families. But leave behind sheep and cattle.”

  “We need our livestock,” said Moses. Without them, how could they make sacrifices to the Lord?

  “Go. Don’t see my face again. If you do, you will die.”

  “I will never see your face again.”

  Pharaoh was left with his mistake solid in his heart. So the tenth plague had to come. A monster of a plague. But first, God wanted the Children of Israel to prepare for travel.

  The Lord told Moses that this new moon was a new beginning. From now on this month would start the year for the Children of Israel. On the 10th day of that first month, a lamb should be chosen by every large household or by groups of smaller households. These lambs should be tended for four days. At twilight on the 14th of the month—under full moon—the lambs should be roasted. The Children of Israel should smear lamb blood on their doorposts and door lintels. They should eat that meat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The meat must be dry roasted; leftovers must be burned at dawn. As the people ate, they had to tie their cloaks up around their loins, wear their sandals, and hold their staffs; they had to eat fast, ready for travel. The Lord told what terrible things would happen to the Egyptians as the Children of Israel ate. Every year the Children of Israel would remember this night by eating unleavened bread. For seven days they would tell tales of their suffering and salvation.

  On the 10th day the Children of Israel chose the lambs, watched over them for four days, then roasted them.

  At midnight of that 14th night, as the Children of Israel were roasting the lambs, the Lord killed the firstborn in every Egyptian family—humans and beasts. But the Lord passed over homes smeared with lamb blood on the doorposts.

  Across Egypt, parents, including Pharaoh, woke to find their firstborn dead. Their cries could have broken the strongest heart. Pharaoh told Moses and Aaron to leave—never come back. The Egyptians pushed on them silver and gold ornaments, as payment to end this scourge.

  The Children of Israel left. Others joined them—a motley group of travelers—600,000 strong. Moses brought the bones of his ancestor Joseph, to return them to the homeland.

  The Lord guided them, appearing as a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. For seven days the Children of Israel ate unleavened bread and told tales of how the Lord had passed over their homes. The retelling of the story sealed it in their memories.

  Locusts and darkness came as the eighth and ninth plagues. But the 10th plague was the worst. As the Children of Israel roasted lamb to eat before their journey, the Lord killed the firstborn in every Egyptian family.

  The Children of Israel had to flee, but the Reed Sea stood in the way. Moses held up his staff and a dry wind blew hard and long and hot. It separated the waters so a path formed from one shore to the other.

  THE REED SEA AND MANNA

  The Lord strengthened Pharaoh’s heart yet again, for Pharaoh needed one more lesson. Really? After all that the Egyptians and the Children of Israel had suffered? Yet the Lord wanted to ensure for all time that no one doubt who was truly in charge. The Egyptians needed to understand divine omnipotence.

  So Pharaoh changed his mind. What would Egypt do without Hebrews as a workforce, after all? He picked 600 chariots and many troops. Off they went, into the wilderness, after the wandering Children of Israel.

  The Children of Israel arrived at the shore of the Reed Sea and knew not where to turn. The Egyptians were at their heels; the sea was deep and wide. They turned in desperate accusation against Moses. “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you took us out?” Death in their homes in Egypt would have been preferable to death here.

  Moses calmed them. The Lord would surely save them.

  The humans’ complaints annoyed the Lord. In exasperation, the Lord told Moses to hold his staff over the waters. The sea would part for the Children of Israel to cross through.

  That night a pillar of fire and clouds reigned behind the Children of Israel, holding the Egyptians at bay. Moses stretched out his staff. A hot, dry wind arose from the desert. This east wind blew all night, gradually spreading the water into two parts until the seabed appeared in the middle. The Children of Israel crossed.

  It was morning by now, and the Egyptians plunged forth. Chariots, riders, onto that dry seabed in pursuit of the Children of Israel. Once they were all between the two walls of water, the Lord told Moses, on the far shore, to stretch his hand over the sea.

  Moses did.

  The walls of water tumbled down, drowning the Egyptians.

  As the Egyptians pursued the Children of Israel across the dry seabed, Moses spread out his hand from the far shore and the parted walls of water came crashing down, killing them all.

  The Children of Israel celebrated their freedom from the Egyptians at last, with singing and dancing to the music of their timbrels.

  A terrible and terrifying end.

  Yet now the Children of Israel were truly free. They celebrated by singing. The women danced, with jangling timbrels. Miriam, Aaron’s and Moses’ big sister, who was known as a prophetess, chanted,

  Sing to the Lord, the expansive divinity.

  Horse and rider, the Lord has hurled into the sea.

  But troubles were far from over. The Children of Israel wandered three days without water. When they came across some, it was bitter. The people complained to Moses, who, as usual, complained in turn to the Lord. The Lord showed Moses a lone tree and told him to fling it into the bitter water to turn it sweet. Everyone drank. Then Moses led them onward to a place of 12 springs of water and 70 date palms. That’s where they camped.

  But when they left the place of 12 springs, they wandered in hunger. The people remembered the old days in Egypt as though they had been wonderful, with plentiful meat and bread. With melons and sweet, fresh cucumbers, with garlic and tangy, juicy onions. It was not a real memory, but it felt real. They said they should have stayed in Egypt—death by hard work there was preferable to death by famine here.

  The Lord told Moses what would happen, and Moses told the people. That night flocks of quail covered the camp, so people had meat aplenty. In the morning, dew coated everything. When it lifted, there were fine, white flakes, like frost. The people asked, “Man hu? What is it?” They collected it, ground it, boiled it, and made it into cakes to feed their households, for this man-hu—what they came to call manna—was bread. The manna was white on the outside, like coriander seed; inside was the taste of wafer in honey, like the richest cream. Moses told them to take only what they needed for that day, since the Lord promised to rain down manna over and over. Some hoarded anyway. In the morning, the extra was rotten with worms. Moses was furious that they had so little faith. After that, they gathered only what they needed, and somehow, no matter how much or little they gathered, it always came out right: no extras, no paucity. Moses told them that on the sixth day, they should gather double, because the seventh day would be a day of rest, to celebrate one’s faith. That was just as God had done after creation—work for six days, rest on the seventh. On the morning of the seventh day, the extra bread from that manna was still fresh, so they didn’t go hungry. After that, every seventh day—the Sabbath—was a day free of toil.

  THE REED SEA

  In many versions of the exodus story, the sea is called Red, not Reed. What to call this sea is a topic of disagreement among scholars that goes back centuries. The first translation of the original Hebrew yam-suf (ים-סּוף) was into Greek, as “red.” Some see this as a mistranslation, claiming it should have been “reed” because of the papyrus plants grow
ing there. The debate is complicated even more by disagreement over whether the body of water mentioned in the Bible is a real geographical area or a metaphorical one. Time and interpretations of text in another language are always open to such debate, which makes works like the present one such a delightful challenge.

  The Children of Israel saved some manna in a jar, sealed for future generations to see and know what had happened in the wilderness.

  While Moses had been busy up on Mount Sinai listening to God’s laws, the Children of Israel made a golden calf. They danced around it and worshipped it, breaking one of the Ten Commandments.

  THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND THE LAWS

  The desert was dry and hot. Everyone was parched. They complained. Moses feared they would stone him. The Lord told Moses to strike a rock in Horeb and water would shoot forth. Moses did. Everyone stopped arguing. That place was known after that as Massah and Meribah—Testing and Dispute.

  After being in the wilderness three months, the Children of Israel arrived at the base of Mount Sinai. The Lord told Moses to prepare them to hear the covenant; the people washed their clothes and bodies. On the third day, thunder rumbled. Lightning split heavy clouds. A ram horn trumpeted louder and louder. Everyone trembled. The mountain burst into flame and quaked under a smoke blanket.

  God then spoke the Ten Commandments.

  I am the Lord. Worship only me.

  Thou shalt not make images to worship.

  Thou shalt not take my name in vain.

  Honor the Sabbath.

  Honor thy father and thy mother.

  Thou shalt not murder.

  Thou shalt be faithful to thy partner.

  Thou shalt not steal.

  Thou shalt not lie about thy neighbor.

  Thou shalt not be covetous of what thy neighbor has.

  The people saw lightning, fire, and smoke; they heard thunder; they were so afraid that they asked Moses to talk with God for them. Now that they knew God was real, they promised to follow whatever laws Moses brought them. The people stood far away while Moses went to the top of the mountain and stepped into the fog where God was.

  God stated the many laws.

  Laws about how to treat each other, the beasts, the land; how to care for life in a civilized society; how to treat strangers. Laws to protect servants, women, children. Laws to punish criminals but show mercy to those who err by accident. Laws that might be harsh but fair: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise. Order and balance.

  Laws about ritual: no magic, no witches. No curses against God. Never boil a kid goat in its mother’s milk. The Sabbath must be a rest day for all, animals and servants included. Three times each year, all males must appear before God for festivals. In spring, the festival of flat bread, Passover. In summer, the festival of wheat-reaping. In autumn, the festival of the main harvest, at the turning of the year.

  There were instructions on how to build a portable tabernacle, so the Lord could dwell among the people wherever they went. The tabernacle should be adorned with gold, silver, bronze. Curtains in indigo, purple, crimson. Panels of fine linen and goat hair, reddened ram skins and ocher-dyed skins. Lapis lazuli. A candelabra of gold with six shafts, each ending in a cup shaped like almond blossoms that must be filled with olive oil. The priests of this tabernacle, led by Aaron and his sons, must dress in sacred garments, filigreed with chains of gold, and wear breastplates with rows of precious stones: ruby, topaz, malachite, turquoise, sapphire, amethyst, jacinth, agate, crystal, beryl, carnelian, jasper. There should be an ark of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, with golden rings on the sides and feet for carrying poles to slide through, and a cover of gold decorated with hammered cherubim. Inside that ark Moses should place stone tablets that God had carved all these Commandments and laws onto.

  The telling of these laws took a long time. The Children of Israel back at the foot of the mountain grew annoyed and doubtful. They asked Aaron to help them make gods to worship—false images that the Second Commandment ordered against. Aaron gathered their gold and made it into a molten calf. The next day, they prayed to the golden calf and celebrated.

  Moses descended Mount Sinai with the two tablets. As he neared the camp, he saw the golden calf and the partying. His assistant Joshua warned him that things had gone astray. In anger, Moses smashed the tablets, burned up the golden calf, and demanded to know why Aaron had done such a thing. Aaron cowered and said the people scared him into it. Moses ordered the faithful to kill the others. Three thousand people died that day. Oh, woe! Moses acted as harsh as the harshest laws of God.

  Moses now needed reassurance, through seeing the presence of God. God told Moses to stand in a cleft in a rock—a small cave—and when God passed by, Moses could see the wake of divine glory. Moses climbed upward. God came down in a cloud and revealed the glory of the Lord—loving, compassionate, constant, strict but fair. God told Moses to carve two more stone tablets, like the smashed ones. And God made another list of laws. Moses wrote them on the second set of tablets.

  For 40 days and 40 nights Moses stayed with the Lord, writing. He did not eat or drink. When he descended the mountain with these tablets, his face glowed; he wore a veil to not frighten the people.

  The people immediately set to work building the tabernacle.

  More than a year after they’d left Egypt, the Lord told Moses to choose men, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, plus his assistant Joshua, who should go ahead to scout out the land of Canaan. For 40 days the scouts were gone. They returned with reports of a land flowing with milk and honey. The scouts brought good news in the form of gigantic fruits—pomegranates, dates, and a cluster of grapes so large it took two men to carry it on a pole. But they also brought bad news in the form of information—the people were gigantic. “We felt like grasshoppers in comparison.” The Children of Israel wanted to return to Egypt. Only two scouts, Joshua and Caleb, believed that the Lord would protect them.

  Moses was so aghast at the people celebrating the golden calf that he smashed the tablets and ordered the faithful among his people to kill the others. His fury caused a slaughter.

  THE NUMBER 40

  The number 40 comes up repeatedly in the Bible. It is clearly associated in the stories up to now with the idea of trials or tests and of salvation and redemption. The rain poured 40 days and 40 nights in the Noah story. Moses lived 40 years in Egypt. He was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights. Moses sent scouts ahead for 40 days to investigate Canaan. The Children of Israel wandered 40 years in the desert. We will see this number in later stories, too. Many religions have specific numbers that are somehow significant, often magical. But 40 does not appear to be magical in Judaism; instead, it might simply stand for “many,” and some scholars have noted that it is a natural number to choose for “many” since 40 years is about the span of a generation.

  The Lord was enraged at the people’s lack of faith. The Lord threatened to wipe them out with a plague—all but Moses’ family—just as everyone had been wiped out in the time of Noah. Again, Moses argued: Others would hear of the death of the Children of Israel and think the Lord was powerless to save them. He reminded the Lord of past promises to be kind. The Lord relented. At a cost. The Children of Israel had to wander for years before they could enter the promised land. Wandering was harsh. Many died, including Miriam, sister to Moses and Aaron. Once again they ran out of water. Once again the Lord showed Moses a rock and water gushed forth for people and livestock. Everyone was saved. Soon after, Aaron died. Everyone mourned for 30 days. The people complained. In fury, the Lord sent vipers. More died. Some ventured into the promised land before God allowed them, and died at enemy hands. There were little wars—skirmishes—and big wars—scourges.

  Scouts brought back a cluster of huge grapes, with tales of gigantic people in Canaan. The Children of Israel were afraid. Plus, water was hard to come by. And then Aaron
died. When the people complained, the Lord sent vipers. Moses, too, approached death. He passed on the job of leading the people home to Joshua.

  As the time approached, Moses told the Children of Israel their history, from Abraham on. He repeated the laws and Commandments. He gave them courage to cross the River Jordan and claim the promised land, despite their fears of giant Canaanites. He called forth Joshua, his assistant, and lay his hands upon his head, giving him wisdom so Joshua could lead the people. Then, on the west side of the River Jordan, he died with a whisper from God. God buried him in Moab. Never again would there be a prophet like Moses who God knew face-to-face.

  At this point, of the adults who had left Egypt, only two remained: Joshua and Caleb.

  In all, the Children of Israel had wandered 40 years in the wilderness. They needed to go home; Joshua would finish the job.

  The priests carried the golden ark with the tablets of law. When they came to the River Jordan, the water stopped rushing and rose up, leaving a dry riverbed. The priests walked across easily to the other shore.

  JOSHUA AND THE BATTLE OF JERICHO

  Joshua was Moses’ young assistant. God had selected him to become the next leader. Moses had shared some of his spirit with him. Joshua had his own perspective on things: It wouldn’t be easy to take over land in Canaan; people didn’t surrender just like that. So Joshua sent two spies to scope out the land, particularly the city of Jericho.