<b>And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass (Exod. 4:20).</b> This is one of the ten verses our rabbis altered when they translated the Torah into Greek for King Ptolemy.<sup class="footnote-marker">16</sup><i class="footnote">Megillah 9a. The Septuagint, begun during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 B.C.E.).</i> The ten changes are: “God created in the beginning” (Gen. 1:1);<sup class="footnote-marker">17</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>In the beginning God created</i>, in order to emphasize that God alone created.</i> “I shall make man in My image and My likeness” (ibid., v. 26);<sup class="footnote-marker">18</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>Let us make man in our image</i>. etc.</i> “And He finished on the sixth day, and rested on the seventh day (ibid. 2:2);<sup class="footnote-marker">19</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>And on the seventh day God finished</i>, thus giving the impression that God actually worked on the seventh day.</i> “Male and female He created him” (ibid. 5:2);<sup class="footnote-marker">20</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>Male and female He created them</i>, etc.</i> “Come, let Me descend and confound their tongue” (ibid. 11:7);<sup class="footnote-marker">21</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>Come, let us go down</i>, etc.</i> “And Sarah laughed among her relatives” (ibid. 18:12);<sup class="footnote-marker">22</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>And Sarah laughed within herself</i>.</i> “For in their anger they slew an ox, and in their wrath they digged up a stall” (ibid. 49:6);<sup class="footnote-marker">23</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>For in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they houghed oxen</i>.</i> “And Moses took his wife and his sons, and made them ride on a carrier of men” (Exod. 4:20);<sup class="footnote-marker">24</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of… <i>and set them upon an ass</i>.</i> “Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt, and in the land of Goshen and in Canaan was four hundred and thirty years” (ibid. 12:40);<sup class="footnote-marker">25</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years</i>, etc.</i> “And he sent the elect of the children of Israel” (ibid. 24:5);<sup class="footnote-marker">26</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>And he sent the young men of the children of Israel</i>.</i> “And against the elect of the children of Israel he put not forth his hand (ibid., v. 11);<sup class="footnote-marker">27</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand</i>.</i> “Since the Lord thy God hath arranged to give light to all the peoples under the entire heavens” (Deut. 4:19);<sup class="footnote-marker">28</sup><i class="footnote">The words “to give light” were added.</i> “Which I had not commanded the people to serve” (Deut. 17:3);<sup class="footnote-marker">29</sup><i class="footnote">Instead of <i>Which I have commanded not</i>.</i> they wrote about “the slender-footed,” but they did not write the word <i>‘arnevet</i> (“the hare”) (Lev. 11:5) because the name of Ptolemy’s wife was ‘Arnevet,<sup class="footnote-marker">30</sup><i class="footnote">Actually, her name was Arsinoe.</i> and he might say: “The Jews are ridiculing me by writing my wife’s name in the Torah.”