We know him as the ultimate liberator, the lawgiver, the one who spoke to God face to face. But there's a fascinating story, tucked away in Jewish legend, about Moses the King of Ethiopia!
It sounds wild, doesn't it? According to Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, the Ethiopians, in desperate need of a leader, recognized something extraordinary in Moses. They literally stripped off their clothes, piled them high to make a makeshift throne, and declared him king! "Long live the king!" they cried.
And what did this kingship entail? Well, first, they all swore to give him Adoniah, the Ethiopian queen and widow of the previous king, Kikanos, as his wife. They also gave generously of their wealth, gold, silver, onyx stones, pearls… you name it! Imagine the scene – a young Moses, just twenty-seven years old, suddenly ruling over an entire nation. He reigned, the legend says, for forty years.
One of the first challenges King Moses faced was a besieged city plagued by serpents. How would he deal with this? He devised a clever plan. He ordered everyone to capture young storks and raise them. Then, after starving the storks for three days, he unleashed them upon the city. The storks, ravenous, devoured all the snakes, paving the way for victory. Brilliant. Even Balaam, he of the talking donkey fame, makes an appearance in this story! When he saw the city fall, he used his magic to escape to Egypt with his sons, Jannes and Jambres, and his eight brothers.
Of course, being king also meant marrying Adoniah. But here's where the story takes a deeply Jewish turn. Moses, mindful of his ancestors and their covenants with God, refused to consummate the marriage. He remembered Abraham's instructions to Eliezer not to take a Canaanite wife for Isaac. He remembered Isaac's command to Jacob, "Thou shalt not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, nor ally thyself by marriage with any of the children of Ham, for the Lord our God gave Ham the son of Noah and all his seed as slaves to the children of Shem and Japheth forever." He wasn't about to break those ancient laws.
He continued to rule justly and righteously, and the people loved him. He even subdued rebellions from Aram and the children of the East. But after forty years, Queen Adoniah had had enough. "This man," she declared, "hath not approached me, nor hath he worshipped the gods of Ethiopia. Let him reign over you no more!" She advocated for her son, Monarchos, to take the throne.
The people were torn. The army remained loyal to Moses, but many favored the son of their former king. Eventually, they crowned Monarchos, but they didn't harm Moses, remembering their oath to him and sensing God's presence. Instead, they showered him with gifts and sent him away with honor.
So, at the age of sixty-seven, Moses left Ethiopia. According to the legend, this was all part of God's plan, the appointed time to bring Israel out of Egypt. Fearing to return directly to Egypt because of Pharaoh, Moses journeyed to Midian, setting the stage for the next chapter of his extraordinary life.
What's so compelling about this story? It's more than just an adventure tale. It speaks to Moses' character, his unwavering faith, even in the face of power and temptation. It highlights the complexities of leadership, the tension between loyalty and tradition, and the ever-present hand of God guiding events behind the scenes. And it gives us a glimpse into a part of Moses' life we rarely consider, a formative period that undoubtedly shaped him into the leader he was destined to become. It also shows us the complex relationship between the descendants of Noah's sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The Zohar, a central text of Jewish mysticism, often emphasizes the hidden dimensions of even the most familiar stories. Perhaps this legend of Moses, the King of Ethiopia, reminds us that there's always more to the story, more to uncover, more to understand about the lives of our heroes. And perhaps, it invites us to consider how our own lives, even the seemingly ordinary moments, might be preparing us for something greater.
They could find none except Moses fit to be their king. They hastened and stripped off each man his upper garment, and cast them all in a heap upon the ground, making a high place, on top of which they set Moses. Then they blew with trumpets, and called out before him: "Long live the king! Long live the king!" And all the people and the nobles swore unto him to give him Adoniah for wife, the Ethiopian queen, the widow of Kikanos. And they made Moses king over them on that day. They also issued a proclamation, commanding every man to give Moses of what he possessed, and upon the high place they spread a sheet, wherein each one cast something, this one a gold nose ring, that one a coin, and onyx stones, bdellium, pearls, gold, and silver in great abundance. Moses was twenty-seven years old when he became king over Ethiopia, and he reigned for forty years. On the seventh day of his reign, all the people assembled and came before him, to ask his counsel as to what was to be done to the city they were besieging. The king answered them, and said: "If you will hearken to my words, the city will be delivered into our hands. Proclaim with a loud voice throughout the whole camp, unto all the people, saying: 'Thus saith the king! Go to the forest and fetch hither of the young of the stork, each man one fledgling in his hand. And if there be any man that transgresseth the word of the king, not to bring a bird, he shall die, and the king shall take all belonging to him.' And when you have brought them, they shall be in your keeping. You shall rear them until they grow up, and you shall teach them to fly as the hawk flieth." All the people did according to the word of Moses, and after the young storks had grown to full size, he ordered them to be starved for three days. On the third day the king said unto them, "Let every man put on his armor and gird his sword upon him. Each one shall mount his horse, and each shall set his stork upon his hand, and we will rise up and fight against the city opposite to the place of the serpents." When they came to the appointed spot, the king said to them, "Let each man send forth his young stork, to descend upon the serpents." Thus they did, and the birds swooped down and devoured all the reptiles and destroyed them. After the serpents were removed in this way, the men fought against the city, subdued it, and killed all its inhabitants, but of the people besieging it there died not one. When Balaam saw that the city had fallen into the hands of the besiegers, he exercised his magic arts, which enabled him to fly through the air, and he carried with him his two sons, Jannes and Jambres, and his eight brothers, and they all took refuge in Egypt. Seeing that they had been saved by the king, and the city had been taken by his good counsel, the people became more than ever attached to him. They set the royal crown upon his head, and gave him Adoniah, the widow of Kikanos to wife. But Moses feared the stern God of his fathers, and he went not in unto Adoniah, nor did he turn his eyes toward her, for he remembered how Abraham had made his servant Eliezer swear, saying unto him, "Thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell." He also remembered what Isaac did when Jacob fled before his brother Esau, how he commanded his son, saying, "Thou shalt not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, nor ally thyself by marriage with any of the children of Ham, for the Lord our God gave Ham the son of Noah and all his seed as slaves to the children of Shem and Japheth forever." At that time Aram and the children of the East heard that Kikanos the king of Ethiopia had died, and they rose up against the Ethiopians, but Moses went forth with a mighty army to fight against the rebellious nations, and he subdued them, first the children of the East and then Aram. Moses continued to prosper in his kingdom. He conducted the government in justice, righteousness, and integrity, and his people loved and feared him. In the fortieth year of his reign, while he was sitting upon his throne one day, surrounded by all the nobles, Adoniah the queen, who was seated before him, rose up, and spake: "What is this thing which you, the people of Ethiopia, have done these many days? Surely you know that during the forty years this man bath reigned over you, he hath not approached me, nor hath he worshipped the gods of Ethiopia. Now, therefore, let this man reign over you no more, for he is not of our flesh. Behold, Monarchos my son is grown up, let him reign over you. It is better for you to serve the son of your lord than a stranger, a slave of the king of Egypt." A whole day the people and the nobles contended with one another, whether to pay heed to the words of the queen. The officers of the army remained faithful to Moses, but the people of the cities were in favor of crowning the son of their former lord as king. The following morning they rose up and made Monarchos, the son of Kikanos, king over them, but they were afraid to stretch forth their hand against Moses, for the Lord was with him. They also remembered the oath they had sworn unto Moses, and therefore they did him no harm. Moreover, they gave many presents to him, and dismissed him with great honor. When Moses left Ethiopia, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, it was the time appointed by God in the days of old to bring Israel forth from the affliction of the children of Ham. But fearing to return to Egypt on account of Pharaoh, Moses journeyed to Midian.
