486 myths · Page 9 of 17
In the fat years some mocked the warehouses. In the famine they lined up. Jacob's sons went home with grain and found their silver back in every sack.
Cattle had died, yet six hundred chariots rolled. The beasts belonged to Egyptians who feared God, and their fear became Israel's stumbling block at the sea.
When Israel multiplied like underbrush, Pharaoh asked his counselors for a plan. Job of Uz stepped forward and proposed death for every newborn Hebrew son.
Joseph stored Egypt's grain, seized Simeon, and heaped Benjamin's plate seven times high before the silver cup closed the trap.
Pharaoh ordered boys killed at birth by the face that leads. Israel kept Hebrew names, language, and brick-yard mercy anyway.
They needed ten men to swear the ban and there were only nine of them left at the pit. So they made the Holy One the tenth.
Moses marked tomorrow on Pharaoh's wall. Hail fell with fire flashing inside the ice. Pharaoh begged, then sinned again the moment the sky went quiet.
Moses doubted Israel would believe. Heaven turned his staff to a serpent for that slander, then gave signs of leprosy, blood, and a bush that would not burn.
Judah raged over the silver cup until Manasseh's hand cooled him. Benjamin swore innocence by the very crimes that once sold Joseph.
Zepho pushed Agnias to invade Egypt and crush Jacob's sons. A fifteen-year-old Balaam sank wax armies in water, and the king canceled war.
Slaves without Torah still guarded names, language, speech, and sexual purity. Rabbi Eliezer said those four merits outweighed the world.
Officers told Moses that Israel was a sheep pulled by Pharaoh the wolf and by rescuers until the body tore, while Egypt planned total erasure.
Every other patriarch left Egypt in a coffin bound for Hebron. Joseph's bones stayed behind under guard in the royal treasure rooms, stored with the gold.
At midnight God arrived with ninety million angels of destruction. He held them back and struck Egypt Himself, from firstborn sons to the oldest in each house.
After the sea closed on Egypt, Israel listed five gifts and asked to return. They hid an idol in the camp, and Moses stopped them by force.
Willing women flooded Moses with gifts in two days while princes arrived late. Tabernacle gold came from Egypt, and Jacob's stored wood met them in the sand.
The traders were selling a free man and Potiphar knew it. He demanded a guarantor, paid them anyway, and took the boy home for himself.
One idol was left standing at Pi-hahiroth. Baal-zephon kept its shape while the other gods rotted and rusted, bait for a pursuit that ended in the sea.
Joseph locked the storeroom, counted his comfort, and thanked God for the relief. Heaven answered that it was about to set a she-bear on him.
They waited in groups for Moses to leave the house of study, then poured out blame. He had led them from a fruitful land into thirst.
Joseph had thought Egypt would be easier than life under his brothers' eyes. Potiphar's wife came at him day after day, and he was seventeen.
At the border of death Moses asked if one Egyptian he slew outweighed Egypt's firstborn. Afterward the abyss still heard Amram's son.
Pharaoh mocked God's wonder as street magic, then called toddlers to cast rods. Aaron's rod swallowed them all and stayed no thicker than before.
God ordered Israel to reverse and camp between rocks and sea. The waters outsmarted Egypt's cunning, and darkness had already buried most of Israel unseen.
Queen Alfar'anit wept while princes named fools and dwarfs as heirs. Outside Egypt, Zepho begged Africa to strike the sons of Jacob.
Josephus had a reply ready. Egypt never knew a single free day, and the Persians butchered the very animals the Egyptians called gods.
Signs did not convince Serach daughter of Asher. Only the doubled word of divine visitation, passed down from Joseph, proved Moses was Egypt's redeemer.
Moses shouted at the sky with the chariots already closing. The answer came back in family language, and then the lightning began herding Egypt.
The plagues followed a king's siege manual, water cut first, then noise, arrows, and fire. Even firstborn beasts fell so no idol could boast.
Moses tried to hand the mission back. Aaron had prophesied in Egypt for eighty years, and Moses feared taking his brother's place.
