This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[264]
NOW Moses, when he had obtained the favor of Jethro, for that was
one of the names of Raguel, staid there and fed his flock; but some time
afterward, taking his station at the mountain called Sinai, he drove his
flocks thither to feed them. Now this is the highest of all the mountains
thereabout, and the best for pasturage, the herbage being there good; and
it had not been before fed upon, because of the opinion men had that God
dwelt there, the shepherds not daring to ascend up to it; and here it was
that a wonderful prodigy happened to Moses; for a fire fed upon a thorn
bush, yet did the green leaves and the flowers continue untouched, and
the fire did not at all consume the fruit branches, although the flame
was great and fierce. Moses was aftrighted at this strange sight, as it
was to him; but he was still more astonished when the fire uttered a voice,
and called to him by name, and spake words to him, by which it signified
how bold he had been in venturing to come into a place whither no
man had ever come before, because the place was divine; and advised him
to remove a great way off from the flame, and to be contented with what
he had seen; and though he were himself a good man, and the offspring of
great men, yet that he should not pry any further; and he foretold to him,
that he should have glory and honor among men, by the blessing of God upon
him. He also commanded him to go away thence with confidence to Egypt,
in order to his being the commander and conductor of the body of the Hebrews,
and to his delivering his own people from the injuries they suffered there:
"For," said God, "they shall inhabit this happy land which
your forefather Abraham inhabited, and shall have the enjoyment of all
good things." But still he enjoined them, when he brought the Hebrews
out of the land of Egypt, to come to that place, and to offer sacrifices
of thanksgiving there, Such were the divine oracles which were delivered
out of the fire.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.