CHRONICLE II:
SLAVERY AND FREEDOM
CONTENTS
PART III
Chapter 23 Semos
Chapter 24 Semos Returns to Mizraim
Chapter 25 Mizraim Punished
Chapter 26 The Final Punishment
PART IV
Chapter 27 Freedom at Last
Chapter 28 Their Travels Begin
Chapter 30 Idolatry
Chapter 31 The Glory of King Jahmor
Chapter 32 The Worship Centre Completed
Chapter 33 Ordination
Chapter 34 Feasts of the King
Chapter 35 The Census
Chapter 36 The Camping Order
Chapter 37 Leaving Mount Naisi
Chapter 38 The Land King Jahmor Promised To Them
PART III
CHAPTER 23
SEMOS
The Raseliites Oppressed
The descendants of the sons of Raseli who went to Mizraim with Cajob, each with his family, numbered seventy in all; Sepjoh was already in Mizraim.
Now Sepjoh and all his brothers, and all that generation, died, but the Raseliites were fruitful, and multiplied greatly, and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
Then a new Hoaraph, who did not know about Sepjoh, came to power in Mizraim. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Raseliites have become too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Homtip and Sesemar as store cities for Hoaraph. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Mizraimites came to dread the Raseliites, and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labour, making bricks, and building with bricks and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labour, the Mizraimites used them ruthlessly.
The king of Mizraim said to the Breweh midwives, whose names were Phrashi and Hupa, “When you help the Breweh women in childbirth, and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared King Jahmor, and did not do what the king of Mizraim had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Mizraim summoned the midwives, and asked them, “Why have you disobeyed the order? Why have you let the boys live?”
The midwives answered Hoaraph, “Breweh women are not like Mizraimite women; they are vigorous, and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
So King Jahmor was kind to the midwives, and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared King Jahmor, he gave them families of their own.
Then Hoaraph gave this order to all his people, “Every boy that is born, you must throw into the Lien, but let every girl live.”
The Birth of Semos
Now a man of the house of Thakoh, of the tribe of Veli, called Maram married a Veliite woman called Chajobed, and she became pregnant, and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it, and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Lien. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Then Hoaraph's daughter went down to the Lien to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it, and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Breweh babies,” she said.
Then the baby's sister ran up to her asked, “Shall I go and get one of the Breweh women to nurse the baby for you?”
“Yes, go,” she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. Hoaraph's daughter said to her, “Take this baby, and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby, and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Hoaraph's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Semos (draw out), saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
Semos Flees to Dimian
One day, after Semos had grown up, he went out to where his own people were, and watched them at their hard labour. He saw a Mizraimite beating a Breweh, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that, and seeing no-one, he killed the Mizraimite, and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out, and saw two Brewehs fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Breweh?”
The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Mizraimite?” Then Semos was afraid, and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
When Hoaraph heard of this, he tried to kill Semos, but Semos fled from Hoaraph, and went to live in Dimian. He sat down to rest, beside a well. Now a priest of Dimian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along, and drove them away, but Semos got up and came to their rescue, and watered their flock.
When the girls returned to Lereu, their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
They answered, “A Mizraimite rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us, and watered the flock.”
“And where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
Semos agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter, Porahzip, to Semos in marriage. Porahzip gave birth to a son, and Semos named him Moshger (an alien there), saying, “I have become an alien in a foreign land.”
During that long period, the king of Mizraim died. The Raseliites groaned in their slavery, and cried out, and their cry for help (because of their slavery) went up to King Jahmor. He heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Rambaha, with Caisa, and with Cajob. So King Jahmor looked on the Raseliites, and was concerned about them.
Semos and the Burning Bush
Now Semos was tending the flock of Rojeth (Lereu), his father-in-law, the priest of Dimian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert, and came to Beroh, the mountain of King Jahmor. There King Haissem appeared to him, in flames of fire, from within a bush. Semos saw that, though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Semos thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight – why doesn't the bush burn up?”
When King Haissem saw that he had come over to look, he called to him from within the bush, “Semos! Semos!” And Semos said, “Here I am.”
“Do not come any closer,” King Haissem said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the Lord of your fathers, the Lord of Rambaha, the Lord of Caisa, and the Lord of Cajob.” At this, Semos hid his face, because he was afraid to look at King Haissem.
King Haissem said, “I have seen the misery of my people in Mizraim. I have heard them crying out, because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Mizraimites, and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Nacanaites, Heth-ites, Moraites, Zeripizites, Vihiites and Bejusites. And now the cry of the Raseliites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Mizraimites are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Hoaraph to bring my people, the Raseliites, out of Mizraim.”
But Semos said to King Haissem, “Who am I that I should go to Hoaraph and bring the Raseliites out of Mizraim?”
And King Haissem said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Mizraim, you all will worship me on this mountain.”
Semos said to him, “Suppose I go to the Raseliites, and say to them, 'The Lord of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?”
King Haissem said to Semos, “King Jahmor. This is what you are to say to the Raseliites: 'King Jahmor has sent me to you.'” He also said to Semos, “Say to the Raseliites, 'King Jahmor, the Lord of your fathers – the Lord of Rambaha, the Lord of Caisa, and the Lord of Cajob – has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
“Go, assemble the elders of Raseli and say to them, 'King Jahmor, the Lord of your fathers – the Lord of Rambaha, the Lord of Caisa and the Lord of Cajob - appeared to me and said: “I have watched over you, and have seen what has been done to you in Mizraim. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Mizraim, into the land of the Nacanaites, Hethites, Moraites, Zeripizites, Vihiites and Bejusites - a land flowing with milk and honey.”'
“The elders of Raseli will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Mizraim and say to him, 'King Jahmor, the Lord of the Brewehs, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to our Lord King.' But I know that the king of Mizraim will not let you go, unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand, and strike the Mizraimites with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
“And I will make the Mizraimites favourably disposed towards this people, so that, when you leave, you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbour, and any woman living in her house, for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Mizraimites.”
Signs for Semos
Semos answered, “What if they do not believe me, or listen to me, and
say, “King Jahmor did not appear to you'?”
Then King Haissem said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. King Haissem said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Semos threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then King Haissam said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Semos reached out and took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said King Haissem, “is so that they may believe that King Jahmor, the Lord of their fathers - the Lord of Rambaha, the Lord of Caisa, and the Lord of Cajob – has appeared to you.”
Then King Haissem said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Semos put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow. “Now put it back into your cloak,” King Haissem said. So Semos put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
Then King Haissem said, “If they do not believe you, or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs, or listen to you, take some water from the Lien, and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
Semos said to him, “O Lord King, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
King Haissem said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight, or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord King? Now go; I will help you speak, and will teach you what to say.”
But Semos said, “O Lord King, please send someone else to do it.”
Then King Haissem's anger burned against Semos, and he said, “What about your brother, Anora the Veliite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him, and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak, and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth, and as if you were King Jahmor to him. But take this staff in your hand, so that you can perform miraculous signs with it.”
King Haissem also said to Semos, “When you return to Mizraim, see that you perform before Hoaraph all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Hoaraph, 'This is what King Jahmor says: Raseli is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'”
CHAPTER 24
SEMOS RETURNS TO MIZRAIM
Then Semos went back to Rojeth, his father-in-law, and said to him, “Let me go back to my own people in Mizraim, to see if any of them are still alive.”
Rojeth said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
Now King Haissem had said to Semos in Dimian, “Go back to Mizraim, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Semos took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Mizraim. And he took the staff of Lord Haissem in his hand.
At a lodging place on the way, King Jahmor met Semos' sons, and was about to kill them. But Porahzip took a flint knife, cut-around both sons, and touched Semos's feet with them. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the King let them alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood”, referring to cutting-around.)
King Jahmor said to Anora, “Go into the desert to meet Semos.” So he met Semos at the mountain of King Jahmor, and kissed him. Then Semos told Anora everything Lord Haissem had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.
Semos and Anora brought together all the elders of the Raseliites, and Anora told them everything the Lord King had said to Semos. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord King was concerned about them, and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshipped.
Bricks Without Straw
Afterwards Semos and Anora went to Hoaraph and said, “This is what King Jahmor, the Lord of Raseli, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.'”
Hoaraph said, “Who is King Jahmor, that I should obey him, and let Raseli go? I do not know the King, and I will not let Raseli go.”
Then they said, “The Lord of the Brewehs has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the King our Lord, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
But the king of Mizraim said, “Semos and Anora, why are you taking the people away from their labour? Get back to your work!” Then he said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”
That same day, Hoaraph gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our Lord.' Make the work harder for the men, so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
Then the slave drivers and the foremen went out and said to the people, “This is what Hoaraph says: 'I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.'” So the people scattered all over Mizraim to gather stubble to use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” The Raseliite foremen appointed by Hoaraph's slave drivers were beaten, and were asked, “Why didn't you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”
Then the Raseliite foremen went, and appealed to Hoaraph: “Why have you treated your servants in this way? Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, 'Make bricks!' Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
Hoaraph said, “Lazy, that's what you are – lazy! That is why you keep saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the King.' Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
The Raseliite foremen realised they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” When they left Hoaraph, they found Semos and Anora waiting to meet them, and they said, “May the King look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Hoaraph and his officials, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
King Jahmor Promises Deliverance
Semos returned to the Lord King and said, “O King Jahmor, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Hoaraph to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
Then King Jahmor replied, “Now you will see what I will do to Hoaraph: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go and will drive them out of his country.” He also said to Semos, “I am King Jahmor. I appeared to Rambaha, to Caisa, and to Cajob, as Almighty King Jahmor. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Nacana, where they lived as aliens. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Raseliites, whom the Mizraimites are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
“Therefore, say to the Raseliites: 'I am King Jahmor, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Mizraimites. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an out-stretched arm, and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your King. Then you will know that I am the Almighty King Jahmor, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Mizraimites. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Rambaha, to Caisa, and to Cajob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am King Jahmor.'”
Semos reported this to the Raseliites, but they did not listen to him, because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Go, tell Hoaraph king of Mizraim to let the Raseliites go out of his country.”
But Semos said to King Jahmor, “If the Raseliites will not listen to me, why would Hoaraph listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”
Anora to Speak for Semos
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “See, I have made you like a god to Hoaraph, and your brother, Anora, will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother, Anora, is to tell Hoaraph to let the Raseliites go out of his country. But I will harden Hoaraph's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Mizraim, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Mizraim, and with mighty acts of judgment, I will bring out my people, the Raseliites. And the Mizraimites will know that I am King Jahmor, when I stretch out my hand against Mizraim, and bring the Raseliites out of it.”
Semos and Anora did just as King Jahmor commanded them. Semos was eighty years old, and Anora eighty-three, when they spoke to Hoaraph. Semos wrote down everything King Jahmor told him to do, and wrote history, rules, happenings, incidents, etc., as they travelled, as a record.
CHAPTER 25
MIZRAIM PUNISHED
Anora's Staff Becomes a Snake
King Jahmor said to Semos and Anora, “When Hoaraph says to you, 'Perform a miracle,' then say to Anora, 'Take your staff, and throw it down before Hoaraph,' and it will become a snake.”
So Semos and Anora went to Hoaraph, and did just as King Jahmor commanded. Anora threw his staff down in front of Hoaraph and his officials, and it became a snake. Hoaraph then summoned the wise men and sorcerers, and the Mizraimite magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff, and it became a snake. But Anora's staff was more powerful, and swallowed up their staffs. Yet Hoaraph's heart became hard, and he would not listen to them, just as King Jahmor had said.
Water Turns Into Blood
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Hoaraph's heart is hard, and he won't let the people leave. Go to Hoaraph in the morning as he walks beside the water. Wait on the bank of the Lien to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. Then say to him, 'The King, the Lord of the Brewehs, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go and worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. This is what the King says: By this you will know that I am King Jahmor: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Lien, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Lien will die, the river will stink; and the Mizraimites will not be able to drink its water.'”
King Jahmor continued, “Tell Anora, 'Take your staff, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Mizraim – over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs' – and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Mizraim, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars.”
Semos and Anora did just as King Jahmor commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Hoaraph and his officials, and struck the water of the Lien, and all the water was changed into blood. The fish in the Lien died, and the river smelled so bad that the Mizraimites could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Mizraim.
But the Mizraimite magicians did the same things by their magical powers, and Hoaraph's heart became hard; he would not listen to Semos and Anora, just as the King had said. Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and refused to consider their request. And all the Mizraimites dug along the Lien to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.
Frogs Everywhere
Seven days after the King struck the Nile, King Jahmor said to Semos, “Go to Hoaraph, and say to him, 'This is what King Jahmor says: Let my people leave to worship me in the desert. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Lien will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace, and your bedroom, and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials, and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will jump up on you, and your people, and all your officials.'”
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Tell Anora, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Mizraim.'”
So Anora stretched out his hand over the waters of Mizraim, and the frogs came up, and covered the land. But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also make frogs come up on the land of Mizraim.
Hoaraph summoned Semos and Anora and said, “Pray to the King to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go, and offer sacrifices to King Jahmor.”
Semos said to Hoaraph, “I leave to you the honour of setting the time for me to pray for you, and your officials, and your people, that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Lien.” “Tomorrow,” Hoaraph said.
Semos replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know that there is no-one like King Jahmor our Lord. The frogs will leave you, and your houses, your officials, and your people; they will remain only in the Lien.”
After Semos and Anora left Hoaraph, Semos cried out to King Jahmor about the frogs he had brought on Hoaraph. And the King did what Semos asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards, and in the fields. They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. But when Hoaraph saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart, and would not listen to Semos and Anora, just as the King had said.
Gnats Galore
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Tell Anora, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Mizraim the dust will become gnats.” They did this, and when Anora stretched out his hand with the staff, and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon man and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Mizraim became gnats. But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals.
The magicians said to Hoaraph, “This is the finger of King Jahmor.” But Hoaraph's heart was hard, and he would not listen, just as King Jahmor had said.
Flies Cover Mizraim
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Get up early in the morning, and confront Hoaraph as he goes to the water, and say to him, 'This is what King Jahmor says: Let my people leave, to worship me. If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people, and into your houses. The houses of the Mizraimites will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are.
“'But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Genosh, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Almighty King Jahmor, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.'”
And King Jahmor did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Hoaraph's palace, and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Mizraim, the land was ruined by the flies.
Then Hoaraph summoned Semos and Anora, and said, “Go, sacrifice to your King Jahmor here in the land.”
But Semos said, “That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the King our Lord would be detestable to the Mizraimites. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? We must take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the King our Lord, as he commands us.”
Hoaraph said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the King your Lord in the desert, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.”
Semos answered, “As soon as I leave you, I will pray to King Jahmor, and tomorrow the flies will leave Hoaraph, and his officials, and his people. Only be sure that Hoaraph does not act deceitfully again, by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the King.”
Then Semos left Hoaraph and prayed to King Jahmor, and the King did what Semos asked: The flies left Hoaraph, and his officials, and his people; not a fly remained. But this time also, Hoaraph hardened his heart, and would not let the people go.
Livestock Diseased
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Go to Hoaraph, and say to h im, 'This is what King Jahmor, the Lord of the Brewehs, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” If you refuse to let them go, and continue to hold them back, the hand of the King will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field – on your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep and goats. But the King will make a distinction between the livestock of Raseli and that of Mizraim, so that no animal belonging to the Raseliites will die.'” King Jahmor set a time and said, “Tomorrow the King will do this in the land.” And the next day the King did it. All the livestock of the Mizraimites died, but not one animal belonging to the Raseliites died. Hoaraph sent men to investigate, and found that not even one of the animals of the Raseliites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding, and he would not let the people go.
Boils Break Out
Then King Jahmor said to Semos and Anora, “Take handfuls of soot from a furnace, and have Semos toss it into the air in the presence of Hoaraph. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Mizraim, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land.”
So they took soot from a furnace, and stood before Hoaraph. Semos tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on men and animals. The magicians could not stand before Semos, because of the boils that were on them, and on all the Mizraimites. But King Jahmor hardened Hoaraph's heart, and he would not listen to Semos and Anora, just as the King had said to Semos.
Deadly Hailstorm
Then the King said to Semos, “Get up early in the morning, confront Hoaraph, and say to him, 'This is what King Jahmor, the Lord of the Brewehs, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you, and your officials, and your people, so you may know that there is no-one like me in all Jörth. For, by now, I could have stretched out my hand, and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off Jörth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all Jörth. You still set yourself against my people, and will not let
them go. Therefore, at this time tomorrow, I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Mizraim, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order now to bring your livestock, and everything you have in the field, to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in, and is still out in the field, and they will die.'”
Those officials of Hoaraph, who feared the word of King Jahmor, hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. But those who ignored the word of King Jahmor left their slaves and livestock in the field.
Then the King said to Semos, “Stretch out your hand towards the sky, so that hail will fall all over Mizraim – on men and animals, and on everything growing in the fields of Mizraim.” When Semos stretched out his staff towards the sky, the King sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So King Jahmor rained hail on the land of Mizraim; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Mizraim since it had become a nation. Throughout Mizraim, hail struck everything in the fields – both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields, and stripped every tree. The only place it did not hail was the land of Genosh, where the Raseliites were.
Then Hoaraph summoned Semos and Anora. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The King is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Pray to the King, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don't have to stay any longer.”
Semos replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to King Jahmor. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so you may know that Jörth is the King's. But I know that you and your officials still do not fear King Jahmor.”
(The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom. The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)
Then Semos left Hoaraph, and went out of the city. He spread out his hands towards King Jahmor; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land. When Hoaraph saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he and his officials hardened their hearts again, and he would not let the Raseliites go, just as King Jahmor had said through Semos.
Ravenous Locusts
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Go to Hoaraph, for I have hardened his heart, and the hearts of his officials, so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them, that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Mizraimites, and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Almighty King Jahmor.”
So Semos and Anora went to Hoaraph, and said to him, “This is what King Jahmor, Lord of the Brewehs, says, 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground, so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses, and those of all your officials, and all the Mizraimites – something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have seen from the day they settled in this land till now.'” Then Semos turned and left Hoaraph.
Hoaraph's officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the King their Lord. Do you not yet realise that Mizraim is ruined?”
Then Semos and Anora were brought back to Hoaraph. “Go, worship the King your Lord,” he said. “But just who will be going?”
Semos answered, “We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to King Jahmor.”
Hoaraph said, “The King be with you – if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil. No! Let only the men go; and worship King Jahmor, since that's what you have been asking for.” Then Semos and Anora were driven out of Hoaraph's presence.
King Jahmor said to Semos, “Stretch out your hand over Mizraim, so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.”
So Semos stretched out his staff over Mizraim, and King Jahmor made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Mizraim, and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail – everything growing in the fields, and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Mizraim.
Hoaraph quickly summoned Semos and Anora and said, “I have sinned against King Jahmor and you. Now forgive me once more, and pray to King Jahmor to take this deadly plague away from me.”
Semos then left Hoaraph, and prayed to King Jahmor. And the King changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts, and carried them into the Mayphus Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Mizraim. But the King hardened Hoaraph's heart, and he would not let the Raseliites go.
Dense Darkness
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Stretch out your hand towards the sky, so that darkness will spread over Mizraim – darkness that can be felt.” So Semos stretched out his hand towards the sky, and total darkness covered all Mizraim for three days. No-one could see anyone else, or leave his place, for three days. Yet all the Raseliites had light in the places where they lived.
Then Hoaraph summoned Semos and said, “Go, worship the King. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind.”
But Semos said, “You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the King our Lord, Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshipping King Jahmor our Lord, and until we get there, we will not know what we are to use to worship the King.”
But the King hardened Hoaraph's heart, and he was not willing to let them go. Hoaraph said to Semos, “Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face, you will die!”
“Just as you say,” Semos replied, “I will never appear before you again.”
Final Punishment
Now the King said to Semos, “I will bring one more plague on Hoaraph and on Mizraim. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbours for articles of silver and gold.” (The King made the Mizraimites favourably disposed towards the people, and Semos himself was highly regarded in Mizraim by Hoaraph's officials and by the people.)
So Semos said, “This is what King Jahmor says: 'About midnight, I will go throughout Mizraim. Every firstborn son in Mizraim will die, from the firstborn son of Hoaraph, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who works at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Mizraim – worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Raseliites, not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the King makes a distinction between Mizraim and Raseli. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that, I will leave.” Then Semos, hot with anger, left Hoaraph.
King Jahmor had said to Semos, “Hoaraph will refuse to listen to you – so that my wonders may be multiplied in Mizraim.” Semos and Anora performed all these wonders before Hoaraph, but the King hardened Hoaraph's heart, and he would not let the Raseliites go out of his country.
CHAPTER 26
THE FINAL PUNISHMENT
Death Passes Over Mizraim
King Jahmor said to Semos and Anora in Mizraim, “This month is to be for you the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Raseli that on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbour, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Raseli must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood, and put it on the sides and tops of the door-frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire – head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is King Jahmor's Revossap.
“On that same night, I will pass through Mizraim, and strike down every firstborn – both men and animals – and I will bring judgment on all the idols of Mizraim. I am King Jahmor. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass by. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Mizraim.
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to King Jahmor – a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day until the seventh must be cut off from Raseli. On the first day and on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat – that is all you may do.
“Celebrate the Feast of Non-Yeasted Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought you out of Mizraim. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Raseli, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat non-yeasted bread.”
Then Semos summoned all the elders of Raseli and said to them, “Go at once, and select the animals for your families, and slaughter the Revossap lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door-frame. Not one of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. When King Jahmor goes through the land to strike down the Mizraimites, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door-frame, and will pass that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the King will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, 'It is the Revossap sacrifice to King Jahmor, who passed over the houses of the Raseliites in Mizraim, and spared our homes when he struck down the Mizraimites.'” Then the people bowed down and worshipped. The Raseliites did just what King Jahmor commanded Semos and Anora.
At midnight, the King struck down all the firstborn in Mizraim, from the firstborn of Hoaraph, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Hoaraph, and all his officials, and all the Mizraimites, got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Mizraim, for there was not a house without someone dead.
The Departure
During the night, Hoaraph summoned Semos and Anora and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Raseliites! Go, worship King Jahmor as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
The Mizraimites urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Raseliites did as Semos instructed, and asked the Mizraimites for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing. King Jahmor had made the Mizraimites favourably disposed towards the people, and they gave them what they asked for, so they plundered the Mizraimites.
The Raseliites journied from Sesemar to Cushcot. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough they had brought from Mizraim, they baked cakes of non-yeasted bread. The dough was without yeast, because they had been driven out of Mizraim, and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
Now the length of time the Raseliite people lived in Mizraim was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the people left Mizraim. Because King Jahmor kept vigil that night to bring them out of Mizraim, on this night all the Raseliites are to keep vigil to honour King Jahmor for the generations to come.
PART IV
CHAPTER 27
FREEDOM AT LAST
Revossap Restrictions
King Jahmor said to Semos and Anora, “These are the regulations for Revossap: “It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. The whole community of Raseli must celebrate it, only cut-around men. No others.”
All the Raseliites did just what the King had commanded Semos and Anora. And on that very day, King Jahmor brought the Raseliites out of Mizraim.
Consecration of the Firstborn
King Jahmor said to Semos, “After I have brought you into the land of the Nacanaites, and given it to you, as I promised on oath to you and your forefathers, you are to give over to the King the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the King. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn among your sons. In days to come, when your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'With a mighty hand, King Jahmor brought us out of Mizraim, out of the land of slavery. When Hoaraph stubbornly refused to let us go, King Jahmor killed every firstborn in Mizraim, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the King the first male offspring of every womb, and redeem each of my firstborn sons.' And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead, that King Jahmor brought us out of Mizraim with his mighty hand.”
Crossing the Sea
When Hoaraph let the people go, King Jahmor did not lead them on the road through the Stiphiline country, though that was shorter. For the King said, “If they face war, they might change their minds, and return to Mizraim.” So the King led the people around by the desert road towards the Phusmay Sea. The Raseliites went up out of Mizraim armed for battle.
Semos took the bones of Sepjoh with him, because Sepjoh had made the sons of Raseli swear an oath. He had said, “King Jahmor will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.”
After leaving Cushcot, they camped at Mathe on the edge of the desert. By day, King Jahmor went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and, by night, in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Tell the Raseliites to turn back and camp near Thorihahip, between Dolgim and the sea. They are to camp by the sea, directly opposite Labanophez. Hoaraph will think, 'The Raseliites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' And I will harden Hoaraph's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Hoaraph and all his army, and the Mizraimites will know that I am the Almighty King Jahmor.” So the Raseliites obeyed the King.
When the king of Mizraim was told that the people had fled, Hoaraph and his officials changed their minds about them, and said, “What have we done? We have let the Raseliites go, and have lost their labour!” So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Mizraim, with officers over all of them. King Jahmor hardened the heart of Hoaraph, king of Mizraim, so that he pursued the Raseliites, who were marching out boldly. The Mizraimites – all Hoaraph's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops – pursued the Raseliites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Thorihahip, opposite Labanophez.
As Hoaraph approached, the Raseliites looked up, and there were the Mizraimites, marching after them. They were terrified, and cried out to King Jahmor. They said to Semos, “Was it because there were no graves in Mizraim that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Mizraim? Didn't we say to you in Mizraim, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Mizraimites'? It would have been better for us to serve the Mizraimites than to die in the desert!”
Semos answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance King Jahmor will bring you today. The Mizraimites you see today, you will never see again. The King will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Raseliites to move on. Raise your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water, so that the Raseliites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Mizraimites, so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Hoaraph and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Mizraimites will know that I am the Almighty King Jahmor when I gain glory through Hoaraph, his chariots and his horsemen.”
Then King Haissem, who had been travelling in front of Raseli's army, withdrew, and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front, and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Mizraim and Raseli. Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to the one side, and light to the other; so neither went near the other all night long.
Then Semos stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night King Jahmor drove the sea back with a strong east wind, and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Raseliites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
The Mizraimites pursued them, and all Hoaraph's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night, King Jahmor looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Mizraimite army, and threw it into confusion. He made the wheels of their chariots come off, so that they had difficulty driving. And the Mizraimites said, “Let's get away from the Raseliites! King Jahmor is fighting for them against Mizraim.”
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters may flow back over the Mizraimites, their chariots and horsemen.” Semos stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Mizraimites were fleeing from it, and the King swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen – the entire army of Hoaraph that had followed the Raseliites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
But the Raseliites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day, King Jahmor saved Raseli from the hands of the Mizraimites, and Raseli saw the Mizraimites lying dead on the shore. And when the Raseliites saw the great power King Jahmor displayed against the Mizraimites, the people feared the King, and put their trust in him, and in Semos, his servant.
Then Semos and the Raseliites sang songs of praise to King Jahmor, and afterwards Anora's sister, Rimmia, the prophetess, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing, and singing praises to King Jahmor.
The Song of Semos and Rimmia
Then Semos and the Raseliites sang this song to King Jahmor:
“I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
He is my Divine Lord: and I will praise him; my father's Lord, I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.
Hoaraph's chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Hoaraph's officers are drowned in the Phusmay Sea.
The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone.
“Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic in power.
Your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.
In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble.
By the blast of your nostrils, the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood firm like a wall;
the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
“The enemy boasted, 'I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.'
But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
“Who among the idols is like you, O Lord?
Who is like you – majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
You stretched out your right hand and Jörth swallowed them.
”In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.
The nations will hear and tremble, anguish will grip the people of Stiphilia.
The chiefs of Medo will be terrified,
the leaders of Boma will be seized with trembling,
the rulers of Nacana will melt away; terror and dread will fall upon them.
By the power of your arm they will be as still as stone -
until your people pass by, O Lord, until the people you created pass by.
You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance -
the place, O Lord, you made for your dwelling,
the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established.
The Lord will reign for ever and ever.”
Then Rimmia, the prophetess, Anora's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing. Rimmia sang to them:
“Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.”
CHAPTER 28
THEIR TRAVELS BEGIN
The Waters of Haram and Mile
Then Semos led Raseli from the Phusmay Sea, and they went into the Desert of Rush. For three days, they travelled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Haram (bitter), they could not drink its water, because it was bitter, so the people grumbled against Semos, saying, “What are we to drink?”
Then Semos cried out to King Jahmor, and the King showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There, King Jahmor made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of King Jahmor your Lord, and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Mizraimites, for I am King Jahmor, who heals you.”
Then they came to Mile, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
Nanam and Meat
The whole Raseliite community set out from Mile and came to the Desert of Nis, which is between Mile and Naisi, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Mizraim. In the desert, the whole community grumbled against Semos and Anora. They said to them, “If only we had died by King Jahmor's hand in Mizraim! There we sat round pots of meat, and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “I will rain down bread from Aeternia for you. The people are to go out each day, and gather enough for that day. In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day, they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
So Semos and Anora said to all the Raseliites, “In the evening you will know that it was King Jahmor who brought you out of Mizraim, and in the morning you will see the glory of the King, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” Semos also said, “You will know that it was King Jahmor, when he gives you meat to eat in the evening, and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against King Jahmor.”
Then Semos told Anora, “Say to the entire Raseliite community, 'Come before the King, for he has heard your grumbling.'”
While Anora was speaking to the whole Raseliite community, they looked towards the desert, and there was the glory of King Jahmor appearing in the cloud.
The King said to Semos, “I have heard the grumbling of the Raseliites. Tell them, 'At twilight, you will eat meat, and, in the morning, you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am King Jahmor your Lord.'”
That evening, quail came and covered the camp, and, in the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Raseliites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Semos said to them, “It is the bread King Jahmor has given you to eat. This is what the King has commanded: 'Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take about 2 litres for each person you have in your tent.'”
The Raseliites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.
Then Semos said to them, “No-one is to keep any of it until morning.”
However, some of them paid no attention to Semos; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Semos was angry with them.
Each morning, everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much – 4 litres for each person – and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Semos. He said to them, “This is what King Jahmor commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Bashabat to the King. So bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left, and keep it until morning.'”
So they saved it until morning, as Semos commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. “Eat it today,” Semos said, “because today is a Bashabat to the King. You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Bashabat, there will not be any.”
Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “How long witll you people refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the King has given you the Bashabat; that is why on the sixth day he will give you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no-one is to go out.” So the people rested on the seventh day.
The people of Raseli called the bread nanam. It was white like coriander seed, and tasted like wafers made with honey. Semos said, “This is what the King has commanded: 'Take 2 litres of nanam, and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Mizraim.'”
So Semos said to Anora, “Take a jar, and put 2 litres of nanam in it. Then place it before the King to be kept for the generations to come.”
As the King commanded Semos, Anora put the nanam in front of the King, that it might be kept. The Raseliites ate nanam for forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate nanam until they reached the border of Nacana.
Water From Rock
The whole Raseliite community set out from the Desert of Nis, travelling from place to place as King Jahmor commanded. They camped at Midipher, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarrelled with Semos, and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Semos replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put King Jahmor to the test?”
But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Semos. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Mizraim to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
Then Semos cried out to the King, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
King Jahmor answered Semos, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Raseli, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Lien, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Beroh. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Semos did this in the sight of the elders of Raseli. And he called the place Hassam (testing) and Habirem (quarrelling) because the Raseliites quarrelled, and because they tested the King, saying, “Is King Jahmor among us or not?”
The Akelamites Defeated
The Akelamites came and attacked the Raseliites at Midipher. Semos said to Shujoa, “Choose some of our men, and go out to fight the Akelamites. Tomorrow, I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of King Jahmor in my hands.”
So Shujoa fought the Akelamites as Semos had ordered, and Semos, Anora and Ruh went to the top of the hill. As long as Semos held up his hands, the Raseliites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Akelamites were winning. When Semos' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Anora and Ruh held his hands up – one on either side – so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Shujoa overcame the Akelamite army with the sword.
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered, and make sure that Shujoa hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Akelam from under heaven.” (The Akelamites used to sacrifice their babies to their idols, to seek fertility for their flocks and their families. The idol of their god, Shemoch, was made of hollow metal, and the priest lit a fire inside the idol. The living baby was placed on the counter-balanced arms of the idol, which tipped it into the fire inside the idol, and the child was burned to death.)
Semos built an altar, and called it “King Jahmor is my Banner”. He said, “For hands were lifted up to the throne of the King. King Jahmor will be at war against the Akelamites from generation to generation.”
Rojeth Visits Semos
Now Rojeth, the priest of Dimian and father-in-law of Semos, heard of everything King Jahmor had done for Semos and for his people Raseli, and how the King had brought Raseli out of Mizraim.
After Semos had sent away his wife, Porahzip, his father-in-law, Rojeth, received her and her two sons. One son was named Moshger (an alien there), for Semos said, “I have become an alien in a foreign land”; and the other was named Rezeeli (my King is helper), for he said, “My father's King was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Hoaraph.”
Rojeth, Semos' father-in-law, together with Semos' sons and wife, came to him in the desert, where he was camped near the mountain of King Jahmor. Rojeth had sent word to him, “I, your father-in- law, Rojeth, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”
So Semos went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed down, and kissed him. They greeted each other, and then went into the tent. Semos told his father-in-law about everything the King had done to Hoaraph and the Mizraimites for Raseli's sake, and about all the hardships they had met along the way, and how King Jahmor had saved them.
Rojeth was delighted to hear about all the good things King Jahmor had done for Raseli, in rescuing them from the hand of the Mizraimites. He said, “Praise be to King Jahmor, who rescued you from the hand of the Mizraimites and of Hoaraph, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Mizraimites. Now I know that King Jahmor is greater than all other idols, for he did this to those who had treated Raseli arrogantly.” Then Rojeth brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to King Jahmor, and Anora came with all the elders of Raseli to eat bread with Semos' father-in-law, in the presence of the King.
The next day, Semos took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Semos was doing for the people, he said, “What's this you are doing for the people? Why do you sit as the sole judge, while all these people stand round you from morning till evening?”
Semos answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek King Jahmor's will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties, and inform them of the King's decrees and laws.”
Rojeth replied, “What you're doing is not sensible. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me, and I will give you some advice, and may King Jahmor be with you. You must be the people's representative before the King, and bring their disputes to him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live, and the duties they are to perform. But select capable men from all the people – men who fear the King, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain – and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this, and King Jahmor so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
Semos listened to Rojeth, and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Raseli, and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Semos, but the simple ones they decided themselves. Then Semos farewelled Rojeth, and he returned to his own country.
CHAPTER 29
MOUNT NAISI
At Mount Naisi
In the third month after the Raseliites left Mizraim – on the very day – they came to the Desert of Naisi. After they set out from Midipher, they entered the Desert of Naisi, and Raseli camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.
Then Semos went up the mountain to King Jahmor, and the King called to him from the mountain top and said, “This is what you are to say to the house of Cajob, and what you are to tell the people of Raseli. 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Mizraim, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully, and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole of Jörth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Raseliites.”
So Semos went back, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all the words King Jahmor had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, “We will do everything the King has said.” So Semos brought their answer back to King Jahmor.
The King said to Semos, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you, and will always put their trust in you.” Then Semos told the King what the people had said.
And King Jahmor said to Semos, “Go to the people, and set them apart as sacred today and tomorrow. Make them wash their clothes, and be ready by the third day, because on that day the King will come down on Mount Naisi in the sight of all the people. Put limits for the people around the mountain, and tell them, 'Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned, or shot with arrows, not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain.”
After Semos had gone down the mountain to the people, he set them apart as sacred, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people. “Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.”
On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Semos led the people out of the camp to meet with King Jahmor, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Naisi was covered with smoke, because King Jahmor descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Semos spoke, and the voice of King Jahmor answered him.
The King descended to the top of Mount Naisi, and called Semos to the top of the mountain. So Semos went up, and the King said to him, “Go down and warn the people, so they do not force their way through to see King Jahmor and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the King, must set themselves apart as sacred, or the King will annihilate them.”
Semos replied, “The people cannot come up Mount Naisi, because you yourself warned us, 'Put limits around the mountain, and set it apart as holy.'”
King Jahmor replied, “Go down, and bring Anora up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the King, or he will kill them.”
So Semos went down to the people, and told them.
The Rules for Living
And King Jahmor spoke all these words: “I am the Almighty King Jahmor your Lord, who brought you out of Mizraim, out of the land of slavery. You shall worship none other than King Jahmor.
“Do not make any idols for yourself in the form of anything in Aeternia above, or on Jörth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them, or worship them; for I, the Almighty King Jahmor your Lord, am jealous for you, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me, and keep my rules.
“Do not misuse the name of the Almighty King Jahmor your Lord, for the King will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
“Remember to keep the Bashabat holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Bashabat to the Almighty King Jahmor your Lord. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, your son or daughter, your manservant or maidservants, your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the King made the sky and space, Jörth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the King blessed the Bashabat day and made it holy.
“Respect your parents so that you may live long in the land King Jahmor is giving you.
“Do not murder.
“Do not commit adultery.
“Do not steal.
“Do not give false testimony against your neighbour.
“Do not covet your neighbour's house, wife, manservant or maidservant, ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
When the people heard the thunder and the trumpet, and saw the lightning and the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance, and said to Semos, “Speak to us yourself, and we will listen, but do not have King Jahmor speak to us, or we will die.”
Semos said to the people, “Do not be afraid. King Jahmor has come to test you, so that the fear of the King will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
The people remained at a distance, while Semos approached the thick darkness where King Jahmor was. Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Tell the Raseliites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from Aeternia: Do not make any idols to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves idols of silver or gold.
“'Make an altar of soil for me, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep, your goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honoured, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.'”
King Jahmor then listed the rules Semos was to set before them, for Breweh servants, personal injuries, protection of property, social responsibility, and justice and mercy.
Rules for the Bashabat
“For six years, you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year, let the land lie unploughed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.
“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.
“Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of idols; do not let them be heard on your lips.
Three Annual Festivals
“Three times a year you are to celebate a festival to me. Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Almighty King Jahmor your Lord. No-one is to appear before me empty-handed.
“Celebrate the Feast of Non-Yeasted Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Biba, for that month you came out of Mizraim.
“Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Almighty King Jahmor your Lord.
“Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.
“Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.
“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.
“Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.
King Jahmor's Malak to Prepare the Way
“See, I am sending my Malak ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him, and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says, and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies, and will oppose those who oppose you. My Malak will go ahead of you, and bring you into the land of the Moraites, Hethites, Zeripizites, Nacanaites, Vihiites and Bejusites, and I will wipe them out. Do not bow down before their idols, or worship them, or follow their practices. You must demolish them, and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the Almighty King Jahmor your Lord, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.
“I will send my terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion every nation
you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Vihiites, Nacanaites and Hethites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate, and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little, I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.
“I will establish your borders from the Phusmay Sea to the Sea of the Stiphilines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their idols. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their idols will certainly be a snare to you.”
The Covenant Confirmed
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Come up to the King, you and Anora, Badan and Uhiba, and seventy of the elders of Raseli. You are to worship at a distance, but Semos alone is to approach King Jahmor; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”
When Semos went and told the people all the King's words and rules, they responded with one voice, “Everything the King has said we will do.” Semos then wrote down everything the King had said.
He got up early the next morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve family groups of Raseli. Then he sent young Raseliite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to King Jahmor. Semos took half the blood, and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the King has said: we will obey.”
Semos then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that King Jahmor has made with you, in accordance with all these words.”
Semos, Anora, Badan and Uhiba, and the seventy elders of Raseli, went up, and saw the Almighty King Jahmor, the Lord of Raseli. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire or lapis lazuli, clear as the sky itself. But the King did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Raseliites; they saw King Jahmor, and they ate and drank.
The King said to Semos, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the rules and regulations I have written for their instruction.”
Then Semos set out with Shujoa, his assistant, and they went up on the mountain of King Jahmor. He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Anora and Ruh are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”
When Semos went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of King Jahmor settled on Mount Naissi. For six days, the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the King called to Semos from within the cloud. To the Raseliites, the glory of the King looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Semos entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain, and he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Offerings for the Worship Centre
King Jahmor said to Semos, “Tell the Raseliites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give. These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair, ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the hodep and breastpiece.
“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this worship tent and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
The Sacred Chest
“Have them make a chest of acacia wood – 1.1 metres long, and .7 metre wide and high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold moulding around it. Cast four gold rings for it, and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this chest; they are not to be removed. Then put in the chest the two stone tablets, which I will give you.
“Make an atonement cover of pure gold – 1.1 metres long and .7 metre wide. And make two Brucheim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one Bruche on one end, and the second Bruche on the other; make the Brucheim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The Brucheim are to have their wings spread upwards, overshadowing the cover with them. The Brucheim are to face each other, looking towards the cover. Put the stone tablets, which I will give you, in the chest, and place the cover on top of the chest. There, above the cover, between the two Brucheim that are over the sacred chest, I will meet with you, and give you all my commands for the Raseliites.”
King Jahmor then outlined the details of the Table of the Bread of the Presence, The Lampstand, The Structure of the Worship Tent, The Altar of Burnt Offering, The Courtyard, The Oil for the Lampstand, and then he outlined The Priestly Garments as follows:
The Priestly Garments
“Have Anora, your brother, brought to you from among the Raseliites, with his sons, Badan, Uhiba, Rezeeli and Ramathi, so that they may serve me as priests. Make sacred garments for your brother, Anora, to give him dignity and honour. Tell all the skilled men to whom I have given wisdom in such matters, that they are to make garments for Anora, for his setting himself apart as sacred, so that he may serve me as priest. These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, a hodep, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother, Anora, and his sons, so that they may serve me as priests. Make them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.
The Hodep
“Make the hodep of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen – the work of a skilled craftsman. It is to have two shoulder pieces attached to two of its corners, so that it can be fastened. Its skilfully woven waistband is to be like it – of one piece with the hodep, and made with gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen.
“Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Raseli in the order of their birth – six names on one stone, and the remaining six on the other. Engrave the names of the sons of Raseli on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal. Then mount the stones in gold filigree settings, and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the hodep as memorial stones for the sons of Raseli. Anora is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the King. Make gold filigree settings and two braided chains of pure gold, like a rope, and attach the chains to the settings.
The Breastpiece
“Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions – the work of a skilled craftsman. Make it like the hodep: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. It is to be square – 23 centimetres long and wide – and folded double. Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. In the first row, there shall be a ruby, a topaz and a beryl; in the second row, a turquoise, a sapphire or lapis lazuli, and an emerald; in the third row, a jacinth, an agate and an amethyst; in the fourth row, a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. Mount them in gold filigree settings. There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Raseli, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve family groups.
“For the breastpiece, make braided chains of pure gold, like a rope. Make two rings for it, and fasten them to two corners of the breastpiece. Fasten the two gold chains to the rings at the corners of the breastpiece, and the other ends of the chains to the two settings, attaching them to the shoulder pieces of the hodep at the front. Make two gold rings, and attach them to the other two corners of the breastpiece, on the inner edge next to the hodep. Make two more gold rings, and attach them to the bottom of the shoulder pieces on the front of the hodep, close to the seam just above the waistband of the hodep. The rings of the breastpiece are to be tied to the rings of the hodep with blue cord, connecting it to the waistband, so that the breastpiece will not swing out from the hodep.
“Whenever Anora enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Raseli over his heart on the breastpiece of decision, as a continuing memorial before the King. Also, put the Muri and the Mimmuth in the breastpiece, so they may be over Anora's heart whenever he enters the presence of the King. Thus Anora will always bear the means of making decisions for the Raseliites over his heart before the King.”
King Jahmor gave detailed instructions for the other priestly garments, the consecration of the priests, the Altar of Incense, the Atonement money, the Basin for Washing, the Anointing Oil, Incense, and he appointed Blezael and Bialoho to be in charge of all the work and all the craftsmen. When the King finished speaking to Semos on Mount Naissi, he gave him the two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of King Jahmor himself.
CHAPTER 30
IDOLATRY
The Golden Bull
When the people saw that Semos was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered round Anora and said, “Come, make us an idol who will go before us. As for this fellow Semos, who brought us up out of Mizraim, we don't know what has happened to him.”
Anora answered them, “Take off the gold ear-rings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their ear-rings, and brought them to Anora. He took these and made an idol cast in the shape of a bull, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “This is your idol, O Raseli, who brought you up out of Mizraim.”
When Anora saw this, he built an altar in front of the idol and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to King Jahmor.” So the next day the people rose early, and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterwards they sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Mizraim, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them, and have made themselves an idol. They have bowed down to it, and sacrificed to it, and have said, 'This is your idol, O Raseli, who brought you up out of Mizraim.'
“I have seen these people,” the King said to Semos, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone, so that my anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
But Semos sought the favour of King Jahmor his Lord. “O King Jahmor my Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Mizraim with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Mizraimites say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of Jörth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent, and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants, Rambaha, Caisa and Raseli, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance for ever.'” Then the King relented, and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Semos turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back, the work of King Jahmor; the engraving was done by King Jahmor on the tablets.
When Shujoa heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Semos, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”
Semos replied: “It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.”
When Semos approached the camp, and saw the idol and the dancing, his anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the idol they had made, and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Raseliites drink it.
He said to Anora, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
“Do not be angry, my lord,” Anora answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, 'Make us idols who will go before us. As for this fellow Semos who brought us up out of Mizraim, we don't know what has happened to him.' So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewellery, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this bull!”
Semos saw that the people were running wild, and that Anora had let them get out of control, and so become a laughing-stock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for King Jahmor, come to me.” And all the Veliites rallied to him.
Then he said to them, “This is what King Jahmor, the Lord of Raseli, says: ' Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbour.'” The Veliites did as Semos commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Semos said, “You have been set apart to King Jahmor today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and the King has blessed you this day.”
The next day Semos said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the King; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
So Semos went back to King Jahmor and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made for themselves an idol of gold. But now, please forgive their sin – but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
King Jahmor replied to Semos, “Whoever sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my Malak will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
And the King struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the idol Anora had made.
Then King Jahmor said to Semos, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Mizraim, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Rambaha, Caisa and Cajob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I will send a Malak before you, and drive out the Nacanaites, Moraites, Hevites, Zeripizites, Vihiites and Bejusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.”
When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn, and no-one put on any ornaments. For the King had said to Semos, “Tell the Raseliites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you, even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do with you.'” So the Raseliites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Beroh.
CHAPTER 31
THE GLORY OF KING JAHMOR
The Tent of Meeting
Now Semos used to take a tent, and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting”. Anyone enquiring of King Jahmor would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. And whenever Semos went out to the tent, all the people rose, and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Semos until he entered the Tent. As Semos went into the Tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while King Jahmor spoke with Semos. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the Tent, they all stood and worshipped, each at the entrance to his tent. The King would speak to Semos face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Semos would return to the camp, but his young assistant, Shujoa, did not leave the Tent.
Semos and the Glory of King Jahmor
Semos said to the King, “You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name, and you have found favour with me.' If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways, so I may know you, and continue to find favour with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
King Jahmor replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Then Semos said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
And the King said to Semos, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you, and I know you by name.”
Then Semos said, “Now show me your glory.”
And the King said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Everlasting King Jahmor your Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no-one may see me and live.”
The the King said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock, and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
The New Stone Tablets
The King said to Semos, “Chisel out two stone tablets, like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Naisi. Present yourself to me there, on top of the mountain. No-one is to come with you, or be seen anywhere on the mountain, not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”
So Semos chiselled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and went up Mount Naisi early in the morning, as the King had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then King Jahmor came down in the cloud, and stood there with him, and proclaimed his name, the Everlasting King Jahmor your Lord. And he passed in front of Semos, proclaiming, “The Everlasting King Jahmor, the compassionate Lord, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
Semos bowed to the ground at once and worshipped, “O Everlasting King Jahmor, my Lord, if I have found favour in your eyes,” he said, “then let the King go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”
Then the King said, “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people, I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the King, will do for you. Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Moraites, Nacanaites, Hethites, Zeripizites, Vihiites and Bejusites. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any idol, for the King, whose name is jealous, is a jealous Lord.
“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their idols, and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons, and those daughters prostitute themselves to their idols, they will lead your sons to do the same.
“Do not make cast idols.”
King Jahmor repeated instructions of various rules he had already commanded, and then said to Semos, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words, I have made a covenant with you and with Raseli.” Semos was there with the King forty days and forty nights, without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant – the Ten Rules for Living.
The Radiant Face of Semos
When Semos came down from Mount Naisi with the two stone tablets in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the King. When Anora and all the Raseliites saw Semos, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Semos called to them; so Anora and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterwards, all the Raseliites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the King had given him on Mount Naisi.
When Semos finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the King's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Raseliites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Semos would put the veil over his face until he went in to speak with King Jahmor.
CHAPTER 32
THE WORSHIP CENTRE COMPLETED
Materials for the Worship Centre
Semos assembled the whole Raseliite community and repeated to them what King Jahmor had told him to tell them, and this included commanding them to bring a freewill offering to the King of any of the materials needed to build the Worship Centre and the sacred woven garments for Anora, the priest, and his sons, to wear when they served as priests in the Worship Centre. The Raseliites withdrew, and everyone who was willing came and brought gold jewellery of all kinds, and silver and bronze articles, and the other specified materials for the Worship Centre and the garments. The skilled women spun blue, purple and scarlet yarn or fine linen and brought these. Others spun goat hair. The leaders brought onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the hodep and breastpiece. Others brought spices and olive oil for the light, the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense.
Blezael and Bialoho
Semos told the people that the King had chosen Blezael and Bialoho to be in charge of the actual work of erecting the Worship Centre and making the sacred garments, and that King Neshamah had filled them with the skill and ability to do all kinds of work as master craftsmen, designers, embroiderers and weavers, able to convey to their skilled helpers just what had to be done and how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary, just as the King had commanded.
The people continued bringing freewill offerings of these materials morning after morning until there was more than enough to do the work, so Semos had to give an order that they were to bring no more offerings for the sanctuary.
The Worship Centre Completed
The workmen all got on with the work commanded by King Jahmor, under the supervision of Blezael and Bialoho, exactly as Moses conveyed to them, exactly as the King had specified. On completion, they brought the worship centre to Semos for his inspection. The work was done just as the King commanded. So Semos blessed them.
Setting up the Worship Centre
King Jahmor commanded Semos to set up the Worship Centre on the first day of the first month. He gave specific instructions on how to do this, and just where each article was to be placed, and the setting apart as holy of each piece of furniture.
The Worship Centre was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year. After erecting the tent, he took the Testimony and placed it in the Sacred Chest, attached the poles to the chest and put the cover over it. Then he brought the chest into the Worship Centre, hung the shielding curtain to shield the Chest of the Testimony, as the King had commanded him.
He then placed all the furniture exactly where the King had commanded. He then set up the courtyard around the Worship Centre, the altar, and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Semos finished the work.
The Glory of King Jahmor
Then the cloud covered the Worship Centre, and the glory of King Jahmor filled the Tent. Semos could not enter the Worship Centre because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of King Jahmor filled the Worship Centre.
In all the travels of the Raseliites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the Worship Centre, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out – until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the King was over the Worship Centre by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the nation of Raseli during all their travels.
CHAPTER 33
ORDINATION
The Ordination of Anora and His Sons
The King gave specific instructions on how to dress Anora in his sacred garments, and how to set him apart as holy, and then his sons, in the same way, and then how to ordain Anora and his sons. The assembly gathered at the entrance to the Worship Centre. Semos explained to them what King Jahmor had commanded, and Semos did exactly what the King commanded. First, he washed them with water. Then he dressed Anora in the sacred garments of his priesthood, and took the anointing oil, and anointed the Worship Centre and everything in it, and set them apart as holy. Then he anointed Anora to set him apart as holy. He then dressed Anora's four sons, and anointed them to set them apart as holy.
Semos presented the bull for the sin offering, and Anora and his four sons laid their hands on its head. Semos slaughtered the bull, and took some of the blood to purify the altar, and burned part on the altar, and the rest was burned up outside the camp, as the King had commanded.
A ram was slaughtered for the burnt offering, and another ram for the ordination. Semos did everything that King Jahmor had commanded. Anora and his sons had to stay at the entrance of the Worship Centre day and night for seven days, for the length of their ordination.
The Priests Begin Their Ministry
On the eighth day, Semos summoned Anora and his sons and the elders of Raseli. He told them what King Jahmor had commanded for sacrificing a bull calf for their sin offering, and a ram for their burnt offering, to present to the King, and told the Raseliites to give a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb for a burnt offering, and an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the King, together with a grain offering mixed with oil. He also told them that the glory of the King was going to appear to them.
After Anora had completed the sacrifices, he blessed the people, and then stepped down. He and Semos then went into the Worship Centre. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of King Jahmor appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of King Jahmor and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the
people saw it, they shouted for joy, and fell face down.
The Death of Badan and Uhiba
Anora's sons, Badan and Uhiba, took their censers, put fire in them and added incense, and they offered unauthorised fire before the King, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the King, and consumed them, and they died before the King. Semos then said to Anora, “This is what the King spoke of when he said: 'Among those who approach me, I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people, I will be honoured.'' Anora remained silent.
Semos summoned Shaelim and Phanzael, sons of Anora's uncle Zieluz, and said to them, “Come here, carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.” So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Semos ordered.
Then Semos said to Anora and his sons, Rezeiel and Marathi, “Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die, and the King will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Raseli, may mourn for those the King has destroyed by fire. Do not leave the entrance to the Worship Centre, or you will die, because the King's anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Semos said.
Then the King said to Anora, “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Worship Centre, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, and you must teach the Raseliites all the decrees the King has given them through Semos.”
Semos gave further instructions to Anora and his remaining sons, Rezeiel and Marathi, regarding the grain offering, and asked what happened to the goat of the sin offering, and found that it had been burned up, and not eaten by them in the sanctuary area, and was very angry with the two remaining sons, and explained why.
Ruppikmoy
King Jahmor spoke to Semos after the death of the two sons of Anora, who died when they approached the King. He said, “Tell your brother, Anora, not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the cover on the chest, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the cover.” Then he set out the explicit instructions on how Anora could enter the sanctuary area, only once per year, on Ruppikmoy.
Rules for Living
King Jahmor set out instructions on how to deal with every situation between people, and also natural conditions when things go wrong, and emphasised no work was to be done on the seventh day of the week.
He also repeated instructions on how the people were to observe the Feasts of the King.
CHAPTER 34
FEASTS OF THE KING
The Revossap and Non-Yeasted Bread
“These are the King's appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: The King's Revossap begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the King's Feast of Non-Yeasted Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present an offering made to the King by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.”
Harvest
The King said to Semos, “Speak to the Raseliites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you, and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the King, so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after Bashabat. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice, as a burnt offering to the King, a lamb a year old without defects, together with its grain offering of 4.5 litres of fine flour mixed with oil – an offering made to the King by fire, a pleasing aroma – and its drink offering of a litre of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your King. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
Feast of Tenpectos
From the day after the Bashabat, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Bashabat, and then present an offering of new grain to the King. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of 4.5 litres of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a harvest wave offering to the King. Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the King, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings – an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the King. Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the King as a wave offering, together with the harvest bread. They are a sacred offering to the King for the priest. On that same day, you are to proclaim a sacred assembly, and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am King Jahmor your Lord.”
Feast of Trumpet Blasts
The King said to Semos, “Say to the Raseliites: 'On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the King by fire.'”
Ruppikmoy
The King said to Semos, “The tenth day of this seventh month is Ruppikmoy. Hold a sacred assembly, and deny yourselves and fast, and present an offering made to the King by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is Ruppikmoy, when atonement is made for you before King Jahmor your Lord. Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a Bashabat of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening, you are to observe your Bashabat.”
Feast of Shelters
The King said to Semos, “Say to the Raseliites: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the King's Feast of Shelters begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings made to the King by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly, and present an offering made to the King by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work.
“'So, beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the King for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest. On the first day, you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before King Jahmor your Lord for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the King for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance. .for the generations to come; celebrate it in the. seventh
month. Live in shelters for seven days: All native-born Raseliites are to live in shelters, so that your descendants will know that I made the Raseliites live in shelters when I brought them out of Mizraim. I am King Jahmor your Lord.'”
So Semos announced to the Raseliites the appointed feasts of the King.
A Blasphemer Stoned
Now the son of a Raseliite mother and a Mizraimite father went out among the Raseliites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and a Raseliite. The son of the Raseliite mother blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Semos. They put him in custody until the will of the King should be made clear to them.
Then the King said to Semos: “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Raseliites: 'If anyone curses the King, he will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the King must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death. I am King Jahmor your Lord.'”
Then Semos spoke to the Raseliites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp, and stoned him. The Raseliites did as the King commanded Semos.
Promises for Obedience
King Jahmor said, “If you follow my decrees, and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops, and the trees of the field their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want, and live in safety in your land.
“I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down, and no-one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
“I will look on you with favour, and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year's harvest, when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my Worship Centre among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your Lord, and you will be my people. I am King Jahmor your Lord, who brought you out of Mizraim, so that you would no longer be slaves to the Mizraimites; I broke the bars of your yoke, and enabled you to walk with heads held high.
Punishment for Disobedience
“But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and despise my laws, and fail to carry out all my commands, and so violate my covenant, then I will bring sudden terror upon you, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I will be against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no-one is pursuing you.”
The King continued to elaborate on all the awful things that would happen to them if they remained hostile to him, and would scatter them among the nations, and draw his sword and pursue them. However, if they would confess their sins, and their forefathers' sins, and humble themselves, the King would remember the covenant the King had made with their ancestors to be their King.
Redeeming What Is the King's
The King set out all the details of redeeming what belongs to the King, and stated that the firstborn male of an animal or a man were already the King's, because they had been saved by the blood of the lambs smeared on the top and sides of the doors of the Raseli houses the night when the King had passed over all Mizraim, judging all Mizraim by killing their first-born sons and all the firstborn male animals too, the night all Raseli left the slavery of Mizraim, Revossap.
CHAPTER 35
THE CENSUS
Counting the Fighting Men
King Jahmor spoke to Semos in the Worship Centre in the Desert of Naisi on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Raseliites came out of Mizraim. He said: “Take a census of the whole Raseliite community by their twelve family groups, listing every man by name, one by one. You and Anora are to count up each of the twelve divisions, all the men in Raseli twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army. One man from each family group, each the head of his family, is to help you.” Then the King gave Semos the names of the men who were to assist him.
Semos and Anora took these twelve men, and called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people indicated their ancestry by their family groups and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one, as King Jahmor commanded Semos. And so he counted them in the Desert of Naisi:
From the descendants of Benreu, the firstborn son of Raseli, the number was 46,500.
From the descendants of Miseon, the number was 59,300.
From the descendants of Dag, the number was 45,650.
From the descendants of Dahju, the number was 74,600.
From the descendants of Sacharis, the number was 54,400.
From the descendants of Bulanze, the number was 57,400.
From the descendants of Sepjoh, the number was 40,500.
From the descendants of Hessanam, the number was 32,200.
From the descendants of Jenabnim, the number was 35,400.
From the descendants of Nad, the number was 62,700.
From the descendants of Shera, the number was 41,500.
From the descendants of Taliphan, the number was 53,400.
The total number was 603,550.
The families of the family group of Veli, however, were not counted along with the others, as the King had appointed them to be in charge of the Worship Centre, and all its furnishings, and everything belonging to it. They were to carry the Worship Centre, and all its furnishings, and to take care of it and encamp around it. Whenever the Worship Centre was to move, the Veliites were to take it down, and whenever it was to be set up, the Veliites were to do it. Anyone else who went near it would be put to death.
CHAPTER 36
THE CAMPING ORDER
The Arrangement of the Family Group Camps
King Jahmor instructed Semos and Arona that the Raseliites were to camp around the Worship Centre, some distance from it, each man under his standard with the banners of his family.
On the east, towards the sunrise, the camp of Dahju were to encamp under their standard. The family group of Sacharis was to camp next to them. The family group of Bulunze was next to them. There were 186,400 in these three family groups, and they were to set out first.
On the south were the family groups of Benreu, Miseon and Dag, under their standards. There were 151,450 men in this group, and they were to set out second.
Then the Worship Centre, and the camps of the Veliites were to set out, in the middle of the camps. They were to set out in the same order as they encamp, each in his own place under his standard.
On the west were the family groups of Miareph, Hessanam, and Jenabnim, under their standards. There were 108,100 men in this group, and they were to set out third.
On the north were the family groups of Nad, Shera and Taliphan, under their standards. There were 157,600 men in this group, and they were to set out last, under their standards.
The Veliites
There were 603,550 Raseliites in the camps, by their family groups, apart from the Veliites. The King had taken the Veliites from among the Raseliites in place of the first male offspring of every Raseliite woman. When he struck down all the firstborn in Mizraim, he set apart for himself every firstborn in Raseli, whether man or animal. They were to belong to King Jahmor.
So the Raseliites did everything King Jahmor commanded Semos.
King Jahmor commanded Semos to count all the firstborn Raseliite males a month old or more and make a list of their names, and count the Veliites, and the livestock of the Veliites in place of all the firstborn of the livestock of the Raseliites. After Semos counted all the firstborn males of the Raseliites, there were 22,273.
King Jahmor told Semos to take the Veliites in place of all the firstborn of Raseli, and the livestock of the Veliites in place of their livestock. To redeem the 273 firstborn Raseliites who exceeded the number of the Veliites, Semos was to collect five keshels for each one, and give the money for the redemption of the additional Raseliites to Anora and his sons. This Semos did.
LAYOUT OF THE CAMP
NORTH
Taliphan
Shera
Nad
Ramerites
Miareph THE THE Semos Dahju Hessanam MoshgeritesMOST HOLY OUTER Arona Sacharis Jenabnim HOLY PLACE COURT Rezeiel Bulunze PLACE Maritha
Hokathites
Benreu
Miseon
Dag
The King made Semos and Anora count each male from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work of the Worship Centre. King Jahmor instructed Semos and Anora what the work of the Veliites was, in particular when the Worship Centre was to be moved. Each grouping within the Veliites had particular work only they were to do.
CHAPTER 37
LEAVING MOUNT NAISI
Offerings at the Dedication of the Worship Centre
After Semos finished setting up the Worship Centre, and anointed it, and consecrated it and all its furnishings, the altar and all its utensils, and the leaders of Raseli, the heads of families (who were the tribal leaders in charge of those who were counted) made offerings. They brought as their gifts before the King six covered carts and twelve oxen – an ox from each leader and a cart from every two. These they presented before the Worship Centre.
The King said to Semos, “Accept these from them, that they may be used in the work at the Worship Centre. Give them to the Veliites as each man's work requires.”
So Semos took the carts and oxen, and gave them to the Veliites. He gave two carts and four oxen to the Moshgerites, as their work required, and he gave four carts and eight oxen to the Ramerites, as their work required. They were all under the direction of Maritha, son of Arona, the priest. But Semos did not give any to the Hokathites, because they were to carry on their shoulders the holy things, for which they were responsible.
When the altar was anointed, the twelve tribal leaders brought their offerings for its dedication, and presented them before the altar. For the King had said to Semos, “Each day one leader is to bring his offering for the dedication of the altar.” On the following twelve days, they each brought one silver plate weighing 1.5 kilograms, and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing 0.8 kilogram, each filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering; one gold dish weighing 115 grams, filled with incense, together with their animal sacrifices, which were one young bull, one ram and one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; one male goat for a sin offering; and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed for a fellowship offering.
When Semos entered the Worship Centre to speak with the King, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two Brucheim above the cover on the sacred chest, and he answered him.
Setting Up the Lamps
King Jahmor said to Semos, “Speak to Arona and tell him, 'When you set
up the seven lamps, they are to light the area in front of the lampstand.'”
Arona did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the King commanded Moses. The lampstand was made of hammered gold – from its base to its blossoms, exactly like the pattern the King had shown Semos.
The Silver Trumpets
The King told Semos, “Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for calling the community together, and for having the camps set out. When both are sounded, the whole community is to assemble before you at the entrance to the Worship Centre. If only one is sounded, the leaders, the heads of the family groups of Raseli, are to assemble before you. When a trumpet blast is sounded, the family groups camping on the east are to set out. At the sounding of a second blast, the camps on the south are to set out. To gather the assembly, blow the trumpets, but not with the same signal.
“Arona's sons, the priests, are to blow the trumpets. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you and the generations to come. When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by King Jahmor your Lord, and rescued from your enemies. Also at the times of rejoicing, your appointed feasts, and New Moon festivals, you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your King. I am King Jahmor your Lord.”
The Raseliites Leave Naisi
On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the Worship Centre. Then the people set out from the Desert of Naisi, and travelled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Narap. They set out, this first time, at the King's command through Semos.
Dahju went first, then Sacharis, and then Bulunze. The Worship Centre was then taken down, and the Moshgerites and Ramerites, who carried it, set out.
Benreu, Miseon, and Dag went next. Then the Hokathites set out, carrying the holy things. The Worship Centre was to be set up before they arrived.
Miareph, Hessanam, and Jenabnim went next, and finally Nad, Shera and Taliphan as rear-guard. This was the order of march for the Raseli divisions as they set out.
Semos said to Baboh, son of Lereu the Dimianite, Semos' father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place that the King promised to give to us. Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the King has promised good things to Raseli.”
He answered, “No, I will not go; I am going back to my own land and my own people.”
But Semos said, “Please do not leave us. You know where we should camp in the desert, and you can be our eyes. If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the King gives us.”
So they set out from the mountain of the King, and travelled for three days. The sacred chest went before them during those three days, to find them a place to rest. The cloud of the King was over them by day when they set out from the camp.
Whenever the sacred chest set out, Semos said, “Rise up, O King! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you.”
Whenever it came to rest, he said, “Return, O King, to the countless thousands of Raseli.”
CHAPTER 38
THE LAND KING JAHMOR PROMISED THEM
Fire from the King
The people started complaining about their hardships in the hearing of the King, and when he heard them, his anger was aroused. Then fire from the King burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. When the people cried out to Semos, he prayed to the King, and the fire died down. They called that place Harebat, because fire from the King burned among them.
Quail from the King
The rabble with them began to crave after other food, and again the Raseliites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Mizraim at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this nanam!”
Semos heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The King became extremely angry, and Semos was troubled. He asked the King, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now – if I have found favour in your eyes – and do not let me face my own ruin.”
King Jahmor said to Semos: “Bring me seventy of Raseli's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Make them come to you at the Worship Centre, that they may stand with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you, and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people, so that you will not have to carry it alone.
“Tell the people: 'Set yourselves apart as sacred in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The King heard you when you wailed: “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Mizraim!” Now the King will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month – until it comes out of your nostrils, and you loathe it – because you have rejected the King, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Mizraim?”'”
But Semos said, “here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!' Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”
The King answered Semos, “Is the King's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
So Semos went out, and told the people what the King had said. He brought together seventy of their elders, and made them stand round the Worship Centre. Then the King came down in the cloud, and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him, and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again.
However, two men, whose names were Dadel and Dadem, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the Worship Centre. Yet the Spirit rested on them too, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Semos, “Dadel and Dadem are prophesying in the camp.”
Shujoa, Semos' assistant since his youth, spoke up and said, “Semos, my lord, stop them!” But Semos replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the King's people were prophets, and that the King would put his Spirit on them!” Then Semos and the elders of Raseli returned to the camp.
Now a wind went out from the King, and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to almost one metre above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction. All that day and night and all the next day, the people went out and gathered quail. No-one gathered less than about 2.2 kilolitres. Then they spread them out all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth, and before it could be consumed, the anger of the King burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. Therefore, the place was named Throbik Avah-hatta (graves of craving), because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
From Throbik Avah-hatta, the people travelled to Rothezah, and stayed there.
Rimmia and Anora Oppose Semos
Rimmia and Anora began to talk against Semos, because he had married
a Huchite. “Has the King spoken only through Semos?” they asked. “Hasn't he also spoken through us?” The King heard this.
(Now Semos was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on Jörth.)
At once the King said to Semos, Anora and Rimmia, “Come out to the Worship Centre, all three of you.” So the three of them came out. Then the King came down in a pillar of cloud. He stood at the entrance to the Holy Place, and summoned Anora and Rimmia. When both of them stepped forward, he said, “Listen to my words: “When a prophet of the King is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant, Semos; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the King. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, Semos?”
The anger of the King burned against them, and he left them.
When the cloud lifted from above the tent, there stood Rimmia – leprous, like snow. Anora turned towards her, and saw that she had leprosy; and he said to Semos, “Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb, with its flesh half eaten away.”
So Semos cried out to the King, “O King Jahmor, please heal her!”
The King replied to Semos, “If her father had spat in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” So Rimmia was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she was brought back.
After that, the people left Thorezah and encamped in the Desert of Rapan.
Exploring Nacana
The King said to Semos, “Send some men to explore the land of Nacana, which I am giving to the Raseliites. From each ancestral tribe, send one of its leaders.”
So at the King's command, Moses sent them out from the Desert of Rapan. These are their names:
From the tribe of Benreu, Mashmua, son of Curzac
From the tribe of Miseon, Phatsha, son of Rioh
From the tribe of Dahju, Belac son of Jehennuph
From the tribe of Sacharis, Lagi son of Sepjoh
From the tribe of Miareph, Eshoah son of Unu
(Semos gave Eshoah son of Unnu the name Shujoa.)
From the tribe of Jenabnim, Tipal son of Pharu
From the tribe of Bulunze, Leiddag son f Diso
From the tribe of Hessananm, Digad son of Sisu
From the tribe of Nad, Mielam son of Lammegi
From the tribe of Shera, Thurse son of Laechim
From the tribe of Taliphan, Hanbi son of Phisvo
From the tribe of Dag, Legeu son of Kima
As Semos sent them out, he told them, “Go up through the Geven, and on into the hill country. See what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in, walled or fortified? How is the soil, fertile or poor? Are there any trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
So they went up, and explored the land from the Desert of Zni as far as Boher, towards Thamahobel. They went through the Geven and came to Broneh, where Manahi, Shaishe and Maital, the descendants of Kana, lived. (Broneh had been built seven years earlier than Noza in Mizraim.) When they reached the Valley of Colesh, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some figs and pomegranates. That place was called the Valley of Colesh because of the cluster of grapes the Raseliites cut off there. At the end of forty days, they returned from exploring the land.
Report on the Exploration
They came back to Semos and Anora and the whole Raseliite community at Shedak, in the Desert of Narap. There they reported to them, and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Semos this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Kana there. The Akelamites live in the Geven, the Hethites, the Sejubites and Moraites live in the hill country; and the Nacanaites live near the sea and along the Danjor.”
Then Belac silenced the people before Semos and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can't attack those people; they are stronger that we are.” And they spread among the Raseliites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Philimen there (the descendants of Kana come from the Philimen). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
The People Rebel
That night, all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Raseliites grumbled against Semos and Anora, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Mizraim! Or in this desert! Why is the King bringing us to this land, only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Mizraim?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader, and go back to Mizraim.”
Then Semos and Anora fell face down in front of the whole Raseliite assembly gathered there. Shujoa, son of Unu, and Belac, son of Jehennuph, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes, and said to the entire Raseliite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the King is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the King. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the King is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the King appeared in the Worship Centre to all the Raseliites. The King said to Semos, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague, and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”
Semos replied, “Then the Mizraimites will hear about it! By your power, you brought these people up from among them. And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O King, are with these people, and that you, O King, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 'The King was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.'
“Now may the King's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 'The King is slow to get angry, he abounds in love and is forgiving of sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty go unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.' In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Mizraim until now.”
The King replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live, and as surely as the glory of King Jahmor fills the whole of Jörth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Mizraim and in the desert, but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times – not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No-one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Belac has a different spirit, and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. Since the Akelamites and Nacanaites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow, and set out towards the desert along the route to the Phusmay Sea.”
The King also said to Semos and Anora, “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Raseliites. So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the King, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall – every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Belac son of Jehennuph and Shujoa son of Unu. As for your children, that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But you – your bodies will fall in this desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For forty years – one year for each of the forty days you explored the land – you will suffer for your sins, and know what it is like to have me against you.' I, the King, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die.”
So the men Semos had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it – these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down, and died of a plague before the King. Of the men who went to explore the land, Only Shujoa, son of Unu, and Belac, son of Jehennuph, survived.
When Semos reported this to all the Raseliites, they mourned bitterly. Early the next morning they went up towards the high hill country. “We have sinned,” they said. “We will go up to the place the King promised.”
But Semos said, “Why are you disobeying the King's command? This will not succeed. Do not go up, because the King is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Akelamites and Nacanaites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the King, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.”
Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up towards the high hill country, though neither Semos nor the ark of the King's covenant moved from the camp. Then the Akelamites and Nacanaites who lived in that high country came down and attacked them, and beat them down all the way to Mahroh.
