The Sacred History of the Jews Part II: the Exodus and the Wanderings

The Sacred History of the Jews Part II: The Exodus and the Wanderings

Student Handouts (order #3761093) Part I: Creation and the Patriarchal Period – Page 2

Introduction to Judeo-Christian faiths may find this booklet useful in religious instruction, it This workbook gives an overview of is not designed as a book to be used for early Jewish history, covering the the purpose of indoctrination or lifespan of Moses. Religious tradition instruction. holds that Moses wrote the Torah This workbook is principally aimed (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, at those students raised within other and Deuteronomy), freed the Hebrews ideological systems, and is designed to from bondage in Egypt, received the Ten familiarize readers with the motifs, Commandments from God, and led the stories, and beliefs that permeate so Hebrews through the desert to the much of western civilization’s culture, outskirts of the promised land. history, art, and literature. Biblical The text of this workbook combines information and dates for births and knowledge from the historical and deaths are left unquestioned, while archaeological record as well as biblical supplemental information is included accounts of events. Although adherents where appropriate.

Sacred History of the Ancient Jews: The Exodus and the Wanderings

The real history of the Israelites as worshiped, but they never fully adopted a nation does not begin until their the idolatrous rites or religion of the departure from Egypt. Abraham and his Egyptians. They were ruled by their own descendants were merely nomads, proper chiefs, who were, in their turn, wandering over the promised land, but directly responsible to the Egyptian owning no part of it. government for the collection of the taxes The Israelites remained in the imposed upon the Hebrew colony. fertile land of Goshen for a period of 215 years, and there prospered in such a 1. Who originally led this group of marked degree that the family of seventy Hebrews into Egypt? persons which entered Egypt with Jacob a. Abraham grew to a nation numbering nearly three b. Jacob million people. They formed a nation c. Joseph quite apart from the Egyptians, with d. Moses their own language, manners, religious worship, and patriarchal government. It 2. imposed: is true that they did not preserve the a. asked worship of God in its original purity, and b. compelled had but a very vague idea of the God of c. delineated Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom they d. requested

During this period, the pharaohs of death at their birth. The females were the Thebaid dynasty had succeeded in spared, as they would furnish wives for driving out the foreign Hyksos dynasty the Egyptians. In this way, the pharaoh and in extending their rule over Lower hoped to entirely destroy the race. Egypt, which now became one kingdom. This native dynasty was one of the most 5. Describe what life was like for the glorious that ever reigned in Egypt, and Hebrews under Ramses II. its kings appear to have favored the ______Hebrew colony. ______3. Which dynasty was native to Egypt? ______a. Hyksos ______b. Thebaid ______4. dynasty: ______a. lineage ______b. nation ______c. soap opera ______d. territory ______This policy was changed when the ______nineteenth Egyptian dynasty came into power. These kings regarded the 6. inaugurated: Hebrews as dangerous because of their a. adjourned numbers and location, and inflicted upon b. assigned them a series of cruel persecutions, the c. celebrated object of which was to reduce their power d. commenced and destroy them as a nation. According to tradition, the king who inaugurated Amram, a man of the tribe of Levi, this policy was called Ramses II (who, had married Jochebed, a woman of the according to Egyptologists, reigned from same tribe. They had two children, a son 1279 B.C.E. until his death in 1213 named Aaron, and a daughter named B.C.E.). According to Hebrew accounts, Miriam. Soon after the cruel edict of the Ramses was a great warrior and a cruel pharaoh was issued, Jochebed gave birth despot. He overburdened the Israelites to a second son, whom she hid for three with work, and compelled them to months from the officers of the king. engage, under cruel taskmasters, in the According to Jewish rabbinic tradition, labor of building cities. His efforts were the birth of Moses occurred in 1391 unsuccessful. In spite of their heavy B.C.E. (which would place Moses’ birth, burdens, the Hebrews continued to according to the historical chronology of increase in numbers. Enraged at this, the Egyptian pharaohs, at the start of the pharaoh gave orders that all the male reign of Amenhotep III of the 18th children of the Hebrews should be put to dynasty).

Complete the following brief family tree of Moses.

Mother: Father:

Child 1: Child 2: Child 3:

Unable to conceal Moses any In spite of his own fortunate lot, longer, Jochebed laid him in a basket, or and of the favor he enjoyed at court, ark, covered with pitch, and placed him Moses felt keenly the wrongs against the among the flags on the brink of the Nile Hebrews. He brooded over their River. Here he was discovered by the sufferings, and often went among them to daughter of the pharaoh, who had gone cheer them. One day he saw an Egyptian down to the river to bathe. The princess cruelly beating a Hebrew; his indignation was touched with pity, and had the child was aroused, and he killed the Egyptian. brought to her. She gave it to Jochebed, This coming to the ears of the pharaoh, who offered herself as nurse, and Moses was obliged to fly for his life. He commanded her to rear the boy as “the took refuge in the Peninsula of Sinai. son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” 8. Why did Moses flee to the Sinai 7. Jochebed hid Moses along the banks of Peninsula? what river? ______a. Danube ______b. Euphrates ______c. Nile ______d. Tiber ______Pharaoh’s daughter named the ______child Moses, which means “drawn out of ______the water.” When the boy was grown, his ______mother took him to the princess, who ______caused him to be educated as one of the ______royal family, in consequence of which he ______learned “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” and was taught military 9. indignation: science. There is a tradition that, upon a. displeasure arriving at manhood, Moses held a high b. happiness command in the Egyptian army in an c. joy expedition against Ethiopia. d. rectitude

the daughters of Jethro by defending them from the violence of some shepherds who sought to drive them away from a well where they were watering their flocks. Jethro, hearing of this, invited Moses to his home, and urged him to remain with him. Moses consented to do so, and Jethro gave him his daughter Zipporah as a wife. Moses remained forty years with Jethro, and during this time, a new pharaoh mounted the throne of Egypt. He pursued towards the Hebrews the iniquitous system of his predecessor. In their sore affliction, the Hebrews besought the assistance of the god of their fathers, and he heard their prayers.

10.What daughter of Jethro did Moses marry? ______

11.predecessor: a. panderer b. precedent c. precursor d. successor

Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses hidden along the banks of the Nile River.

One day, Moses found himself in the territory of the Midianitish tribe, whose chief and priest was named Jethro. Moses is startled by the sight of a burning Moses was enabled to render a service to bush.

One day, when Moses had led his them. Then, having secured their flock to a remote part of Mount Horeb, he obedience, Moses was to go before was startled by seeing a bush burning Pharaoh and demand permission for the with a bright blaze, but without being Israelites to leave Egypt. God told Moses consumed. He approached it to ascertain that Pharaoh would not grant this the cause of this strange sight, but was demand, but that God would show his checked by a voice from the midst of the power over Egypt and avenge the wrongs bush, which told him that he was against his people by a series of standing in the presence of God himself. punishments such as Egypt had never This voice made itself known to Moses as known before. the god of his fathers. It informed him of his purpose to bring the bondage of the 14.Who is to serve as the spokesman for Hebrews to an end, and to lead them into Moses? the land which he had promised Abraham ______should be the home of his descendants. ______He revealed to Moses his purpose to make ______him the leader and the divine mouthpiece ______of this great movement. ______

12.What plant does Moses see burning Moses at once set out on his return without being consumed? to Egypt. On the way, he met his brother a. apple Aaron, who had been directed by God to b. bush seek him. The two brothers returned to c. flower Egypt. Summoning the elders of the d. tree Israelites, they laid before them the message of God. The people agreed to 13.ascertain: submit themselves to the divine will, and a. circumvent promised to execute faithfully all the b. contradict commands of the god of their fathers. c. determine d. invalidate

The timid nature of Moses shrank from this position, but God reassured him, and familiarized him with his brother Aaron, who was to be his spokesman to the Egyptian king and to the Hebrews. The entire plan of God was made known to Moses, who was commanded to reveal it to the elders, or chiefs, of the Israelites. God directed him to return to Egypt, assemble the Hebrew elders, and make known his mission to Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh.

Having secured the adhesion of compel him to consent to the departure of their people, Moses and Aaron next the Israelites. sought the presence of the Pharaoh, “to This contest between Pharaoh and demand leave in the name of Yahweh, the God was considered necessary, not only to god of Israel, for his people to hold a feast punish the king for his treatment of the to him in the wilderness.” This was the Hebrews, but as a proof to the latter that extent of the first demand, as it had been God was able to fulfill his promises to the extent of what God had enjoined on them, and that their god was more Moses: “Ye shall serve God in this powerful and glorious that all the false mountain.” It was to be a solemn festival, deities of Egypt. The Hebrews had been shared in by all the people. As a nomadic so long exposed to contact with the race, they would of course travel with religious system of the Egyptians that their flocks and herds. When they such a display of power by God was reached the sacred mount, they would be necessary to convince them that there at the disposal of their god, to lead them was “no virtue in the idols of the Nile.” back or forward as he pleased. Moses Moses and Aaron renewed their claimed of Pharaoh that the Hebrews demand upon the pharaoh repeatedly, should be placed at his disposal, without and were as often refused. God punished telling Pharaoh of their further the refusals of the king by sending upon destination, which had been long since the land of Egypt a series of terrible revealed to Abraham, and lately made plagues, or afflictions. What made these known to Moses. plagues miraculous was their extraordinary violence, and the 15.solemn: promptness with which they made their a. advantageous appearance at the call of Moses. They b. austere were ten in number, and are thus related c. frivolous in the Bible: d. informal 1st The waters of the Nile, the sacred river of the Egyptians, and the The demand of Moses and Aaron chief source of their water supply, became was contemptuously refused by the red like blood, and so putrid that they Egyptian king, and the burdens of the became offensive. Unable to use them, Hebrews were redoubled. In their sore the Egyptians were compelled to sink distress, the people reproached Moses and wells along the shores of the river for Aaron for adding to their hardships. water to drink. Moses, greatly disheartened, complained 2nd Frogs, which are always to God that his effort had only brought numerous and troublesome in Egypt, sorrow upon his countrymen. But Moses multiplied to such an extent as to become was encouraged by the prediction that, a terrible pest to the Egyptians. though Pharaoh would steadily refuse for 3rd Swarms of lice covered the a time, and steadily increase the hard land, causing severe suffering to both tasks of the Hebrews, yet God would man and beast. These insects were a break the stubborn pride of the king, and terrible annoyance to the scrupulously

clean Egyptians, and were also a religious ______defilement. ______4th Clouds of flies, or beetles, ______most probably of the great Egyptian ______beetle (scaraboeus sacer), covered the ______country, swarmed in the houses, and ate ______up the harvest and shrubbery. The beetle ______was an object of worship to the Egyptians, ______who were thus, in religious terms, ______scourged by their own gods. ______5th An epizootic disease made its appearance among the cattle, and 17.avocation: carried off vast numbers of them. a. advocate 6th A grievous affliction of boils b. hobby and blains broke out on the bodies of the c. job Egyptians and their beasts. It also d. profession rendered the Egyptians religiously unclean. None of these visitations extended 7th A terrible hail storm, to the land of Goshen, in which the accompanied by thunder and lightning, Hebrews dwelt. Exempted from all these swept over the country, destroying the evils, they beheld with awe the crops, and killing men and beasts. fulfillment of the divine promises in the 8th Swarms of locusts spread sufferings of the Egyptians. More than over the land, and devoured all that the once, Pharaoh, terrified and humbled, hail had left. sent for Moses and Aaron, and besought 9th An extraordinary darkness them to obtain from God a cessation of enveloped the land of Egypt, and for three the afflictions of his people. But no days the gloom was so dense that the sooner did the plague cease, than the people were unable to see each other, or stubborn pride of the king returned, and to pursue any of their avocations. he refused to let the Hebrews depart from 10th The firstborn of all Egyptian Egypt. families (and animals) were killed. 18.besought 16.Which of the first nine plagues do you a. asked feel was most harsh, and why? b. elaborated ______c. pardoned ______d. relinquished ______19.cessation ______a. beginning ______b. commencement ______c. preponderance ______d. termination

It now remained for God to bring suspense the commands of God. At the extraordinary contest to an end by midnight, God slew the firstborn in every striking the last terrible blow which house in Egypt, from the palace of the should humble Egypt in the dust. Moses king to the humblest hut, and the was commanded to institute the Feast of firstborn of all the animals of the country. Passover, which, as it marked the “There was not a house where there was beginning of the national history of the not one dead.” Hebrews, was made the commencement Pharaoh was completely conquered of their year. Minute directions were by this terrible blow. He sent in haste for given as to the manner of celebrating the Moses and Aaron, and urged them to take feast, from which no deviation was their people out of Egypt without delay. permitted. The feast was ordered to be By the command of Moses, the Hebrews made an annual celebration, a perpetual asked the Egyptians for jewels of silver memorial of the deliverance of the nation and gold and raiment, and their demands from Egyptian bondage. were instantly complied with. The God made known to Moses and Egyptians were eager to get the Hebrews Aaron his purpose to destroy the firstborn out of the country, as they were fearful of the Egyptians. He commanded the that any delay would result in further Hebrews to mark their houses by suffering to them. sprinkling the doorposts with the blood of the animals slain for the paschal supper. 21.paschal: All houses so marked would be passed a. parochial over by the destroying angels. The b. patriarchal Hebrews were ordered to make ready for c. pertaining to Passover a hasty departure, and to set out the d. related to Saint Patrick moment the command to march was given. All these preparations were At the command of Moses, the carried out in the clear light of the land of Hebrews set out upon their march, taking Goshen, where there was no darkness. with them the embalmed body of Joseph. They numbered 600,000 men on foot, 20.Why were the Hebrews ordered to besides the women and children. These, place animal blood on their doorposts? with the mixed multitude which followed ______them, and consisted doubtless of people of ______Asiatic descent, nomadic in habit, who ______were glad to take this opportunity of ______escaping from Egypt, swelled the number ______of the Hebrew host to nearly three million ______people.

At sunset on the third day of the 22.Whose embalmed body did the darkness in Egypt, the Hebrews began to Hebrews carry out of Egypt? prepare the paschal supper. Having ______finished it, they awaited in awful ______

They set out under the leadership permission he had given the Israelites to of Moses, but their route was chosen for depart, he determined to pursue them them by God. God guided them by a and compel them to return to Egypt. bright cloud, which moved before the host Pharaoh set out at the head of a large by day, and a “pillar,” or cloud, of fire, army, and by a forced march came up which performed the same office by night. with them as they were encamped near The march of such a large body the sea. In a military sense, the Israelite was necessarily slow. The Israelites were position was a false one. In front of them three days in reaching the head of the was the sea; on their left and in their Red Sea (or, by some scholarly accounts, rear, the king of Egypt disposed his army the Reed Sea). so as to cut off their escape. Without In the meantime, Pharaoh had divine aid, the Israelites were lost. recovered his courage. Regretting the

The Israelites are given passage through the sea.

In this emergency, God came to by causing the waters to recede in a their assistance and opened a passage for miraculous manner. The Israelites them across the sea to the Arabian shore crossed over by the path thus opened.

The Egyptian army, detecting the movement, at once gave pursuit. The sea instantly flowed back at the command of God and destroyed the Egyptian host. The Bible does not tell us that the king was drowned with his troops, nor do its assertions justify such an inference. That part of the army that made the pursuit, and not the pharaoh, was drowned. According to Jewish tradition, the pharaoh of the Exodus was Merneptah (who, according to historians, reigned from 1213-1203 B.C.E. after the death of Ancient Egyptian statue of Merneptah, his father, Ramses II). the purported pharaoh of the Exodus.

Having reached the opposite shore of the sea, the Israelites moved down the Sinai Peninsula towards the mountain of that name. Had it been the design of God to conduct them at once to the promised land, he would have led them by the direct route which lay among the shore of the Mediterranean, past the modern El- Arish and Gaza. This would have exposed them to the risk of destruction by the Egyptian army, which was accustomed to use this route in its expeditions to Asia. Even had the Israelites escaped this danger, they would The destruction of Pharaoh’s army. have been obliged to encounter the warlike tribes of the seashore of Canaan. 23.How did the Israelites cross the sea? To protect them from these dangers, the ______route by way of the Red Sea was chosen. ______25.Why was the route by way of the Red ______Sea taken by the Israelites? ______24.inference: ______a. agreement ______b. conjecture ______c. delusion ______d. report ______

There was, however, another and a enough was gathered to last for two days, higher reason for this choice. The in order that the people might Israelites were deemed not fit to enter scrupulously observe the Sabbath day upon their inheritance. They were to be (Shabbat in Hebrew and Yiddish). This carried through a course of instruction supply from heaven continued every day and discipline, which should make the for forty years, or during the entire truly a nation. They were to be taught a sojourn of the Israelites in the desert. system of religious and civil legislation which was to constitute their national 27.temporal: strength, and in which was to be found a. earthly their national and individual salvation. b. heathen They were to be purged of the taints c. otherworldly which had clung to them from their long d. spiritual contact with the people and customs of Egypt, and to be made a peculiar people, 28.sojourn: separate and distinct from any of the a. allegiance nations by whom they were to be b. move surrounded. They were to be endowed c. tarriance with those traits which should enable d. truth them to preserve forever their peculiarity, upon which their whole future depended. 29.What food fell each day with the No better place could be chosen for this morning dew? work than the sublime solitudes of the ______Sinai Desert, to which they were now ______conducted. ______26.peculiar: ______a. adamant b. characteristic Upon reaching Rephidim, which is c. customary believed to be identical with the Wadi d. same Feiran of modern times, the Israelites were attacked by the Amalekites, who From the first, God provided for sought to check their advance into the the temporal wants of his people. He peninsula. The Hebrew army was led by sweetened the bitter waters of the region Joshua, the future conqueror of Palestine, through which they were marching, made and was victorious. From Rephidim the water to come out of a rock for their Israelites moved to Mount Sinai, and nourishment, and sent them food, first in encamped in the plain and in the ravine the form of quails, and finally in the in the vicinity of the sacred mountain. shape of manna. This manna fell with the dew every morning in the camp. Only 30.Who led the Israelites into battle? a day’s supply was permitted to be ______gathered, except on the sixth day, when ______

A short season of preparation was will not leave him unpunished who takes given the Israelites. Then, God His name in vain. descended upon Mount Sinai with a 4 “Remember the sabbath sublime display of his glory, and in the day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall hearing of the whole people, spoke the labor and do all your work, but the leading precepts of his law, which he seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your called the Ten Commandments. The God; in it you shall not do any work, you people, on their part, made a solemn or your son or your daughter, your male covenant with God, in which they pledged or your female servant or your cattle or themselves and their posterity to worship your sojourner who stays with you. For in and serve him. six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, 31.The law of God, given to the Israelites and rested on the seventh day; therefore on Mount Sinai, is known as what? the Lord blessed the sabbath day and ______made it holy. ______5 “Honor your father and your ______mother, that your days may be prolonged ______in the land which the Lord your God gives ______you. 6 “You shall not murder. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1- 7 “You shall not commit 17) adultery. 8 “You shall not steal. Then God spoke all these words, saying, 9 “You shall not bear false “I am the Lord your God, who brought witness against your neighbor. you out of the land of Egypt, out of the 10 “You shall not covet your house of slavery. neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your 1 “You shall have no other neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his gods before Me. female servant or his ox or his donkey or 2 “You shall not make for anything that belongs to your neighbor.” yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath 32.Which of the Ten Commandments are or in the water under the earth. You shall part of the governmental law where not worship them or serve them; for I, the you live? Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting ______the iniquity of the fathers on the children, ______on the third and the fourth generations of ______those who hate Me, but showing loving ______kindness to thousands, to those who love ______Me and keep My commandments. ______3 “You shall not take the name ______of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord ______

destroyed the idol. The people acknowledged the justice of their punishment, and promised to do better. For their zeal in the cause of the faith upon this occasion, the Levites were made the sacerdotal (priestly) class of the nation.

Painting of Moses with the Ten Commandments by Rembrandt.

Moses was then called up into the The Israelites create a molten image. mountain and remained there for forty days, during which time God revealed to 33.What tribe was made the sacerdotal him the minute directions which he class of the Israelites? afterwards embodied in the code which is ______today termed the “law of Moses,” and ______which constituted the religious and civil ______systems of the Hebrew nation. The Ten Commandments were engraved on tablets of stone by the hand of God. Unable to account for the long absence of Moses on the mountain, the Israelites fell off from their covenant with God. They compelled Aaron to make a golden image of a calf, in imitation of the Egyptian god Apis. They gave themselves up to the worship of this idol. Moses, upon coming down from the mountain, found them so engaged. His anger was overwhelming. Rallying the tribe of Levi, he fell upon the idolaters with the sword, Illustration of an ancient statue of the slew a great number of them, and Egyptian bull deity Apis (also called Hapis or Hapi-ankh).

The Israelites remained at Sinai 34.substantially: eleven months and twenty days, and a. considerably during this time, the second celebration of b. fervently the Passover was held. The long halt c. insignificantly constituted one of the busiest portions of d. slightly the life of the nation. The people had arrived at Sinai an unorganized mob, The tabernacle, or sacred tent, was without institutions, without laws, almost constructed according to the pattern ignorant of their god, and with no prescribed by God, and all the details of prescribed mode of religious worship. the religious ceremonial were carefully During the sojourn at Sinai, the mob was arranged. The priesthood was organized, fashioned into a compact and firmly and the succession to the sacred offices established nation, with a code of laws definitely arranged. The fundamental which has excited the admiration of all principle of the whole system, civil as well succeeding generations of humankind, as religious, was the supreme authority of and which remained substantially intact God over the Israelite nation (a political through the destruction of the Jerusalem system known as theocracy). Temple in the early years of the Common Era, and subsequent Diaspora.

The Israelite camp in the wilderness.

35.system of government in which a deity although certain causes were reserved for is held to be the supreme civil ruler: the supreme central tribunal. But the a. monarchy unity of the nation was, above all, b. monotheism founded on unity in faith and worship, on c. plutocracy the mighty recollections recalled each d. theocracy year by the solemn feasts: the Passover, or Feast of Unleavened Bread God was, in the literal sense of the (commemorating the Exodus from Egypt); word, their sovereign; and all other Pentecost (the promulgation of the law); authority, both in political and civil and the Feast of Tabernacles, or tents, affairs, was subordinate to the continual also known as Sukkot (the sojourn in the acknowledgment of his own. The other desert). powers were instituted by God to administer affairs in accordance with his 36.promulgation: laws, but were not ordinarily chosen a. agreement among the priests, descendants of Aaron, b. annotation nor from the tribe of Levi, consecrated to c. proclamation the various functions of public worship. d. reinstitution Each tribe had its civil authorities,

Match each holiday feast with what event it commemorates.

37._____ Passover a) Promulgation of the law 38._____ Pentecost b) Sojourn in the desert 39._____ Sukkot c) Survival of the tenth plague and Exodus from Egypt

The one tabernacle, where the interpretations regarding particulars, it solemn sacrifices were offered, and where was always restored. was deposited the ark, the symbol of the covenant made between God and his 40.What did the Ark of the Covenant people and in which were held the tablets contain? of the Ten Commandments and pieces of ______manna, was equally the political and ______religious center of the nation. The Mosaic ______law presents the spectacle, unique in the ______history of the world, of a legislation which ______was complete from the origin of a nation, ______and subsisted for long ages. In spite of ______frequent infractions and differing ______© Student Handouts www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Student Handouts (order #3761093) Part I: Creation and the Patriarchal Period – Page 17

Nineteenth-century illustration of the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. The large, seven- branched lampstand, made of gold and known as the Menorah of the Temple, can be seen on the left.

All things being arranged, Moses, Thus organized, a nation and an at the command of God, took the census army, the Israelites broke up their camp of the males of the nation, from the age of at Sinai on the twentieth day of their twenty years and upwards, capable of second year, and resumed their march. bearing arms. The census was taken on They were led by the pillar of cloud, the first day of the second month of the which had guided them since the ecclesiastical year from the epoch of the memorable night of the Exodus, and Exodus (Iyar, also called Jyar or Ziv, which was to conduct them to the borders roughly equivalent to mid-April to mid- of the promised land. Thus, divinely May), and placed the number of fighting guided, the Israelites went into the men at 603,550. The host was divided Wilderness of Paran. into four camps, one of which was placed After several halts, the Israelites on each of the four sides of the tabernacle, reached Kadesh Barnea, near the borders which stood in the center of the whole of Palestine. From this place, Moses sent camp. twelve men, one from each tribe, into Palestine to examine the country and 41.ecclesiastical: report the character of the people, their a. pagan means of defense, the strength of their b. religious cities, and their numbers. The spies were c. secular absent forty days, during which time they d. sinful explored the country from the Dead Sea

to the slopes of Mount Hermon. The people took up stones and were Returning to Kadesh Barnea, they about to kill the faithful four, when the reported to Moses and the Israelite glory of God suddenly blazed forth from leaders that the land was exceedingly the tabernacle, and brought the rebels to fertile, but that its conquest by the their senses. God spoke to Moses, Israelites would be impossible since its declaring that he would disinherit the inhabitants were men of gigantic size, rebellious nation and choose as his people who dwelt in strongly fortified cities. the descendants of Moses. The great This unfavorable report greatly lawgiver earnestly interceded for his excited the people. In vain did Joshua countrymen, and at length obtained their and Caleb, who were of the spies, declare pardon. But, in pardoning them, God to them that their colleagues had declared that he would punish the rebels. exaggerated the difficulties of the conquest, and endeavor to encourage 44.Who were the “faithful four”? them with a more favorable report. The ______people were panic-stricken, and the next ______morning, broke into open mutiny and ______declared their intention to choose a chief ______who should conduct them back to Egypt. ______In vain did Moses and Aaron fall on their ______faces before the people. In vain did Joshua and Caleb repeat their assurances God informed Moses that, with the of victory and conquest, and urge them exceptions of Joshua and Caleb, not one not to rebel against God. of the men of the nation, from twenty years old and upward, should enter the 42.Why did ten of the twelve Israelite promised land. They should all die in the spies warn against attacking the wilderness, in which the tribes were people of Palestine? condemned to wander for thirty-eight ______years longer. Their children should enter ______upon the promised inheritance. ______Upon hearing this doom, the ______Israelites were seized with remorse, and ______were eager to be led into Canaan. But ______the divine decree was irrevocable. The ______people persisted in their determination ______and, in spite of the warnings of Moses, ______who refused to accompany them, endeavored to force their way through a 43.endeavor: mountain pass which was held by the a. align combined armies of the Canaanites and b. attempt Amalekites. The Israelites suffered a c. disincline bloody repulse, and were driven back into d. misappropriate the desert.

45.irrevocable: At the beginning of the fortieth a. changeable year after the Exodus, Aaron, the brother b. flippant of Moses and the high priest of the c. remedial nation, died at Masera, in Mount Hor, at d. unalterable the age of one hundred twenty-three years, and was buried there. Mount Hor 46.How does God punish the Israelites for was on the border of the territory of the their timidity in refusing to attack the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. natives of Palestine? Moses requested of the Edomites a free ______passage through their country for the ______hosts of Israel, offering to respect the ______property of the inhabitants, and to pay for ______even the water which his people used. This request was refused, and the For thirty-eight years the Israelites Hebrews, who were forbidden by God to led a nomadic life, roaming through the attack their kindred, turned southward. desert which lies north of the peninsula of They marched to the head of the Elanitic Sinai, to which the Arabs have given the gulf, and turning the range of mountains, name of Et Tih, or Tih Beni Israel (the moved northward again, east of the Wanderings of the Children of Israel). territory of Edom. The Canaanites of Their range extended from Kadesh Arad undertook to bar the way of the Barnea on the north to the head of the Israelites, but were defeated. The Elanitic gulf (Gulf of Akabah, or Aqaba) Edomites allowed the Israelites to march on the south. They do not appear to have past their territory without molesting been troubled by any of the neighboring them. Moses was forbidden by God to tribes. During this time the males of the attack the Moabites and Ammonites, who nation, from twenty years upward, died. were descended from Lot. The generation which succeeded them The Hebrews had now reached the consisted of men trained to fatigue and Arnon (Wadi Mujib), a small stream war, hardy and courageous, and which falls into the Dead Sea on its accustomed to freedom; a generation eastern side. This stream formed the superior to that which had been reared in southern boundary of a new kingdom, bondage in Egypt, and had suffered from which Sihon, an Amorite adventurer, had the taint of that slavery. conquered from the Ammonites and Moabites. The Jabbok (known today as 47.From a militaristic point-of-view, how the Zarqa River) formed the northern did the years of hardship spent in the boundary of this kingdom, and Sihon had desert help the Israelites in their established his capital at Heshbon. conquest of Palestine? Moses sent a peaceful embassy to ______Sihon, asking for a free passage through ______his territory, promising to keep his people ______to the highway on their march, and to pay ______for everything they used. Sihon

insolently refused this request, and Instead of cursing the chosen people, marched with his army to attack the Balaam was compelled by God to bless Israelites. He was completely routed, his them, and to predict to Balak their future capital was taken by storm, and his triumphs. kingdom became the prize of the This scheme having failed, the Hebrews. allies undertook to seduce the Hebrews from their faith by inducing them to take 48.Why did the Israelites attack the part in their worship of Baal-Peor. This Amorites, but not the Moabites and design succeeded so well that Moses was Ammonites? obliged to resort to severe measures to ______check the evil. All the Hebrews guilty of ______this sin were put to death. A plague ______broke out in the camp and carried off ______24,000 men. A war of extermination was ______begun against the Midianites, their armies were defeated, their country 49.routed ravaged, and an immense booty carried a. appeased off. b. disenchanted c. left behind 50.Who was compelled by God to predict d. overpowered the victories of the Israelites to Balak? ______Og, the gigantic kingdom of ______Bashan, whose territory extended from ______the Jabbok to Mount Hermon, and who ______was also a successful Amorite adventurer, ______now took the field to avenge Sihon. He was defeated and killed, and his kingdom 51.extermination was conquered by the Israelites, who by a. cessation these victories became masters of all the b. eradication country east of the Jordan, from Mount c. fortification Hermon to the Dead Sea. d. mortification The Israelites now encamped on the fertile plains opposite Jericho. Balak, A new census of the nation was the king of Moab, alarmed at the presence now taken, and showed that there were of so powerful a nation on his borders, 601,730 fighting men in the host. made an alliance against them with the The country that had been Midianites. Not deeming himself strong conquered east of the Jordan was very enough to attack the newcomers, Balak fertile and was admirably adapted to endeavored to induce Balaam, a famous grazing purposes. Pleased with the diviner from the country of the region, the tribes of Reuben and Gad and Ammonites, to lay a curse upon the the half-tribe of Manasseh asked Israelites and devote them to destruction. permission of Moses to take this country

as their inheritance, as they had The tribe of Reuben was given the numerous cattle. Moses sharply southern part of the country east of the reproached them for sowing the seeds of Jordan, from the Arnon to Mount Gilead. division in the nation; but consented to The tribe of Gad was assigned the the arrangement upon receiving the country north of this, including Mount promise that they would only leave their Gilead, to the southern end of the Sea of families and their cattle in their new Chinneroth or Gennesaret (the Sea of homes, while their fighting men would Galilee). The half-tribe of Manasseh cross the Jordan with the other tribes and received the country north of Gad as far assist in the conquest of the promised as Mount Hermon. The two and a half land. tribes kept their pledges to their brethren and rendered good service in the conquest of the country west of the Jordan. The work of Moses was now completed. He had brought the children of Israel to the border of the promised land at a point where they could easily enter it, and he was warned by God that his death was at hand. Both he and Aaron had been refused permission to enter the land, because of the failure of their faith when God had commanded them to speak to the rock in Kadesh to give water to his people.

52.What groups of Israelites were granted permission to settle just outside of the promised land? ______

Moses assembled the entire nation, recited the law in their hearing, bestowed upon them a prophetic blessing, foretelling their future glories, named Joshua as his successor, and exhorted the people to remain faithful to God as the indispensable condition of individual and This statue of Moses, sculpted by national happiness. He then took an Michelangelo, is located in Rome, Italy. affecting farewell of the nation. At the

command of God, Moses went up into 53.Where did Moses die? Mount Nebo, from which God showed him a. Canaan the whole of the land which was to be the b. Egypt home of the Hebrews. And so Moses died c. Mount Nebo there in the land of Moab. God buried d. Mount Sinai Moses in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor, and no one has 54.bestowed: ever known the exact spot of this burial. a. accorded The Israelites spent thirty days in b. deprived mourning the death of their great leader. c. enamored Traditionally, authorship of the Torah d. restored (the first five books of the Christian New Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, 55.prophetic: Numbers, and Deuteronomy) is a. divinatory attributed to Moses, despite the text b. doubtful describing Moses in the third person, as c. equivalent well as relating the death of Moses. d. philanthropic

56.Imagine that you are Moses. What might you do differently, and why? Explain your answer.

______

Illustrate a scene from the life of Moses.

Vocabulary Review: Match each term, used in the text, with its synonym (the word closest in meaning) or definition.

57._____ ascertain a) accorded 58._____ avocation b) asked 59._____ besought c) attempt 60._____ bestowed d) austere 61._____ cessation e) characteristic 62._____ dynasty f) commenced 63._____ ecclesiastical g) compelled 64._____ endeavor h) conjecture 65._____ extermination i) considerably 66._____ imposed j) determine 67._____ inaugurated k) displeasure 68._____ indignation l) divinatory 69._____ inference m) earthly 70._____ irrevocable n) eradication 71._____ paschal o) hobby 72._____ peculiar p) lineage q) overpowered 73._____ predecessor r) pertaining to Passover 74._____ promulgation s) precursor 75._____ prophetic t) proclamation 76._____ routed u) religious 77._____ sojourn v) religious rule 78._____ solemn w) tarriance 79._____ substantially x) termination 80._____ temporal y) unalterable 81._____ theocracy

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