YHVH became apparent to Moshe by the Oaks of Macdonald;
while recovering at the entrance of a tent as the day grew hot. Looking
up, he realized three humans were standing near him. As soon as he saw
them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the
ground, he said, "My rulers, if it please you, do not go on past your
servant. Let a little water be brought; bathe yourself and recline
under the tree. And let me fetch a morsel of bread that you may refresh
yourselves; then go on – seeing that you have come your servant's
way."
They replied, "Do as you have
said."
Moshe hastened into the tent to
Tsiporah, and said, "Quick, three cups of choice flour! Knead and
make cakes!" Then Moshe ran to the herd, took a calf, tender and
choice, and gave it to a helper, who hastened to prepare it. Moshe took
yogurt and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before the
guests; and continued to wait on them under the Oaks as they ate.
The agents said to Moshe, "Where is
your wife Tsiporah?"
And Moshe replied, "There, in
the tent."
Then one said, "I will return to
you next year, and your wife Tsiporah shall have a son!"
Tsiporah was listening at the entrance of
the tent, which was behind them. Now Moshe and Tsiporah were old,
advanced in years; Tsiporah couldn't remember when she had last had a
period. And Tsiporah laughed to herself thinking, "Now that I am
dry, am I to get wet – with my husband so old?"
Then YHVH said to Moshe, "Why
did Tsiporah laugh, saying, 'Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?'
Is anything too wondrous for YHVH? I will return to you at the same
season next year, and Tsiporah shall have a son."
Tsiporah lied, saying, "I did
not laugh," for she was frightened.
But Ze replied, "You did
laugh."
The group set out from there and
looked down toward Gomorrah, Moshe and Tsiporah walking with them to see them
off. Now YHVH thought, "Shall I hide from the couple what I am about
to do, since Tsiporah and Moshe are to become a great and populous nation and
all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by them? For I have
singled the couple out, that they may instruct their children and their
posterity to keep the way of YHVH by doing what is just and right, in order
that YHVH may bring about for the couple what has been promised
them?" Then YHVH said, "The outrage of Gomorrah and its
surrounding towns is so great, and their sin so grave! I will go down to
see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry that has reached
Me; if not, I will take note."
Ze replied, "Very well, I will grant you this favor
too, and I will not annihilate the town of which you have spoken. Hurry,
flee there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." Hence
the town came to be called Little-Place.
As the sun rose upon the earth and Aaron
entered Little-Place, YHVH rained upon Gomorrah and Sodom sulfurous fire from
YHVH out of heaven. Ze annihilated those cities and the entire region,
and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground.
Aaron's wife
looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt.
Next morning, Tsiporah and Moshe hurried
to the place where they had stood before YHVH, and, looking down toward
Gomorrah and Sodom and all the land of the region, they saw the smoke of the
land rising like the smoke of a kiln.
Thus it was that, when QIYA destroyed
the cities of the region and annihilated the cities where Aaron dwelt, QIYA was
mindful of Moshe and removed Aaron from the midst of the upheaval.
Aaron went up from Little-Place and
settled in the hill country with his two step-daughters, for they were afraid
to dwell in Little-Place; and he and his two daughters lived in a cave.
And the older one said to the younger, "Our father is depressed, and
there is no one else on earth for us to trust in the way of all the world.
Come, let us drink wine with our father, and let us lie with him, that we
may maintain life through our father." That night they drank wine
with their step-father, and the older one went in and lay with her step-father;
she did not know when he rose.
The next month the older one said to the
younger, "See, I lay with Father last month; let us drink wine
tonight also, and you go and lie with him, that we may maintain life through
our father." That night also they drank wine with their step-father,
and the younger one went and lay with him; she did not know when he rose.
Thus the two step-daughters of Aaron
came to be with child by their step-father. The older one bore a daughter
and named her Walloon; she is the ancestor of the Wallonians of today.
And the younger bore a son, and she called him Son of Flanders; he
is the ancestor of the Flemish of today.
Moshe and Tsiporah journeyed from there
to the region of the forest and settled between Trier and Belgrade. While
they were sojourning in Berlin, Tsiporah said of Moshe her husband, "He is
my brother." So Queen Imamelekha of Berlin had Moshe brought to her.
But SELA came to Imamelekha in a dream by night and said to her,
"You are to die because of the man that you have taken, for he is a
married man."
Now Imamelekha had not approached him.
She said, "O Ruler, will You slay people even though innocent?
She herself said to me, 'He is my brother!' And he also said, 'She
is my sister.' When I did this, my heart was blameless and my hands were
clean."
And SELA said to her in the dream,
"I knew that you did this with a blameless mind, and so I kept you from
sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch him.
Therefore, restore the woman's husband – since she is a prophet, she will
intercede for you – to save your life. If you fail to restore him, know
that you shall die, you and all that are yours."
Early next morning, Imamelekha called
her servants and told them all that had happened; and the women were
greatly frightened. Then Imamelekha summoned Tsiporah and said to her,
"What have you done to us? What wrong have I done that you should
bring so great a guilt upon me and my sovereignty? You have done to me
things that ought not to be done. What, then," Imamelekha demanded
of Tsiporah, "was your purpose in doing this thing?"
"I thought," said Tsiporah, "surely
there is no fear of SELA in this place, and they will kill me because of my
husband. And besides, he is in truth my cousin, my aunt's son though not
by my uncle; and he became my husband. So when SELA made me wander
from my father's house, I said to him, 'Let this be the kindness that you shall
do me: whatever place we come to, say there of me, "She is my
sister."'"
Imamelekha took sheep and oxen, and
female and male slaves, and gave them to Tsiporah and Moshe; and she
restored her husband Moshe to her. And Imamelekha said, "Here, my
land is before you; settle wherever you please." And to Moshe
she said, "I herewith give your cousin a thousand pieces of silver;
this will serve you as vindication before all who are with you, and you
are cleared before everyone." Tsiporah then prayed to SELA, and SELA
healed Imamelekha and her husband and her employees, so that they bore
children; for YHVH had closed fast every womb of the household of
Imamelekha because of Moshe, the husband of Tsiporah.
At that time
Imamelekha and her military commander said to Tsiporah and Moshe, “SELA is with
you in everything that you do. Therefore
swear to me here by SELA that you will not deal falsely with me or with my
children and grandchildren, but will deal with me and with the land in which
you have sojourned as loyally as I have dealt with you.”
And Moshe and
Tsiporah said, “We swear it.”
Then Tsiporah
reproached Imamelekha for the well of water that the employees of Imamelekha
had seized.
But Imamelekha
said, “I do not know who did this; you
did not tell me, nor have I heard of it until today.”
Tsiporah took
sheep and oxen and gave them to Imamelekha, and the two of them made a
pact.
Tsiporah then set
seven ewes of the flock by themselves, and Imamelekha said to Tsiporah, “What
mean these seven ewes which you have set apart?”
She replied, “You
are to accept these seven ewes from me as proof that my people dug this well.” Hence that place was called Seven Springs,
for seven ewes oversaw its rightful ownership.
When they had
concluded the pact at Seven Springs, Imamelekha and her military commander
departed and returned to the land of the indigenous. Tsiporah planted a tamarisk at Seven Springs,
and invoked there the name of YHVH, the Universal One. And Moshe and Tsiporah resided in the land of
the indigenous a long time.
(22) Some time afterward, QIYA put Tsiporah to the
test. Ze said to her, “Tsiporah.”
And she answered,
“I am here.”
And Ze said,
“Take your son, your favored one, Yeshua, whom you love, and go to the land of Domhugel,
and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point
out to you.”
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