"And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand."
Yet we are told a little farther on "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." But we haven"t anything to do with his meekness, and only mention the murder because thereby hangs the tale of Moses" first love affair.
"Murder will out," and so in due course of time the King heard about it and "sought to slay Moses." "But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well."
Now when we read about the young men of the Bible hanging around a "well" we know what is going to happen. There is romance in the air and a love affair soon develops, for that seems to have been love"s trysting place. And I suppose he neglected no artifice of the toilet that might enchance his personal charms, that he donned the most costly and elegant of his Egyptian costumes, flung himself in courtly indolence upon the sand, and waited and watched eagerly for the rich girls to come down to the well to water their father"s flocks, just as one watches in the twilight for the first star to sparkle in the azure overhead, for the first sunbeam of the morning or the first rose of June.
"Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father"s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock."
And who can blame Moses if he happened to wear his best raiment?
Everything and everybody knows, and always has known, that love loves the beautiful; and each one according to his light takes advantage of the fact. So the wild maiden, when love with magic finger touches her quivering heart, stains her teeth a blacker black, hangs more beads and sh.e.l.ls about her dirty neck and ankles, and practices all her rude arts of coquetry. And her savage lover, charmed with her charms, sticks the gayest feathers in his hair, rubs a more liberal supply of grease upon his polished, shiny skin, and makes himself brave with all his weapons of war. So the birds only seek love"s trysting place in the springtime when their plumage is the most brilliant and their songs the sweetest, and the fishes when their colors are the brightest. And the woman of our day and generation, when love"s arrow "tipped with a jewel and shot from a golden string" pierces her vital organ, wears her dress a little more decollete, bangs her hair more bangy, clasps more diamonds round her throat, dispenses with sleeves altogether, smiles her sweetest smile and laughs her gayest laugh. And he, the modern man, caught in the snare, buys the shiniest stovepipe hat and n.o.bbiest cane, dons his gaudiest neck-tie and widest trousers--and after all, beasts and birds and fishes, savage and civilized, we are all alike and ruled by the same instinct and pa.s.sion, and "why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"
I presume Zipporah, one of the priest"s daughters, had heard about the elegant and courtly Egyptian who was in the neighborhood, and she no doubt adorned herself with all her jewels, wore the finest finery in her wardrobe and wreathed her lips in smiles; for she knew that love lives and thrives on smiles and roses, coquetry and gallantry, on laughter and sweet glances, and faints and dies on frowns, neglect and angry words; and so she tripped down to the well, bent on conquest.
Then she flung back the drapery to show her dimpled arms, and drawing water filled the trough; then the "shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flocks." Was he not gallant, and a striking contrast to the ugly shepherds?
And of course Moses told her that it almost broke his heart to see her performing such menial labor, and all such sweet fict.i.tious stuff, and she glanced at him admiringly from under her long, curling lashes, and the "rebel rose hue dyed her cheek," and he told her about the great court where he had been reared, and she whispered that her papa was the rich priest of Midian; then they clasped hands lingeringly and said a soft good-night.
It seems the old gentleman kept a pretty close watch on his girls--and he doubtless had a steady job--for he asked them how it happened that they had returned so soon. And Zipporah put her arms around his neck, and placing her cheek against his told him all about the gallant and courteous stranger. Having an eye to business--as behooves a father with seven daughters on his hands--he didn"t let this eligible young person slip, but sent and invited him to his house and deluged him with hospitality and kindness--and Moses and Zipporah were married "and Moses was content to dwell with the man."
[Ill.u.s.tration: (They clasped hands lingeringly and said a soft good night.)]
But after a while, first soft and low and then in trumpet tones, ambition whispered in his ear that he could deliver the Hebrews from their enemies. "And Moses took his wife and sons and set them upon an a.s.s, and he returned to the land of Egypt."
And I suppose, though time was young and wore roses then, the days pa.s.sed slowly to Zipporah and she grew tired of Moses and the Lord, tired of the rod that turned into a serpent, of the strife and the bondage and the river of blood; tired of the frogs and the lice and the swarms of flies; disgusted with the murrain of beasts and the boils and terrified at the thunder and fire and rain of hail and all the horrors of Egypt, and like the woman of to-day, when things get too awfully unpleasant, she made it uncomfortable for Moses, and "he sent her back" to her father"s house and she took her two sons with her.
Afterward when Moses became famous and ill.u.s.trious she returned to him without asking his consent, or even notifying him of her intention, as far as we can learn from the official records.
She took her father, the priest Jethro, along to look after her and take care of her baggage I suppose, and we imagine he didn"t relish the task much, for we hear him saying, rather apologetically we think, "I, thy father-in-law Jethro, am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her."
I fancy Moses knew the condition of a man who was in the clutches of a woman, and that woman his wife, so he forgave the old man, for he had experience himself, "and went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare." But there isn"t any record that he kissed his wife, or even shook hands with her, and we infer that their domestic heaven was not all blue and cloudless.
Miriam, although a prophetess and a sister of Aaron, was"t very angelic, at least the glimpses we catch of her don"t impress us with the fact that she was. When the seash.o.r.e was strewn with the dead, white faces of the drowned Egyptians, and the waves were flecked with their pallor and dashed their helpless arms about, Miriam "took a timbrel in her hand: and all the woman went out after her with timbrels and with dances." And Miriam answered them, "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."
[Ill.u.s.tration: (Alas, my lord, I beseech thee.)]
Now this may have been natural and all right for the times, only you know it don"t look well when compared with the action of our women of to-day, who drop tears and roses on the graves of their enemies.
Further on we find Miriam, womanlike, talking about Moses because he had married an Ethiopian woman, and saying seditiously to Aaron, "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?"
And the Lord heard it and his anger "was kindled against them," and my lady "became leprous, white as snow."
As she was the one punished for daring to talk rebellion against Moses, G.o.d"s chosen one, we suppose she was the ringleader and instigator, and Aaron was only the tool in this plot that budded but never bloomed.
"And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous," and of course she threw her arms around his neck and with streaming eyes besought his aid, and Aaron turned the smoothly flowing river of his eloquence into resistless words of appeal and said unto Moses, while Miriam knelt at his feet: "Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us," and "let her not be as one dead;" and Moses, moved, as men have always been moved, by woman"s tears, "cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O, G.o.d I beseech thee," and after seven days the curse was removed.
SOME MANAGING WOMEN.
SOME MANAGING WOMEN.
The women of the Old Testament always wanted something, and it is a noticeable fact that they always asked for it--and got it too.
So the daughters of Zelophehad had a grievance, and they didn"t go among the neighbors bewailing their hard lot, they didn"t sit and wish from morning till night that something would turn up to help them, or sigh their lives away in secret, but they put on their most radiant attire and jauntiest veils and "stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation,"
and demanded their father"s possessions, and even argued the question reasonably and logically. There was not any of the St.
Paul-women-should-not-speak-in-meeting doctrine about the Biblical women of those elder days.
They didn"t endeavor to persuade Moses" wife to influence her husband to use his power in their behalf. They did not retain the services of Aaron, the finest orator of the day, to plead their cause, but they did their own talking, and they got what they asked for--their father"s possessions--and husbands thrown in without extra charge.
Being clever as well as ambitious women, they probably foresaw that husbands would follow after the inheritance, and although they would not ask for lords and masters of course, they had their eyes on them just the same. As there were several of them, all unmarried, they were no doubt _not_ "fair to look upon," so they laid a little plot to secure husbands. And they succeeded and were happy, for marriage was the aim and end of a woman"s existence then, and there was a better market and more of a demand for husbands than in these modern days.
We only catch a glimpse of one woman named Achsah, but that is enough to show us that she possessed the prevailing and prominent characteristic of all the other "holy women."--she wanted something.
After she had married her warrior lover, who conquered Kirpathsepher for her sweet sake, the very first thing we find is that "she moved him to ask of her father a field." Now naturally a young man would dislike to approach his father-in-law upon such a delicate subject, and so soon too, but _she_ asked him and he obeyed--like all the men of the Old Testament.
And even then she was not satisfied; but of course she embraced her father and kissed him, and told him he was the most indulgent father in the whole wide world.
Now Caleb no doubt had had dozens of love affairs, and experience had made him a connoisseur of female character, and understanding all their little scheming ways and little designing tricks, without beating around the bush at all he came to business at once and asked,
"What would"st thou?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: (What would"st thou?)]
"Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land, give me also springs of water," she said.
Springs of water were a bonanza in those days--something like a gold or silver mine to us moderns--but she had requested it and of course he could not refuse, "and he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs."
And it came to pa.s.s that Joshua sent two men, two spies, saying, "Go view the land, even Jericho," and I suppose they disguised themselves and went by secret ways; anyway they eluded the vigilance of their enemies and entered the city, even Jericho, and let me whisper it in your ear, they went to see a woman named Rahab--and she wasn"t a very nice woman either--and "lodged there."
But their visit leaked out, as such things always do and always will, though the stars should pale their fires to shield them, the moon withdraw behind the clouds to hide their shadows, the rain pour and the thunder crash to drown their footsteps. Perhaps the children told the neighbors, perhaps the hired girl whispered to her friend, perhaps some jealous watching lover told of it, but at any rate we read:
"And it was told to the King of Jericho, saying: Behold there came two men in hither to-night of the children of Israel, to search out the country."
"And the King of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying: Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thy house: for they be come to search all the country."
Now does one suppose for a moment that she obeyed the mandate of the King? Of course not, if one is a student of the Bible, but if one is not, I"ll just say that she took them up through the skylight and hid them, piling flax over them, and then she said innocently and convincingly to the King"s officers:
"There came two men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: And it came to pa.s.s about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them."
Then she went up on the roof and talked to the men like a lawyer. I notice that these old women--I mean women of old--were all good talkers, and they didn"t speak like meek, pa.s.sive, submissive girls wrought up to sudden action by wrong, indignation or revenge, but they spoke with a freedom, vigor and fluency that betokened everyday practice.
St. Paul says that woman should "Keep silence," and that "they are commanded to be under obedience," but he evidently had some remarkable ideas upon this and other topics. Perhaps he never had read the official records, and we know he was never married, and so we don"t censure him so much for his ignorance of female character, having never had a wife, or, so far as we know, a love affair, for what does a man born blind know about the sunshine, or the lightning"s awful flash, or one born deaf know of the pealing, clashing thunder?
The women of his day were no doubt obstreperous and extravagant, and hence his famous but perfectly ineffectual teaching that they should not "broider their hair, or wear gold or silver or costly array," and that they shouldn"t talk in meeting, and if they wanted to know anything, ask their husbands, and drink of their intellectual superiority. But to return.