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Back to page 1a Moses Page 1b
The Egyptians treated the Hebrews very badly indeed.
Picture of slaves making bricks
They had to work for no pay and they were beaten if the slave masters did not think that they were working hard enough.
This picture is taken from a picture on the wall of a tomb in Egypt. It shows slaves making bricks.
The Hebrew slaves built the cities of Pithom and Raamases
Perhaps the Pharaoh thought that he could work the slaves to death but this did not work because they kept on having big families and the number of Hebrews in Egypt kept on getting greater and greater.
Picture of Moses in a basket
Then the Pharaoh told the Egyptians to throw all the Hebrew baby boys into the River Nile but to let the girls live. Now a man and his wife had a son and they tried to keep him hidden for as long as they could. When he became too big to hide she had an idea. She made a basket out of bull rushes and covered it with slime and pitch so that the water could not get in and it would float. She put the basket down in the tall grass near the river bank. The baby's sister watched to see what would happen.
In time she saw Pharaoh's daughter come down to wash herself in the river. Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket and asked one of her maids to go and fetch it. When she looked inside she saw the baby. He began to cry and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies,"she said.
Picture of Pharaoh's daughter finding Moses.
Then the baby's sister thought of a clever plan. She went up to Pharaoh's daughter and said,"Shall I go and find a Hebrew woman to be his nurse?" Please do", she said. So the sister went and brought the baby's own mother. The princess told her, "Take this baby and look after him and I will pay you." So she took the baby home and was paid for looking after him. Remember that he was her own son. Later when the baby was old enough she brought him to the palace. Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and gave him the name "Moses". She treated him as her own son. He was brought up as an Egyptian but he knew that he was a Hebrew.
Now a little earlier on I asked you what sort of person a Hero should be. You might have said that he should be big and strong and brave or you might have thought that he should have amazing powers like Superman. Now the Bible does not really tell us everything about what Moses was like when he grew up but it does tell us that to start with he was not very brave. God helped him to become brave.The Bible does tell us that Moses could not stand and watch other people being ill- treated.
When he was grown up he went out to visit his people, the Hebrews. He saw that they were treated as slaves and that they were made to work very hard. He even saw an Egyptian kill a Hebrew. He looked all round and could not see anyone watching so he killed the Egyptian and buried his body in the sand.
The next day he went out and saw a Hebrew beating up another Hebrew. He said,"Why are you beating up someone who is a Hebrew like you?" The man said, "Who do you think you are that you can tell me what to do when you killed an Egyptian? Are you going to kill me too?"
Moses was very frightened. He had thought that no one saw him kill the Egyptian but he now knew that he had been seen. Later he learned that Pharaoh had found out and was trying to catch him and have him killed. He ran away to live in the land of Midian.
Now for the third time Moses saw someone being badly treated.
There was a man called Jethro who had 7 daughters and they went to a well to draw water to put in the troughs for their father's sheep and goats but some shepherds drove them away.
Picture of sheep.
Moses rescued them . He then went and drew some water for them and put it in the troughs. The girls went home and told their father.
He said,"Go and invite him to come and eat with us." Moses went there and decided to live with them. He married one of Jethro's daughters who was called Zipporah.
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