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[307]
One would think the forementioned calamities might have been sufficient
for one that was only foolish, without wickedness, to make him wise, and
to make him Sensible what was for his advantage. But Pharaoh, led not so
much by his folly as by his wickedness, even when he saw the cause of his
miseries, he still contested with God, and willfully deserted the cause
of virtue; so he bid Moses take the Hebrews away, with their wives and
children, to leave their cattle behind, since their own cattle were destroyed.
But when Moses said that what he desired was unjust, since they were obliged
to offer sacrifices to God of those cattle, and the time being prolonged
on this account, a thick darkness, without the least light, spread itself
over the Egyptians, whereby their sight being obstructed, and their breathing
hindered by the thickness of the air, they died miserably, and under a
terror lest they should be swallowed up by the dark cloud. Besides this,
when the darkness, after three days and as many nights, was dissipated,
and when Pharaoh did not still repent and let the Hebrews go, Moses came
to him and said, "How long wilt thou be disobedient to the command
of God? for he enjoins thee to let the Hebrews go; nor is there any other
way of being freed from the calamities are under, unless you do so."
But the king angry at what he said, and threatened to cut off his head
if he came any more to trouble him these matters. Hereupon Moses said he
not speak to him any more about them, for he himself, together with the
principal men among the Egyptians, should desire the Hebrews away. So when
Moses had said this, he his way.
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