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1. Now the Egyptians, after they had been preserved by Moses,
entertained a hatred to him, and were very eager in compassing
their designs against him, as suspecting that he would take
occasion, from his good success, to raise a sedition, and bring
innovations into Egypt; and told the king he ought to be slain.
The king had also some intentions of himself to the same purpose,
and this as well out of envy at his glorious expedition at the
head of his army, as out of fear of being brought low by him and
being instigated by the sacred scribes, he was ready to undertake
to kill Moses: but when he had learned beforehand what plots
there were against him, he went away privately; and because the
public roads were watched, he took his flight through the
deserts, and where his enemies could not suspect he would travel;
and, though he was destitute of food, he went on, and despised
that difficulty courageously; and when he came to the city
Midian, which lay upon the Red Sea, and was so denominated from
one of Abraham's sons by Keturah, he sat upon a certain well, and
rested himself there after his laborious journey, and the
affliction he had been in. It was not far from the city, and the
time of the day was noon, where he had an occasion offered him by
the custom of the country of doing what recommended his virtue,
and afforded him an opportunity of bettering his circumstances.
2. For that country having but little water, the shepherds used
to seize on the wells before others came, lest their flocks
should want water, and lest it should be spent by others before
they came. There were now come, therefore, to this well seven
sisters that were virgins, the daughters of Raguel, a priest, and
one thought worthy by the people of the country of great honor.
These virgins, who took care of their father's flocks, which sort
of work it was customary and very familiar for women to do in the
country of the Troglodytes, they came first of all, and drew
water out of the well in a quantity sufficient for their flocks,
into troughs, which were made for the reception of that water;
but when the shepherds came upon the maidens, and drove them
away, that they might have the command of the water themselves,
Moses, thinking it would be a terrible reproach upon him if he
overlooked the young women under unjust oppression, and should
suffer the violence of the men to prevail over the right of the
maidens, he drove away the men, who had a mind to more than their
share, and afforded a proper assistance to the women; who, when
they had received such a benefit from him, came to their father,
and told him how they had been affronted by the shepherds, and
assisted by a stranger, and entreated that he would not let this
generous action be done in vain, nor go without a reward. Now the
father took it well from his daughters that they were so desirous
to reward their benefactor; and bid them bring Moses into his
presence, that he might be rewarded as he deserved. And when
Moses came, he told him what testimony his daughters bare to him,
that he had assisted them; and that, as he admired him for his
virtue, he said that Moses had bestowed such his assistance on
persons not insensible of benefits, but where they were both able
and willing to return the kindness, and even to exceed the
measure of his generosity. So he made him his son, and gave him
one of his daughters in marriage; and appointed him to be the
guardian and superintendent over his cattle; for of old, all the
wealth of the barbarians was in those cattle.
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