“Oh, would that Aaron, or Eleasar, or my lord your father were here in my stead, or would that Jehovah would bestow on me the might of their eloquence!  But be it as it is!  True, I imagine I can again see and hear everything as though it were happening once more before my eyes, but how am I to describe it?  How can such things be given in words?  Yet, with God’s assistance, I will try.”

Here he paused and Hosea, noticing that the old man’s hands and lips were trembling, gave him the cup of wine, and Eliab gratefully quaffed it to the dregs.  Then, half-closing his eyes, he began his story and his wrinkled features grew sharper as he went on: 

“My wife has already told you what occurred after the people learned the command that had been issued.  We, too, were among those who lost courage and murmured.  But last night, all who belonged to the household of Nun—­ and also the shepherds, the slaves, and the poor—­were summoned to a feast, and there was abundance of roast lamb, fresh, unleavened bread, and wine, more than usual at the harvest festival, which began that night, and which you, my lord, have often attended in your boyhood.  We sat rejoicing, and our lord, your father, comforted us, and told us of the God of our fathers and the wonders He had wrought for them.  It was now His will that we should go forth from this land where we had suffered contempt and bondage.  This was no sacrifice like that of Abraham when, at the command of the Most High, he had whetted his knife to shed the blood of his son Isaac, though it would be hard for many of us to quit a home that had grown dear to us and forego many a familiar custom.  But it will be a great happiness for us all.  For, he said, we were not to journey forth to an unknown country, but to a beautiful region which God Himself had set apart for us.  He had promised us, instead of this place of bondage, a new and delightful home where we should dwell free men, amid fruitful fields and rich pastures, which would supply food to every man and his family and make all hearts rejoice.  Just as laborers must work hard to earn high wages, we must endure a brief period of want and suffering to gain for ourselves and for our children the beautiful new home which the Lord had promised.  God’s own land it must be, for it was a gift of the Most High.

“Having spoken thus, he blessed us all and promised that thou, too, wouldst shake the dust from off thy feet, and join us to fight for our cause with a strong arm as a trained soldier and a dutiful son.

“Shouts of joy rang forth and, when we assembled in the market-place and found that all the bondmen had escaped from the overseers, many gained fresh courage.  Then Aaron stepped into our midst, stood upon the auctioneer’s bench, and told us with his own lips all that we had heard from my master Nun at the festival.  The words he uttered sounded sometimes like pealing thunder, and anon like the sweet