על חיי משה, ספר א כ״בOn the Life of Moses, Book I 22
א׳
1[126] Such, we are told, were the plagues inflicted through the agency of Moses alone, namely the plague of hail and lightning, the plague of the locusts, and that of the darkness which was proof against every form of light. One was committed to him and his brother together, which I will at once proceed to describe.
ב׳
2[127] They took in their hands, at God’s bidding, ashes from a furnace, which Moses scattered in the air, and then dust suddenly fell upon men and the lower animals alike. It produced an angry, painful ulceration over the whole skin, and, simultaneously with this eruption, their bodies swelled with suppurated blisters, which might be supposed to be extravasations from inflammation lurking beneath.
ג׳
3[128] Oppressed as they naturally were by the extreme painfulness and soreness of the ulceration and inflammation, they suffered in spirit more or no less than in body from the exhaustion which their miseries produced. For one continuous ulcer was to be seen stretching from head to foot, the sores scattered over every particular limb and part of the body being concentrated into a single form of the same appearance throughout. So it was until, again by the intercessions which the lawgiver made on behalf of the sufferers, the distemper was lightened.
ד׳
4[129] Rightly indeed was this chastisement committed to the two in common: to the brother because the dust which came down upon the people was from the earth, and what was of earth was under his charge; to Moses because the air was changed to afflict them, and plagues of heaven and air belonged to his ministration.