על חיי משה, ספר ב מ״וOn the Life of Moses, Book II 46
א׳
1the prophet, seeing the whole nation entangled in the meshes of panic, like a draught of fishes, was taken out of himself by divine possession and uttered these inspired words: “Alarm you needs must feel.
ב׳
2[251] Terror is near at hand: the danger is great. In front is a vast expanse of sea; no haven for a refuge, no boats at hand: behind, the menace of the enemy’s troops, which march along in unresting pursuit. Whither can one turn or swim for safety? Everything has attacked us suddenly from every side—earth, sea, man, the elements of nature.
ג׳
3[252] Yet be of good courage, faint not. Stand with unshaken minds, look for the invincible help which God will send. Self-sent it will be with you anon, invisible it will fight before you. Ere now you have often experienced its unseen defence. I see it preparing for the contest and casting a noose round the necks of the enemy. It drags them down through the sea. They sink like lead into the depths. You see them still alive: I have a vision of them dead, and to-day you too shall see their corpses.”
ד׳
4[253] So he spake with words of promise exceeding anything they could hope for. But they began to find by the experience of facts the truth of the heavenly message. For what he prophesied came to pass through the might of God, though harder to credit than any fable. Let us picture the scene. The sea breaks in two, and each section retires. The parts around the break, through the whole depth of their waters, congeal to serve as walls of vast strength: a path is drawn straight, a road of miracle between the frozen walls on either side:
ה׳
5[254] the nation makes its passage, marching safely through the sea, as on a dry path or a stone-paved causeway; for the sand is crisped, and its scattered particles grow together into a unity: the enemy advance in unresting pursuit, hastening to their own destruction: the cloud goes behind the travellers’ rear to guide them on their way, and within is the vision of the Godhead, flashing rays of fire. Then the waters which had been stayed from their course and parted for a while return to their place: the dried-up cleft between the walls suddenly becomes a sea again:
ו׳
6[255] the enemy meet their doom, sent to their last sleep by the fall of the frozen walls, and overwhelmed by the tides, as they rush down upon their path as into a ravine! that doom is evidenced by the corpses which are floated to the top and strew the surface of the sea: last comes a mighty rushing wave, which flings the corpses in heaps upon the opposite shore, a sight inevitably to be seen by the saved, thus permitted not only to escape their dangers, but also to behold their enemies fallen under a chastisement which no words can express, through the power of God and not of man.
ז׳
7[256] After this, what should Moses do but honour the Benefactor with hymns of thanksgiving? He divides the nation into two choirs, one of men, the other of women, and himself leads the men while he appoints his sister to lead the women, that the two in concert might sing hymns to the Father and Creator in tuneful response, with a blending both of temperaments and melody—temperaments eager to render to each other like for like; melody produced by the concord of treble and bass; for the voices of men are bass and the women’s treble, and when they are blended in due proportion the resulting melody is of the fullest and sweetest harmony.
ח׳
8[257] All these myriads were persuaded by Moses to sing with hearts in accord the same song, telling of those mighty and marvellous works which I have recorded just above. And the prophet, rejoicing at this, seeing the people also overjoyed, and himself no longer able to contain his delight, led off the song, and his hearers massed in two choirs sang with him the story of these same deeds.