Now, for the first occasion of this fiction, Manetho supposes what
is no better than a ridiculous thing; for he says that" king Amenophis
desired to see the gods." What gods, I pray, did he desire to see?
If he meant the gods whom their laws ordained to be worshipped, the ox,
the goat, the crocodile, and the baboon, he saw them already; but for the
heavenly gods, how could he see them, and what should occasion this his
desire? To be sure? it was because another king before him had already
seen them. He had then been informed what sort of gods they were, and after
what manner they had been seen, insomuch that he did not stand in need
of any new artifice for obtaining this sight. However, the prophet by whose
means the king thought to compass his design was a wise man. If so, how
came he not to know that such his desire was impossible to be accomplished?
for the event did not succeed. And what pretense could there be to suppose
that the gods would not be seen by reason of the people's maims in their
bodies, or leprosy? for the gods are not angry at the imperfection of bodies,
but at wicked practices; and as to eighty thousand lepers, and those in
an ill state also, how is it possible to have them gathered together in
one day? nay, how came the king not to comply with the prophet? for his
injunction was, that those that were maimed should be expelled out of Egypt,
while the king only sent them to work in the quarries, as if he were rather
in want of laborers, than intended to purge his country. He says further,
that" this prophet slew himself, as foreseeing the anger of the gods,
and those events which were to come upon Egypt afterward; and that he left
this prediction for the king in writing." Besides, how came it to
pass that this prophet did not foreknow his own death at the first? nay,
how came he not to contradict the king in his desire to see the gods immediately?
how came that unreasonable dread upon him of judgments that were not to
happen in his lifetime? or what worse thing could he suffer, out of the
fear of which he made haste to kill himself? But now let us see the silliest
thing of all: - The king, although he had been informed of these things,
and terrified with the fear of what was to come, yet did not he even then
eject these maimed people out of his country, when it had been foretold
him that he was to clear Egypt of them; but, as Manetho says, "he
then, upon their request, gave them that city to inhabit, which had formerly
belonged to the shepherds, and was called Avaris; whither when they were
gone in crowds," he says, "they chose one that had formerly been
priest of Hellopolls; and that this priest first ordained that they should
neither worship the gods, nor abstain from those animals that were worshipped
by the Egyptians, but should kill and eat them all, and should associate
with nobody but those that had conspired with them; and that he bound the
multitude by oaths to be sure to continue in those laws; and that when
he had built a wall about Avaris, he made war against the king." Manetho
adds also, that "this priest sent to Jerusalem to invite that people
to come to his assistance, and promised to give them Avaris; for that it
had belonged to the forefathers of those that were coming from Jerusalem,
and that when they were come, they made a war immediately against the king,
and got possession of all Egypt." He says also that "the Egyptians
came with an army of two hundred thousand men, and that Amenophis, the
king of Egypt, not thinking that he ought to fight against the gods, ran
away presently into Ethiopia, and committed Apis and certain other of their
sacred animals to the priests, and commanded them to take care of preserving
them." He says further, that" the people of Jerusalem came accordingly
upon the Egyptians, and overthrew their cities, and burnt their temples,
and slew their horsemen, and, in short, abstained from no sort of wickedness
nor barbarity; and for that priest who settled their polity and their laws,"
he says," he was by birth of Hellopolis, and his name was Osarsiph,
from Osyris the god of Hellopolis, but that he changed his name, and called
himself Moses." He then says that "on the thirteenth year afterward,
Amenophis, according to the fatal time of the duration of his misfortunes,
came upon them out of Ethiopia with a great army, and joining battle with
the shepherds and with the polluted people, overcame them in battle, and
slew a great many of them, and pursued them as far as the bounds of Syria."
Now Manetho does not reflect upon the improbability of his lie;
for the leprous people, and the multitude that was with them, although
they might formerly have been angry at the king, and at those that had
treated them so coarsely, and this according to the prediction of the prophet;
yet certainly, when they were come out of the mines, and had received of
the king a city, and a country, they would have grown milder towards him.
However, had they ever so much hated him in particular, they might have
laid a private plot against himself, but would hardly have made war against
all the Egyptians; I mean this on the account of the great kindred they
who were so numerous must have had among them. Nay still, if they had resolved
to fight with the men, they would not have had impudence enough to fight
with their gods; nor would they have ordained laws quite contrary to those
of their own country, and to those in which they had been bred up themselves.
Yet are we beholden to Manethe, that he does not lay the principal charge
of this horrid transgression upon those that came from Jerusalem, but says
that the Egyptians themselves were the most guilty, and that they were
their priests that contrived these things, and made the multitude take
their oaths for doing so. But still how absurd is it to suppose that none
of these people's own relations or friends should be prevailed with to
revolt, nor to undergo the hazards of war with them, while these polluted
people were forced to send to Jerusalem, and bring their auxiliaries from
thence! What friendship, I pray, or what relation was there formerly between
them that required this assistance? On the contrary, these people were
enemies, and greatly differed from them in their customs. He says, indeed,
that they complied immediately, upon their praising them that they should
conquer Egypt; as if they did not themselves very well know that country
out of which they had been driven by force. Now had these men been in want,
or lived miserably, perhaps they might have undertaken so hazardous an
enterprise; but as they dwelt in a happy city, and had a large country,
and one better than Egypt itself, how came it about that, for the sake
of those that had of old been their enemies, of those that were maimed
in their bodies, and of those whom none of their own relations would endure,
they should run such hazards in assisting them? For they could not foresee
that the king would run away from them: on the contrary, he saith himself
that "Amenophis's son had three hundred thousand men with him, and
met them at Pelusium." Now, to be sure, those that came could not
be ignorant of this; but for the king's repentance and flight, how could
they possibly guess at it? He then says, that "those who came from
Jerusalem, and made this invasion, got the granaries of Egypt into their
possession, and perpetrated many of the most horrid actions there."
And thence he reproaches them, as though he had not himself introduced
them as enemies, or as though he might accuse such as were invited from
another place for so doing, when the natural Egyptians themselves had done
the same things before their coming, and had taken oaths so to do. However,
"Amenophis, some time afterward, came upon them, and conquered them
in battle, and slew his enemies, and drove them before him as far as Syria."
As if Egypt were so easily taken by people that came from any place whatsoever,
and as if those that had conquered it by war, when they were informed that
Amenophis was alive, did neither fortify the avenues out of Ethiopia into
it, although they had great advantages for doing it, nor did get their
other forces ready for their defense! but that he followed them over the
sandy desert, and slew them as far as Syria; while yet it is rot an easy
thing for an army to pass over that country, even without fighting.
