II.

1.  The people of Israel, who inhabited a most fertile land, yielding two crops a year, and who possessed immense flocks, excited the wrath of God through their sins.

2.  And He inflicted upon them a terrible punishment by taking away their land, their flocks and all they possessed; and Israel was reduced to slavery by rich and powerful Pharaohs who then reigned in Egypt.

3.  The latter treated the Israelites more cruelly than animals, loading them with the roughest labor; they covered their bodies with bruises and wounds, and denied them food and shelter,

4.  That they might be kept in a state of continual terror and robbed of all semblance of humanity;

5.  And in their dire distress, the children of Israel, remembering their Heavenly Protector, addressed their prayers to Him and implored His assistance and mercy.

6.  An illustrious Pharaoh then reigned in Egypt, who had become celebrated for his numerous victories, the great riches he had amassed, and the vast palaces which his slaves had erected with their own hands.

7.  This Pharaoh had two sons, the young of whom was called Mossa; and the learned Israelites taught him diverse sciences.

8.  And Mossa was beloved throughout the land of Egypt for his goodness and the compassion he displayed for them that suffered.

9. Seeing that, notwithstanding the intolerable sufferings they endured, the Israelites refused to abandon their God to worship those created by the hands of man and which were the gods of the Egyptians.

10.  Mossa believed their indivisible God, who did not allow their flagging strength to falter.

11.  And the Israelite preceptors encouraged Mossa's ardor and had recourse to him, begging him to intercede with Pharaoh, his father, in favor of his co-religionists.

12.  Prince Mossa pleaded with his father to soften the lot of these unhappy people, but Pharaoh became angry with him and only imposed more hardships upon his slaves.

13.  It came to pass, not long after, that a great calamity fell upon Egypt; the plague decimated the young and old, the strong and the sick; and Pharaoh believed he had incurred the wrath of his own gods against him;

14.  But the Prince Mossa declared to his father, that it was the God of his slaves who was interfering in favor of His unhappy people and punishing the Egyptians;

15.  Pharaoh commanded Mossa, his son, to gather all the slaves of Jewish race, to lead them away to a great distance from the capital and found another city, where he should remain with them.

16.  Mossa announced to the Hebrew slaves that he had delivered them in the name of their God, the God of Israel; and he went with them out of the land of Egypt.

17.  He therefore led them into the land they had lost through their many sins; he gave them laws and enjoined them to always pray to the Invisible Creator whose goodness is infinite.

18.  At the death of the Prince Mossa, the Israelites rigorously observed his laws, and God recompensed them for the wrongs they had suffered in Egypt.

19.  Their kingdom became the most powerful in all the world, their kings gained renown for their treasures, and a long period of peace prevailed among the children of Israel.