The Sealed Book from the Mormon Plates
The Sealed Book of Moses
CHAPTER 13
The story of Moses before he left Egypt.
1 It happened then, that I, Moses, I was born in Egypt, in the same city that my ancestors lived from the time the Hebrews came to the land of Goshen, where there were the best pastures of the land of Egypt, at the invitation of Pharaoh — as it is written in the annals of the history of Israel, that Joseph, the ruler of Egypt, made his fathers and his brothers to dwell in the land of Rameses, the district of Goshen, just as Pharaoh had commanded him1. (1) Genesis 47: 11 – Inspired Version of JS
2 And I am Moses, the son of Amram, grandson of Kohath, and the great-grandson of Levi. My mother, Jochebed, was the sister of Kohath. Being me, three years younger than my brother Aaron and six years from my sister, Miriam.
3 It happened, therefore, on account of my birth, that Satan stirred Pharaoh's heart, to put an end to all the newborn boys among the children of the Hebrews. — On this occasion I was concealed by my mother Jochebed for a period of three months, and afterwards I was placed in a papyrus ark among the reeds on the bank of the Nile, where I was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who became my foster mother.
4 By the attitude of my sister Miriam, who stood in the way of the daughter of Pharaoh on this occasion, I became breastfed and instructed in the knowledge of the Hebrew God, by my mother of blood, Jochebed, who became employed as wet nurse of the daughter's of Pharaoh, who gave me the name of Moses, and so soon presented me to the high council of Egypt as his son, a gift from Hapi, who was considered to be the god of the waters of the Nile among the Egyptians.
5 Since then many legends have arisen among the Egyptians as to what would happen to the future of this boy taken from the waters by the will of the gods.
6 And being created as a member of the house of Pharaoh, I was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and became acquainted with their beliefs; the many myths and symbolisms of their temples; rituals of magic and offerings to their gods.
7 But, behold, none of this seemed to me correct, since there is no priestly structure among them, centered on one God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, as the Hebrews teach; but each god has a temple and a group of men and women dedicated to their own worship.
8 And it came to pass in those days, that my heart was greatly troubled because of the death of Pharaoh, and because his son was younger than I, Moses, who was the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh who had died; and with that, considered himself among the class of the high echelon and of the rulers of the Egypt, if should be I the greater regent over Egypt.
9 For this reason, the immediate priests of the throne arranged the marriage of my adoptive mother with her half-brother, who was only a young man, but by hereditary succession right he should assume the position of the father like Pharaoh, as was the custom among the sons and daughters of Pharaoh.
10 Therefore, after the union of my mother with her brother, who became the Pharaoh in his father's place; behold, he began to fear that I, Moses, the eldest son of the queen of Egypt, the same one who had nurtured from her youth a great expectation in what I would become; could in the future eventually take the place of his bastard son, obtained with one of his concubines, the throne of Egypt. And for this reason, calling the queen before the court of Egypt, and the high-priests-immediate, he named his son, who was only a child, as successor to the throne.
11 The Pharaoh did this with the intention of preventing his sister-wife from placing her adopted son on the throne of Egypt in future times, after an eventual death of the pharaoh.
12 But as soon as the Queen witnessed such an affront, she announced to the high priests the will of the gods concerning me, with the purpose of putting me on the throne of Pharaoh, instead of the bastard son of his brother, in case he should die.
13 Yet, Pharaoh felt increasingly threatened with my existence in the court of Egypt, that so soon, it was rumored that he intended to kill me.
14 Nevertheless, the court of Egypt, out of fear of the gods, accepted the idea that I, Moses, would assume the kingdom of Egypt instead of the bastard son of Pharaoh, should he die; for they truly believed in their legends and traditions that the birth of the baby on the banks of the Nile satisfied the interest of all the gods venerated by them, for how much the Hebrews were finishing building the warehouses of the city of Pithom and Rameses in the land of Goshen, and if it were not fulfilled such an errand upon which it had been rescued from the hand of Hapi, that the confederate gods would throw plagues on the bed of the Nile and they would end with their crops, and thus they would be of no use to any storehouses or reservoirs built to store food in all that region of Egypt, bringing with them dishonor and reproach in the sight of all the nations of the land of Pharaoh.
15 In turn, I, Moses, fearing to be put to death by Pharaoh, and for my knowledge of the one Hebrew God, and for my faith in him, renounced the honor of being called the son of the daughter of Pharaoh, choosing since then, to be ill-treated with the people of God in the city of slaves, than to have temporary usufruct of sin and idolatry impregnated in the culture and traditions of the Egyptian people.
16 The Queen of Egypt, however, seeing that my decision was unchanging, appointed me as a slave to the flocks of Pharaoh in the pastures east of Goshen, that I should not suffer with the burdens laid upon the Hebrews who participated in the buildings in cities of Rameses and Pithom.
17 And it came about at dusk that I, Moses, went to my people among the buildings that were being erected at the command of Pharaoh, and I saw how the Israelites of that part of the city were forced to do heavy work, being dishonored by the Egyptian masters.
18 I also saw an Egyptian beating on an Israelite, known to my brother Aaron, who was present at the meeting of the elders the night before. Then, looking around, and seeing that there was no one there, I approached to argue with that Egyptian about the ill-treatment of Pharaoh's masters of works, to the Hebrew people, but, behold, he attacked me, causing me to kill him, with no such intention in my heart, and out of fear I hid his body in the sand.
19 The next day, however, I saw two Israelites fighting, and in order to reason with them, I asked the aggressor of the reasons that had caused him to mistreat his brother. To which the man replied, he terrified me the mind, why he expounded what I did with the Egyptian at the end of the afternoon of the previous day.
20 When I saw that everyone already knew, I assumed that Pharaoh also knew about the murder, and that he would soon demand my death. Evidently that day, when gathered together with the congregation of the alley, the elders of Israel announced that Pharaoh issued a decree to deliver Moses to the Egyptian authorities in order to be executed.
21 And it came to pass in the course of that night, that I made as much as I could, and I departed from Egypt, leaving all and all behind, and went and dwelt in a foreign land, and came to lodge with the family of Jethro, a priest and shepherd in the land of Midian.
22 Over the years while I was in Midian I heard reports that the Pharaoh who wanted my death, who was the husband and brother of the Queen of Egypt, had passed away, and that the Queen herself had assumed the throne of Pharaoh, since her son-nephew was still too small to take such responsibility. Years later, news comes that this one took the scepter of ruler, coming to finally sit on the throne of his father.
23 And what was heard among the Kenyan merchants, a people who inhabited the land of Midian but were not Midianites of lineage, was the most talked about rumor among the Hebrews who lived in Egypt, that the new Pharaoh gave orders to his craftsmen, so that the name of Moses and of Joseph and of other Hebrews that ruled with their ancestors, from the records of all the land of Egypt would be they extinguished.
24 Yea, of all the records of Egypt, and any record identifying a descendant of a slave as being the son of the Queen of Egypt; and everything that concerns a baby that has been rescued from the waters of the Nile, so that future generations will not recall that in ancient times the self-echelon of Egypt tried to put in the place of the Great Pharaoh, son of Ra, the descendant of a Hebrew slave, and never to make this a native Egyptian legend in association with the god Hapi.