PHILO JUDÆUS

C saying: Let us kill their males, and let us keep their females, that we may give them to our servants as wives, and the one who is born of them shall be a servant, and he shall serve us. And this is what seemed most evil before the Lord. Then the elders of the people gathered the people with weeping, and they lamented with grief, saying: We have suffered ōmotokeian the slaughter of infants in the womb in the wombs of our women; our fruit has been handed over to our enemies, and now we are failing. But let us establish boundaries for ourselves, that a man may not approach his wife, lest the fruit of their womb be contaminated, and our internal organs or 'wombs' serve idols; for it is better to die without children until we know what God will do. And Amram answered and said: It is more likely that the world will be diminished in victory, or the immeasurable world will collapse, or the heart of the abyss will touch the stars, than that the race of the children of Israel will be diminished. And it will be when the testament is fulfilled, which God, disposing, spoke to Abraham, saying: Your descendants will dwell as strangers in a land not their own, and they will be reduced to servitude, and they will be afflicted for 400 years. And behold, from the time the word of God was found, which He spoke to Abraham, it has been 350 years. From the time we have served in Egypt, it has been 120 years. Now, therefore, I will not remain in those things which you determine, but entering my wife, I will take her and make children, so that we may be amplified upon the earth. For God will not remain in His anger, nor will He forget His people forever, nor will He cast the race of Israel upon the earth in vain, nor did He dispose of the testament to our fathers in vain: and when we were not yet, God spoke of these things. Now, therefore, going, I will take my wife, and I will not acquiesce to the commands of the king. And if it is right before your eyes, let us all do so. For it will be when our women conceive, they will not be recognized as having children in the womb until three months are completed,
D just as our mother Tamar also did: because her plan was not in fornication, but unwilling to recede from the children of Israel, reflecting, she said: It is better for me to die having been joined with my father-in-law than to be mixed with the Gentiles, and she hid the fruit of her womb until the third month: for then she was recognized, and going to be killed, she stood firm in this, saying: To whom this staff, and this ring, and this mantle belong, from him I have conceived. And her plan saved her from all danger. Now, therefore, let us also do this. And it will be when the time of birth is completed, if we are able, we will not cast away the fruit of our womb. And who knows if God will be zealous for this, so that He might deliver us from our humiliation? The word pleased the sight of God which Amram thought, and God said: Because the thought of Amram pleased My sight, and he did not dissipate My testament, which was disposed between Me and his fathers, and therefore behold now, what is born of him will serve Me forever, and through him I will do wonders in the house of Jacob, and I will do signs and prodigies through him for My people, which I have not done for any, and I will make My glory among them, and I will announce My ways to them. I, God, will kindle My lamp for him, which shall dwell in him, and I will show him My testament, which no one has seen, and I will reveal to him My super-excellence, and justice, and judgments, and the eternal light shall shine upon him, because I thought of him in ancient days, saying: My spirit will not be a mediator among these men forever, because they are flesh. And their days will be 120 years. And Amram went from the tribe of Levi, and took a wife from his tribe. And it happened when he had taken her, the others imitated him, and took their wives. But he had one son and one daughter, and their names were Aaron and Miriam. And the spirit of God fell upon Miriam at night, and she saw a dream, and she explained it to her parents in the morning, saying: I saw in this night, and behold a man standing in a garment of fine linen, and he said to me: Go, and say to your parents: Behold, that which will be born of you will be cast into the water, how through him the water