Ezekiel the Tragedian — Exagoge

Ezekiel the Tragedian — The Exagoge

[A drama on the going out of Israel from Egypt, in Greek verse; preserved in extracts. Representative speeches are given.]

[Moses speaks]

When Jacob left the land of Canaan and came down into Egypt with seventy souls, they grew into a great people, and were afflicted and oppressed, wronged by wicked rulers, until our cry rose up. Pharaoh decreed that the sons of the Hebrews should be cast into the river; but my mother hid me three months, then laid me in a basket by the bank, and my sister kept watch. The king’s daughter came down with her maids to bathe, and found me, and took me up, and reared me as her own son; and so I was raised in the palace of the king. [Text missing]

[Moses tells his dream, and his father-in-law interprets it]

I dreamed: upon the summit of Sinai there was a great throne, reaching to the folds of heaven; and upon it sat a man of noble form, with a crown and a great scepter in his left hand. He beckoned me, and I stood before the throne; and he gave me the scepter and the crown, and bade me sit upon the throne, and he himself withdrew from it. And I looked out upon the whole earth, beneath and above the heaven; and a host of stars fell at my knees, and I numbered them all, and they passed before me like a marching army.

And his father-in-law interpreted: This is a sign from God. You shall raise up a great throne and judge and lead mortals; you shall behold what is, what was, and what shall be.

[The bush, and the sign of the phoenix]

Then God spoke from the bush that burned and was not consumed: I am the God of your fathers, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I have seen the affliction of my people, and I have come down to deliver them, and to bring them into a good land flowing with milk and honey. Go; I send you to Pharaoh, to lead my people out. [Line damaged]

And a watchman told of a wondrous bird seen by the sea, greatest of all, with gleaming wings and breast of many colors, that went before the others as their king; a sign and a wonder in the wilderness. [Text missing]

[The drama is preserved only in such extracts.]