Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/279

Ⅶ, 127-134. We had overtaken Pharaoh's people with the years (of dearth) and scarcity of fruits, that haply they might remember; but when there came to them a good thing they said, 'This is ours;' and if there befel them an evil, they took the augury from Moses and those with him;—is not their augury only in God's hands?—but most of them know not.

And they said, 'Whatever thou dost bring us as a sign to enchant us therewith, yet will we not believe in thee.'

Then we sent upon them the flood and the locusts and the lice and the frogs and the blood,—signs detailed; but they were big with pride and were a people who did sin.

And when there fell upon them the plague, they said, 'O Moses! call upon thy Lord for us, as He has covenanted with thee; verily, if thou dost remove the plague from us, we will believe in thee; and we will assuredly send with thee the children of Israel.' But when we removed from them the plague until the appointed time which they should reach, lo! then they broke their promise. But we took vengeance on them, and we drowned them in the sea, for that they said our signs were lies and were careless thereof. And we gave as an inheritance unto the people who had been weak, the eastern quarters of the earth and the western quarters thereof, which we had blest; and the good word of thy Lord was fulfilled on the children of Israel, for that they were patient; and we destroyed that which Pharaoh and his people had made and that which they had piled. And with the children of Israel