Read Online Counted With the Stars by Connilyn Cossette - Free Book Online

tied to a pole in the public square and scourged, or worse.
    â€œI know that this is confusing. It goes against everything you have been taught. But I tell you, my friend, it is truth.” She laid her small hand on my arm. “To help you understand I must start from the beginning. Do you want to hear?”
    I did. For some inexplicable reason, I thirsted to know more. I gestured for her to continue.
    â€œYou see,” she began, “my people, the children of Avraham,Yitzhak, and Yaakov, we are sojourners here in your land. Over four hundred years ago, a prophecy ensured deliverance from our wanderings. We will return one day to our own land.”
    Slipping easily into the story of her heritage, she told me how the Hebrews—once a free and proud people—came out of the land of Canaan during a time of famine and were protected by one of their own disguised as an overseer of Egypt, second in command to Pharaoh himself.
    Preposterous. No pharaoh would allow Hebrews to hold such power.
    â€œThe Pharaoh invited our people to live in Egypt and gave us fertile land to settle in and raise herds. Elohim blessed us and we prospered.” Shira’s eyes shone with a fearsome hope. She was intelligent, witty, and wise—well beyond her years. My perception of Shira tilted, and then shifted. This was no ordinary slave girl.
    â€œHow did you become slaves?”
    â€œAfter many years, a new Pharaoh rose to power who did not know our forefathers and did not respect the invitation given by the former rulers of Egypt. Our numbers multiplied. He feared an uprising, so he enslaved us.”
    â€œHow did Pharaoh enslave such a numerous people? Why didn’t you rise up, as he feared?” It seemed my opinion of Pharaoh had shifted as well.
    â€œHe began very slowly. First he offered loans and burdened them with heavy taxation. Then he allowed the people to sell themselves into indentured servitude to pay those tax debts. Deceived into volunteering for work crews to prove their loyalty to Egypt, many stepped willingly into shackles. After a few years, volunteering turned into forcible conscription, and within a decade he had enslaved the entire Hebrew population.”
    â€œThey sold themselves into slavery,” I whispered, not wanting to interrupt her story.
    She nodded and released a heavy sigh. “Our men serve on the work crews, making bricks, digging canals, building the huge store cities of the Delta, building palaces, fortresses, and of course, monuments for the Pharaoh. Our women do what they can to help: bringing food and water to the men, working linen and weaving baskets, or serving Egyptians in their homes and businesses, as I do.”
    Forced, like me, into slavery and daily humiliation. However, I endured only personal shame and pain, whereas Pharaoh had enslaved their entire race. I leaned back on my palms and watched a lone high cloud meander across the barren sky.
    â€œThey subjugated us in every way. Except one.” Shira’s voice grew strong as the brilliant sun rose behind her. “Our families. Our numbers grew rapidly. The harder Pharaoh and the Egyptian people worked us, the larger our families grew. They hoped to break our spirit, but instead, they made us more resilient.” The ferocity of her words startled me. “We are bound to one another through our covenant with Elohim. He preserved us . . . prospered us in spite of Pharaoh’s oppression and the faithlessness of many.”
    Disembodied voices, of fishermen casting nets far downstream, echoed across the water.
    â€œWe should hurry. It won’t be long before others come to wash.” She bent to fill her jar with sweet, clean water.
    â€œIf your God is preserving your people, then why are you still enslaved?” I attempted, without success, to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
    Shira winked. “I am getting to that.”
    â€œAbout eighty years ago . . .”