[274] The expositors add that when this serpent had swallowed up all the rods and cords he made directly towards the assembly and put them into so great a terror that they fled and a considerable number were killed in the crowd: then Moses took it up and it became a rod in his hand as before. Whereupon the magicians declared that it could be no enchantment, because in such case their rods and cords would not have disappeared.—S. (B.) [275] Sale observes that some writers introduce only two of the enchanters as acknowledging Moses’ miracle to be wrought by the power of God. These two, they say, were brothers, and the sons of a famous magician then dead; but on their being sent for to court on this occasion, their mother persuaded them to go to their father’s tomb and ask his advice. Being come to the tomb, the father answered their call, and when they had acquainted him with the affair, he told them that they should inform themselves whether the rod of which they spoke became a serpent while its masters slept, or only when they were awake; for, said he, enchantments have no effect while the enchanter is asleep, and therefore if it be otherwise in this case, you may be assured that they act by a divine power. These two magicians then, arriving at the capital of Egypt, on inquiry found to their great astonishment that when Moses and Aaron went to rest their rod became a serpent and guarded them while they slept. And this was the first step towards their conversion.—S. [276] Some think these converted magicians were executed accordingly: but others deny it, and say that the king was not able to put them to death; insisting on these words of the Ḳur-án [xxviii. 35], ‘Ye two, and they who follow you, shall overcome.’—S. [277] See p. 101, l. 5, n. 1 (260). [278] Cp. Act. Apost. v. 38, 39. [279] ‘The people of Noah and of ´Ád and of Thamood, and those whom God destroyed after them.’ So explained in the Ḳámoos. [280] It is said that Hámán having prepared bricks and other materials employed no less than fifty thousand men besides labourers in the building, which they carried to so immense a height that the workmen could no longer stand on it: that Pharaoh ascending this tower threw a javelin towards heaven, which fell back again stained with blood, whereupon he impiously boasted that he had killed the god of Moses; but at sunset God sent the angel Gabriel, who with one stroke of his wing demolished the tower, a part whereof falling on the king’s army destroyed a million of men.—S. (Z.) [281] Some are of opinion that those who were sent by Pharaoh to seize the true believer, his kinsman, are the persons more particularly meant in this place: for they tell us that the said believer fled to a mountain, where they found him at prayers, guarded by the wild beasts, which ranged themselves in order about him; and that his pursuers thereupon returned in a great fright to their master, who put them to death for not performing his command.—S. (B.)