“Yes, we do.”
“Is, then, your God not the same as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?”
“Probably, since there is only One.”
“It is strange. Why, then, do you persecute the Hebrews?”
“Foreigners are not generally loved. You know that our Pharaoh has lately conquered the Syrian race of Hittites.”
“In the land of Canaan and the region round about, in the land of our fathers, and of the promise. Do you see, the Lord of Zebaoth, our God, sends him to prepare the way for our people?”
“Do you still believe in the promise?”
“As surely as the Lord liveth! And I am told that the time will be soon fulfilled when we shall leave our bondage, and go to the promised land.”
The scribe did not answer, but his face expressed simultaneously doubt in Amram’s declaration, and the certainty of something quite different which would soon happen. Amram, who did not wish to have his faith shaken by any kind of explanations, let the subject drop, and spoke of something indifferent.
“That is a strange staircase.”