“I wish I’d had this function while etching the Tablets,” remarked the foremost of the prophets. “The first set ended up crashing.”
Wilderness of Sinai, January 19 – The leader of the Israelites issued an audible sigh of relief today upon discovering he could use the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V functions on his device instead of needing to write out the text of Numbers 7:12-83 in its entirety.
“Oh, thank the Lord,” whispered Moses, copying the passage describing the offerings of Naḥshon, son of ‘Amminadav, prince of the tribe of Judah, then pasting it eleven times in succession. “All I have to do now is edit the names and the days.”
The rest of the section, until the passage summarizing the twelve-day Tabernacle-inauguration celebration gifts and offerings, proved to be a breeze.
“I wish I’d had this function while etching the Tablets,” remarked the foremost of the prophets. “The first set ended up crashing.”
According to aides inside the Tent of Meeting, the breakthrough came shortly after the Lord finished dictating the third identical offering—another silver charger of 130 shekels, another basin of 70, both basins containing a mixture of oil and fine flour, another golden spoon of ten shekels full of incense, and the now-familiar livestock lineup of one bull, one ram, one lamb in its first year, one kid goat, plus the peace-offering two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, and five lambs of the first year.
Moses reportedly stared at the repeating text, flexed his aching hand, and then—miraculously—the interface lit up with familiar glowing selection handles. A quick double-tap, a swipe, and the entire block duplicated itself. The prophet’s face, weathered by a shepherding career, the desert, dispute adjudication, and one very public Golden Calf incident, broke into a rare grin.
“Game over,” he told his brother Aaron. “I was ready to scratch out the same paragraph twelve times. Twelve. Times. My quill was about to file for early retirement. My vision might not have darkened and my vigor not fled me, but this wrist was going to let me know enough is enough.”
By the time the prince of Reuven’s turn arrived, Moses had the workflow down to a science: paste, find-and-replace “Judah” with “Reuven,” “Naḥshon, son of ‘Amminadav,” with “Elitzur, son of Sh’deiur,” update the day count, save. Paste. Find-and-replace. Save. The remaining tribes flew by faster than anything carried on wings of eagles.
Analysts predict the revolutionary method will find use later in the book, when the daily supplemental offerings for the seven-day Festival of Booths will, with only minor textual variations, consist of a recurring block of text describing bulls, rams, sheep, goats, flour-oil breads, and wine libations, with only the number of bulls changing from one day to the next.
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