Aaron

Family: Israelites · Role: priest · First appears: The Pious Midwives

Aaron was born the second child of Amram and Jochebed, after his sister Miriam; the account explains that Pharaoh’s orders to kill Hebrew boys were proclaimed in the months before his birth. During Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, the Israelites hearkened to Aaron’s call to forsake Egypt’s idols. God made Aaron a priest, while assigning Moses to be a Levite.

At the wilderness, Aaron ran to meet Moses and embraced his brother after their years apart. Moses then told him what God had taught him, including the secret of the Ineffable Name. At Moses’ return to Egypt, the brothers went before Pharaoh, though the elders deserted them on the way. In Pharaoh’s palace, Aaron’s rod became a serpent and swallowed the Egyptian magicians’ rods without growing larger. Pharaoh refused their request to let Israel go; later, God assigned three of Egypt’s ten punishments to Aaron.