The latter years of Israel's bondage in Egypt were the worst. To punish Pharaoh for his cruelty toward the children of Israel, God afflicted him with a plague of leprosy which covered his whole body, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. Instead of being chastened by his disease, Pharaoh remained stiffnecked, and he tried to restore his health by murdering Israelitish children. He took counsel with his three advisers, Balaam, Jethro, and job, how he might be healed of the awful malady that had seized upon him. Balaam spoke, saying, "Thou canst regain thy health only if thou wilt slaughter Israelitish children and bathe in their blood." Jethro, averse from having a share in such an atrocity, left the king and fled to Midian. job, on the other hand, though he also disapproved of Balaam's counsel, kept silence, and in no wise protested against it. wherefor God punished him with a year's suffering. But afterward He loaded him down with all the felicities of this life, and granted him many years, so that this pious Gentile might be rewarded in this world for his good deeds and not have the right to urge a claim upon the beatitude of the future life.
In pursuance of the sanguinary advice given by Balaam, Pharaoh had his bailiffs snatch Israelitish babes from their mothers' breasts, and slaughter them, and in the blood of these innocents he bathed. His disease afflicted him for ten years, and every day an Israelitish child was killed for him. It was all in vain; indeed, at the end of the time his leprosy changed into boils, and he suffered more than before.
Soon after they meet at the well in Midian, Tzipporah tells Moses that her father has a tree which was once the rod that God created "in the twilight of the first Sabbath eve, and gave to Adam." [The Legends of the Jews, Vol. II, p. 292] It was handed down from father to son until Joseph received if from his father in Egypt. After his death, it was stolen and brought to Pharaoh's palace. Tzipporah says: "At that time my father was one of the most prominent of the king's sacred scribes, and as such he had the opportunity of seeing the rod. He felt a great desire to possess it, and he stole it and took it to his house." The name of God was written on the rod, as were the Ten Plagues. Jethro stuck it into the ground near his house and it sprouted and blossomed.
"This is the rod with which he tries any that desire to marry his daughters." She informs Moses, "He insists that our suitors shall attempt to pull it out of the ground, but as soon as they touch it, it devours them." Imagine-- Even King Arthur did not have to worry about that risk!