Moses- Hebrew/Jewish FigureMortal"Lawgiver"

Drawn from the Water

Moses was born into a Hebrew family of the tribe of Levi while Pharaoh's decree hung over every male infant: throw them into the Nile. His mother Jochebed hid him for three months, then placed him in a waterproofed basket among the reeds of the riverbank. Pharaoh's daughter discovered him, took pity on the crying child, and adopted him into the royal household. His own mother was hired as his wet nurse. The princess named him Moses: "because I drew him out of the water."

Flight and Revelation

As a grown man, Moses witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. He looked around, saw no one, killed the Egyptian, and hid the body in the sand. The deed became known. When Moses intervened in a quarrel between two Hebrews the next day, one said: "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses fled to Midian, married Zipporah daughter of the priest Jethro, and spent forty years as a shepherd.

At eighty, tending his father-in-law's flock near Horeb, Moses saw a bush that burned without being consumed. He turned aside to look, and God called from within the fire: "Moses, Moses! Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." Moses hid his face, afraid to look at God.

God told Moses to return to Egypt and bring Israel out. Moses protested: "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?" God promised to be with him. Moses asked for God's name. God answered: "I AM WHO I AM. Say to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you." Moses protested again that he was not eloquent. God appointed Aaron as his spokesman. Moses went back to Egypt.

The Plagues and the Exodus

Moses and Aaron confronted Pharaoh: "Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness." Pharaoh refused. God struck Egypt with plagues. The Nile turned to blood. Frogs covered the land. After each plague, Pharaoh relented briefly, then hardened his heart when the affliction passed. Nine plagues came and went.

The tenth required preparation. Each Israelite household slaughtered a lamb and smeared its blood on their doorposts. That night, when the destroyer passed through Egypt to kill the firstborn, he passed over the marked houses. At midnight, a great cry arose. In every Egyptian home, from Pharaoh's palace to the prisoner's dungeon, the firstborn lay dead. Pharaoh summoned Moses that night and ordered the Israelites to leave.

The Sea and the Song

Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued Israel with his chariots. The people were trapped between the army and the sea. Moses stretched out his staff. A strong east wind blew all night, dividing the waters. Israel passed through on dry ground, walls of water on their right and left. When the Egyptians followed, the waters returned and drowned the entire army.

Moses and Israel sang on the far shore: "I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea." Miriam, Moses' sister, led the women in dance with tambourines.

The Covenant at Sinai

Three months after the Exodus, Israel arrived at Mount Sinai. God descended in fire and thunder. The people trembled at the base while Moses ascended alone. Over forty days and nights, God wrote the Law on tablets of stone with His own finger.

But while Moses was on the mountain, the people grew impatient and made Aaron fashion a golden calf. When Moses descended and saw the idol and the revelry, he smashed the tablets. He ground the calf to powder and mixed it with water. He made the people drink it. Three thousand died in the judgment that followed.

Moses climbed the mountain again and interceded for Israel. God renewed the covenant. Moses came down with a second set of tablets, and his face shone so brightly that he had to wear a veil.

Forty Years in the Wilderness

The journey from Sinai to Canaan should have taken weeks. It took forty years. Scouts returned from the Promised Land with reports of giants and fortified cities, and the people refused to go forward. God condemned that generation to die in the wilderness. Only their children would enter.

When there was no water at Meribah, God told Moses to speak to a rock. Moses struck it twice with his staff instead, crying: "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" Water gushed out, but God told Moses he would see the Promised Land and never enter it. One blow too many, and the man who had led Israel out of Egypt would not lead them in.

The Death of Moses

At one hundred and twenty, Moses climbed Mount Nebo in Moab. God showed him the entire land: Gilead to the north, the plain of Jericho below with its palm trees. "I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there."

Moses died on the mountain, and God buried him in a valley in Moab. No one knows his burial place. Deuteronomy closes with a single line: "There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." He spoke with God directly, not through visions or dreams.

The Legends of Moses

The Midrash surrounds Moses' life with wonders. As an infant in Pharaoh's court, he was tested: a gold crown and a burning coal set before him. If the child reached for the crown, he harbored royal ambitions and must die. Moses stretched his hand toward the gold, but an angel redirected it to the coal. He put the coal to his lips and burned his tongue, and the burn never healed. When he later told God, "I am slow of speech and slow of tongue," the scar was still there.

When God offered Israel the Torah at Sinai, the angels objected: why give heaven's treasure to flesh and blood? Moses argued before the heavenly court that the Torah's commandments applied to beings who had parents and the capacity for violence, not to angels. The angels conceded.

At the end of his life, the Angel of Death came for Moses, but Moses drove him away. God Himself descended to take Moses' soul, drawing it out with a kiss.