Moses

**Moses** (February 18, 1571 BC- March 13, 1451 BC) was a Jewish prophet who, from 1491 BC to 1451 BC, led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and to the "Promised Land" in the Levant in the "Exodus". He was said to have written the Torah, and he also wrote down the Ten Commandments.

## Biography

Moses was born in Goshen, Egypt in 1571 BC, the son of Amram and Jochebed, and the younger brother of Aaron and Miriam. As a newborn, he was placed in a basket and sent down the Nile River by his mother, as Pharaoh Ramesses I had ordered the killing of every newborn Israelite child to prevent a Jewish prophecy (that one of the Jewish newborns would go on to lead the Israelites out of slavery) from coming true. Moses was found by the Egyptian princess Bithiah as she was bathing in the Nile, and Bithiah took Moses in as her own son, naming him. Later, Moses' sister Miriam told Bithiah that she was his sister, and she advised that she hire a Hebrew servant to take care of the child; Miriam had Bithiah hire Jochebed, who, unbeknownst to Bithiah, was Moses' birth mother. Jochebed gave Moses a traditional Jewish education and upbringing, and Moses grew up to become a successful general and a powerful politician as the adoptive brother of Ramesses II.

## Prince of Egypt

As a prince, Moses defeated Ethiopia in the siege of Saba in 1544 BC and established an alliance with them afterwards, and the princess Nefertari fell in love with Moses upon his triumphal return with the Ethiopian king Bekila and his sister Tharbis and their tribute in tow. While working on the building of a city for Pharaoh Seti I's jubilee, Moses met the Jewish stonecutter Joshua, who told him more about the Hebrew God. Moses reformed the treatment of slaves on the building project, but Prince Ramesses charged him with planning an insurrection, believing that Moses was the man who the Jews were calling "the Deliverer". Nefertari later learned from the servant Memnet that Moses was the son of Hebrew slaves, but she killed Memnet.

## Exile

Moses later learned his past after finding the blanket with which he had been swaddled as a child, and he followed Bithiah to Jochebed's house and met his biological siblings. He learned more about the Hebrew slaves by working with them, and, in 1531 BC, he saved Joshua from death by killing the slave overseer Baka; he then confessed to Joshua that he was Jewish, and this was overheard by the overseer Dathan, who reported the confession to Ramesses. Moses was arrested, and Sethi had him banished to the desert, leaving Ramesses as the only heir to the throne. Moses made his way across the desert to a well in Midian, and he defended seven sisters from the Amalekites before meeting the Bedouin sheikh Jethro. Moses married Jethro's eldest daughter Sephora, and he also found Joshua, who had escaped hard labor. While farming, Moses saw the burning bush on the summit of Mount Sinai and heard the voice of God from a burning bush; God told him to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews. Moses came before Ramesses, now the Pharaoh, to win the slaves' freedom, and he turned his staff into a cobra. The magician Jannes did the same trick with his staves, but Moses' snake swallowed his.

## Exodus

Egypt was soon visited by plagues, and the River Nile turned to blood at a festival of Khnum, while burning hail was brought down upon the Pharaoh's palace. Moses warned that the next plague would be summoned by the Pharaoh himself, and Ramesses ordered for all firstborn Hebrews to die. However, a cloud of death instead killed all the firstborn of Egypt, including the child of Ramses and Nefertari. Angry, Ramesses exiled the Hebrews, and he pursued them to the Red Sea with his army. Moses used God's help to stop the Egyptians with a pillar of fire and parted the Red Sea, and, after the Hebrews made it to safety, Moses released the walls of water and drowned the Egyptian army. A devastated Ramesses returned empty-handed to Nefertari, telling her that he now accepted the Jewish god as God.

Moses again ascended Mount Sinai with Joshua, and Dathan urged a reluctant Aaron to construct a golden calf idol as a gift for Ramesses. Most of the Hebrews held a wild and decadent orgy as Moses saw the Ten Commandments created by God in two stone tablets. Moses descended from the mountain to the sight of decadence, and he threw the tablets at the golden calf, which exploded and killed the revelers, and caused the others to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Forty years later, an elderly Moses led the Israelites towards Canaan, but he could not enter the Promised Land due to his disobedience to God at the Waters of Strife. He instead named Joshua as leader, and he spent the rest of his life at Mount Nebo until his death.