Moses

While Moses was tending the flocks of Jethro at Midian, he married Zipporah, one of Jethro’s seven daughters. The couple had two sons; Gershom and Eliezer. Nothing else is known about them.

According to tradition, he took a Cushite woman as his second wife after leaving Mount Sinai. But both his siblings, Miriam and Aaron, opposed the marriage.

At the border of Canaan, after he had passed the authority to Joshua, Moses went up the Mount Nebo, also known as Mount Pisgah. From the top, he looked over the Promised Land spreading out before him. Nobody ever saw him after that.

As is the case of all ancient figures, there is a controversy about the year in which Moses was born; different scholars having different opinion on that. But if we go by accepted tradition, Moses was born in Egypt sometime in 1391-1392 BCE.

Both his parents, Amram and Jochebed (also known as Yocheved), were Levites. He was the youngest of their three children, having a sister called Miriam, elder to him by seven years and a brother called Aaron, elder by three years.

According to tradition, the Israelites came to Egypt some 400 years before the birth of Moses. Initially, they earned their living by working independently; but later were turned into slaves by the Pharaoh, whose identity is yet to be fixed. In spite of that, their number continued to grow.

By the time Moses was born, the community had become quite large. The Pharaoh, fearing that they might join his enemies, ordered that all new born Hebrew male children must be cast in the River Nile to be drowned.

Jochebed, not having the heart to kill her son, hid him for the first three months. Thereafter, she placed him in a bulrush basket, made watertight with slime and pitch and floated it down the Nile while Miriam kept a watch from afar.

One day, when he was around 25 years old, Moses witnessed an Egyptian slave master mercilessly beating his Hebrew slave; almost to his death. Unable to control himself, he killed the Egyptian after making sure nobody saw him doing so. But the next day he had a jolt.

Finding two Hebrews fighting, he pulled them back and then asked the offender the reason for the fight. At this, the offender asked who made Moses a prince and a judge over them and if he intended to kill him as he had killed the Egyptian.

Moses realized that if these people had come to know about his secret so could the Pharaoh. Fearing punishment, he fled to the desert of Midian, possibly in Arabian Peninsula, bypassing series of fort in Egypt’s eastern border before moving in a southeast direction through a bleak and desolate country.

At Midian, while resting by a well, he found seven young girls, who happened to be the daughters of a Midianite priest called Jethro, watering their flock. But, before they were finished, other shepherds came and tried to drive them away. Moses intervened on behalf of the girls and defeated them.

Moses now stayed back to tend Jethro’s flock. One day, while tending his flock on Mount Horeb, Moses noticed a bush, which was burning continuously without being consumed. As he went forward, he heard a voice, telling him to remove his sandals because he was standing on a holy ground.

The voice, which identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, told Moses to deliver His chosen people from the clutches of the Egyptians and take them to the Promised Land. He also told Moses to call Him Yahweh and preach that He was the only God.

Initially, Moses was hesitant; but finally agreed to take up the task when Yahweh assured him of His help. The God also said, as Moses has a stammer, Aaron, his elder brother, would act as his spokesperson.