Moses the Lawgiver (1974–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Part I - full transcript
A biopic of Moses, who found the Ten Commandments and parted the Red Sea.
(peaceful orchestra
and vocal music)
(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] This is Moses.
(woman screaming)
A man born on the
sentence of death.
- [Pharaoh] Every son
that is born
shall be cast into the river.
- [Narrator] But who lived
to be raised as a prince
in the magnificent court
of the most powerful empire
the world has ever seen.
(triumphant music)
(whip cracking)
Then he saw the sufferings
of a people,
(man yelling)
a people deprived, brutalized,
enslaved,
and he chose to put off
his princely garments
and become one of them.
- [Man] Your name?
- I'm an Israelite.
(man screaming)
- [Narrator] He suffered
long and bitterly.
- I'm sick of you!
- [Narrator] Before his people
and the enemies of his people
saw in his eyes the
light of God's will
and heard in his voice the
thunder of God's utterance.
(waves crashing)
(horse whinnying)
(horses galloping)
(tribal music)
He had to fight against
the weakness of man,
and the wickedness of man
before he found himself free
to change the whole course
of our history.
(choral music)
- We must start again.
- [Narrator] But above all,
he taught men
that they were free.
- We are free even to choose,
to enter into a
covenant with Him.
- [Narrator] This is Moses,
a man like us
with our weaknesses and doubts
but also with our hopes.
- I would like to
cross the river.
- [Narrator] Moses who spoke
to God in the high places.
(peaceful orchestral music)
The Israelites dwelt
in the land of Canaan,
but drought and famine
ravaged the land
and they went into Egypt.
They prospered and the
Israelite Joseph
was a prince of the land.
Now these are the names
of the children of Israel
which came into Egypt,
every man and his
household came with Jacob.
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Dan, and Naphtali, Gad,
and Asher.
And all the souls that came
out of the loins of Jacob
were 70 souls, for Joseph
was in Egypt already.
And Joseph died and
all his brethren
and all that generation.
(sheep bleating)
(peaceful flute music)
And the children of
Israel were fruitful
and increased abundantly
and multiplied
and waxed exceedingly mighty
and the land was
filled with them.
- [Boy] Is that Joseph?
- It could be Joseph.
- [Boy] Is he a god?
- He could be a god, the
Egyptians had many gods.
(gong chimes)
- [Narrator] Now there rose
up a new king over Egypt
which knew not Joseph and
he said unto his people,
behold the people of
the children of Israel
are more and mightier than we.
- Their men are
bursting with seed.
Their women are
round like fruit.
Their encampments are loud
with the bleating of children.
They multiply, they multiply.
- [Man] Your Grace has some
immediate danger in mind?
- War, should there be war
with some alien people,
might not these
aliens in our midst
join with our enemies?
Let us defend ourselves
before we are attacked.
- Your divine majesty's
immediate orders?
- [Pharaoh] I specify nothing,
I say deal wisely with them,
use immediate wisdom.
- Are you of the tribe of Levi?
- Yes, we are.
(metal sword clinks)
(horses whinnying)
(men yelling)
(people screaming)
- [Man] Don't scratch my ankle.
(tent crashing)
- Ah!
(sheep bleating)
(men yelling)
- [Man] Let's go!
- [Man] Keep moving now.
- Get them moving!
- [Man] Keep moving!
(men yelling)
(children crying)
Keep moving!
- [Man] Get up!
Get up, now!
(children crying)
Let's go, keep moving!
- You can't cram us in here.
We're shepherds!
- Will you keep
moving!
- We're shepherds,
we live on the open plains.
If you shut us up here,
we'll die!
- You won't die,
you'll work!
- [Narrator] So Amram and
his wife Yokebed
and their son Aaron and
their daughter Miriam
entered the house of bondage,
and Yokebed was
heavy with child.
(child crying)
They were made to share
quarters with people
from other tribes.
The children of Israel who had
lived the life of shepherds,
free in the free air,
now they were slaves.
(march-like orchestral music)
Therefore did they set
over them taskmasters
to afflict them and
to burden them,
and they were set to build for
the Pharaoh treasure cities
and the names of the cities
were Pithom and Ramses.
- [Man] On your feet!
Get over here.
(whips cracking)
- You go out and feed
the animals,
and Miriam you go help her.
That's a good girl.
(contemplative flute music)
(chickens clucking)
(sheep bleating)
- [Miriam] It's sinful to
wear a thing like that,
an Egyptian thing.
It's sinful!
- Ooh, let me go!
- It's sinful!
- Stop touching me!
- What are you doing to her,
what are you doing to her?
Every day the same thing.
- Aaron won't show them
their sinful ways, not Aaron.
But he will.
- Ah, so that's the way of it,
I wonder.
- I thought he would be
born in Tabris,
in the tall green
pastures there.
We would have been there
in three months,
the third fullness of the moon.
- You say he, you both say that!
- All babies are called
he before they are born,
and some of them afterwards too.
(group laughs)
- [Pharaoh] The sons
of the men of the sand,
the name diminishes them
but they are not diminished.
Continue.
(march-like gong music)
- [Man] Majesty, they came
out of the land of Canaan,
driven by plague and famine.
In Egypt they sought
grain and pasture,
and found them both.
They grow fat and multiply
and are become an
immense multitude.
In order that they may
not, in the event of war,
unite with our enemies without.
- So is it written.
So shall our posterity read it.
But the sentence is not
yet complete.
Let me hear wisdom.
- This present mode
of oppression
is clearly inefficacious.
As I see it, the
Tribes of Israel
mingled together as they are
lose each its special code
of law and restraint.
Constrained from above, they
are grown loose beneath.
Adultery, lechery, incest,
the zest for breeding.
It is the mark of a slave race,
animality.
They couple like the dogs
of the desert.
- And we,
we guard a instability,
changelessness,
power, along comes
the god of death
and says behold I am
all these things.
But the sentence
remains unfinished.
Let the sentence now
be pronounced.
(staccato orchestra chords)
Every son that is born
shall be cast into the river.
But every daughter shall
be saved alive.
(group screaming and crying)
(babies crying)
- [Man] Checked all the houses!
(group crying and screaming)
- [Man] That way, put
'em in there!
Found another.
- Keep this woman back.
(children crying)
- [Man] Take the next street.
Search the outhouses too!
(children crying and screaming)
(group crying and screaming)
- [Woman] Give me my son!
- My son!
- No!
(Yokebed restlessly moaning)
- Ah! (moaning and crying)
- Shh!
Forgive me, forgive me, my love.
Someone may hear.
I trust no one.
My love, my dear love.
(footsteps rattling)
There's a stable near
here, you'll be safe.
No one will know, no one
will see, come.
(Yokebed moaning and crying)
- Come, come!
(suspenseful drums)
- Be brave, he must live!
We are safe here.
(children crying)
(Yokebed moaning and screaming)
(somber orchestral music)
(children screaming and crying)
(baby cooing)
- [Narrator] And the child
was kept hidden
from the cruelty of the
soldiers of the Pharaoh,
but could not be kept hidden
for long.
(baby cooing)
- [Woman] When does she
come back, your mother?
- She still has the fever.
She sends love and greetings,
but begs no one to
come near her.
The fever is catching.
(chickens clucking)
(cow lowing)
- [Narrator] Now Miriam,
the child's sister,
had a plan of her own devising
whereby the baby might be saved
from the hands of the
soldiers of the Pharaoh.
(baby cooing)
- Can you breathe?
(baby cooing)
(dramatic drum music)
- [Narrator] Now the
Pharaoh had a daughter,
the Princess Bithnish,
and she was barren
and she would come down
to the Nile to pray
to the gods of increase that
she might become a mother
and so be blessed.
(dramatic flute and
march-like drum music)
(baby crying)
- Be brave, be very brave.
You must live, you have a
lot to do, shh.
(baby cooing)
(basket splashing in water)
(baby crying and cooing)
♪ Lord of the river
♪ And of that quickening mud
♪ When some manner of
lowly things ♪
♪ Are brought to burn
♪ Bring oh Lord to thy servant
♪ The gift of fecundity
♪ That she
♪ Be not despised
♪ Among the lowlier
♪ Daughters of the earth
♪ Lift her
♪ To the ranks of the mothers
♪ You nourish the reed
and tamarind ♪
♪ The date palm and the tree
♪ From whose mud the
crocodile breeds ♪
♪ Many toothed
♪ Strong as a chariot
- What is that?
Go and bring it to me, quick!
Before they river
takes it again.
(birds chirping)
(baby crying)
- Who is he, where does
he come from?
- He's well fed, have you
seen all those rings of fat?
- Why is he here?
Who is his mother?
- The Nile is his father,
anyway.
(baby crying)
- Shh, don't cry.
♪ Out of the desert
♪ The wind blows strong
♪ But cold, but cold
♪ From out of the sea
♪ The desert burns
♪ And the day is long
♪ But night sends my loved one
♪ Back to me
- He's hungry!
He's a good baby, he only
cries because he's hungry.
- Who are you?
Who let you in here?
- Call the guards!
- Wait!
Come here, girl.
(baby cooing)
Do you know this child?
- I am an Israelite, I
know no men children.
The Egyptians kill
them at birth.
- How do you know this
child is a boy?
(baby crying)
Do you know his mother?
- I know many mothers
who weep for their sons
and whose breasts are
heavy with milk.
- You can find me a nurse
among the women
of the Israelites.
- [Miriam] Yes, one who weeps.
- Bring her for my son.
(baby crying)
For he is my son
and his father is the Nile.
His name shall be Moses,
meaning my son.
- Meaning in our language
I brought him forth.
(contemplative flute and
march-like drum music)
- I am sorry that your
little boy died.
- Was killed!
- We mothers
cannot easily understand
high state policy.
We are the givers of life,
daughters of the sun.
Men turn their backs on
the sun to build labyrinths
away from the light.
The labyrinths breed
strange monsters.
These become the gods
of darkness.
Men love their dark gods.
(baby cooing)
You will come back here
in four hours.
You will be paid, of course.
- Each time you feed the child,
you receive one of these.
(coins clinking)
- [Woman] What is so special
about her son?
- Why should her child
be saved?
- I don't see why he should
be saved?
- And none of ours.
- [Woman] She sold her
child to the Egyptians.
- [Woman] For money.
(chickens clucking)
- Perhaps--
- Perhaps what?
- That old God of
Abraham is waking up
after his long sleep.
- You mean?
- Perhaps the child has been
saved not for his parents,
but for us.
(man spitting)
- Whore!
(people chattering)
(chicken clucking)
- What name have they given him?
- Moses.
- Moses.
(peaceful orchestra music)
When he is done with
your breast,
he shall be wholly mine.
You will forget him,
forget him completely.
Forever.
- [Narrator] And
Moses was raised
in the court of the Pharaoh
and learned the arts
and the skills of a true
Prince of Egypt.
(horse hooves clopping)
- The body is a mystery
like the heavens.
(Bithnish heavily breathing)
If we could turn for a
moment the skin,
the flesh to glass,
then we could see
the wonders of the streets
of the city within.
(Bithnish heavily breathing)
The streets are sometimes
roaring with evil invaders.
Then we talk of a sickness.
Here are two roads that lead
to the citadel of your lungs.
If I could clear these
infested ways,
you'd be well again.
(Bithnish heavily breathing)
Does this help you, Mother?
(Bithnish heavily breathing)
- They tell me that
you love wisdom,
but not all the time.
Your senses get in the way.
You hear the cry of the bats,
and of the field mice. (exhales)
They say, Moses, that
you become impatient.
- Impatient, sometimes.
They say the wisdom of Egypt
is complete and sealed.
That there is no new
wisdom to be learned,
that the death of a
man means more
than the birth of a child.
For what new wisdom can a
child bring to the world.
Egypt looks to the end,
the closure,
the seal.
- You do not see things
as an Egyptian does,
as a true Egyptian does.
They want certainty.
Death is all too certain.
- If it's so certain then
why is it not more simple?
It's expressed through
so many gods,
hawk-faced, dog-faced,
crocodile-toothed.
It's a darkness crawling
with silent monsters.
- Give me light, Moses.
Light the torches.
- The sun is not yet down.
- Light them just the
same, I fear the dark.
I fear the dark.
I will embark on a boat
whose name is the
name of the god
of the harvest of the souls.
I am ferried to the
western bank of the river,
and there I find a secret
way into the earth.
I am going to the river,
and you were brought
out of the river.
The same river?
(Bithnish exhales sharply)
(dramatic orchestra music)
- Your lips I open in
the god's name
that you may speak and eat.
Your eyes I open in
the god's name
that light and sight
may bless them.
You will raise your eyes
to light eternal.
Open your mouth in
speech that is soundless,
since it is the soul speech.
- You became my mother
out of your goodness.
You leave me motherless
with a mother still yet to find.
Farewell.
(contemplative drums)
- [Guard] Who is it?
- Moses.
My Lord.
- It is Highness you must
call me, Cousin.
Your Highness.
I have been searching for
you all day and everywhere.
That is not right.
- My apologies, Your Highness.
- You promised to take
me crocodile hunting.
- Ah yes, but I reconsidered.
What would have happened to me
if the crocodiles had
snapped and eaten you,
and what would have happened
to the throne of Egypt?
- You would have taken it.
Cousin, I am angry with you.
- No, do not be angry.
Not now.
I have come to tell
you sad news.
- His Highness is not be
given sad news,
that is laid down.
- My mother is dead.
Your father's sister.
- Dead, like the 3,000 men
who built the great city
and the treasure city?
- Yes, there is only
one way of being dead.
- You have forgotten,
Prince Merneptah
the thing for which your
cousin was sent here.
- Ah yes, you are to
go and see the workers
to see that they are
building right.
I asked my father, you
see, as a punishment.
- A punishment?
- Yes, you wouldn't take
me crocodile hunting.
(horses galloping)
(whip cracking)
(contemplative music)
- [Man] Work!
Work, come on, work.
Work!
(gong chimes)
(whip cracking)
- [Man] Whoah!
- [Miriam] Aaron, could
that be Moses?
- [Moses] Is not this man
too ill to work?
- He's not too ill for
work if he's still working.
- What is this?
- It is, as you might
say, a form of inducement
to increase effort.
- Are you a scholar?
- [Man] I was a scholar
when scholarship
was allowed among
the Israelites.
(music dramatically crescendos)
- Work!
(whip cracking)
(dogs barking)
(chickens clucking)
- [Narrator] And Moses
was drawn to this people.
And he went to the
city of Pithom
that he might know of the
sufferings of this people.
(flies buzzing)
(child crying)
(woman laughing)
- No, I can't! (cries)
(man grunting)
Really, I can't!
Let me go, please!
- You should not be
here, should you Dathan?
- It seems not.
But I have certain rights.
- [Man] No rights, Dathan.
- Not even the right to report
to my superiors officially?
- Not even that right.
You will report when
you're ordered to report.
In the meantime you have
some duties to carry out.
- To attest to my own manhood?
(laughing)
- Only free men can
talk of manhood.
What does Dathan the
unfree have to say?
- We have no straw to
make bricks.
- Use some of your own,
man of straw.
(man choking)
(Dathan thuds)
An example, little Dathan,
an example is required.
(whip cracking)
- Ah, ah! (groans)
Ah.
(whip cracking)
Ah! (groans)
- Stop!
Stop, man!
What is this?
(Dathan groans)
- Punishment, my Lord,
for inefficiency.
For insolence, for
insubordination.
- But not wanting to
be a cuckold.
(whip cracking)
Ah!
- I said, I said stop.
(punches)
(man groans)
- [Man] Ah!
(man thuds)
Ah!
- Back to work, friends,
this is none of your concern.
I have things to remember,
have I not?
Bloody things.
- Wait!
This is not to be spoken of.
Do you understand?
- You killed him, and
you will go away.
You will say that I did it,
they will all say that I did it!
- His heart stopped beating,
but in any case the
responsibility is mine.
(group chattering)
- [Man With Beard] No,
all I know is that
he went in there and then I, I--
- There is a dead
Egyptian in your midst.
But you have no cause for fear.
He was killed by his
own brutality.
I shall report this,
you'll have no fear.
- Who are you, young man,
who speak about
Egyptian brutalities?
- My name is Moses.
(dramatic orchestra music)
- Moses?
(group excitedly murmuring)
- [Man] Moses?
- I have served well, my Lord,
and it is my ambition
to serve better.
I would not utter the dirty
word payment, of course.
- [Man] You will be paid
whatever
your information is worth.
Do not waste time.
- I'd thought of some
small promotion.
- [Man] Do not waste time.
- I have witnesses outside
to testify to the murder
of our overseer, a senseless
murder if I may say so.
- [Man] Go on.
- The Lord Moses was the slayer.
- [Man] He had authority
to exert discipline, go on.
- The Lord Moses has no
such authority.
He is an Israelite.
He is the son of Amran and
Yokebed of the tribe of Levi.
- [Man] Where did you hear this?
- He was saved by his
sister in the old time
of the necessary
execution of the children.
- [Man] Where did you hear this?
Where did you hear it?
- I tell no lie.
- Moses, it has come true.
Bring him.
- Is this the truth
we've been waiting for?
You call it the beginning,
I tell you it's the end,
it's the end for us.
For 20 years you've kept
his name alive on our lips
like a, like a promise
of deliverance.
And now what is he,
this deliverer. (scoffs)
Just an Israelite who's
killed an Egyptian.
There's no promise of anything,
except further servitude.
- The voice is a voice
of a prophet, my son,
but the words are a
slave's words.
- I'm not wild-eyed like
my sister here.
I see things as they are.
- And when he walks
into this house?
- He won't have time to
walk into this house.
He'll be running for his life.
- When he walks into the
house of his parents,
I shall be expected
to have words,
but what words shall I have?
I do not know.
I love the child I lost,
and now I expect the
pain of learning
to love the child who is found
and must once more be lost.
- [Narrator] So the boy
brought Moses
to his sister Miriam for Moses
was empty of all knowledge,
both of his family and
of his people,
and Miriam had to fill
that emptiness.
- You believe?
- I was told of a taking
from the water.
My mother, as I called her,
hid nothing.
That I was nourished by
another's milk.
That a girl from the
Israelites found me a nurse.
- I know that palace.
I can describe the chamber
and the garden.
And this inscription that
said he was to be born
in the house of the king.
- Who, who?
- He who was to come,
the child of the sun,
they called him.
But to me he was to be more
than a child of the sun.
(birds chirping)
(exhales sharply)
Will you come home?
(people murmuring excitedly)
- [Woman] Moses.
- [Man] Moses.
- [Moses] I have found a mother?
- You have found a family.
(horses galloping)
- [Man] In the name of the King,
be it known that Moses
the Israelite
once falsely known as
the Lord Moses
stands accused and convicted
of the assassination
of a servant of the King,
a free man, son of Egypt.
Let him be rendered up
to authority on pain
of the execution
(people yelling)
of the capital sentence
on any who may be hiding him
(people screaming)
or otherwise grudging
him comfort.
(people yelling)
(dogs barking)
- We should be together
again in the time
of the setting free.
- You must press on.
(dramatic music)
- If there is such a time.
- [Man] On pain of the execution
of the capital sentence
on any who may be hiding him
or otherwise grudging
him comfort.
(tranquil vocal and
orchestra music)
(container breaks)
(camel grunts)
(camel grunts)
(knife stabs)
(wind howling)
- [Narrator] And Moses
came to Mount Horeb
in the land of Sinai.
(drums rhythmically banging)
♪ What will love bring
when he comes ♪
♪ As he'll drink
♪ As he'll drink
♪ As we drink
♪ We dread
♪ When he comes
♪ When he comes
♪ On his head
♪ It will be crowned
♪ When he comes down
from the hill ♪
- [Man] After them, get them!
- [Man] Go on, get back, back to
your own wells.
(women crying)
- Go on, get away!
- Back to your own land!
- This is our well.
- If you have no wells,
that is not our fault.
This is our land!
- Go away.
- Our water!
For us and our sheep!
(women crying)
- Leave our well!
- That it, back!
(women crying)
- Enough!
Enough.
- [Jethro] I used to be a
priest in the town of Midian
but I grew sick of stone idols.
A man must worship
- Thank you.
- Something great and simple.
I'm still looking.
I'm still looking for it.
They say that on Mount Horeb
a man can see visions
of the truth.
I have seen no such visions,
perhaps I am too old.
I'm (laughs) certainly
too old to climb it.
- Our story, father.
- (laughs) Yes, I wonder.
It's very easily told.
The people turned against me
when I turned against idols.
We are cut off.
My daughters must get
water from the well
before the shepherds of
Midian leave their beds.
Otherwise they will not be
permitted to get water at all.
But they come earlier
and earlier.
Depriving us of water
has become a cruel sport.
I am grateful for what you did.
- You have said that many
times already.
- [Zipporah] Gratitude
is not a word.
It is the desire to keep
saying the word.
- (laughs) My daughters are
forward in their speech,
if not in their deeds.
How can one man prevail
against so many women? (laughs)
Are you traveling further,
perhaps?
- For the moment, my
story ends here.
(dramatic orchestra music)
My journey has been
one into exile.
(staccato orchestra chords)
Exile is everywhere
for the exiled.
- Can you do shepherd's work?
- I'd always been taught
that work was for slaves.
Egypt taught me many
false things.
- You must put off
that word exile.
It's your people who know exile,
not you.
- Yes.
I must learn to think
of them as my people.
(dramatic orchestra
and drum music)
(men shouting)
(slapping)
- Miriam.
- Aaron?
- I think I've seen him again.
- [God] I am the God
of your father.
I have surely seen
the affliction
of my people
(whip cracking)
(man grimacing)
that are in Egypt.
And I am come down to
deliver them
and to bring them out of
that land onto a good land,
flowing with milk and honey.
- Never!
(thunder rumbles)
(baby cries)
- Not a life, but a
token of life.
Flesh, a body will not miss.
- I want no more of this.
- You mean you want to be free
(peaceful orchestra
and vocal music)
of me.
(water pouring)
♪ Israel
♪ Israel
♪ Israel
♪ Israel
(peaceful chimes)
and vocal music)
(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] This is Moses.
(woman screaming)
A man born on the
sentence of death.
- [Pharaoh] Every son
that is born
shall be cast into the river.
- [Narrator] But who lived
to be raised as a prince
in the magnificent court
of the most powerful empire
the world has ever seen.
(triumphant music)
(whip cracking)
Then he saw the sufferings
of a people,
(man yelling)
a people deprived, brutalized,
enslaved,
and he chose to put off
his princely garments
and become one of them.
- [Man] Your name?
- I'm an Israelite.
(man screaming)
- [Narrator] He suffered
long and bitterly.
- I'm sick of you!
- [Narrator] Before his people
and the enemies of his people
saw in his eyes the
light of God's will
and heard in his voice the
thunder of God's utterance.
(waves crashing)
(horse whinnying)
(horses galloping)
(tribal music)
He had to fight against
the weakness of man,
and the wickedness of man
before he found himself free
to change the whole course
of our history.
(choral music)
- We must start again.
- [Narrator] But above all,
he taught men
that they were free.
- We are free even to choose,
to enter into a
covenant with Him.
- [Narrator] This is Moses,
a man like us
with our weaknesses and doubts
but also with our hopes.
- I would like to
cross the river.
- [Narrator] Moses who spoke
to God in the high places.
(peaceful orchestral music)
The Israelites dwelt
in the land of Canaan,
but drought and famine
ravaged the land
and they went into Egypt.
They prospered and the
Israelite Joseph
was a prince of the land.
Now these are the names
of the children of Israel
which came into Egypt,
every man and his
household came with Jacob.
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Dan, and Naphtali, Gad,
and Asher.
And all the souls that came
out of the loins of Jacob
were 70 souls, for Joseph
was in Egypt already.
And Joseph died and
all his brethren
and all that generation.
(sheep bleating)
(peaceful flute music)
And the children of
Israel were fruitful
and increased abundantly
and multiplied
and waxed exceedingly mighty
and the land was
filled with them.
- [Boy] Is that Joseph?
- It could be Joseph.
- [Boy] Is he a god?
- He could be a god, the
Egyptians had many gods.
(gong chimes)
- [Narrator] Now there rose
up a new king over Egypt
which knew not Joseph and
he said unto his people,
behold the people of
the children of Israel
are more and mightier than we.
- Their men are
bursting with seed.
Their women are
round like fruit.
Their encampments are loud
with the bleating of children.
They multiply, they multiply.
- [Man] Your Grace has some
immediate danger in mind?
- War, should there be war
with some alien people,
might not these
aliens in our midst
join with our enemies?
Let us defend ourselves
before we are attacked.
- Your divine majesty's
immediate orders?
- [Pharaoh] I specify nothing,
I say deal wisely with them,
use immediate wisdom.
- Are you of the tribe of Levi?
- Yes, we are.
(metal sword clinks)
(horses whinnying)
(men yelling)
(people screaming)
- [Man] Don't scratch my ankle.
(tent crashing)
- Ah!
(sheep bleating)
(men yelling)
- [Man] Let's go!
- [Man] Keep moving now.
- Get them moving!
- [Man] Keep moving!
(men yelling)
(children crying)
Keep moving!
- [Man] Get up!
Get up, now!
(children crying)
Let's go, keep moving!
- You can't cram us in here.
We're shepherds!
- Will you keep
moving!
- We're shepherds,
we live on the open plains.
If you shut us up here,
we'll die!
- You won't die,
you'll work!
- [Narrator] So Amram and
his wife Yokebed
and their son Aaron and
their daughter Miriam
entered the house of bondage,
and Yokebed was
heavy with child.
(child crying)
They were made to share
quarters with people
from other tribes.
The children of Israel who had
lived the life of shepherds,
free in the free air,
now they were slaves.
(march-like orchestral music)
Therefore did they set
over them taskmasters
to afflict them and
to burden them,
and they were set to build for
the Pharaoh treasure cities
and the names of the cities
were Pithom and Ramses.
- [Man] On your feet!
Get over here.
(whips cracking)
- You go out and feed
the animals,
and Miriam you go help her.
That's a good girl.
(contemplative flute music)
(chickens clucking)
(sheep bleating)
- [Miriam] It's sinful to
wear a thing like that,
an Egyptian thing.
It's sinful!
- Ooh, let me go!
- It's sinful!
- Stop touching me!
- What are you doing to her,
what are you doing to her?
Every day the same thing.
- Aaron won't show them
their sinful ways, not Aaron.
But he will.
- Ah, so that's the way of it,
I wonder.
- I thought he would be
born in Tabris,
in the tall green
pastures there.
We would have been there
in three months,
the third fullness of the moon.
- You say he, you both say that!
- All babies are called
he before they are born,
and some of them afterwards too.
(group laughs)
- [Pharaoh] The sons
of the men of the sand,
the name diminishes them
but they are not diminished.
Continue.
(march-like gong music)
- [Man] Majesty, they came
out of the land of Canaan,
driven by plague and famine.
In Egypt they sought
grain and pasture,
and found them both.
They grow fat and multiply
and are become an
immense multitude.
In order that they may
not, in the event of war,
unite with our enemies without.
- So is it written.
So shall our posterity read it.
But the sentence is not
yet complete.
Let me hear wisdom.
- This present mode
of oppression
is clearly inefficacious.
As I see it, the
Tribes of Israel
mingled together as they are
lose each its special code
of law and restraint.
Constrained from above, they
are grown loose beneath.
Adultery, lechery, incest,
the zest for breeding.
It is the mark of a slave race,
animality.
They couple like the dogs
of the desert.
- And we,
we guard a instability,
changelessness,
power, along comes
the god of death
and says behold I am
all these things.
But the sentence
remains unfinished.
Let the sentence now
be pronounced.
(staccato orchestra chords)
Every son that is born
shall be cast into the river.
But every daughter shall
be saved alive.
(group screaming and crying)
(babies crying)
- [Man] Checked all the houses!
(group crying and screaming)
- [Man] That way, put
'em in there!
Found another.
- Keep this woman back.
(children crying)
- [Man] Take the next street.
Search the outhouses too!
(children crying and screaming)
(group crying and screaming)
- [Woman] Give me my son!
- My son!
- No!
(Yokebed restlessly moaning)
- Ah! (moaning and crying)
- Shh!
Forgive me, forgive me, my love.
Someone may hear.
I trust no one.
My love, my dear love.
(footsteps rattling)
There's a stable near
here, you'll be safe.
No one will know, no one
will see, come.
(Yokebed moaning and crying)
- Come, come!
(suspenseful drums)
- Be brave, he must live!
We are safe here.
(children crying)
(Yokebed moaning and screaming)
(somber orchestral music)
(children screaming and crying)
(baby cooing)
- [Narrator] And the child
was kept hidden
from the cruelty of the
soldiers of the Pharaoh,
but could not be kept hidden
for long.
(baby cooing)
- [Woman] When does she
come back, your mother?
- She still has the fever.
She sends love and greetings,
but begs no one to
come near her.
The fever is catching.
(chickens clucking)
(cow lowing)
- [Narrator] Now Miriam,
the child's sister,
had a plan of her own devising
whereby the baby might be saved
from the hands of the
soldiers of the Pharaoh.
(baby cooing)
- Can you breathe?
(baby cooing)
(dramatic drum music)
- [Narrator] Now the
Pharaoh had a daughter,
the Princess Bithnish,
and she was barren
and she would come down
to the Nile to pray
to the gods of increase that
she might become a mother
and so be blessed.
(dramatic flute and
march-like drum music)
(baby crying)
- Be brave, be very brave.
You must live, you have a
lot to do, shh.
(baby cooing)
(basket splashing in water)
(baby crying and cooing)
♪ Lord of the river
♪ And of that quickening mud
♪ When some manner of
lowly things ♪
♪ Are brought to burn
♪ Bring oh Lord to thy servant
♪ The gift of fecundity
♪ That she
♪ Be not despised
♪ Among the lowlier
♪ Daughters of the earth
♪ Lift her
♪ To the ranks of the mothers
♪ You nourish the reed
and tamarind ♪
♪ The date palm and the tree
♪ From whose mud the
crocodile breeds ♪
♪ Many toothed
♪ Strong as a chariot
- What is that?
Go and bring it to me, quick!
Before they river
takes it again.
(birds chirping)
(baby crying)
- Who is he, where does
he come from?
- He's well fed, have you
seen all those rings of fat?
- Why is he here?
Who is his mother?
- The Nile is his father,
anyway.
(baby crying)
- Shh, don't cry.
♪ Out of the desert
♪ The wind blows strong
♪ But cold, but cold
♪ From out of the sea
♪ The desert burns
♪ And the day is long
♪ But night sends my loved one
♪ Back to me
- He's hungry!
He's a good baby, he only
cries because he's hungry.
- Who are you?
Who let you in here?
- Call the guards!
- Wait!
Come here, girl.
(baby cooing)
Do you know this child?
- I am an Israelite, I
know no men children.
The Egyptians kill
them at birth.
- How do you know this
child is a boy?
(baby crying)
Do you know his mother?
- I know many mothers
who weep for their sons
and whose breasts are
heavy with milk.
- You can find me a nurse
among the women
of the Israelites.
- [Miriam] Yes, one who weeps.
- Bring her for my son.
(baby crying)
For he is my son
and his father is the Nile.
His name shall be Moses,
meaning my son.
- Meaning in our language
I brought him forth.
(contemplative flute and
march-like drum music)
- I am sorry that your
little boy died.
- Was killed!
- We mothers
cannot easily understand
high state policy.
We are the givers of life,
daughters of the sun.
Men turn their backs on
the sun to build labyrinths
away from the light.
The labyrinths breed
strange monsters.
These become the gods
of darkness.
Men love their dark gods.
(baby cooing)
You will come back here
in four hours.
You will be paid, of course.
- Each time you feed the child,
you receive one of these.
(coins clinking)
- [Woman] What is so special
about her son?
- Why should her child
be saved?
- I don't see why he should
be saved?
- And none of ours.
- [Woman] She sold her
child to the Egyptians.
- [Woman] For money.
(chickens clucking)
- Perhaps--
- Perhaps what?
- That old God of
Abraham is waking up
after his long sleep.
- You mean?
- Perhaps the child has been
saved not for his parents,
but for us.
(man spitting)
- Whore!
(people chattering)
(chicken clucking)
- What name have they given him?
- Moses.
- Moses.
(peaceful orchestra music)
When he is done with
your breast,
he shall be wholly mine.
You will forget him,
forget him completely.
Forever.
- [Narrator] And
Moses was raised
in the court of the Pharaoh
and learned the arts
and the skills of a true
Prince of Egypt.
(horse hooves clopping)
- The body is a mystery
like the heavens.
(Bithnish heavily breathing)
If we could turn for a
moment the skin,
the flesh to glass,
then we could see
the wonders of the streets
of the city within.
(Bithnish heavily breathing)
The streets are sometimes
roaring with evil invaders.
Then we talk of a sickness.
Here are two roads that lead
to the citadel of your lungs.
If I could clear these
infested ways,
you'd be well again.
(Bithnish heavily breathing)
Does this help you, Mother?
(Bithnish heavily breathing)
- They tell me that
you love wisdom,
but not all the time.
Your senses get in the way.
You hear the cry of the bats,
and of the field mice. (exhales)
They say, Moses, that
you become impatient.
- Impatient, sometimes.
They say the wisdom of Egypt
is complete and sealed.
That there is no new
wisdom to be learned,
that the death of a
man means more
than the birth of a child.
For what new wisdom can a
child bring to the world.
Egypt looks to the end,
the closure,
the seal.
- You do not see things
as an Egyptian does,
as a true Egyptian does.
They want certainty.
Death is all too certain.
- If it's so certain then
why is it not more simple?
It's expressed through
so many gods,
hawk-faced, dog-faced,
crocodile-toothed.
It's a darkness crawling
with silent monsters.
- Give me light, Moses.
Light the torches.
- The sun is not yet down.
- Light them just the
same, I fear the dark.
I fear the dark.
I will embark on a boat
whose name is the
name of the god
of the harvest of the souls.
I am ferried to the
western bank of the river,
and there I find a secret
way into the earth.
I am going to the river,
and you were brought
out of the river.
The same river?
(Bithnish exhales sharply)
(dramatic orchestra music)
- Your lips I open in
the god's name
that you may speak and eat.
Your eyes I open in
the god's name
that light and sight
may bless them.
You will raise your eyes
to light eternal.
Open your mouth in
speech that is soundless,
since it is the soul speech.
- You became my mother
out of your goodness.
You leave me motherless
with a mother still yet to find.
Farewell.
(contemplative drums)
- [Guard] Who is it?
- Moses.
My Lord.
- It is Highness you must
call me, Cousin.
Your Highness.
I have been searching for
you all day and everywhere.
That is not right.
- My apologies, Your Highness.
- You promised to take
me crocodile hunting.
- Ah yes, but I reconsidered.
What would have happened to me
if the crocodiles had
snapped and eaten you,
and what would have happened
to the throne of Egypt?
- You would have taken it.
Cousin, I am angry with you.
- No, do not be angry.
Not now.
I have come to tell
you sad news.
- His Highness is not be
given sad news,
that is laid down.
- My mother is dead.
Your father's sister.
- Dead, like the 3,000 men
who built the great city
and the treasure city?
- Yes, there is only
one way of being dead.
- You have forgotten,
Prince Merneptah
the thing for which your
cousin was sent here.
- Ah yes, you are to
go and see the workers
to see that they are
building right.
I asked my father, you
see, as a punishment.
- A punishment?
- Yes, you wouldn't take
me crocodile hunting.
(horses galloping)
(whip cracking)
(contemplative music)
- [Man] Work!
Work, come on, work.
Work!
(gong chimes)
(whip cracking)
- [Man] Whoah!
- [Miriam] Aaron, could
that be Moses?
- [Moses] Is not this man
too ill to work?
- He's not too ill for
work if he's still working.
- What is this?
- It is, as you might
say, a form of inducement
to increase effort.
- Are you a scholar?
- [Man] I was a scholar
when scholarship
was allowed among
the Israelites.
(music dramatically crescendos)
- Work!
(whip cracking)
(dogs barking)
(chickens clucking)
- [Narrator] And Moses
was drawn to this people.
And he went to the
city of Pithom
that he might know of the
sufferings of this people.
(flies buzzing)
(child crying)
(woman laughing)
- No, I can't! (cries)
(man grunting)
Really, I can't!
Let me go, please!
- You should not be
here, should you Dathan?
- It seems not.
But I have certain rights.
- [Man] No rights, Dathan.
- Not even the right to report
to my superiors officially?
- Not even that right.
You will report when
you're ordered to report.
In the meantime you have
some duties to carry out.
- To attest to my own manhood?
(laughing)
- Only free men can
talk of manhood.
What does Dathan the
unfree have to say?
- We have no straw to
make bricks.
- Use some of your own,
man of straw.
(man choking)
(Dathan thuds)
An example, little Dathan,
an example is required.
(whip cracking)
- Ah, ah! (groans)
Ah.
(whip cracking)
Ah! (groans)
- Stop!
Stop, man!
What is this?
(Dathan groans)
- Punishment, my Lord,
for inefficiency.
For insolence, for
insubordination.
- But not wanting to
be a cuckold.
(whip cracking)
Ah!
- I said, I said stop.
(punches)
(man groans)
- [Man] Ah!
(man thuds)
Ah!
- Back to work, friends,
this is none of your concern.
I have things to remember,
have I not?
Bloody things.
- Wait!
This is not to be spoken of.
Do you understand?
- You killed him, and
you will go away.
You will say that I did it,
they will all say that I did it!
- His heart stopped beating,
but in any case the
responsibility is mine.
(group chattering)
- [Man With Beard] No,
all I know is that
he went in there and then I, I--
- There is a dead
Egyptian in your midst.
But you have no cause for fear.
He was killed by his
own brutality.
I shall report this,
you'll have no fear.
- Who are you, young man,
who speak about
Egyptian brutalities?
- My name is Moses.
(dramatic orchestra music)
- Moses?
(group excitedly murmuring)
- [Man] Moses?
- I have served well, my Lord,
and it is my ambition
to serve better.
I would not utter the dirty
word payment, of course.
- [Man] You will be paid
whatever
your information is worth.
Do not waste time.
- I'd thought of some
small promotion.
- [Man] Do not waste time.
- I have witnesses outside
to testify to the murder
of our overseer, a senseless
murder if I may say so.
- [Man] Go on.
- The Lord Moses was the slayer.
- [Man] He had authority
to exert discipline, go on.
- The Lord Moses has no
such authority.
He is an Israelite.
He is the son of Amran and
Yokebed of the tribe of Levi.
- [Man] Where did you hear this?
- He was saved by his
sister in the old time
of the necessary
execution of the children.
- [Man] Where did you hear this?
Where did you hear it?
- I tell no lie.
- Moses, it has come true.
Bring him.
- Is this the truth
we've been waiting for?
You call it the beginning,
I tell you it's the end,
it's the end for us.
For 20 years you've kept
his name alive on our lips
like a, like a promise
of deliverance.
And now what is he,
this deliverer. (scoffs)
Just an Israelite who's
killed an Egyptian.
There's no promise of anything,
except further servitude.
- The voice is a voice
of a prophet, my son,
but the words are a
slave's words.
- I'm not wild-eyed like
my sister here.
I see things as they are.
- And when he walks
into this house?
- He won't have time to
walk into this house.
He'll be running for his life.
- When he walks into the
house of his parents,
I shall be expected
to have words,
but what words shall I have?
I do not know.
I love the child I lost,
and now I expect the
pain of learning
to love the child who is found
and must once more be lost.
- [Narrator] So the boy
brought Moses
to his sister Miriam for Moses
was empty of all knowledge,
both of his family and
of his people,
and Miriam had to fill
that emptiness.
- You believe?
- I was told of a taking
from the water.
My mother, as I called her,
hid nothing.
That I was nourished by
another's milk.
That a girl from the
Israelites found me a nurse.
- I know that palace.
I can describe the chamber
and the garden.
And this inscription that
said he was to be born
in the house of the king.
- Who, who?
- He who was to come,
the child of the sun,
they called him.
But to me he was to be more
than a child of the sun.
(birds chirping)
(exhales sharply)
Will you come home?
(people murmuring excitedly)
- [Woman] Moses.
- [Man] Moses.
- [Moses] I have found a mother?
- You have found a family.
(horses galloping)
- [Man] In the name of the King,
be it known that Moses
the Israelite
once falsely known as
the Lord Moses
stands accused and convicted
of the assassination
of a servant of the King,
a free man, son of Egypt.
Let him be rendered up
to authority on pain
of the execution
(people yelling)
of the capital sentence
on any who may be hiding him
(people screaming)
or otherwise grudging
him comfort.
(people yelling)
(dogs barking)
- We should be together
again in the time
of the setting free.
- You must press on.
(dramatic music)
- If there is such a time.
- [Man] On pain of the execution
of the capital sentence
on any who may be hiding him
or otherwise grudging
him comfort.
(tranquil vocal and
orchestra music)
(container breaks)
(camel grunts)
(camel grunts)
(knife stabs)
(wind howling)
- [Narrator] And Moses
came to Mount Horeb
in the land of Sinai.
(drums rhythmically banging)
♪ What will love bring
when he comes ♪
♪ As he'll drink
♪ As he'll drink
♪ As we drink
♪ We dread
♪ When he comes
♪ When he comes
♪ On his head
♪ It will be crowned
♪ When he comes down
from the hill ♪
- [Man] After them, get them!
- [Man] Go on, get back, back to
your own wells.
(women crying)
- Go on, get away!
- Back to your own land!
- This is our well.
- If you have no wells,
that is not our fault.
This is our land!
- Go away.
- Our water!
For us and our sheep!
(women crying)
- Leave our well!
- That it, back!
(women crying)
- Enough!
Enough.
- [Jethro] I used to be a
priest in the town of Midian
but I grew sick of stone idols.
A man must worship
- Thank you.
- Something great and simple.
I'm still looking.
I'm still looking for it.
They say that on Mount Horeb
a man can see visions
of the truth.
I have seen no such visions,
perhaps I am too old.
I'm (laughs) certainly
too old to climb it.
- Our story, father.
- (laughs) Yes, I wonder.
It's very easily told.
The people turned against me
when I turned against idols.
We are cut off.
My daughters must get
water from the well
before the shepherds of
Midian leave their beds.
Otherwise they will not be
permitted to get water at all.
But they come earlier
and earlier.
Depriving us of water
has become a cruel sport.
I am grateful for what you did.
- You have said that many
times already.
- [Zipporah] Gratitude
is not a word.
It is the desire to keep
saying the word.
- (laughs) My daughters are
forward in their speech,
if not in their deeds.
How can one man prevail
against so many women? (laughs)
Are you traveling further,
perhaps?
- For the moment, my
story ends here.
(dramatic orchestra music)
My journey has been
one into exile.
(staccato orchestra chords)
Exile is everywhere
for the exiled.
- Can you do shepherd's work?
- I'd always been taught
that work was for slaves.
Egypt taught me many
false things.
- You must put off
that word exile.
It's your people who know exile,
not you.
- Yes.
I must learn to think
of them as my people.
(dramatic orchestra
and drum music)
(men shouting)
(slapping)
- Miriam.
- Aaron?
- I think I've seen him again.
- [God] I am the God
of your father.
I have surely seen
the affliction
of my people
(whip cracking)
(man grimacing)
that are in Egypt.
And I am come down to
deliver them
and to bring them out of
that land onto a good land,
flowing with milk and honey.
- Never!
(thunder rumbles)
(baby cries)
- Not a life, but a
token of life.
Flesh, a body will not miss.
- I want no more of this.
- You mean you want to be free
(peaceful orchestra
and vocal music)
of me.
(water pouring)
♪ Israel
♪ Israel
♪ Israel
♪ Israel
(peaceful chimes)