How old was Moses when he died. bible story of moses story of prophet moses

Moses - the greatest Old Testament prophet, the founder of Judaism, who led the Jews out of Egypt, where they were in slavery, accepted Mount Sinai from God the Ten Commandments and rallied the tribes of Israel into a single nation.

In Christianity, Moses is considered one of the most important prototypes of Christ: just as through Moses the Old Testament was revealed to the world, so through Christ - the New Testament.

The name "Moses" (in Hebrew - Moshe), presumably of Egyptian origin and means "child". According to other indications - “extracted or saved from the water” (this name was given to him by the Egyptian princess who found him on the river bank).

Four books of the Pentateuch (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) are devoted to his life and work, which make up the epic of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

Birth of Moses

According to the biblical account, Moses was born in Egypt in Jewish family at the time when the Jews were in bondage to the Egyptians, about 1570 B.C. (according to other estimates, about 1250 B.C.). Moses' parents belonged to the tribe of Levi 1 (Ex. 2:1). His older sister was Miriam and his older brother was Aaron (the first of the Jewish high priests, the founder of the priestly caste).

1 Levi- the third son of Jacob (Israel) from his wife Leah (Gen.29:34). The descendants of the tribe of Levi are the Levites, who were responsible for the priesthood. Because of all the tribes of Israel, the Levites were the only tribe not endowed with land, they were dependent on their brethren.

As you know, the Israelites moved to Egypt during the lifetime of Jacob-Israel 2 himself (XVII century BC), fleeing from famine. They lived in the eastern Egyptian region of Goshen, bordering the Sinai Peninsula and irrigated by a tributary of the Nile River. Here they had extensive pastures for their flocks and could freely roam the country.

2 Jacob,orJacob (Israel)- the third of the biblical patriarchs, the youngest of the twin sons of the patriarch Isaac and Rebekah. From his sons came 12 tribes of the people of Israel. In rabbinical literature, Jacob is seen as a symbol of the Jewish people.

Over time, the Israelites multiplied more and more, and the more they multiplied, the more hostile the Egyptians were towards them. In the end, there were so many Jews that it began to inspire fear in the new pharaoh. He said to his people: "Here the tribe of Israel is multiplying and can become stronger than us. If we have a war with another state, then the Israelis can unite with our enemies." So that the tribe of Israel would not grow stronger, it was decided to turn it into slavery. The pharaohs and their officials began to oppress the Israelites like strangers, and then they began to treat them like a subjugated tribe, like masters with slaves. The Egyptians began to force the Israelites to the hardest work in favor of the state: they were forced to dig the earth, build cities, palaces and monuments for the kings, prepare clay and brick for these buildings. Special overseers were appointed who strictly monitored the execution of all these forced labors.

But no matter how oppressed the Israelites, they still continued to multiply. Then the pharaoh ordered that all newborn Israelite boys be drowned in the river, and only girls were left alive. This order was carried out with merciless severity. The people of Israel were threatened with total extermination.

In this troubled time, a son was born to Amram and Jochebed, from the tribe of Levi. He was so beautiful that light emanated from him. The father of the holy prophet Amram had a vision that spoke of the great mission of this infant and of God's favor towards him. Moses' mother Jochebed managed to hide the baby in her home for three months. However, no longer able to hide him, she left the baby in a tarred reed basket in a thicket on the banks of the Nile.

Moses being lowered by his mother into the waters of the Nile. A.V. Tyranov. 1839-42

At this time, the Pharaoh's daughter went to the river to bathe, accompanied by her attendants. Seeing a basket in the reeds, she ordered to open it. There was a tiny boy in the basket, crying. Pharaoh's daughter said, "It must be from the Hebrew children." She took pity on crying baby and on the advice of the sister of Moses Miriam, who approached her, who was observing what was happening from afar, agreed to call the Israelite nurse. Miriam brought her mother Jochebed. Thus, Moses was given to his mother, who nursed him. When the boy grew up, he was brought to Pharaoh's daughter, and she brought him up as her own son (Ex. 2:10). The pharaoh's daughter gave him the name Moses, which means "taken out of the water."

There are suggestions that this good princess was Hatshepsut, daughter of Thothmes I, later the famous and the only female pharaoh in the history of Egypt.

Childhood and youth of Moses. Escape to the desert.

Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt, raised in the palace as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Here he received an excellent education and was initiated "into all the wisdom of Egypt", that is, into all the secrets of the religious and political worldview of Egypt. Tradition tells that he served as commander of the Egyptian army and helped the pharaoh defeat the Ethiopians who attacked him.

Although Moses grew up freely, he still never forgot his Jewish roots. Once he wished to see how his fellow tribesmen live. Seeing how the Egyptian overseer beats one of the Israelite slaves, Moses stood up for the defenseless and in a fit of rage accidentally killed the overseer. Pharaoh found out about this and wanted to punish Moses. Escape was the only way to escape. And Moses fled from Egypt to the wilderness of Sinai, which is near the Red Sea, between Egypt and Canaan. He settled in the land of Midian (Ex. 2:15), located on the Sinai Peninsula, with the priest Jethro (another name is Raguel), where he became a shepherd. Moses soon married Jethro's daughter, Zipporah, and became a member of this peaceful shepherd family. So another 40 years passed.

Calling Moses

One day Moses was tending a flock and went far into the wilderness. He approached Mount Horeb (Sinai), and there a wondrous vision appeared to him. He saw a thick thorn bush, which was engulfed in a bright flame and burned, but still did not burn.

The thorn bush or the "Burning bush" is a prototype of God-manhood and the Mother of God and symbolizes the contact of God with a created being.

God said that he chose Moses to save the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Moses was to go to Pharaoh and demand that he release the Jews. As a sign that the time has come for a new, more complete Revelation, He proclaims His Name to Moses: "I am who I am"(Ex. 3:14) . He sends Moses to demand, on behalf of the God of Israel, that the people be released from the "house of bondage." But Moses is aware of his weakness: he is not ready for a feat, he is deprived of the gift of words, he is sure that neither Pharaoh nor the people will believe him. Only after persistently repeating the call and signs does he agree. God said that Moses had a brother in Egypt, Aaron, who, if necessary, would speak for him, and God himself would teach both of them what to do. To convince unbelievers, God gives Moses the ability to perform miracles. Immediately, by His order, Moses threw his rod (shepherd's stick) on the ground - and suddenly this rod turned into a snake. Moses caught the snake by the tail - and again a stick was in his hand. Another miracle: when Moses put his hand in his bosom and took it out, it became white from leprosy like snow, when he again put his hand in his bosom and took it out, she became healthy. “If they don’t believe this miracle, the Lord said, then you shall take water from the river and pour it out on dry land, and the water shall become blood on the dry land.”

Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh

In obedience to God, Moses set out on the road. Along the way, he met his brother Aaron, whom God ordered to go out into the wilderness to meet Moses, and together they went to Egypt. Moses was already 80 years old, no one remembered him. The daughter of the former pharaoh, the adoptive mother of Moses, also died long ago.

First of all, Moses and Aaron came to the people of Israel. Aaron told his fellow tribesmen that God would lead the Jews out of slavery and give them a country flowing with milk and honey. However, they did not immediately believe him. They were afraid of the revenge of the pharaoh, they were afraid of the way through the waterless desert. Moses performed several miracles, and the people of Israel believed in him and in the fact that the hour of liberation from slavery had come. Nevertheless, the murmuring against the prophet, which began even before the exodus, broke out then repeatedly. Like Adam, who was free to submit to or reject a higher Will, the newly created people of God experienced temptations and falls.

After that, Moses and Aron appeared to Pharaoh and announced to him the will of the God of Israel, so that he would let the Jews go into the wilderness to serve this God: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast for me in the wilderness." But the pharaoh answered angrily: “Who is the Lord that I should listen to him? I don’t know the Lord and I won’t let the Israelites go”(Ex. 5:1-2)

Then Moses announced to Pharaoh that if he did not let the Israelites go, then God would send various "executions" (misfortunes, disasters) to Egypt. The king did not obey - and the threats of the messenger of God came true.

The Ten Plagues and the Establishment of the Feast of Passover

Pharaoh's refusal to obey God's command entails 10 plagues of Egypt, a series of terrible natural disasters:

However, executions only further harden the pharaoh.

Then the angry Moses came to Pharaoh for the last time and warned: “Thus says the Lord: At midnight I will pass through the midst of Egypt. And every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh ... to the firstborn of the slave ... and all the firstborn of cattle. It was the last most severe 10th plague (Ex. 11:1-10 - Ex. 12:1-36).

Then Moses warned the Jews to slaughter a one-year-old lamb in each family and anoint the doorposts and the door frame with its blood: according to this blood, God will distinguish the dwellings of the Jews and will not touch them. Lamb meat had to be baked on fire and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The Jews must be ready to set off immediately.

During the night, Egypt suffered a terrible disaster. “And Pharaoh arose in the night, himself and all his servants, and all Egypt; and there was a great cry in the land of Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not a dead man.

The shocked Pharaoh immediately summoned Moses and Aaron to him and ordered them, along with all their people, to go into the wilderness and perform worship so that God would have mercy on the Egyptians.

Since then, the Jews every year on the 14th day of the month of Nisan (the day that falls on the full moon of the vernal equinox) make Easter holiday. The word "Passover" means "to pass by," because the Angel that struck down the firstborn passed by the Jewish houses.

From now on, Easter will mark the liberation of the People of God and their unity in the sacred meal - a prototype of the Eucharistic meal.

Exodus. Crossing the Red Sea.

That same night, all the people of Israel left Egypt forever. The Bible indicates the number of departed "600 thousand Jews" (not counting women, children and livestock). The Jews did not leave empty-handed: before fleeing, Moses ordered them to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver items, as well as rich clothes. They also brought with them the mummy of Joseph, which Moses searched for three days while his tribesmen collected property from the Egyptians. God himself led them, being by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, so that the fugitives walked day and night until they came to the seashore.

Meanwhile, the pharaoh realized that the Jews had deceived him, and rushed after them in pursuit. Six hundred war chariots and selected Egyptian cavalry quickly overtook the fugitives. There seemed to be no escape. Jews - men, women, children, old people - crowded on the seashore, preparing for inevitable death. Only Moses was calm. At the command of God, he stretched out his hand to the sea, hit the water with his rod, and the sea parted, clearing the way. The Israelites went along the seabed, and the waters of the sea stood like a wall to their right and left.

Seeing this, the Egyptians chased the Jews along the bottom of the sea. The pharaoh's chariots were already in the middle of the sea, when the bottom suddenly became so viscous that they could hardly move. Meanwhile, the Israelis got to the opposite bank. The Egyptian soldiers realized that things were bad and decided to turn back, but it was too late: Moses again extended his hand to the sea, and it closed over the Pharaoh's army...

Crossing the Red (now the Red) Sea, which took place in the face of imminent mortal danger becomes the culmination of a saving miracle. The waters separated the saved from the "house of bondage." Therefore, the transition became a type of the sacrament of baptism. A new passage through the water is also the way to freedom, but to freedom in Christ. On the seashore, Moses and all the people, including his sister Miriam, solemnly sang thanksgiving song God. “I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; he threw his horse and rider into the sea…” This solemn song of the Israelites to the Lord is the basis of the first of the nine sacred songs that make up the song canon, sung daily Orthodox Church at worship.

By biblical tradition The Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years. And the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt took place, according to the calculations of Egyptologists, around 1250 BC. However, according to the traditional view, the Exodus took place in the 15th century. BC e., 480 years (~5 centuries) before the construction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6: 1). There are a significant number of alternative theories of the chronology of the Exodus, consistent to varying degrees with both religious and modern archaeological points of view.

Miracles of Moses

The road to the Promised Land ran through the harsh and vast Arabian Desert. At first, for 3 days they walked through the Shur desert and did not find water, except bitter (Merah) (Ex. 15:22-26), but God sweetened this water by commanding Moses to throw a piece of some special tree into the water.

Soon, when they reached the desert of Sin, the people began to grumble from hunger, remembering Egypt, when they "sat by the boilers with meat and ate their fill of bread!" And God heard them and sent them from heaven manna from heaven(Ex. 16).

One morning, when they woke up, they saw that the whole desert was covered with something white, like frost. They began to look: the white coating turned out to be small grains, similar to hail or grass seeds. In response to the astonished exclamations, Moses said: "This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat." Adults and children rushed to rake manna and bake bread. Since then, every morning for 40 years, they found manna from heaven and ate from it.

Manna from heaven

The collection of manna took place in the morning, as by noon it melted under the rays of the sun. “The manna was like coriander seed, looking like bdolakh”(Num. 11:7). According to Talmudic literature, when eating manna, young men felt the taste of bread, old people - the taste of honey, children - the taste of butter.

In Rephidim, Moses, at the command of God, brought water out of the rock of Mount Horeb, striking it with his staff.

Here the Jews were attacked by a wild tribe of Amalekites, but they were defeated at the prayer of Moses, who during the battle prayed on the mountain, raising his hands to God (Ex. 17).

Sinai Covenant and 10 Commandments

In the 3rd month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites approached Mount Sinai and encamped against the mountain. Moses went up the mountain first, and God warned him that he would appear before the people on the third day.

And then this day came. Terrible phenomena accompanied the phenomenon in Sinai: cloud, smoke, lightning, thunder, flame, earthquake, trumpet voice. This fellowship lasted 40 days, and God gave Moses two tablets - stone tables on which the Law was written.

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

2. Do not make for yourself an idol or any image of what is in heaven above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth; do not worship them and do not serve them, for I am the Lord your God. God is a zealot, punishing children for the guilt of their fathers up to the third and fourth kind who hate me, and show mercy to thousands of generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3. Do not pronounce the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who pronounces His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; work for six days and do (in them) all your works, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: do not do any work on it, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maidservant, nor (ox yours, not your donkey, not any) your livestock, nor the stranger that is in your dwellings; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

5. Honor your father and your mother (that you may be well and) that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

6. Don't kill.

7. Do not commit adultery.

8. Don't steal.

9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. Do not covet your neighbor's house; Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, (neither his field), nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, (nor any of his cattle) anything that is with your neighbor.

The law that was given to ancient Israel by God had several purposes. First, he asserted public order and justice. Secondly, he singled out the Jewish people as a special religious community professing monotheism. Thirdly, he had to make an internal change in a person, morally improve a person, bring a person closer to God through instilling in a person love for God. Finally, the law Old Testament prepared mankind for the adoption of the Christian faith in the future.

The Decalogue (ten commandments) formed the basis of the moral code of all cultural humanity.

In addition to the Ten Commandments, God dictated laws to Moses that spoke about how the people of Israel should live. So the Children of Israel became a people - Jews.

Moses' wrath. The establishment of the tabernacle of the covenant.

Moses climbed Mount Sinai twice, staying there for 40 days. During his first absence, the people sinned terribly. The wait seemed too long to them and they demanded that Aaron make them a god who brought them out of Egypt. Frightened by their wildness, he collected golden earrings and made a golden calf, in front of which the Jews began to serve and have fun.

Descending from the mountain, Moses in anger broke the Tablets and destroyed the calf.

Moses Breaks the Tablets of the Law

Moses severely punished the people for apostasy, killing about 3 thousand people, but asked God not to punish them. God had mercy and revealed His glory to him, showing him a cleft in which he could see God from behind, because it is impossible for a man to see His face.

After that, again for 40 days, he returned to the mountain and prayed to God for the forgiveness of the people. Here, on the mountain, he received instructions on the construction of the Tabernacle, the laws of worship and the establishment of the priesthood. It is believed that in the book of Exodus the commandments are listed, on the first broken tablets, and in Deuteronomy - what was inscribed a second time. From there he returned with God's face shone with the light and was forced to hide his face under a veil so that the people would not be blinded.

Six months later, the Tabernacle was built and consecrated - a large, richly decorated tent. Inside the tabernacle stood the ark of the covenant - a wooden, gold-studded chest with images of cherubs on top. In the ark lay the tablets of the covenant brought by Moses, the golden stave with manna, and the prosperous rod of Aaron.

Tabernacle

To prevent disputes about who should have the right to the priesthood, God commanded that a rod be taken from each of the twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel and placed in the tabernacle, promising that the rod would blossom in the one chosen by Him. The next day Moses found that Aaron's rod gave flowers and brought almonds. Then Moses laid the rod of Aaron before the ark of the covenant for preservation, as a testimony to future generations about the Divine election of Aaron and his descendants to the priesthood.

Moses' brother, Aaron, was ordained as a high priest, and other members of the tribe of Levi were ordained as priests and "Levites" (we call them deacons). Since that time, the Jews began to perform regular worship and animal sacrifices.

End of wandering. Death of Moses.

For another 40 years Moses led his people to the promised land - Canaan. At the end of the wandering, the people again became cowardly and grumbled. As a punishment, God sent poisonous snakes, and when they repented, he ordered Moses to erect on a pole a bronze image of a serpent, so that everyone who looked at him with faith would remain unharmed. The serpent ascended in the desert, according to St. Gregory of Nyssa, is the sign of the sacrament of the cross.

Despite great difficulties, the prophet Moses remained a faithful servant of the Lord God until the end of his life. He led, taught and instructed his people. He arranged their future, but he did not enter the Promised Land because of the lack of faith shown by him and his brother Aaron at the waters of Meribah in Kadesh. Moses hit the rock twice with his rod, and water flowed from the stone, although once was enough - and God, angry, announced that neither he nor his brother Aaron would enter the Promised Land.

By nature, Moses was impatient and prone to anger, but through divine training he became so humble that he became "the meekest of all people on earth." In all his deeds and thoughts he was guided by faith in the Almighty. In a sense, the fate of Moses is similar to the fate of the Old Testament itself, which through the wilderness of paganism brought the people of Israel to the New Testament and froze on its threshold. Moses died at the end of forty years of wandering on the top of Mount Nebo, from which he could see from a distance the promised land - Palestine. God told him: “This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... I made you see it with your eyes, but you will not enter it.”

He was 120 years old, but neither his eyesight was dulled, nor his strength was exhausted. He spent 40 years in the palace of the Egyptian pharaoh, the other 40 with flocks of sheep in the land of Midian, and the last 40 in wandering at the head of the Israelite people in the Sinai desert. The Israelites honored the death of Moses with 30 days of lamentation. His grave was hidden by God, so that the people of Israel, inclined at that time to paganism, would not make a cult out of it.

After Moses, the Jewish people, spiritually renewed in the wilderness, were led by his disciple Joshua, who led the Jews to the Promised Land. For forty years of wandering, not a single person remained alive who left Egypt with Moses, and who doubted God and bowed to the golden calf at Horeb. Thus a truly new people was created, living under the law, given by God in Sinai.

Moses was also the first inspired writer. According to legend, he is the author of the books of the Bible - the Pentateuch as part of the Old Testament. Psalm 89 "The Prayer of Moses, the Man of God" is also attributed to Moses.

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Life of the Holy Prophet Moses

The story of his being

Lord bless, father.

When Jacob was 87 years old, he begat Levi, and Levi was 49 years old when he begat Army, Gaidad, Hebron, and Caiat. Kayat, at the age of 60, gave birth to Ambrava. Ambrav was a hundred years old when he gave birth to Aaron, Miriam and Moses in the 101st year of the coming of the Israelites into Egypt. Moses was the seventh from the tribe of Abraham, his mother was Agaveth, the daughter of Levi.

One day, King Pharaoh had a dream: he was sitting on his royal throne in Egypt and raised his eyes and saw an old man who stood opposite him, and in his hands were the scales. And he put in one bowl all the elders of Egypt and all his nobles, and in the other bowl he put all the lambs. Waking up early the next morning, (the king) called all his servants and told them the dream. And the people got scared strong fear, and the sorcerer Balaom said: "Evil will rise in Egypt soon." And the king said: "What will happen, tell us." And Balaom said to the king: "A baby will be born to the Israelites and will squander the whole kingdom of Egypt, know this, king, write in the laws of Egypt, so that every baby who is born to the Jews is drowned in water, let them kill him."
And Pharaoh called the Jewish midwives and ordered them to kill babies, and throw others into the river. But the grandmothers were afraid of God and did not do as the king of Egypt Pharaoh commanded them.<...>

The Jewish wives went to the fields and gave birth there. The angels of God bathed the newborns and twined them, and put two stones in both their hands, so that oil would be sucked from one, and honey from the other. And the Egyptians went out into the field to look for them, but by the command of God the earth opened and received them. The same went after their plows and plows and could not find them, since God hid them. And when (children) grew up in the field, they came in multitudes to their homes. And the Jewish people multiplied, and became stronger and stronger in Egypt. The king of Egypt, Pharaoh, did not like the fact that the Israelites were multiplying.

Among the Israelites there was a man named Ambram. And he took his wife Agaveth, his relative. And that daughter gave birth and they named her name Miriam. And in those days the sons of Ham began to do evil to the children of Israel. Ambram conceived and begat a son, and gave him the name Aaron. In those days, Pharaoh began to shed the blood of babies on the ground and throw others into the river. Then many parted with their wives, and Ambram parted with his wife. And at the end of the 3rd year, the Spirit of God overshadowed Miriam and, prophesying, she said: "Behold, a son will be born to my father this year, and he will save Israel from the power of Egypt."

Hearing this from Mariam, Ambram brought his wife back to him and knew her in the sixth month, and, having conceived, she gave birth to a son, and named him Melchia. And the house was filled with light, and the wife saw how beautiful her child was, and kept him for 3 months in a shelter.

In those days, the Egyptians ordered their little children to be carried into Jewish homes, whether the Jewish child responded to the Egyptian child. And that wife, fearing this, made a reed basket, smearing the bottom of it with clay on the inside and resin on the outside, and put the child there, and put the basket between the river reeds. His sister, standing afar off, looked at him.

And God sent heat upon the land of Egypt, and the people were tormented by the heat. And the daughter of Pharaoh Fermuf went down to the river to bathe with the girls and with many women. And she saw a reed basket floating on the river, and she sent a slave to take it. And when she opened it, she saw a crying baby in it, and she took pity on him, and said: "This is from the Jewish children." And she gave him the name Moses, explaining that she had taken him from the water. And they brought the women of Egypt to feed him, but he did not want to suckle, because it was (destined) by God that he should return to his mother's breast. And Miriam said: "If you want, I will bring you a female nurse from the Jews, and she will nurse this child for you." And she went and brought his mother, and the daughter of Pharaoh said to her: "Bring me this child, and I will give you two pieces of silver for a day." And she took (the child) from her and nursed him.

At the end of the second year, they brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he was her instead of a son. And in the third year from the birth of Moses, Pharaoh sat at the table, and the queen to his right. Fermuf was sitting to his left. The child was in her arms, and nobles were sitting around him.

Suddenly the child, stretching, removed the crown from the king's head and placed it on his head. Both the king and the nobles were afraid of him. And the sorcerer Balaom exclaimed and said: “Remember, sir, the dream that you saw, and how your servant interpreted it to you. This Jewish child carries the Spirit of God in him, and he deliberately did so, for he wants to take the kingdom of Egypt for himself. So did Abraham, his grandfather, when the king intercepted their glory: Abimelech, the king of Harar, drove away, and he himself came to Egypt and called his wife his sister to destroy their king. So Isaac did with the foreigners and received his strength from the foreigners, the king but he wanted to destroy them by capturing them, and he also gave his wife to his sister. And also by cunning, Jacob took away his brother's preeminence and blessing. He went to Mesopotamia to Laban, his maternal uncle, and deceived his daughter, and his cattle, and all his household. And he fled into the land of Canaan, and returned. And his sons sold Joseph, and he was in prison until the king your father had a dream. He released him from prison and exalted him above all the nobles of Egypt. because he is dreamed. And when God sent a famine on the earth, he sent for his father and his brothers into Egypt, and they brought them. And he fed them without pay. He bought us into slavery. If you wish, king, let us kill this child, so that when he grows up, he will not take your kingdom from you and so that the hope of Egypt will not perish.

And God sent his archangel Gabriel, who took the form of one of the royal nobles, and he said: “If you want, King, let them bring a precious sparkling stone and burning coals and put it in front of the child. If he stretches out his hand to the stone, then know what he did it is conscious, then we will kill him. But if he stretches out his hand to the fire, then we will know that he did it without reason, and we will leave him. And the king and his nobles liked it.

And brought to him gem and burning coals. And the angel of the Lord directed his hand to the fire. And taking coal, he touched it to the tip of his tongue, and from this he became googly. And they didn't kill him.

And Moses lived in the house of Pharaoh for 15 years, grew up with the royal children, in the same clothes (walked). And at the end of the 15th year, he wanted to visit his father and mother, and went to them. And he came to his brothers, and saw an Egyptian who was beating a Jew from his brothers. And looking around, to and fro, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. The next day, Moses went to his brothers and saw two swearing men and asked: "O villain, why do you offend your friend?" And he said to him: "Who made you a judge over us, or do you want to kill me, just as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" Moses was frightened and said: "As you can see, this matter has become known."

This rumor reached the ears of the Pharaoh. And Pharaoh ordered to kill Moses.

And God sent his archangel, Michael, he took the form of the steward of Pharaoh and pulled the sword out of his hand, and took off his head. And the angel took Moses by right hand and brought him out of the land of Egypt. And he settled him outside the Egyptian borders at a distance of 40 miles. And Aaron alone remained, and he began to prophesy in Egypt to the children of Israel. And he said, "Throw down every idol in Egyptian defilement, but do not be defiled." And they didn't listen to him.

And God said to destroy them, but he remembered the covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the power of Pharaoh over the sons of Israel increased and toughened, until God sent his word and remembered them.

At that time there was a war between the Ethiopians and the sons of the East and between the Arameans. And Kykanos, king of the Saracens, went out to fight the Arameans and the sons of the East. And the king Kykanos defeated the Aramaeans with the sons of the East and took them captive. And Balaom ran from Egypt to Kykanos, because his prophecy did not come true. And Kykanos had two sons, Anos and Akris, they sowed confusion in the city, and with them were the worst people. And Balaom thought with the local people about
shy away from the king of Kykanos, and did not let him enter the city. And his people obeyed, swore allegiance to him and made him king over all. His son was appointed governor, and the walls of this city were erected high on two sides, and on the third side they dug ditches and large pits without number, and on the fourth side, Valaom, by conspiracy and witchcraft, gathered many snakes and scorpions. They closed the city and did not allow either to enter it or proceed to it. And so, when the king of Kykanos returned with the soldiers and, raising their eyes, they saw such high city walls, they were surprised and said: “Our people, while we fought for a long time, fortified their city, saying:“ No matter how the army came against us "". But when they came to the city, they saw the city gates on the castle, and said to the gatekeepers: "Open the gate so that we can enter the city." But they did not want to open because of the ban of Valaom the sorcerer. And they did not allow the army to enter, leaving it before the gate. And one day one hundred and thirty men died from the soldiers of Kykanos, and the next day they fought on the banks of the river. And thirty horsemen entered the water, wanting to cross over to the other side, and could not. And drowned in the ditches. And the king ordered to cut trees and make rafts to swim across them. And they did so, and went on rafts into these ditches, and the pool swirled them, and that day two hundred men drowned on ten rafts.

And on the third day (warriors) approached from the side where (dwelled) snakes, and could not do anything. And the snakes ate one hundred and seven people. And they retreated from them (the soldiers), and they stood near the city for nine years, and they did not let them either take it or enter it. And when the Saracens stood against, Moses fled from Egypt and came to Kykanos, the king of the Saracens. Moses was 18 years old when he fled from Pharaoh.

And he came to Kykanos in the camp, and his king and all his nobles and his soldiers received him, for he was noble and rich in their eyes. And he was as tall as a yew, his face shone like the sun, his courage was great. And Moses became an adviser to the King.

And towards the end of the ninth year, the king of the Saracens Kykanos fell ill, and on the seventh day he died. And the servants anointed him with oils and buried him at the city gates. And they built a beautiful and very high chamber over him and wrote on a stone about all his wars and all his courage.

And so, when the chamber was erected, they conferred with each other: “What should we do? against us, and they won't leave us intact, so let's go and set ourselves a king. Let's lay siege to the city until we take it." They quickly took off their clothes and left them in a heap, making big mountain. And they sat Moses down and said: "Live forever, king!" And all the nobles and all the people swore allegiance to him. And Moses took for himself the wife of Kykanos, with her consent and by her will.

Moses was 27 years old when he became king over the Saracens. On the second day of his reign, all the people gathered and said to him: "King, think about what we should do: 9 years have already passed since we did not see our wives and children." And the king answered his people: “If you listen to me, know that this city will be given into our hands. If we fight with them, as at the beginning, then many of us will die, as in the first time. many of us will drown, just like the first time. Now, getting up, go into the forest and bring stork chicks, each of his own. Take care of them until they grow up. Teach them to fly like a girdle." And they went (people) and brought the storks, as Moses commanded them.

And so, when the storks grew up, the king ordered to starve them for seven days. And people did just that. The third day came, and the king said to them: "Put on your armor and mount your horses and take each one of your storks in your hand, and let's go and approach the city to the place where the snakes are."

And the king said, "Let the storks go." And they let them go, and the storks flew to the serpents, and ate them, and the place was desolate. And the king and the people saw that the snakes were dead and the place was cleansed, and the people sounded their trumpets and surrounded the city and took it. And each returned to his own house. And on that day they killed 1000 and 100 city dwellers, but not a single person was killed from outside. And the sorcerer Balaom saw that the city was taken, and with his two sons jumped on horses and fled to the land of Midian, to King Balak. After all, they were magicians and sorcerers, about whom it is written in Paremia, who taught how to wipe the tribe of Jacob from the face of the earth.<...>

Moses sat on the throne of the Saracens, and the wife of Kykanos was married to him. But Moses, fearing God, did not come to her, remembering how Abraham conjured Eleazar, his servant: "Do not take a wife from the daughter of the Canaanites for my son!" Isaac also ordered Jacob, his son, not to enter into relationship with the sons of Hamov, since they were sold into slavery to the sons of Shem and the sons of Aphet. And Moses was afraid of his God, and did not touch the wife of Kykanos, because she was from the sons of Hamov.
King Moses gained strength and fought with the Edemites and overcame them, and overcame them during the wars, like Jacob, his grandfather.

In the 40th year of his reign, Moses sat on the throne, and the queen aside from him. And the queen turned to the people and nobles: “It’s already 40 years since Moses reigns over you, and he didn’t touch me, and he didn’t bow to our gods. Now listen to me, sons of the Saracens! From today Moses will not be king over you "Here is Mukaris, my son, and he will reign over you. It is better for you to obey your master's son than a stranger." And all the people argued about it until the evening and did not want to let Moses go. But the queen prevailed. And the next day, early in the morning, Mukaris was appointed king over all. And the people were afraid to raise their hand against Moses, for they swore allegiance to him. They gave him great gifts and released him with honor.

And Moses went out from there in his own way. Moses was 67 years old when he left the Saracens. All this was created by God. And the time came, prepared from the first days, to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses went to Midian, afraid to return to Egypt.

And he sat down by the well, and the seven daughters of Reuel of Midian came to feed their father's sheep. They went to that well and drew water to water the sheep. But the shepherds of Midian came and drove them away. And then Moses stood up and protected them, and watered their sheep. They returned to their father and told what Moses had done and how he saved them and watered their sheep.

And Raguel sent for him and called him into his house. He shared bread with him, and Moses told him how he fled from Egypt and how he reigned among the Saracens, and how they took away his kingdom and let him go. And when Raguel heard his story, he exclaimed in his heart: "Let me put him in prison and those will please the Saracens. After all, he is a fugitive." And so they seized Moses and put him in prison, and he was in prison for 10 years.

But Symphora, the daughter of Raguel, took pity on him, she fed him with bread and water. And when 10 years were over, Symphora said to her father: “This Jew, whom you put in prison, has been there for the tenth year already, and no one is looking for him or asking about him. If it pleases your eyes, my father, you should send to see whether the husband is alive or dead. Her father did not know that she fed him. And Raguel said: "I never saw in the world that a man sitting in prison for ten years without bread and water was alive." And Symphora answered her father: “Have you not heard, my father, that the God of the Jews is great and terrible and always surprises with miracles? Didn’t he deliver Abraham from the furnace of the Chaldeans, Isaac from the sword, Jacob from the hand of an angel when he fought with him at the crossing And after all, God did many miracles for this man: he freed him from the Egyptians, and from the sword of Pharaoh, and can still deliver him. And these words were pleasing to Raguel. And he did as his daughter said: he sent to the dungeon to find out what had happened to Moses. And they saw that he was praying to the God of his fathers. And they let him out of prison, cut his hair, changed his prison clothes, and Moses ate bread with Raguel.

And Moses came into the garden to Raguel, which was behind his palace, and prayed to his God, who performed miracles and freed him from that prison. While he was praying, he raised his eyes and saw that a club was stuck in the middle of the garden. And he went up to the club, and it was written on it
O name of the Lord God of hosts. And coming up, he pulled it out, and it turned out that in his hands was the club of the trestat, with which the miracles of God were created, when He created heaven and earth and everything that is in them, the sea and rivers, and all their fish. And when He drove Adam out of the Garden of Eden, Adam took that club with him in his hands. And that club passed from Adam to Noah, but Noah gave it to Shem and his offspring, and so on, until the club reached the hands of Abraham. Abraham gave it to Isaac, and Isaac gave it to Jacob. Jacob, when he fled into the borders of Aramaic, took that club with him. He gave it to Joseph, bypassing the brothers as an inheritance. And when, after the death of Joseph, the Egyptians destroyed the house of Joseph, this club turned out to be with Raguel, and he planted it in the middle of the garden. And all the heroes who wanted to get his daughter (as a wife) wanted to take possession of her, and they could not do this until Moses came: whoever was destined, he pulled her out. And it so happened that Raguel saw the club in the hands of Moses and was surprised. And he gave him his daughter Simphora to wife.

Moses lived 70 and 6 years when he came out of prison and took Simphora the Midianite woman for his wife. And Symphora set off by the way of the women of the race of Jacob; she had no less inheritance than Sarah, and Rebekah, and Rachel, and Leah.

Having conceived, Moses gave birth to a son and named him Gersan, saying that he was empty in a foreign land. But he did not perform the rite of circumcision over him, because his father-in-law Raguel ordered so. And at the end of the third year, he conceived and gave birth to a son, and named him Eleazar, saying that "the God of my father was my helper, delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh."<...>

At that time, Moses was walking in the wilderness, (herding) his father-in-law's sheep, with the club of God in his hands. And he came to Mount Horeb and saw that there was a bush bush, enveloped in a burning flame, but the flame of the bush did not burn. And Moses said to himself: "What a vision I see, I will approach and see, why the bush does not burn in the burning fire, why does it remain unburnt?" Moses said in surprise: "The fire scorches and eats all living things, why does the bush remain unburned? I look at the fire and in the middle of it I see a blossoming bush." Moses began to approach her, saying: "Oh, an extraordinary miracle, I see a blazing fire, but not a single leaf has come off this bush, I see it. Oh, this extraordinary miracle, worthy of surprise." Then the Lord called to him from the bush and said: "O Moses, Moses!" He replied, "What is this, Lord?" The Lord answered: "Do not come near here, but take off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
You hear how the Lord makes him reverent and orders him to listen to what has been said with fear. For the removal of shoes means renunciation of worldly sorrows, but it is also said that the consecration of the earth will come when the Lord himself, clothed in human flesh, begins to walk the earth on foot.

And the Lord said to Moses: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." And Moses turned away his face, afraid to look at God.

You see, the accursed Jew, how the bush, having taken fire, was not scorched, contrary to nature! After all, the bush is the image of the Virgin, just as this unquenchable fire, by the will of God, did not burn the plants, so God's word preserved her virginity incorruptible even after childbirth. Understand, then, that God can fulfill whatever He wishes. So after all, our most pure Lady, the Mother of God, having taken God into the womb, remained unburnt, and after his birth she again remained a pure virgin. "Wherever God wants, there the law of nature recedes." The Lord God, who was born from her, confirmed the faith and tamed the fierce peoples, and pacified the whole world like a man!

And again the Lord said to Moses: "I saw the suffering of my people in Egypt, but you, having gone there, bring out my people, for all those who sought your soul have died. And those who remained after them are no longer able to harm you." Moses said to the Lord: “Who am I, Lord, that you want me to lead your people out? But I ask you, Lord, choose another who can (do this), or give me a sign so that your people believe me that I saw you." And the Lord said to Moses: "Throw your staff, which you hold in your hand, on the ground." Moses threw down the rod, and immediately it became a huge snake. And seeing him, Moses jumped back. And the Lord said to him: "Do not be afraid, Moses, take him by the tail." Moses, bending down, seized the serpent by the tail, and it became a rod again.

You also see, Jew, how the serpent has turned into a rod! Is not everything subject to God's fulfillment, so it is in our Law. During the time of Tsar Constantine, there was the miracle worker Spyridon, Bishop of Cyprus. One day he saw a certain usurer dragging a beggar. And this elder Spiridon, seeing a crawling snake, turned it in the name of Christ into a golden hryvnia and gave it to the usurer. And so the beggar redeemed himself again, bringing a pledge to the old man. Spiridon, that blessed one, turned him back into a snake and let him go to the ground.

Moses said to the Lord God: "I ask you, Lord, because I, your servant, have been tongue-tied since I began to speak!" The Lord said to Moses: "Who gave a mouth to a man? Who made him deaf, or dumb, or blind? It is I, the Lord God. I want you, tongue-tied, to shame the wise men of Egypt."

Look, Jew, at his words, what the Lord God said to Moses! Even if the Lord created the mute, and the deaf, and the blind, and the sighted, then everything is possible for God to create, as it used to be.

Moses returned to Midian and told everything in the ear of his father-in-law. His father-in-law Raguel replied: "Go in peace."

Moses got up and went with his wife and children. And when he stopped, an angel of God came down and wanted to kill Moses, because he did not circumcise the flesh of his sons, he transgressed the law that God laid down for Abraham. And Semphora hurried, took a stone plate and circumcised her sons, and delivered her husband from the hand of an angel.

The Lord appeared to Aaron and Levi in ​​Egypt as they were walking along the bank of the river and said, "Go meet Moses in the wilderness." And Aaron went and met him in the wilderness, in the mountain of God, and kissed him. And lifting up his eyes, he saw his wife and children, and asked, "Who are they?" And Moses answered, "These are my wife and my children whom God gave me in Midian." And evil flashed in the eyes of Aaron, and he said: "Send the wife and children to her father's house." And so did Moses. And Semphora and her two sons went to her father's house until the time when God remembered his people and brought them out of Egypt at the hand of Pharaoh.

And Moses told Aaron all that the Lord had spoken to him. And they came to Egypt, and appeared to the assembly of the sons of Israel, and told them about all the words of God, and the people rejoiced at their words.
And the next day they went early to the house of Pharaoh, taking with them the club of God. And when they came to the gate of the royal house, two lions stood there, tied with iron chains, so that not a single person could enter or leave, unless the king himself orders him to come, and then the breadwinners will come, feed the lions and lead that person. Moses and Aaron came and raised their club against the lions, and the lions were freed. And Moses and Aaron came to the king's house, and the lions went in with them rejoicing. And when Pharaoh saw this, he was very surprised and horrified, for they looked like the sons of God.

And the king said to them, "What do you want?" And they answered him: "Let us go into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God and serve him." Pharaoh was very frightened and said to them: "Now go to your home, and tomorrow you will come to me." And they did as the king commanded them. And when they left, the king sent and called Balaom the sorcerer and his sons Enos and Akris and all the sorcerers of Egypt. And they came to the king, and the king told them what Moses and Aaron had said. And the sorcerers said to him: "But how did they get through, answer us?" And the king said: "They only lifted the rod on the lions, and they freed themselves, and ran to them, rejoicing." Balaom answered, saying: "These are the same sorcerers, the king, like us, and now follow them, let them come, and we will test their words." And so did the king, sending for them. They took the club of God in their hands and came to the king and spoke the words of God to him: "Let the people of Israel go, let them offer sacrifice to the Lord their God." And the king said to them: "But who will believe you that you are messengers
ki of God and came in obedience to His words? What sign will you make before me so that your words may be believed?" And Aaron quickly threw his club before the king and before his nobles. And it became a great creeping serpent. And the sorcerers did the same, threw down their wands, and they became snakes Therefore, God allowed the Magi of Egypt to turn their rods into snakes, so that they would not tell Pharaoh that Moses is a magician and performs all this by magic, but resisted him with resistance, and then became exhausted.
For the serpent that was from the staff of Moses lifted up his head and devoured all their serpents. And the sorcerer Balaom said: “It has already happened in former days that the snake of another ate, just as the fish of the sea eats others, and now make your club as it was before; if you can, let our eaten clubs become the same, then we admit, that the Spirit of God is in you. If you cannot, then you are a sorcerer like us." And Aaron stretched out his hand and seized the serpent by the tail, and his club was in his hand, and their clubs became as they were.

And Pharaoh commanded to bring to him the writings of all the gods of Egypt, and they read them before them, and he said: "I did not find your God in these writings and did not see his name." Answering, they said to the king: "Adanai hosts His name." And Pharaoh said: "Where is Adanai, so that I can see him and hear his voice, and let the Israelites go? If I do not know Adanai, I will not let the Israelites go." And they said: "The name of the Jewish God is upon us from our first days, and now let us go, so that we may go into the wilderness and make a sacrifice to our God. Since Israel came into Egypt, He has not received anything from our hands. If not let us go, then know that He will be angry and will destroy the land of Egypt with pestilence or with the sword."

And Pharaoh said to them, "Tell me of his strength and might." And they answered: "He created the heavens, and all their might, and the earth with all that is in it, and the sea, and all the fishes. And he created light, and gave birth to darkness, and makes it rain, and waters the earth. cattle, and wild beasts, and the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea. He also created you in your mother's womb. He also put the spirit of life into you and raised you, and seated you on the throne of your kingdom. He will also take your life from you. and bring you back to the land from which you were taken."
And Pharaoh was angry and said: "But who of all human gods can do this to me? I did everything with my own hand!" And he became very angry with them and ordered them to do violence. And the Egyptians tortured the Israelites. Moses cried out to the Lord God, saying: "Why did you betray your people, Lord?" And the Lord said to Moses: "Behold you will see that I will make Pharaoh with a strong hand, let you go, and with a high arm I will lead you out of his land. I am the Lord God, who appeared to Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, and laid down my Covenant to them in order to give them the land of Canaan, on the same land I myself want to stay.

And God raised his wrath against Pharaoh and his people. And he struck with the plague of the great Pharaoh and the Egyptians. He turned their waters into blood and brought frogs on their land, and when they drank the water, the frogs fell into their belly, and there they croaked. And they climbed into their houses, and into the troughs, and their beds, and the lice attacked their breasts, to the height of two cubits, and on the body, and above the wrists. And God sent wild beasts against them to tear them to pieces, and snakes, scorpions and mice, and gadflies in their eyes.

They climbed into houses and onto their roofs, closed themselves there. And Nilonif, the beast that lives in the sea, climbed in there, and his paws were ten cubits of men; and he climbed up the house and opened it, and seizing it with his paw, he broke the locks. And God sent evil beasts on them, and they roamed there, and God slaughtered all their livestock. And God set fire to their flesh with fire, and pimples appeared on them from head to toe, and their whole body stank. The vines were destroyed by hail, and all the trees of Egypt, and nothing remained on them.

And the grass of the field dried up, and the people and the cattle that lived on it died of hunger.
And the locusts attacked them, and devoured what was left of the hail, and the Egyptians rejoiced, saying: "This is our food," and salted their multitude!

And God sent a strong wind from the sea, he grabbed the locusts and threw them into the sea, and salty too, and not one was left in all the land of Egypt.

And the Lord sent darkness upon them for seven days, so that the husband of his brother could not see, nor put his hand to his mouth.

But there were also Jews who did not listen to Moses and Aaron, saying: "Let's not go into the desert, we will die of hunger and pestilence." And God beat them in those three dark days, so that the Egyptians would not see, and would not rejoice, and would not say: "As God's on us, so on them." And God plucked thorns from his grapes. And he took every firstborn of the land of Egypt, from man to cattle, even the images of the firstborn that are written on the walls, and they were destroyed, which were wooden, and gold or silver, those were melted. And those first-born that had been buried shortly before were taken out by dogs and laid before their fathers and mothers. And the sons of Ham cried out with a terrible voice.

And the Lord called Moses and Aaron and said: “On this night, every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man to livestock, will be killed, and I will make vengeance on all the gods of Egypt, I am the Lord God of each of you. anoint his thresholds (houses) with blood, and let the blood be a sign on your houses where you will be in. And when I see it, I will cover you, and not one of you will perish. The Jewish people did as Moses (at the command) of the Lord commanded them.

Look, Jew, how you found a sign of blood on the thresholds of houses, because the blood of an immaculate lamb is an image of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is called the Holy of Holies, and that rests in the hearts of holy men and women, in one - triple. Then there was the anointing of thresholds, but now it is the blood of Christ; anointing the thresholds, which are our mouths; then the sprinkling of both doorposts, now the sprinkling of the soul and body with holy baptism.

That night they killed all the firstborn of Egypt, because Israel was called the firstborn, and he received many plagues and torments from the Egyptians, therefore, for the firstborn of Israel, the firstborn of Egypt were killed, from man to cattle.

And there was no place where they would not cry out - only not in the children of Israel. And the nations cried out to the king, saying: "Let go, king, let the sons of Israel go. If not, then we will all die because of them." The king was afraid and sent to Moses and Aaron, saying: "If you want to offer a sacrifice to the Lord your God, go away all." Then they all left with silver and gold and clothes, each calling his friend. And so, leaving the Egyptians with nothing, they left, because the people of Israel were languishing in Egypt, building their cities and temples, and not receiving payment. Therefore, the Lord commanded them to take this reward as payment for their work. And they sent the servants of God out with booty and many gifts according to the covenant of God given to Abraham, their grandfather.

And, rising up, Moses began to find out who told Jacob that Joseph lives in Egypt, and how to find the bones of Joseph, because Joseph swore an oath, saying: "By the mercy of God, which the Lord has given you, take my bones with you." How were the bones of Joseph found in Egypt after 400 years? Judas told the daughter of Jacob (that Joseph is alive), she exclaimed, turning to her father: "Father, Joseph is alive!" He put his hand on her head and said, "Live forever." And so she lived for 400 years. She told Moses where the bones of Joseph were. There is a river in Egypt called Voildai. There the bones of Joseph are buried in a tin shrine. Because at first the Egyptians were afraid of the departure of the Israelites, they thought that they would keep the sons of Israel by tying the coffin of Joseph with tin and secretly immersing them in the river, saying: "If they do not carry the bones of Joseph with them, the sons of Israel will not come out of Egypt."

When the Lord said to Moses: "Take my people out of Egypt with all their property," then God turned seven nights into one night. And Moses began to ask about the bones of Joseph, walking with candles. And Mary met him and said to him: "The bones of Joseph are in the river, in Voildai." And Moses, taking candles and 30 men with him, came to the river and said: "Take (up), Voildai, the bones of Joseph!" But they didn't show up. And again for the second time he said, and did not appear. In tre
This time he wrote on parchment to Voildai: "Take it out and put it on the water." And the cancer of Joseph appeared. Moses rejoiced and took the reliquary, but did not take the parchment. But a cruel Jew came up and took it. And they took with them many skulls of their fathers.

Many foreigners went with them for three days. And at the end of the third day they said to Moses and Aaron: "You have been walking for three days, and tomorrow you will return to Egypt, as you said." The same, answering them, said: "The Lord commanded us not to return to Egypt, but to go to a land that exudes milk and honey." Then the foreigners began to fight, and beat many of them. And they hurt them badly. But others fled from them and told Pharaoh what the Israelites had done. And Pharaoh said to all the elders of Egypt and to all the people: "You see how the children of Israel deceived us, they fled from us." And the kings of Egypt said: "What shall we do? Let us let the sons of Israel go, now they no longer work for us." And Pharaoh said: "Let us go after them, and as the desert lies before them, when they see us following them, they will return in horror." And Pharaoh chased after them, taking all his people and six hundred selected chariots, and on them stood three warriors in full armor. And they overtook them opposite Epaulia, between Maglas, right at Sephomara, there is a place in the so-called Cosmatia.

And looking round, the children of Israel saw that the Egyptians were chasing after them, and the people cried out to Moses, saying, “It would be better for us to have a tomb in Egypt than this place in this wilderness to which you brought us!”
Moses answered them: "The Lord God protects us, and you shut up!" And the Lord God showed his miracles. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and struck the Red Sea with his rod, as the Lord told him, and the sea parted into twelve ways, and each went with his kind, and they passed on dry land in the midst of the sea.
Then, after all, a miracle revealed the image of the marriage of an inexperienced bride. Then Moses was a water divider. Here the Archangel Gabriel was a servant of the miracle of Your wonderful Nativity, Creator!

Then Israel walked through the depths without soaking herself, but now the Virgin without seed gave birth to Christ. The sea after the passage of the Israelites remained impassable, so immaculate virgin after Christmas, Emmanuel was chaste. For the Existing and Eternally Existing appeared in the name of philanthropy, and the cloud became its cover.

Pharaoh pursued after them, and as he was in the middle of the sea with his soldiers on chariots and horses, so all the Egyptians drowned. And Moses struck the rod into the sea, and the water covered them both here and there, and not one of them escaped. And the sea became their tomb. God delivered Pharaoh from drowning, and an angel of God took him to the city of Nineveh, and he was king there for nine years.<... >

Like a snake, when it grows old and its eyes are blinded and languishes with hunger for forty days and forty nights, until its bodily strength weakens, and then it suddenly takes off its decayed skin and is renewed, so you, Jew, foolish and dumb, like a snake, you revere the prophecies, you know the time of Genesis - renew your body and open your eyes, throw off your shabby clothes, which is unbelief, be renewed with holy baptism, come to Christ and you will be like-minded with us. Remember then Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, and how, having seen a miracle, she glorified God, gathering a choir of wives. She herself took a tambourine, and ordered the other women to take two copper plates, and to the third to clap their hands. She herself, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to sing to the Lord in this way.<...>

Have you heard, O Jew, of the remarkable miracle, how then the sons of Israel passed on dry ground in the midst of the sea?
Have you heard, Jew, how Pharaoh became hardened against God? But you became like Pharaoh in everything, seeing all the Divine signs that Christ, the Son of God gives, and hardened in heart, like Pharaoh - with unbelief, and he was betrayed by the depths of the sea.

Look, you cursed Jew, that you are no better than Pharaoh, but just as he perished because of his madness, so you perished without a mind.<...>

Then the children of Israel went up from the Red Sea to the wilderness called Sur, and walked through the wilderness for three days and three nights, but they could not drink water, because it was very bitter, and they called this place "bitterness." And the people were angry with Moses, saying: “What shall we drink? Both we and our cattle will die from this water; in Egypt the waters were sweet for us, and in this wilderness our bodies will fall, burned from thirst for water. Show us the water now, which to drink!" And the people were very angry with Moses.

Moses prayed to God for these people, and the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, holding 3 tree branches in his hands: pevg, cedar and cypress. And the Angel of the Lord said to Moses: “Connect these branches with weaving in the sign of the image of the Holy Trinity and stick them in the water of Merra, and by this you will make the waters of Merrah sweet. This branch will turn into a large tree, this branch will reach the four sides of the Universe. And this tree is Salvation the world. With this tree, the treachery of the first enemy will be defeated." And about other things that were to be, the Angel told Moses, and then left him.

And Moses did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him. He wove tree branches and stuck them into a spring near the shore. And Moses said: “This tree is the life of the whole world, this tree will have great honor. Over time, they will cut it down. Then the Almighty will deign to come. the true light will ascend from the wicked, and you will see our life with your own eyes, but those wicked will soon be in perdition, and the whole world will bow down to him who is lifted up on the tree. "So the cross of Christ has sweetened the bitterness of pagan unbelief. And now you who grumble at me, shut up, the water has been sweetened by this tree, but you, coming up, draw and drink, and water your livestock." And at that very hour the waters of Merrah became sweet, and all men and cattle began to drink of it.

Have you heard, Jew, accursed henchman of Pharaoh, how the Lord in the Trinity was transformed through the interweaving of various tree branches? How did Moses prophesy to you about the incarnation of the Most High, and about the crucifixion on the tree, and about the salvation of the world?

After that, Moses took the children of Israel and brought them to Elim, and there were twelve fountains of water and nine shoots of dates. With these sources, the Lord foreshadowed the Twelve supreme apostles, who dispersed like rivers throughout the world. Just as springs emanate streams, which the people draw on in abundance, but they are not depleted, so the apostles of the Lord came to every people and proclaimed the greatness of God in their language. For the Lord God said to them: "Behold, I am sending you like sheep into a flock of wolves, but you do not care how and what and where to say. The Holy Spirit will immediately teach you how to speak."
The nine shoots of the date symbolize the nine apostolic disciples, because just as the grown date has a sweet taste, so the apostles preach their sweet teaching to the pagans and lead them to reasonable faith by their teaching.<... >

On the death of Moses

Then Moses ascended from Tabor of Moab to the top of Mount Fazgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan, and all the land of Ephraim, and all the land of Manasseh, and all the land of Judah to the farthest sea, and the wilderness, and the surrounding villages of the city Jericho. And the Lord said to Moses: "This is the land that I swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, saying:" To your offspring I will give it. "And I showed it to your eyes, but you will not enter there."

And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died in the land of Moab, near the house of Fagorov.
At his death, the archangel Michael, the archangel of the power of the Lord, was here. And now the shameless, insidious Devil was here. And he argued about the body of Moses, because, they say, he committed the murder of an Egyptian, and he falsely erected some other accusations. The archangel Michael answered him, and said: "The Lord forbids you, the all-sly Devil." For Michael, the archangel of the power of the Lord, did not dare to unjustly condemn Moses, but, preaching the greatness of the Godhead, he said: "The Lord forbids you, the all-evil Devil," and, exposing his cruel shamelessness, for which he was overthrown, the archangel in the name of the Lord forbids him
proclaim the majesty of the Divine.

An excerpt from Sim's diary

Sabbath day. As usual, no one follows it. Nobody but our family. Sinners everywhere gather in crowds and indulge in fun. Men, women, girls, boys - they all drink wine, fight, dance, play gambling, laugh, shout, sing. And do all sorts of other nasty things...

Received the Mad Prophet today. He is a good man, and, in my opinion, his mind is much better than his reputation. He received this nickname a very long time ago and completely undeservedly, since he simply makes predictions, and does not prophesy. He doesn't claim to be. He makes his predictions based on history and statistics...

The first day of the fourth month of the year 747 from the beginning of the world. Today I am 60 years old, for I was born in the year 687 from the beginning of the world. My relatives came to me and begged me to marry, so that our family would not be cut off. I am still young to take such care upon myself, although I know that my father Enoch, and my grandfather Jared, and my great-grandfather Maleleel, and great-great-grandfather Cainan, all entered into marriage at the age that I reached on this day ...

Another discovery. Once I noticed that William McKinley looked very sick. This is the very first lion, and from the very beginning I became very attached to him. I examined the poor man, looking for the cause of his ailment, and found that he had an unchewed head of cabbage stuck in his throat. I couldn't get it out, so I took a broom stick and pushed it in...

... Love, peace, peace, endless quiet joy - this is how we knew life in the Garden of Eden. Living was a pleasure. The passing time left no traces - no suffering, no decrepitude; sickness, sorrow, worries had no place in Eden. They hid behind its fence, but they could not penetrate it ...

I'm almost a day old. I showed up yesterday. So, anyway, it seems to me. And, probably, this is exactly so, because, if it was the day before yesterday, I did not exist then, otherwise I would remember it. It is possible, however, that I simply did not notice when it was the day before yesterday, although it was ...

This new creature with long hair is very annoying to me. It sticks out in front of my eyes all the time and follows me on my heels. I don't like it at all: I'm not used to society. Go to other animals...

Dagestanis - a term for peoples who originally live in Dagestan. There are about 30 peoples and ethnographic groups in Dagestan. In addition to Russians, Azerbaijanis and Chechens, who make up a large proportion of the population of the republic, these are Avars, Dargins, Kumti, Lezgins, Laks, Tabasarans, Nogais, Rutuls, Aguls, Tats, and others.

Circassians (self-designation - Adyge) - people in Karachay-Cherkessia. In Turkey and other countries of Western Asia, Circassians are also called all immigrants from the North. Caucasus. Believers are Sunni Muslims. The Kabardino-Circassian language belongs to the Caucasian (Iberian-Caucasian) languages ​​(Abkhazian-Adyghe group). Writing based on the Russian alphabet.

Moses is the greatest Old Testament prophet, the founder of Judaism, who brought the Jews out of Egypt, where they were in slavery, received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai and rallied the Israelite tribes into a single people.

In Christianity, Moses is considered one of the most important prototypes of Christ: just as through Moses the Old Testament was revealed to the world, so through Christ the New Testament.

The name "Moses" (in Hebrew - Moshe), presumably of Egyptian origin and means "child". According to other indications - "extracted or saved from the water" (this name was given to him by the Egyptian princess who found him on the river bank).

Four books of the Pentateuch (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) are devoted to his life and work, which make up the epic of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

Birth of Moses

According to the biblical account, Moses was born in Egypt to a Jewish family at a time when the Jews were in bondage to the Egyptians, about 1570 B.C. (according to other estimates, about 1250 B.C.). Moses' parents belonged to the tribe of Levi 1 (Ex. 2:1 ). His older sister was Miriam and his older brother was Aaron.(the first of the Jewish high priests, the founder of the priestly caste).

1 Levi - the third son of Jacob (Israel) from his wife Leah ( Gen.29:34 ). The descendants of the tribe of Levi are the Levites, who were responsible for the priesthood. Because of all the tribes of Israel, the Levites were the only tribe not endowed with land, they were dependent on their brethren.

As you know, the Israelites moved to Egypt during the lifetime of Jacob-Israel himself. 2 (XVII century BC), fleeing hunger. They lived in the eastern Egyptian region of Goshen, bordering the Sinai Peninsula and irrigated by a tributary of the Nile River. Here they had extensive pastures for their flocks and could freely roam the country.

2 Jacob,orJacob (Israel) - the third of the biblical patriarchs, the youngest of the twin sons of the patriarch Isaac and Rebekah. From his sons came 12 tribes of the people of Israel. In rabbinical literature, Jacob is seen as a symbol of the Jewish people.

Over time, the Israelites multiplied more and more, and the more they multiplied, the more hostile the Egyptians were towards them. In the end, there were so many Jews that it began to inspire fear in the new pharaoh. He said to his people: “Behold, the tribe of Israel is multiplying and can become stronger than us. If we have a war with another state, then the Israelis can unite with our enemies.” So that the tribe of Israel would not grow stronger, it was decided to turn it into slavery. The pharaohs and their officials began to oppress the Israelites like strangers, and then they began to treat them like a subjugated tribe, like masters with slaves. The Egyptians began to force the Israelites to the hardest work in favor of the state: they were forced to dig the earth, build cities, palaces and monuments for the kings, prepare clay and brick for these buildings. Special overseers were appointed who strictly monitored the execution of all these forced labors.

But no matter how oppressed the Israelites, they still continued to multiply. Then the pharaoh ordered that all newborn Israelite boys be drowned in the river, and only girls were left alive. This order was carried out with merciless severity. The people of Israel were threatened with total extermination.

In this troubled time, a son was born to Amram and Jochebed, from the tribe of Levi. He was so beautiful that light emanated from him. The father of the holy prophet Amram had a vision that spoke of the great mission of this infant and of God's favor towards him. Moses' mother Jochebed managed to hide the baby in her home for three months. However, no longer able to hide him, she left the baby in a tarred reed basket in a thicket on the banks of the Nile.

Moses being lowered by his mother into the waters of the Nile. A.V. Tyranov. 1839-42

At this time, the Pharaoh's daughter went to the river to bathe, accompanied by her attendants. Seeing a basket in the reeds, she ordered to open it. There was a tiny boy in the basket, crying. Pharaoh's daughter said, "this must be from the Jewish children." She took pity on the crying baby and, on the advice of the sister of Moses Miriam, who approached her, who was watching what was happening from afar, agreed to call the Israelite nurse. Miriam brought her mother Jochebed. Thus, Moses was given to his mother, who nursed him. When the boy grew up, he was brought to the Pharaoh's daughter, and she brought him up as her son ( Exod. 2:10 ). The pharaoh's daughter gave him the name Moses, which means "taken out of the water."

Finding Moses. F. Goodall, 1862

There are suggestions that this good princess was Hatshepsut, the daughter of Thotmes I, later the famous and the only female pharaoh in the history of Egypt.

Childhood and youth of Moses. Escape to the desert.

Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt, raised in the palace as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Here he received an excellent education and was initiated "into all the wisdom of Egypt", that is, into all the secrets of the religious and political worldview of Egypt. Tradition tells that he served as commander of the Egyptian army and helped the pharaoh defeat the Ethiopians who attacked him.

Although Moses grew up freely, he still never forgot his Jewish roots. Once he wished to see how his fellow tribesmen live. Seeing how the Egyptian overseer beats one of the Israelite slaves, Moses stood up for the defenseless and in a fit of rage accidentally killed the overseer. Pharaoh found out about this and wanted to punish Moses. Escape was the only way to escape. And Moses fled from Egypt to the wilderness of Sinai, which is near the Red Sea, between Egypt and Canaan. He settled in the land of Midian (Ex. 2:15), located on the Sinai Peninsula, with the priest Jethro (another name is Raguel), where he became a shepherd. Moses soon married Jethro's daughter, Zipporah, and became a member of this peaceful shepherd family. So another 40 years passed.

Calling Moses

One day Moses was tending a flock and went far into the wilderness. He approached Mount Horeb (Sinai), and there a wondrous vision appeared to him. He saw a thick thorn bush, which was engulfed in a bright flame and burned, but still did not burn.

The thorn bush or "Burning bush" is a prototype of God-manhood and the Mother of God and symbolizes the contact of God with a created being.

God said that he chose Moses to save the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Moses was to go to Pharaoh and demand that he release the Jews. As a sign that the time has come for a new, more complete Revelation, He proclaims His Name to Moses: "I am who I am"(Ex. 3:14) . He sends Moses to demand, on behalf of the God of Israel, that the people be released from the "house of bondage." But Moses is aware of his weakness: he is not ready for a feat, he is deprived of the gift of words, he is sure that neither Pharaoh nor the people will believe him. Only after persistently repeating the call and signs does he agree. God said that Moses had a brother in Egypt, Aaron, who, if necessary, would speak for him, and God himself would teach both of them what to do. To convince unbelievers, God gives Moses the ability to perform miracles. Immediately, by His order, Moses threw his rod (shepherd's stick) on the ground - and suddenly this rod turned into a snake. Moses caught the snake by the tail - and again a stick was in his hand. Another miracle: when Moses put his hand in his bosom and took it out, it became white from leprosy like snow, when he again put his hand in his bosom and took it out, she became healthy. “If they don’t believe this miracle, the Lord said, then you shall take water from the river and pour it out on dry land, and the water shall become blood on the dry land.”

Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh

In obedience to God, Moses set out on the road. Along the way, he met his brother Aaron, whom God ordered to go out into the wilderness to meet Moses, and together they went to Egypt. Moses was already 80 years old, no one remembered him. The daughter of the former pharaoh, the adoptive mother of Moses, also died long ago.

First of all, Moses and Aaron came to the people of Israel. Aaron told his fellow tribesmen that God would lead the Jews out of slavery and give them a country flowing with milk and honey. However, they did not immediately believe him. They were afraid of the revenge of the pharaoh, they were afraid of the way through the waterless desert. Moses performed several miracles, and the people of Israel believed in him and in the fact that the hour of liberation from slavery had come. Nevertheless, the murmuring against the prophet, which began even before the exodus, broke out then repeatedly. Like Adam, who was free to submit to or reject a higher Will, the newly created people of God experienced temptations and falls.

After that, Moses and Aron appeared to Pharaoh and announced to him the will of the God of Israel, so that he would let the Jews go into the wilderness to serve this God: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast for me in the wilderness." But the pharaoh answered angrily: “Who is the Lord that I should listen to him? I don’t know the Lord and I won’t let the Israelites go”(Ex. 5:1-2)

Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh

Then Moses announced to Pharaoh that if he did not let the Israelites go, then God would send various “executions” (misfortunes, disasters) to Egypt. The king did not obey - and the threats of the messenger of God came true.

The Ten Plagues and the Establishment of the Feast of Passover

Pharaoh's refusal to obey God's command entails 10 plagues of Egypt , a series of terrible natural disasters:

However, executions only further harden the pharaoh.

Then the angry Moses came to Pharaoh for the last time and warned: “Thus says the Lord: At midnight I will pass through the midst of Egypt. And every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh ... to the firstborn of the slave ... and all the firstborn of cattle. It was the last most severe 10th plague (Ex. 11:1-10 - Ex. 12:1-36).

Then Moses warned the Jews to slaughter a one-year-old lamb in each family and anoint the doorposts and the door frame with its blood: according to this blood, God will distinguish the dwellings of the Jews and will not touch them. Lamb meat had to be baked on fire and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The Jews must be ready to set off immediately.

During the night, Egypt suffered a terrible disaster. “And Pharaoh arose in the night, himself and all his servants, and all Egypt; and there was a great cry in the land of Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not a dead man.

The shocked Pharaoh immediately summoned Moses and Aaron to him and ordered them, along with all their people, to go into the wilderness and perform worship so that God would have mercy on the Egyptians.

Since then, the Jews every year on the 14th day of the month of Nisan (the day that falls on the full moon of the vernal equinox) make Easter holiday . The word "Passover" means "to pass by," because the Angel who struck down the firstborn passed by the Jewish houses.

From now on, Easter will mark the liberation of the People of God and their unity in the sacred meal - a prototype of the Eucharistic meal.

Exodus. Crossing the Red Sea.

That same night, all the people of Israel left Egypt forever. The Bible indicates the number of departed "600 thousand Jews" (not counting women, children and livestock). The Jews did not leave empty-handed: before fleeing, Moses ordered them to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver items, as well as rich clothes. They also brought with them the mummy of Joseph, which Moses searched for three days while his tribesmen collected property from the Egyptians. God himself led them, being by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, so that the fugitives walked day and night until they came to the seashore.

Meanwhile, the pharaoh realized that the Jews had deceived him, and rushed after them in pursuit. Six hundred war chariots and selected Egyptian cavalry quickly overtook the fugitives. There seemed to be no escape. Jews - men, women, children, old people - crowded on the seashore, preparing for inevitable death. Only Moses was calm. At the command of God, he stretched out his hand to the sea, hit the water with his rod, and the sea parted, clearing the way. The Israelites went along the seabed, and the waters of the sea stood like a wall to their right and left.

Seeing this, the Egyptians chased the Jews along the bottom of the sea. The pharaoh's chariots were already in the middle of the sea, when the bottom suddenly became so viscous that they could hardly move. Meanwhile, the Israelis got to the opposite bank. The Egyptian soldiers realized that things were bad and decided to turn back, but it was too late: Moses again extended his hand to the sea, and it closed over the Pharaoh's army...

The passage through the Red (now Red) Sea, which took place in the face of imminent mortal danger, becomes the culmination of a saving miracle. The waters separated the saved from the "house of bondage." Therefore, the transition became a type of the sacrament of baptism. A new passage through the water is also the way to freedom, but to freedom in Christ. On the seashore, Moses and all the people, including his sister Miriam, solemnly sang a song of thanksgiving to God. “I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; he threw his horse and rider into the sea…” This solemn song of the Israelites to the Lord underlies the first of the nine sacred songs that make up the canon of songs sung daily by the Orthodox Church at divine services.

According to biblical tradition, the Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years. And the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt took place, according to the calculations of Egyptologists, around 1250 BC. However, according to the traditional view, the Exodus took place in the 15th century. BC e., 480 years (~5 centuries) before the construction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6: 1). There are a significant number of alternative theories of the chronology of the Exodus, consistent to varying degrees with both religious and modern archaeological points of view.

Miracles of Moses

Exodus of Jews from Egypt

The road to the Promised Land ran through the harsh and vast Arabian Desert. At first, for 3 days they walked through the Shur desert and did not find water, except bitter (Merah) (Ex. 15:22-26), but God sweetened this water by commanding Moses to throw a piece of some special tree into the water.

Soon, when they reached the desert of Sin, the people began to grumble from hunger, remembering Egypt, when they "sat by the boilers with meat and ate their fill of bread!" And God heard them and sent them from heaven manna from heaven (Ex. 16).

One morning, when they woke up, they saw that the whole desert was covered with something white, like frost. They began to look: the white coating turned out to be small grains, similar to hail or grass seeds. In response to the astonished exclamations, Moses said: "This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat." Adults and children rushed to rake manna and bake bread. Since then, every morning for 40 years, they found manna from heaven and ate from it.

Manna from heaven

The collection of manna took place in the morning, as by noon it melted under the rays of the sun. “The manna was like coriander seed, looking like bdolakh”(Num. 11:7). According to Talmudic literature, when eating manna, young men felt the taste of bread, old people - the taste of honey, children - the taste of butter.

In Rephidim, Moses, at the command of God, brought water out of the rock of Mount Horeb, striking it with his staff.

Moses opens a spring in the rock

Here the Jews were attacked by a wild tribe of Amalekites, but they were defeated at the prayer of Moses, who during the battle prayed on the mountain, raising his hands to God ( Ex.17).

Sinai Covenant and 10 Commandments

In the 3rd month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites approached Mount Sinai and encamped against the mountain. Moses went up the mountain first, and God warned him that he would appear before the people on the third day.

And then this day came. Terrible phenomena accompanied the phenomenon in Sinai: clouds, smoke, lightning, thunder, flames, earthquakes, trumpets. This fellowship lasted 40 days, and God gave Moses two tablets - stone tables on which the Law was written.

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

2. Do not make for yourself an idol or any image of what is in heaven above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth; do not worship them and do not serve them, for I am the Lord your God. God is jealous, punishing the children for the guilt of the fathers to the third and fourth generation, who hate me, and showing mercy to a thousand generations who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. Do not pronounce the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who pronounces His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; work for six days and do (in them) all your works, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: do not do any work on it, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maidservant, nor (ox yours, not your donkey, not any) your livestock, nor the stranger that is in your dwellings; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

5. Honor your father and your mother (that you may be well and) that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

6. Don't kill.

7. Do not commit adultery.

8. Don't steal.

9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. Do not covet your neighbor's house; Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, (neither his field), nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, (nor any of his cattle) anything that is with your neighbor.

The law that was given to ancient Israel by God had several purposes. First, he asserted public order and justice. Secondly, he singled out the Jewish people as a special religious community professing monotheism. Thirdly, he had to make an internal change in a person, morally improve a person, bring a person closer to God through instilling in a person love for God. Finally, the law of the Old Testament prepared mankind for the adoption of the Christian faith in the future.

The Decalogue (ten commandments) formed the basis of the moral code of all cultural humanity.

In addition to the Ten Commandments, God dictated laws to Moses that spoke about how the people of Israel should live. So the Children of Israel became a people - Jews .

Moses' wrath. The establishment of the tabernacle of the covenant.

Moses climbed Mount Sinai twice, staying there for 40 days. During his first absence, the people sinned terribly. The wait seemed too long to them and they demanded that Aaron make them a god who brought them out of Egypt. Frightened by their wildness, he collected golden earrings and made a golden calf, in front of which the Jews began to serve and have fun.

Descending from the mountain, Moses in anger broke the Tablets and destroyed the calf.

Moses Breaks the Tablets of the Law

Moses severely punished the people for apostasy, killing about 3 thousand people, but asked God not to punish them. God had mercy and revealed His glory to him, showing him a cleft in which he could see God from behind, because it is impossible for a man to see His face.

After that, again for 40 days, he returned to the mountain and prayed to God for the forgiveness of the people. Here, on the mountain, he received instructions on the construction of the Tabernacle, the laws of worship and the establishment of the priesthood. It is believed that in the book of Exodus the commandments are listed, on the first broken tablets, and in Deuteronomy - what was inscribed a second time. From there he returned with God's face shone with the light and was forced to hide his face under a veil so that the people would not be blinded.

Six months later, the Tabernacle was built and consecrated - a large, richly decorated tent. Inside the tabernacle stood the ark of the covenant - a wooden, gold-studded chest with images of cherubs on top. In the ark lay the tablets of the covenant brought by Moses, the golden stave with manna, and the prosperous rod of Aaron.

Tabernacle

To prevent disputes about who should have the right to the priesthood, God commanded that a rod be taken from each of the twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel and placed in the tabernacle, promising that the rod would blossom in the one chosen by Him. The next day Moses found that Aaron's rod gave flowers and brought almonds. Then Moses laid the rod of Aaron before the ark of the covenant for preservation, as a testimony to future generations about the Divine election of Aaron and his descendants to the priesthood.

Moses' brother, Aaron, was ordained high priest, and other members of the tribe of Levi were ordained priests and "Levites" (we call them deacons). Since that time, the Jews began to perform regular worship and animal sacrifices.

End of wandering. Death of Moses.

For another 40 years Moses led his people to the promised land - Canaan. At the end of the wandering, the people again became cowardly and grumbled. In punishment, God sent poisonous snakes, and when they repented, he ordered Moses to erect a copper image of a snake on a pole so that everyone who looked at him with faith would remain unharmed. The serpent ascended in the desert, according to St. Gregory of Nyssa, is the sign of the sacrament of the cross.

Copper snake. Painting by F.A. Bruni

Despite great difficulties, the prophet Moses remained a faithful servant of the Lord God until the end of his life. He led, taught and instructed his people. He arranged their future, but he did not enter the Promised Land because of the lack of faith shown by him and his brother Aaron at the waters of Meribah in Kadesh. Moses hit the rock twice with his rod, and water flowed from the stone, although once was enough - and God, angry, announced that neither he nor his brother Aaron would enter the Promised Land.

By nature, Moses was impatient and prone to anger, but through divine training he became so humble that he became "the meekest of all people on earth." In all his deeds and thoughts he was guided by faith in the Almighty. In a sense, the fate of Moses is similar to the fate of the Old Testament itself, which through the wilderness of paganism brought the people of Israel to the New Testament and froze on its threshold. Moses died at the end of forty years of wandering on the top of Mount Nebo, from which he could see the promised land, Palestine, from afar. God told him: “This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… I made you see it with your eyes, but you will not enter it.”

He was 120 years old, but neither his eyesight was dulled, nor his strength was exhausted. He spent 40 years in the palace of the Egyptian pharaoh, the other 40 with flocks of sheep in the land of Midian, and the last 40 in wandering at the head of the Israelite people in the Sinai desert. The Israelites honored the death of Moses with 30 days of lamentation. His grave was hidden by God, so that the people of Israel, inclined at that time to paganism, would not make a cult out of it.

After Moses, the Jewish people, spiritually renewed in the wilderness, were led by his disciple Joshua who brought the Jews to the Promised Land. For forty years of wandering, not a single person remained alive who left Egypt with Moses, and who doubted God and bowed to the golden calf at Horeb. Thus, a truly new people was created, living according to the law given by God at Sinai.

Moses was also the first inspired writer. According to legend, he is the author of the books of the Bible - the Pentateuch as part of the Old Testament. Psalm 89 "The Prayer of Moses, the Man of God" is also attributed to Moses.

Svetlana Finogenova

After the death of Patriarch Joseph, the position of the Jews changed dramatically. The new king, who did not know Joseph, began to fear that the Jews, having become a numerous and strong people, would go over to the side of the enemy in the event of war. He placed leaders over them to wear them out with hard work. Pharaoh also ordered the death of newborn Israelite boys. The very existence of the chosen people is at stake.. However, the Providence of God did not allow this plan to be carried out. God saved from death and the future leader of the people - Moses. This greatest Old Testament prophet came from the tribe of Levi. His parents were Amram and Jochebed (Ex 6:20). The future prophet was younger than his brother Aaron and sister Miriam. The baby was born when the pharaoh's order was in force to drown newborn Jewish boys in the Nile. The mother hid her child for three months, but then she was forced to hide it in a basket in the reeds on the river bank. The pharaoh's daughter saw him and took him into her house. Watching from afar, Moses' sister offered to bring a wet nurse. According to God's providence, it was so arranged that his own mother became the breadwinner for him, raising him in her house. When the boy grew up, his mother brought him to the pharaoh's daughter. While living in the royal palace as an adopted son, Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in word and deed (Acts 7:22).

When he forty years old he went out to his brothers. Seeing that an Egyptian was beating a Jew, he, protecting his brother, killed the Egyptian. Fearing persecution, Moses fled to the land of Midian and was received in the house of the local priest Raguel (aka Jethro), who married his daughter Zippora to Moses.

Moses lived in Midian Fourty years. During these decades, he gained that inner maturity that made him capable of accomplishing a great feat - with the help of God, free the people from slavery. This event was perceived by the Old Testament people as central to the history of the people. IN Holy Scripture it is mentioned more than sixty times. In memory of this event, the main Old Testament holiday was established - Easter. The Exodus has a spiritual and representative significance. The Egyptian captivity is an Old Testament symbol of the slavish submission of mankind to the devil until the redemptive feat of Jesus Christ. Exodus from Egypt heralds spiritual liberation through the New Testament sacrament of baptism.

The Exodus was preceded by one of the most important events in the history of the Chosen People. epiphany. Moses was tending his father-in-law's sheep in the desert. He went to Mount Horeb and saw that the thorn bush is engulfed in flames, but does not burn out. Moses began to approach him. But God called to him from the midst of the bush: don't come here; put off thy sandals from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And he said: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob(Ex 3:5-6).

The outer side of the vision - a burning, but not burning thorn bush - depicted plight of the Jews in Egypt. Fire, as a destructive force, indicated the severity of suffering. As the bush burned and did not burn out, so the Jewish people were not destroyed, but only cleansed in the crucible of disasters. This is a prototype of the Incarnation. The Holy Church adopted the symbol Burning Bush Mother of God . The miracle lies in the fact that this thorn bush, in which the Lord appeared to Moses, has survived to this day. It is located in the fence of the Sinai monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine.

The Lord appeared to Moses and said, scream the sons of Israel suffering at the hands of the Egyptians came to him.

God sends Moses to make great mission: bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt(Ex 3:10). Moses humbly speaks of his weakness. To this indecision, God answers with clear and full of all-conquering power words: I will be with you(Ex 3:12). Moses, having received high obedience from the Lord, asks for the name of the One who sent it. God said to Moses: I am the Existing (Ex 3:14). Word Existing in the Synodal Bible, the hidden name of God is transmitted, inscribed in the Hebrew text with four consonants ( tetragram): YHWH. The place cited shows that the prohibition to pronounce this secret name appeared much later than the time of the exodus (perhaps after the Babylonian captivity).

While reading aloud sacred texts in the tabernacle, the temple, and later in the synagogues, instead of the tetragram, another name of God was pronounced - Adonai. In Slavic and Russian texts, the tetragram is given by the name Lord. in biblical language Existing expresses the personal principle of absolute self-sufficient being, on which the existence of the entire created world depends.

The Lord strengthened the spirit of Moses two miraculous acts. The rod turned into a snake, and Moses' hand, covered with leprosy, was healed. The miracle with the rod testified that the Lord gave Moses the authority of the leader of the people. The sudden defeat of Moses' hand with leprosy and its healing meant that God endowed His chosen one with the power of miracles to fulfill his mission.

Moses said he was tongue-tied. The Lord strengthened him: I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say(Ex 4:12). God gives the future leader as an assistant to his older brother Aaron.

Having come to Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron, on behalf of the Lord, demanded that the people be released into the wilderness to celebrate the holiday. The pharaoh was a pagan. He declared that he did not know the Lord and the people of Israel would not let him go. Pharaoh was hardened against the Jewish people. The Jews did hard work at that time - they made bricks. Pharaoh ordered that their work be made heavier. God again sends Moses and Aaron to declare His will to Pharaoh. At the same time, the Lord commanded to perform signs and wonders.

Aaron threw his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. The wise men and sorcerers of the king and the magi of Egypt did the same with their charms: they threw down their wands, and they became snakes, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

The next day, the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron to perform another miracle. When the pharaoh was going to the river, Aaron struck the water in front of the king's face and water turned to blood. All reservoirs in the country were filled with blood. The Egyptians Nile was one of the gods of their pantheon. What happened to the water was to enlighten them and show the power of the God of Israel. But this first of the ten plagues of Egypt only hardened Pharaoh's heart even more.

Second execution took place seven days later. Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and went out frogs and covered the ground. The disaster prompted Pharaoh to ask Moses to pray to the Lord to remove all the frogs. The Lord fulfilled the petitions of His saint. The toads are dead. As soon as the king felt relieved, he again fell into bitterness.

Therefore followed third execution. Aaron struck the ground with his rod, and there appeared midges and began to bite people and livestock. In the Hebrew original, these insects are named kinnim, in Greek and Slavic texts - sketches. According to the Jewish philosopher of the 1st century Philo of Alexandria and Origen, these were mosquitoes - a common scourge of Egypt during the flood period. But this time all the dust of the earth became midges throughout all the land of Egypt(Ex 8:17). The Magi could not repeat this miracle. They said to the king: this is the finger of God(Ex 8:19). But he didn't listen to them. The Lord sends Moses to Pharaoh to speak on behalf of the Lord to let the people go. If he does not comply, they will be sent to the whole country dog flies. It was fourth plague. Her tools were flies. They are named canine, apparently because they had a strong bite. Philo of Alexandria writes that they were distinguished by their ferocity and persistence. The fourth plague has two features. Firstly, The Lord works a miracle without the mediation of Moses and Aaron. Secondly, the land of Goshen, where the Jews lived, was freed from disaster so that Pharaoh could clearly see the absolute power of God. The punishment worked. Pharaoh promised to let the Jews go into the desert and offer a sacrifice to the Lord God. He asked to pray for him and not to go far. Through the prayer of Moses, the Lord removed all the flies from Pharaoh and the people. Pharaoh did not let the Jews go into the desert.

Followed fifth plague - pestilence which struck all the cattle of Egypt. The Jewish cattle, however, the calamity has passed. This execution was also carried out by God directly, and not through Moses and Aaron. The stubbornness of the pharaoh remained the same.

Sixth execution was accomplished by the Lord only through Moses (when the first three were accomplished, Aaron was the mediator). Moses took a full handful of ashes and threw them into the sky. People and cattle covered abscesses. This time, the Lord Himself hardened Pharaoh's heart. He did this, apparently, in order to further reveal to the king and all the Egyptians His all-conquering power. God says to Pharaoh: I will send tomorrow, at this very time, a very strong hail, which has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded until now.(Ex 9:18). The holy writer notes that those servants of Pharaoh who were afraid of the words of the Lord, hastily gathered their servants and flocks into their houses. The hail was accompanied by thunder, which can be explained as the voice of God from heaven. Psalm 77 reports additional details this execution: They crushed their grapes with hail, and their sycamores with ice; gave up their livestock to hail and their flocks to lightning(47-48). Blessed Theodoret explains: “The Lord brought upon them hail and thunder, showing by the fact that He is the Lord of all the elements. This execution was carried out by God through Moses. The land of Goshen was not affected. It was seventh plague. Pharaoh repented: this time I sinned; The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty; pray to the Lord: let the thunders of God and hail cease, and I will let you go and hold you no longer(Ex 9:27-28). But repentance was short-lived. Soon the pharaoh again fell into a state bitterness.

Eighth plague was very scary. After Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, The Lord brought a wind from the east lasting day and night. The locusts attacked all the land of Egypt and ate all the grass and all the greenery on the trees.. Pharaoh repents again, but, apparently, as before, his repentance is superficial. The Lord hardens his heart.

Peculiarity ninth plague that she was called symbolic action Moses stretched out his hands to heaven. Installed for three days thick darkness. Having punished the Egyptians with darkness, God showed the insignificance of their idol Ra, the god of the sun. Pharaoh gave in again.

Tenth plague was the scariest. The month of Aviv has arrived. Before the start of the exodus, God commanded to celebrate Easter. This holiday became the main one in the Old Testament sacred calendar.

The Lord told Moses and Aaron that every family on the tenth day of Abib (after the Babylonian captivity, this month became known as Nissan) took one lamb and kept him separate until the fourteenth day of that month, and then stabbed him to death. When the lamb is slain, let them take from its blood and they will anoint on both jambs and on the crossbar of the doors in the houses where they will eat it.

At midnight on the 15th of Abib, the Lord struck in the land of Egypt all the firstborn as well as all original livestock. The first-born Jews were not harmed. Because the doorposts and lintels of their houses were anointed with the blood of the sacrificial lamb, The angel who slew the firstborn of Egypt, passed by. Established in memory of this event, the holiday was called Easter (Heb. passover; from a verb meaning jump over something).

The blood of the lamb was a type of the atoning blood of the Savior, the blood of cleansing and reconciliation. Unleavened bread (unleavened bread), which the Jews were supposed to eat on Easter days, also had a symbolic meaning: in Egypt, the Jews were in danger of becoming infected with pagan wickedness. However, God brought the Jewish people out of the country of enslavement, made them spiritually pure people, called to holiness: And you will be holy to me(Ex 22:31). He must reject the former leaven of moral corruption and start a clean life. Unleavened bread that cooks quickly symbolized that speed with which the Lord brought His people out of the land of slavery.

Easter meal expressed common unity of its participants with God and among themselves. Symbolic meaning It also had the fact that the lamb was cooked whole, with the head. Bone shouldn't have broken.

One of the central events of the Old Testament is the story of Moses, the salvation of the Jewish people from the power of the Egyptian pharaoh. Many skeptics are looking for historical evidence of the events that took place, since in the biblical account there were many miracles performed on the way to the Promised Land. However, be that as it may, but this story is quite entertaining and tells of the incredible liberation and resettlement of an entire people.

The birth of the future prophet was initially shrouded in mystery. Almost the only source of information about Moses was the biblical writings, since direct historical evidence does not exist, there are only indirect ones. In the year of the prophet's birth, the ruling pharaoh Ramses II ordered all newborn children to be drowned in the Nile, because, despite the hard work and oppression of the Jews, they continued to be fruitful and multiply. Pharaoh was afraid that someday they might take the side of his enemies.

That is why Moses' mother hid him from everyone for the first three months. When this was no longer possible, she tarred the basket and placed her child in it. Together with her eldest daughter, she took it to the river and left Mariam to see what happens next.

God was pleased that Moses and Ramses met. History, as mentioned above, is silent about the details. The pharaoh's daughter picked up the basket and brought it to the palace. According to another version (which some historians adhere to), Moses belonged to the royal family and was the son of that very daughter of the pharaoh.

Whatever it was, but the future prophet was in the palace. Miriam, who was watching the one who lifted the basket, offered Moses' own mother as a wet nurse. So the son returned to the bosom of the family for a while.

The life of a prophet in the palace

After Moses grew up a little and stopped needing a nurse, his mother took the future prophet to the palace. There he lived for quite a long time, and was also adopted by the daughter of the pharaoh. Moses knew what kind he was, knew that he was a Jew. And although he studied on a par with the rest of the children royal family, but did not absorb cruelty.

The story of Moses from the Bible testifies that he did not worship the numerous gods of Egypt, but remained faithful to the beliefs of his ancestors.

Moses loved his people and every time he suffered when he saw their torment, when he saw how mercilessly each Israelite was exploited. One day something happened that forced the future prophet to flee from Egypt. Moses witnessed a severe beating of one of his people. In a fit of rage, the future prophet snatched the whip from the hands of the overseer and killed him. Since no one saw what he did (as Moses thought), the body was simply buried.

After a while, Moses realized that many already knew what he had done. The pharaoh orders the arrest and death of his daughter's son. How Moses and Ramses treated each other, history is silent. Why did they decide to try him for the murder of the overseer? You can take into account different versions of what is happening, however, most likely, the decisive factor was that Moses was not an Egyptian. As a result of all this, the future prophet decides to flee from Egypt.

Flight from the Pharaoh and the later life of Moses

According to biblical data, the future prophet went to the land of Midian. The further history of Moses tells of his family life. He married the daughter of the priest Jethro Zipporah. Living this life, he became a shepherd, learned to live in the desert. He also had two sons.

Some sources claim that before marrying, Moses lived for some time with the Saracens, had a prominent position there. However, it should still be taken into account that the only source of the story of his life is the Bible, which, like any ancient scripture, over time, overgrown with a kind of allegorical touch.

Divine Revelation and the Appearance of the Lord to the Prophet

Be that as it may, but the biblical story about Moses tells that it was in the Midian land, when he was tending the flocks, that the Lord's revelation came to him. The future prophet at that moment was eighty years old. It was at this age that on his way he met a bush of thorns, which blazed with flame, but did not burn out.

At this point, Moses was instructed that he must save the people of Israel from Egyptian rule. The Lord commanded to return to Egypt and lead his people to the promised land, freeing them from long-term slavery. However, the Almighty Father warned Moses about the difficulties on his way. In order for him to have the opportunity to overcome them, he was given the ability to work miracles. Due to the fact that Moses was tongue-tied, God commanded him to take his brother Aaron to help him.

Return of Moses to Egypt. Ten plagues

The story of the prophet Moses as a herald God's will, began on the day when he appeared before the pharaoh, who ruled at that time in Egypt. This was a different ruler, not the one from whom Moses had fled in his time. Of course, the pharaoh refused the demand to release the Israeli people, and even increased the labor service for his slaves.

Moses and Ramses, whose history is more obscure than researchers would like, clashed in opposition. The prophet did not accept the first defeat, he came to the ruler several more times and eventually said that God's punishment would fall on the land of Egypt. And so it happened. By the will of God, there were ten plagues that fell on Egypt and its inhabitants. After each of them, the ruler called on his sorcerers, but they found the magic of Moses more skillful. After each misfortune, Pharaoh agreed to let the people of Israel go, but changed his mind each time. Only after the tenth Jewish slaves became free.

Of course, the story of Moses did not end there. The prophet still had years of travel, as well as a clash with the unbelief of his fellow tribesmen, until they all reached the Promised Land.

Establishment of Passover and Exodus from Egypt

Before the last plague that befell the people of Egypt, Moses warned the people of Israel about it. It was the killing of the firstborn in every family. However, the warned Israelites anointed their door with the blood of a lamb no older than one year, and their punishment passed.

On the same night, the celebration of the first Easter took place. The story of Moses from the Bible tells of the rituals that preceded it. The slaughtered lamb had to be baked whole. Then eat standing up, having gathered the whole family. After this event, the people of Israel left the land of Egypt. Pharaoh, in fear, even asked to do it sooner, seeing what happened at night.

From the first dawn came the fugitives. The sign of God's will was a pillar, which was fiery at night and cloudy during the day. It is believed that this Easter was eventually transformed into the one we know now. The emancipation of the Jewish people from slavery symbolized just that.

Another miracle that happened almost immediately after leaving Egypt was the crossing of the Red Sea. At the command of the Lord, the waters parted, and dry land was formed, along which the Israelites crossed to the other side. The pharaoh who was chasing them also decided to follow the bottom of the sea. However, Moses and his people were already on the other side, and the waters of the sea closed again. So the pharaoh died.

The Covenants Moses Received at Mount Sinai

The next stopping point for the Jewish people was Mount Moses. The story from the Bible tells that on this way the fugitives saw many miracles (manna from heaven, spring water springs appearing) and strengthened in their faith. Ultimately, after a three-month journey, the Israelites came to Mount Sinai.

Leaving the people at its foot, Moses himself climbed to the top for the instructions of the Lord. There, a dialogue took place between the Universal Father and his prophet. As a result of all this, ten commandments were obtained, which became the main ones for the people of Israel, which became the basis of legislation. Commandments were also received that covered civil and religious life. All this was written in the Book of the Covenant.

Forty Years' Journey Through the Wilderness of the Israelite People

Near Mount Sinai, the Jewish people stood for about a year. Then a sign was given by the Lord to move on. The story of Moses as a prophet continued. He continued to bear the burden of mediating between his people and the Lord. For forty years they wandered in the desert, sometimes living for a long time in places where conditions were more favorable. The Israelites gradually became zealous executors of the covenants that the Lord had given them.

Of course, there were outrages. Not everyone was satisfied with such long wanderings. However, as the story of Moses from the Bible testifies, the people of Israel nevertheless reached the Promised Land. However, the prophet himself never reached her. Moses had a revelation that another leader would lead them on. He died at the age of 120, but no one ever found out where it happened, since his death was a mystery.

Historical facts confirming biblical events

Moses, whose life story we know only from biblical stories, is a significant figure. However, is there any official data that confirms his existence as a historical figure? Some people think it's all just beautiful legend which was invented.

However, some historians are still inclined to believe that Moses is a historical figure. This is evidenced by some of the information contained in biblical story(slaves in Egypt, birth of Moses). Thus, we can say that this is far from a fictional story, and all these miracles actually happened in those distant times.

It should be noted that today this event is displayed more than once in the cinema, and cartoons have also been created. They tell about such heroes as Moses and Ramses, whose history is little described in the Bible. Particular attention in the cinema is paid to the miracles that happened during their journey. Be that as it may, but all these films and cartoons educate morality in the younger generation and instill morality. They are also useful for adults, especially those who have lost faith in miracles.