[male narrator] And the Lord said unto Moses,
"Go. Return into Egypt."
And Moses took his wife and his son
and he returned to the land of Egypt.
And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
Let the ambassador from Priam, king of Troy, approach the Pharaoh.
[low chattering]
Great Pharaoh, the gift of Troy is a fabulous fabric
from the land of the five rivers.
[crowd gasping]
Our thanks to Priam. It is fabulous indeed.
- It shimmers like the Nile. What is it? - How is it made?
No one knows, great Pharaoh. It is spun on the looms of the gods.
- They call it silk. - The ambassador from Jericho.
What kingdom has sent you?
The kingdom of the Most High.
These must be ambassadors from...
Bedouins?
- What gifts do you bring? - We bring you the word of God.
What is this word?
Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel,
"Let my people go!"
The slaves are mine.
Their lives are mine.
All that they own is mine.
I do not know your God,
nor will I let Israel go.
Who are you to make their lives bitter in hard bondage?
Men shall be ruled by law, not the will of other men.
[indistinct murmurs]
Who is this God that I should let your people go?
Aaron.
Cast down my staff before Pharaoh
that he may see the power of God.
In this you shall know that the Lord is God.
[gasps]
Mother! Mother!
He turned his staff into a cobra!
[hissing]
Nothing of his will harm you, my son.
The power of your God is a cheap magician's trick.
Jannes.
Mother, look!
Jannes, do you see?
Moses' serpent swallows up the others.
[indistinct whispers]
You gave me this staff to rule over scorpions and serpents,
but God made it a rod to rule over kings.
Hear his word, Rameses, and obey.
[crowd murmuring]
Obey?
Moses, Moses.
Are there no magicians in Egypt
that you have come back to make serpents out of sticks?
Or cause rabbits to appear?
[crowd chuckling]
I will give your staff a greater wonder to perform.
Bear it before your idle people
and bid them make bricks without straw.
How can people make bricks without straw?
Let his staff provide them with it.
[laughter]
Or let them glean straw in the fields for themselves.
But their tally of bricks shall not diminish.
So let it be written.
So let it be done.
[crowd chattering]
[woman] We are free!
Aaron! Aaron, when do we leave Egypt?
We do not leave Egypt.
- [all murmuring] - But Moses promised us.
But you said we'd be freed!
I have brought more evil upon you.
God forgive my weak use of his strength.
- Weak use? - Moses, what have you done to us?
It is Pharaoh's order that you be given no straw
- to make your tally of bricks. - No straw?
[all exclaiming]
How can we make bricks without straw?
You will glean the stubble of the fields by night.
And your women and children, too.
Is this the deliverer?
You've brought the wrath of Pharaoh upon us!
You put a sword in their hands to kill us!
- Stone him! Stone him! - [crowd clamoring]
Stand aside! Come!
Follow!
There goes your deliverer. Now, go find your straw.
Remember, the tally must be the same. Not one brick less.
I cursed you.
Each time Rameses took me in his arms, I cursed you, not him,
because I love you.
The Moses who loved you was another man.
No, he was not.
You believe you've changed, but you haven't.
You call yourself a prophet, a man of God,
but I know better.
I don't believe that only the thunder of a mountain stirs your heart,
as you stir mine.
Nefretiri, I have stood in the burning light of God's own presence.
It was not he who saved you just now.
I did that.
Oh, Moses, Moses.
Why, of all men, did I fall in love with the prince of fools?
But I believe anything you tell me when I'm in your arms.
Why must you deny me and yourself?
Because I am bound to a God
and to a people and to a shepherd girl.
A shepherd girl? What can she be to you?
Unless the desert sun has dulled your senses.
Does she... grate garlic on her skin?
Or is it soft as mine?
Are her lips chafed and dry as the desert sand?
Or are they moist and red
like a pomegranate?
Is it the fragrance of myrrh that scents her hair?
Or is it the odor of sheep?
There is a beauty beyond the senses, Nefretiri.
Beauty like the quiet of green valleys and still waters.
Beauty of the spirit that you cannot understand.
Perhaps not.
But beauty of the spirit will not free your people, Moses.
You will come to me or they will never leave Egypt.
The fate of Israel is not in your hands, Nefretiri.
Oh, isn't it?
Who else can soften Pharaoh's heart?
Or harden it?
Yes.
You may be the lovely dust
through which God will work his purpose.
Fill everyjar in your house with water.
Tell the others that for seven days there will be none to drink.
- But this well has never run dry. - And the river is high.
What does it mean?
- Whose word is that? - One who knows.
So fill your jars or go thirsty.
- Miriam is always right. - Yes, I'm going back for more jars.
No water for seven days.
Yes, Joshua.
She comes to the well every day.
Wait, and you will see her.
It is wise of Dathan to send you to the well, Lilia,
or he might find his water poisoned.
They told me you were dead.
To all I love, Joshua, I am dead.
- Dathan? - Yes. Dathan.
Of your own free will?
Of my own free will.
You are no man's slave. The hour of deliverance has come.
Not for me, Joshua.
Hail to thee, great god of the Nile!
Thy life-giving waters are the blood of Egypt.
[low, indistinct singing]
Hail to thee, maker of barley,
feeder of cattle, carrier of ships,
greatest of all the gods.
Pharaoh of Egypt! You have not yet obeyed the Lord.
Let my people go!
- The point of the sword... - Let him rave on,
that men shall know him mad.
Obey the Lord,
or he will raise his hand against the waters of the river.
I have come to bless the waters, you have come to curse them.
We will learn if a god of shepherds is stronger than the gods of Pharaoh.
Water of life, give drink to the desert
- and make green the meadow. - Aaron.
Stretch out my staff against the waters.
- Look! - There!
Where he struck the river, it bleeds.
The water turns to blood!
[screaming]
Blood flows from the god!
See how it spreads.
It is blood!
That you may know the power of the Lord,
for seven days, Egypt will thirst.
Seven days without water! Fill everyjug and jar!
- Pestilence will be everywhere! - Were it seven times seven days,
no magician's trick will set your people free.
Sacred water,
make pure the flood from which you came.
[male narrator] And God smote the land with all manner of plagues,
but still Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
[crowd shouting]
Great one, you hear the cry of Egypt.
They would cry louder if they had to make the bricks.
- Send them away. - The people have been plagued
by thirst, they've been plagued by frogs, by lice, by flies,
by sickness, by boils. They can endure no more.
[man] Back to your homes!
Why do you bring this worker of evil before me?
The people desert the temples.
- They turn from the gods. - What gods?
You prophets and priests made the gods,
that you may prey upon the fears of men.
When the Nile ran red, I too was afraid,
until word came of a mountain beyond the cataracts
which spewed red mud and poisoned the water.
Was it the staff I gave you that caused all this?
Was it the wonder of your god that fish should die
and frogs should leave the waters?
Was it a miracle that flies and lice should bloat upon their carrion
and spread disease in both man and beast?
These things were ordered by themselves,
not by any god!
Now, go.
That you may know these things are done of God...
...you shall see hail fall from a clear sky
and burn as fire upon the ground.
You shall see darkness cover Egypt
when the sun climbs high to noon.
And you shall know that God is God
and bow down to his will.
Nothing of this Earth can make me bow to you, Moses.
Behold, the hail comes.
When darkness has covered Egypt for three days,
your ministers will send for me.
[thunder rumbling]
In the three days of darkness,
you have whined like frightened children in the night.
Moses said the sun would shine in three days and it is true.
Oh, great one, let his people go,
or all of Egypt will be barren from the cataracts to the sea.
Will my father free the slaves?
Can taxes be collected from dead cattle and blighted harvests?
Does fear rule Egypt, or do I?
We fear no army of the Earth,
but can we fight plagues with swords?
[man] There is no shame in this.
[man 2] The strongest tree bends.
It is not Pharaoh who yields to the slave,
but his counselors.
I have summoned Moses at your request.
[man] People will bless you, great one.
[man 2] No other choice, Pharaoh.
Does the world bow to an empty throne?
Empty?
Does a Pharaoh harden his heart against his son?
If you let the Hebrews go, who will build his cities?
You told Moses to make bricks without straw.
Now, he tells you to make cities without bricks!
[chuckling]
Who is the slave, and who is the Pharaoh?
Do you hear laughter, Rameses?
Yes, the laughter of kings
in Babylon, in Canaan,
in Troy,
as Egypt surrenders to the god of slaves!
Bring the Hebrew in.
Go into the garden. It's not good for a son of Pharaoh
to see his father humbled by a son of slaves.
- [men murmuring] - My son, stand beside me.
Have the days of darkness made you see the light, Rameses?
Will you now free my people?
Great one, bid the scribe read the order.
Give me the writing.
Sublime, ye Pharaoh.
You cannot resist the power of his god!
I know not his god!
Neither will I let his people go.
[men murmuring]
How long will you refuse to humble yourself before God?
If you bring another plague upon us,
it is not your god but I who will turn the Nile red with blood.
As your father's father turned the streets of Goshen red
with the blood of our male children!
If there is one more plague on Egypt,
it is by your word that God will bring it.
And there shall be so great a cry throughout the land
that you will surely let the people go.
Come to me no more, Moses,
for on the day you see my face again,
you will surely die.
So let it be written.
[men murmuring]
I will give this spawn of slaves and his god
an answer the world will not forget!
Commander of the Host, call on the chariots from Tanis.
There shall be one more plague,
only it will come upon the slaves of Goshen!
[men chattering]
First-born of each house shall die,
beginning with the son of Moses.
[chariot approaching]
You are the shepherd girl that Moses married?
The queen of Egypt is beautiful, as he told me.
My husband is not here.
Is this Moses' son?
Yes, this is our son.
What do you want of us?
You need have no fear of me.
I feared only his memory of you.
You have been able to erase it?
He has forgotten both of us.
You lost him when he went to seek his God.
I lost him when he found his God.
At least he left you a son to cherish.
I am here to save his son.
- From what? - From Pharaoh's decree
that the first-born of Israel must die.
Die?
God of Abraham!
Don't let him do this! Not to the children!
A caravan for Midian is waiting for you and your son.
My chariot will bring you to it.
I'm surprised you noticed me.
You didn't at the palace this morning, you know?
Why? Were you afraid to look at me?
What do you want, Nefretiri?
You, Moses.
Everything about us is coming to an end!
You will destroy Egypt or Egypt will destroy you.
I belong to you, Moses.
She's gone with your son to Midian.
Why would she leave?
She knew you would try to save the other children before your own son.
Save the other children? From what?
Rameses is massing the Libyan axmen, the chariots, the Sardinian swordsmen.
Why? Tell me why!
- To destroy the first-born of Israel. - Oh, God!
My God!
Out of his own mouth comes thyjudgment!
- But I have saved your son, Moses. - It is not my son who will die!
It is... It is the first-born of Egypt!
- It is your son, Nefretiri! - No.
You would not dare strike Pharaoh's son!
In the hardness of his heart, Pharaoh has mocked God
and brings death to his own son!
But he's my son, Moses.
You would not harm my son?
By myself, I am nothing.
It is the power of God which uses me to work his will.
You would not let him do this to me.
I saved your son.
I cannot save yours.
Your god listens to you, Moses.
About midnight,
the destroyer will come into the midst of Egypt
and all the first-born shall die,
from the first-born of Pharaoh to the first-born of his servants.
When you were Prince of Egypt,
you held me in your arms.
When you were a condemned slave,
I threw myself at your feet before the court of Pharaoh.
Because I loved you, Moses.
It is the Lord who executes judgment, Nefretiri.
Go back to your son.
Your love for me is stronger than the power of any god.
You will not kill my son.
Turn from thy fierce wrath, O Lord!
[Lilia singing softly]
♪ Death cometh to me
♪ To set me free
♪ Death cometh to me...
No, Lilia, death will not come to you.
Joshua!
Joshua, you risk your life in coming here.
- You are first-born. - So are you.
I bring lamb's blood to mark the doorposts and lintel,
that the Angel of Death may pass you by.
Joshua, it is enough that you have come to me.
I am outcast among our people.
Don't save me from death, Joshua, save me from life.
Tomorrow will bring a new world for us, Lilia.
There will be no new world! And no blood on this door!
Dathan, it will save her life! Moses has God's promise!
Moses has words, Pharaoh has spears.
Remember, Joshua, of her own free will she's mine.
[man singing indistinctly]
- [woman sobbing in distance] - ♪ Under his wing shalt thou trust
[woman screaming nearby]
"Though we stand in the shadow of death,
the Lord is our God. The Lord is one."
"The Lord is our God. The Lord is one."
♪ His truth shall be thy shield
"Shield us through this night of terror, O King of the Universe."
[people screaming, shouting indistinctly]
Why is everyone afraid?
Why is this night different from all others?
Because this night the Lord our God
will deliver us from the bondage of Egypt.
♪ Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night
- [man] Stand all! - [knocking at door]
- Pharaoh's soldiers! - Or worse!
[knocking continues]
♪ Or from the arrow that flyeth by day
Bithiah!
In fear of your god, they have set me free.
May a stranger enter?
There are no strangers among those who seek God's mercy.
My bearers?
All who thirst for freedom may come with us.
[woman screaming in distance]
The darkness of death will pass over us tonight.
Tomorrow the light of freedom will shine upon us
- as we go forth from Egypt. - I shall go with you, Moses.
- A princess of Egypt! - From the house of Pharaoh!
- She follows the gods of Egypt. - An idol-worshipper!
This woman drew me from the Nile
and set my feet upon the path of knowledge.
Mered, bring a chair to our table for the daughter of Pharaoh.
There is a great light that shines from your face, Moses.
Perhaps some day I shall come to understand it.
He is God's messenger, Princess.
[screaming continues in distance]
[wailing]
If it is not forbidden to look upon the breath of pestilence,
then see, for it is here.
Do not look, Eleazar.
Close the door, Joshua, and let death pass.
[indistinct singing resumes]
Will it pass, Moses? Will it pass?
That is God's promise, Elisheba.
[nearby screaming]
"Blessed art thou, O Lord our God,
who bringeth forth bread from the Earth."
[indistinct shouting outside]
[man shouting] Run! Run!
There shall no evil befall you,
or any plagues come near you.
♪ A thousand shall fall at thy sight
Why do we eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs, my uncle?
- The herbs... - [man shouting] Faster!
Take the other road!
- [horses whinnying] - [man screaming]
The herbs remind us of the bitterness of our captivity, Eleazar.
♪ But it shall not come nigh thee
This is the bread of haste,
that you will remember this night
from generation to generation forever.
[woman wailing] Oh, my baby! Give me back my baby!
- They are my people. - All are God's people.
Death is all around us!
But it passes those who have believed the Lord.
Always remember, Eleazar,
he passed over your house.
[screaming in distance]
Are the captains of Egypt afraid of a night mist?
- The death cry is everywhere. - Some devil's curse! Look!
I've known battle for 30 years, Pharaoh,
but I've not known fear till tonight.
Aide.
Have the captains join their men.
At the coming of dawn, we will strike.
No first-born Hebrew shall live.
[crashing sound]
Let the Hebrews go, great one,
or we are all dead men.
He was your son?
My first-born.
There is no magic cure, no spell to use.
He is the first-born of Pharaoh.
We have no skill before this... pestilence.
- My father. - My son.
Your own curse is on him.
- Where did you hear this? - From Moses.
I would not let his people go
because your serpent's tongue hardened my heart.
You only thought to keep Moses here.
You cared nothing for my throne,
or my son.
I asked Moses for his life.
The shadow of death is on his face.
No... he will not die.
Captain.
Take my fastest chariot. Bring Moses to me.
I will bring him, mighty Pharaoh.
He's my only son.
[screaming continues in distance]
You have conquered, Moses.
The foot of a slave is on the neck of Egypt.
You were saved from the Nile to be a curse upon me.
Your shadow fell between me and my father,
between me and my fame,
between me and my queen.
Your shadow now fills all things with death.
Go out from among us, you and your people.
I set you free.
It is not by your word,
nor by my hand that we are free, Pharaoh.
- The power of God has freed us. - Enough of your words!
Take your people, your cattle, your god and your pestilence.
Take what spoils from Egypt you will, but go!
O Lord God,
with a strong hand thou dost
bring us out of bitter bondage.
Tomorrow we go forth a free nation,
where every man shall reap what he has sown
and bow no knee except in prayer.
We will go with our young and with our old,
with our sons and with our daughters,
with our flocks and with our herds will we go,
for I know that the Lord is great...
[voice fading] ...and that our Lord is above all gods.
He's dead.
Sokar,
great lord of the lower world,
I, who have denied the gods of Egypt,
bow before you now.
Show that you have power above the god of Moses,
and restore the life he has taken from my son.
Guide back his soul across the lake of death
to the place of living men,
and I will raise a temple to you mightier than the pyramids.
Hear me, Dread Lord of Darkness...
[horn blowing]
Arise, O Israel!
Behold the dawn of freedom!
[horns blowing in distance]
[male narrator] And it came to pass, after the stifling night of terror,
came a day such as the world had never seen.
From east and west, from north and south,
they came with all they had, driving their flocks
and their herds and their camels before them.
By tens, by hundreds, by thousands,
unending streams of man and beast and burden,
and even very much cattle,
poured into the Avenue of Sphinxes.
Beneath the stone feet of the four colossal images of Rameses,
which their own sweat and blood and sinew
had hewn from solid rock,
a nation arose and freedom was born into the world.
Grandfather, have you got Rebecca?
No, I haven't got Rebecca.
Here's the kneading trough. Sling it on your shoulders.
This is a blessed day!
- Where's Rebecca? - Here's Rebecca!
- Ben Caleb! - Thank you!
- Can we take the cattle? - We're moving to the gates.
Horn and hoof.
Rachel, help me with this brick yoke.
Benjamin, don't forget the oil for the lamps.
Where are we going, Naomi?
To some land flowing with milk and honey!
I've never tasted honey. Anybody know the way?
It's away from the whip! Freedom will wet your throats in the desert.
Fill your water skins.
This is the governor's house! You cannot enter.
Out! Out, all of you!
Why do soldiers come here? I put no blood on my door.
Then stone bleeds!
- Harness the mules! - Your stonecutter did this to me!
All your gold cannot wipe that mark from your door, Dathan,
or from my heart.
Just for that, you'll walk all the way to...
Where are we going?
- Do you know where we're going? - To hell, I hope!
[male narrator] Like Dathan, they did not know where they were going,
and they cared no more than the flocks and herds they drove.
Now they used the brick yokes to carry a very different burden.
And there went forth among them
planters of vineyards and sowers of seeds,
each hoping to sit under his own vine and fig tree.
Out of this glorious chaos,
it is Joshua who brings order and purpose.
Set the standard of each tribe before all the people!
Levites in the center, Judah to the right, Hephron to the left. Go!
Hallelujah!
Watch where you're going! Watch out, you ribbon-carrier!
Keep your big feet out of my geese!
[indistinct yelling]
[all singing] ♪ His son Joseph
♪ Many colors was his coat
Aaron and the elders carry a shrouded body, Grandfather!
They bear the bones of Joseph, to rest in his own land.
Nubians, Grandfather!
[rapid drumming]
- Here come treasure wagons! - Spoils of Egypt.
All who shared the toil will share this gold! Here, boy!
For the blind one!
It's a little golden calf, Grandfather, with horns!
An idol. For idol-worshippers!
Grandpa, fire-bearers!
Plant your fires at night beside the tribal standards,
where all may come to light their torches!
- They'll be burning, Joshua! - Eleazar, hang this on the wagon.
Now, the cradle.
Here, Miriam.
Joshua!
I have wagons for the midwives and physicians.
- Where shall they be placed? - Five thousand cubits, one...
Where's your whip, Dathan?
I'll pay you back every lash you gave me, Dathan!
Now, is this a day for us to have hard feelings?
I've felt your whip!
- Yes, every day. - Lilia is no slave, Dathan!
- You can carry your own carton. - [laughter]
Let her ride!
So, now, my brother, we have new taskmasters.
- We serve no masters now! - Yes, but not for long.
Here. Old woman.
- That's it. - Joshua!
- Make way for the governor! - [men chattering]
- You know who I am. - I know who you were, Lord Governor.
I go to serve the Pharaoh.
Tell Rameses I'm coming back to my house.
That rabble may follow Moses into the desert today,
but when their eyes are seared red by the sun,
when their cracked lips bleed with thirst,
when their stomachs cramp with hunger,
they will curse the name of Moses and his god.
Then I, Dathan, will lead them back to Pharaoh and the brick pits.
There are so many.
So many.
How shall I find thy road through the wilderness, Lord?
How shall I find water in the desert for this multitude?
[overlapping chatter]
Moses, the people are assembled.
Then let us go forth to the mountain of God,
that he may write his commandments in our minds
and upon our hearts forever.
We march, praising his mighty name!
- What is the word, Joshua? - The word is given!
Let the trumpets sound!
[horns sounding]
Hear, O Israel!
Remember this day,
when the strong hand of the Lord leads you out of bondage!
[shouting in unison] The Lord is our God! The Lord is one!
The Lord is our God! The Lord is one!
[all shouting]
- Come on! Come on! - Yes! Come on!
Joshua!
Four hundred years in bondage, and today he won't move!
[kids cheering]
♪ The Lord is one
♪ Praise to God
♪ Thank thee, O Lord
[bellowing]
My litter can carry him.
I am poured out like water,
my strength dried up
into the dust... of death.
We shall plant your fig tree in the new land.
Children shall eat of its fruit.
[baby crying]
Do you hear that? Do you hear that?!
You have a strong new son!
[male narrator] And he brought forth the people with joy and gladness.
He bore them out of Egypt
as an eagle bears its young upon its wings.
But again, Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
How many more days and nights will you pray?
Does he hear you?
Dread Lord of Darkness,
are you not greater than the god of Moses?
I have raised my voice to you, yet life
has not come to the body of my son.
- Hear me! - He cannot hear you.
He's nothing but a piece of stone with the head of a bird.
He will hear me.
I am Egypt.
Egypt?
You are nothing.
You let Moses kill my son.
No god can bring him back.
What have you done to Moses?
How did he die?
Did he cry for mercy when you tortured him?
Bring me to his body!
I want to see it, Rameses! I want to see it!
This is my son.
He would have been Pharaoh.
He would have ruled the world.
Who mourns him now?
Not even you. All you can think of is Moses.
You will not see his body.
I drove him out of Egypt.
I cannot fight the power of his god.
His god?
The priests say that Pharaoh is a god,
but you are not a god, you are even less than a man.
Listen to me, Rameses,
you thought I was evil when I went to Moses, and you were right.
Shall I tell you what happened, Rameses?
He spurned me, like a strumpet in the street.
I, Nefretiri, Queen of Egypt!
All that you wanted from me he would not even take.
Do you hear laughter, Pharaoh?
Not the laughter of kings,
but the laughter of slaves on the desert!
Laughter?
[clanging]
My son, I shall build your tomb upon their crushed bodies!
If any escape me, their seed shall be scattered and accursed forever!
My armor. War crown.
Laughter?
I will turn the laughter of these slaves into wails of torment!
They shall remember the name of Moses,
only that he died under my chariot wheels!
Kill him with your own hands.
Let the trumpet sound. Alert the watch towers.
Assemble all the chariots at the city gate.
- I obey! - Nura and Thebes will draw my chariot.
I will bring you back your temple treasure!
Bring it back to me stained with his blood.
I will.
To mingle with your own!
[trumpets sounding]
[men urging horses]
Whoa!
Nura, Thebes!
[man shouting] Guards salute!
[all shouting] Hail!
Remember your first-born!
- Death to the slaves! - [all shouting] Death to the slaves!
- Death to their god! - Death to their god!
Hail!
Forward!
[low rumbling in distance]
Do you hear thunder? Over the sea?
No, it comes from the desert.
That's the thunder of horses!
Look! Pharaoh's chariot!
We're trapped against the sea! Caleb, warn the north tents!
[horn sounding]
Joshua?
[horn repeating]
That's Joshua's horn!
All men to the pass! Get carts, wagons! Form a barrier!
- What's the alarm, Joshua? - Pharaoh's chariot!
Block the pass with carts! Women and children, to the sea!
- Bring shovels, pounders, mattocks! - Hear me! Hear me!
Can mattocks stop arrows?
Will your little carts stop Pharaoh's chariots?
You women, do you want to see your men killed?
- Moses! - Joshua, what is it?
Pharaoh's chariots! I've ordered men to block the pass!
- How can we fight chariots? - Nothing can stop them!
Order the men to move back, Joshua.
Move back? Where? Into the sea?
Into the hand of God.
Deliverer? Yes, he has delivered you to death!
- [chaotic yelling] - Run! Run!
- [trumpets sounding] - Look! Look!
Blame Moses for this! Deliver him to Pharaoh!
- [all clamoring] - Stone him! Stone him!
[trumpets sounding]
The god of Moses is a poor general,
to leave him no retreat.
[overlapping shouts]
Ten times you have seen the miracles of the Lord!
And still you have no faith!
He's a false prophet who delivers you to death!
- Stone him! Stone him! - [all clamoring]
Listen to Moses! He speaks God's will!
[shouting] Forward!
- They will stop for me! - A charging chariot knows no rank.
Was it because there were no graves in Egypt
that you took us away to die in the wilderness?
Why must we die?
Fear not!
Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord!
- A pillar of fire! - It is the work of God!
[horses whinnying]
Through it!
No, great one! You cannot breach the fire of God!
Gather your families and your flocks. We must go with all speed.
Go where? To drown in the sea?
How long will the fire hold Pharaoh back?
- Will it hold? - After this day,
you shall see his chariots no more!
No! You'll be dead under them!
The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us!
Behold his mighty hand!
[chaotic shouting]
The wind opens the sea!
God opens the sea with the blast of his nostrils.
Lead them through the midst of the waters.
His will be done!
He opens the waters before them, and he bars our way with fire.
Let us go from this place. Men cannot fight against a god!
Better to die in battle with a god, than live in shame.
Praise God and down into it!
God has delivered us from the son of Pharaoh.
[all singing] ♪ Jacob cherished
♪ His son Joseph
♪ Many colors was his coat
- Help us! - Never mind the wheel!
Pull! Pull for your lives!
Is your life worth so much?
♪ Jacob cherished
♪ His son Joseph
♪ Many colors was his coat
♪ God of Abram
♪ Isaac, Jacob
♪ Ever bless us with Thy hand ♪
Get tow-lines on the midwife's cart!
Save the bread if you can!
Ben Caleb! Order all wagons to turn clear!
Moses! Stand on the rock where the people can see you and have hope!
Above us!
Help that wagon!
The fire dies!
Sound the pursuit!
[trumpet sounding]
Chariots, halt!
This is work for a butcher, not a Pharaoh.
Destroy them all.
But bring Moses to me alive.
Level spears! Forward!
[whinnying]
[man screaming]
[crying out]
- Here! Take him! - [boy] Wait for me! Wait for me!
Grandfather, look, the horses are coming!
The chariots! [yelling] Run! Run! Run for your lives!
[trumpet sounding]
Better to serve the Egyptians than to die here!
Who shall withstand the power of God?
- [water roaring] - [people screaming]
Thou didst blow with thy winds,
and the sea covered them!
Who is like unto thee, O Lord?
From everlasting to everlasting,
Thou art God!
[shouting in unison] The Lord is one! The Lord is one!
[footsteps approaching]
Before you strike,
show me his blood on your sword.
You couldn't even kill him.
His god... is God.
[male narrator] And Moses led Israel from the Red Sea
into the wilderness of Sinai.
And they camped before the holy mountain.
And when the people saw that Moses delayed
to come down out of the mountain,
they gathered themselves together.
Ask Aaron. Could anyone live on that fiery summit for 40 days and 40 nights?
- Yes! By the will of God! - Who knows the will of God?
Do you? Do I?
Or you, Sephora? His grieving wife.
She came back among us to find her husband.
But he's dead. Even she cannot hope that he lives!
Moses went up into the forbidden ground to receive God's law!
Yes, but he's not returned!
We share your pain. We sympathize.
But will sympathy lead us to this land flowing with milk and honey?
- Now, we have no leader! - Don't be fooled!
- Moses will return! - [crowd gasping]
Would a God who's shown you such wonders
let Moses die before his work is done?
- His work is done. - His mother!
So beautiful is the hope of a mother!
But there are other mothers among you!
What will become of your children?
[crowd clamoring]
- We must have faith! - Faith in what? You, Aaron?
Can you lead us to this land of promise? Do you know where it is?
- Tell us! - Where is it?
Across the wilderness!
- Then who is to lead us? - You, Dathan!
[all shouting]
Where could I bring you, except to Egypt?
- Where there is death? - No! Where there is food!
- Pharaoh would kill us all. - Not if a god of Egypt went before us!
- You could make one for us, Aaron. - No!
- Aaron knows the art of the temple! - I will not!
- [overlapping chatter] - He will not!
He would rather see our flesh rot in the wilderness.
You will make a god for us!
A god of gold! A golden calf!
[overlapping shouts]
Korah shall be the high priest!
Bring baskets! Buckets! Shawls! Anything you have!
Break off your earrings, your bracelets, your necklaces!
We will make of them a golden calf!
- The golden spoils we took from Egypt! - There!
[all shouting]
Spoils of Egypt!
From the burning bush, O Lord,
you charged me to bring the people to this holy mountain,
to behold your glory and receive your law.
What have I left undone?
[low rumbling]
[God] I am...
I am...
I am the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
[chaotic chatter]
[male narrator] And they overlaid the image with pure gold.
And Aaron fashioned it and smoothed it with the hammer,
ready to be graven by cunning art and man's device.
And he fastened it with nails that it should not move.
And he that smote the anvil
did beat the molten gold into thin plates.
For they had gathered their treasure into the midst of the furnace,
and did blow the fire upon it to melt it.
And they adorned themselves in rich apparel and costly array,
with veils of blue and purple and scarlet,
and fine-twined linen wrought in Egypt.
And the women tread grapes from Midian into new wine.
[God] Thou shall not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not kill.
[indistinct shouting]
[male narrator] And the people sinned a great sin,
for they had made them a god of gold.
And they bore him upon their shoulders and rejoiced,
saying, "This be our god, O Israel."
Are you mourners of Moses afraid to face the new god of gold?
They were as children who had lost their faith.
They were perverse and crooked and rebellious against God.
They did eat the bread of wickedness,
and drank the wine of violence,
and they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
And the people cried, "The graven image hath brought us joy,"
and they worshipped the golden calf and sacrificed unto it.
Here is your sacrifice!
[crowd clamoring]
[man] Make way! Make way for the sacrifice!
[God] Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet anything
that is thy neighbor's.
Written with the finger of God.
Go! Get thee down,
for thy people have corrupted themselves.
[chaotic shouting]
[male narrator] And the people rose up to play,
and did eat and drink.
They were as the children of fools
and cast off their clothes.
The wicked were like a troubled sea
whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
They sank from evil to evil
and were viler than the earth.
And there was rioting and drunkenness,
for they had become servants of sin.
There was manifest all manner of ungodliness and works of the flesh.
Even adultery and lasciviousness,
uncleanness, idolatry and rioting,
vanity and wrath.
And they were filled with iniquity and vile affections.
And Aaron knew that he had brought them to shame.
[laughing]
Abiram! Korah! Bind the sacrifice with cord!
Even unto the horns of the altar!
The light of God shines from you, Moses.
Do not kneel to me, Joshua.
These tablets of stone...
The writing of God.
His Ten Commandments.
[chaotic shouting in distance]
There is a noise of war in the camp.
It is not the noise of war.
It is the noise of song and revelry.
[horn sounding]
- Moses! - Look!
Joshua!
Woe unto thee, O Israel.
You have sinned a great sin in the sight of God!
You are not worthy to receive these Ten Commandments.
Aaron!
[thunder rumbling]
We are gathered against you, Moses! You take too much upon yourself!
We will not live by your commandments. We are free!
- [all shouting] - There is no freedom without the law.
Whose law, Moses? Yours?
Did you carve those tablets to become a prince over us?
[overlapping shouts]
Who is on the Lord's side,
- let him come to me! - [woman] I am!
[all clamoring]
Moses!
[all shouting] Moses! Moses!
- You have cursed us. - These people made me.
Joshua! Joshua!
He showed you no land flowing with milk and honey! I show you a god of gold!
Come with me! Follow me!
Blasphemers! Idolaters!
For this you shall drink bitter waters!
God has set before you this day
his laws of life and good
and death and evil.
Those who will not live by the law...
[all gasping, shouting]
...shall die by the law!
[male narrator] And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel.
And to prove whether they would keep his commandments or no,
he made them wander in the wilderness 40 years,
until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord
was consumed.
But Moses' eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
And he went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo,
and the Lord showed him all the land
that was beyond the river Jordan.
The Lord was angry with me
because I disobeyed him by the waters of strife.
And he said unto me, "Behold the new land with thine eyes.
For thou shalt not cross over this river Jordan."
Then I shall stay.
I am called by the Lord, Sephora. I go alone.
Look, Moses.
The people have come to the river Jordan.
In the Ark, they carry the law you brought them.
You taught them not to live by bread alone.
You are God's torch, that lights the way to freedom.
I love you.
Joshua...
Joshua, I charge you and strengthen you,
for you shall go over Jordan to lead the people.
As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.
Mered, give me the books.
Eleazar, set these five books
in the Ark of the Covenant,
by the tablets of the Ten Commandments,
which the Lord restored unto us.
Go.
Proclaim liberty throughout all the lands,
unto all the inhabitants thereof.
[dramatic orchestral music plays]