Moses (Latin: Moyses, ; Greek: lang: Mωυσής in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; Arabic: lang: موسىٰ, ; Ge'ez: lang: ሙሴ, Musse) is a Biblical Hebrew religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, and military leader, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. He is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bahá'í Faith, Mormonism, Rastafari, Raëlism, Chrislam and many other faiths.

According to the book of Exodus, Moses was born to a Hebrew mother, Jochebed, who hid him when a Pharaoh (Feraun, as mentioned in the Qu'ran), ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and he ended up being adopted into the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave-master, Moses fled and became a shepherd, and was later commanded by God to deliver the Hebrews from slavery. After the Ten Plagues were unleashed on Egypt, he led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, where they wandered in the desert for 40 years, during which time, according to the Bible, Moses received the Ten Commandments. Despite living to 120, Moses died before reaching the Land of Israel. According to the Torah, Moses was denied entrance to that destination because he himself disobeyed God's instructions about how to release water from a rock. According to the Qu'ran the reason for the wandering in the desert was the disobedience of his Israelite followers during the Exodus. In Islamic perspective, Moses (Hazrat Musa) and the obedient Israelites weren't punished, but got rewards for their patience during the wandering years.

Religious texts

The main source of Moses' life is the Torah. In the Torah, the autobiographical narratives of Moses are in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses is also the author of Genesis, Psalm 90, and Psalm 106.

Life

The Book of Exodus takes up the narrative many years after the close of the Book of Genesis, at the end of which the Israelites were dwelling in relative harmony with the native Egyptians in the Land of Goshen, the eastern part of the Nile Delta. After Joseph died, a new pharaoh came to power who was hostile to the Israelites and enslaved them.

According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was a son of Amram, a member of the Levite tribe of Israel, having descended from Jacob, and his wife Jochebed. Jochebed (also Yocheved) was kin to Amram's father Kohath (Exodus 6:20). Moses had one older (by seven years) sister, Miriam, and one older (by three years) brother, Aaron. According to Genesis 46:11, Amram's father Kohath immigrated to Egypt with 70 of Jacob's household, making Moses part of the second generation of Israelites born during their time in Egypt. In the Exodus account, the birth of Moses (dated by the Talmud to 7 Adar 2368, or 1393 BCE) occurred at a time when the current Egyptian Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew children born be killed by drowning in the river Nile. The Torah and Flavius Josephus leave the identity of this Pharaoh unstated.