Born to a Levite couple in the generation of Pharaoh's infanticide. Hidden in the reeds of the Nile in a pitched basket, drawn out by Pharaoh's daughter, nursed by his own mother as a hired wet-nurse, raised in the Egyptian court. At forty he kills an Egyptian taskmaster he sees beating a Hebrew, learns the next day that the deed is known, and flees to the land of Midian. He marries Zipporah, daughter of the priest Jethro, and keeps sheep for forty more years.

At eighty he sees a bush burning without being consumed. The God of his fathers speaks from it and sends him back to confront Pharaoh. Moses protests — he is slow of speech, he is of slow tongue, who shall believe him — and is given signs, and a brother as spokesman, and the divine Name. He obeys.

From that moment through the rest of the Pentateuch, he is the human hinge of the entire story: negotiator with Pharaoh, instrument of the plagues, parter of the sea, intercessor at Sinai, receiver of the Law, architect of the Dwelling, judge and prophet and founder. He speaks with God face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend (Ex. 33:11). He is rebuffed from the Promised Land for one moment of anger at Meribah (Num. 20) but sees it from Nebo before his death in Deuteronomy.