Moses

Moses, known in Hebrew as Moshe and in Arabic as Musa, is the central prophet and lawgiver of the Hebrew Bible and a major figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. According to the biblical narrative, he lived approximately from 1393 to 1273 BC, although the historicity and dates are debated by scholars and no contemporary archaeological evidence has confirmed his existence.

The Book of Exodus relates that he was born to a Hebrew Levite family in Egypt during a pharaonic decree to drown male Israelite infants. His mother Jochebed placed him in a reed basket on the Nile, where Pharaoh's daughter discovered and adopted him. Raised in the Egyptian court, he killed an overseer beating a Hebrew slave and fled to Midian, where he married Zipporah and tended sheep for his father-in-law Jethro.

At a burning bush on Mount Horeb, the God of Abraham commissioned him to lead the Israelites out of bondage. After the ten plagues struck Egypt, Pharaoh released the people, and Moses led them across a parted Red Sea. At Mount Sinai he received the Ten Commandments and the broader Torah, which Jewish tradition holds he transcribed in the Five Books of Moses.

For forty years he led the Israelites through the wilderness, mediating disputes, fighting Amalekites, and contending with rebellions including the golden calf episode. Deuteronomy records that he died at age 120 on Mount Nebo, viewing but never entering the Promised Land. The location of his grave, says the text, is unknown.

The name Moses, Mosheh in Hebrew, is folk-etymologized from the verb mashah, to draw out, since he was drawn from the water; some link it to the Egyptian element mes, meaning son. He bore the masculine form.