Hebrew lawgiver and judge who led the
Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land
of Canaan. On Mount Sinai he claimed to have
received from Jehovah the Ten Commandments
engraved on tablets of stone. The first five
books of the Old Testament - in Judaism, the
Torah - are ascribed to him. According to the
Torah, the infant Moses was hidden among the
bulrushes on the banks of the Nile when the
pharaoh commanded that all newborn male
Hebrew children should be destroyed. He was
found by a daughter of Pharaoh, who reared
him. Eventually he became the leader of the
Israelites in their Exodus from Egypt and
their 40 years' wandering in the wilderness.
He died at the age of 120, after having been
allowed a glimpse of the Promised Land from
Mount Pisgah.