LEADER OF ISRAEL, LAWGIVER AND PROPHET · EXODUS & WILDERNESS

Moses. Forty years leading Israel from Egypt to the plains of Moab.

LED ISRAELi

40 years c. 1448 BC (dates vary)

TRIBE

Levi

IN THE LINE

1st of 15

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“Stephen calls him the man whom Israel refused as "a ruler and a judge", and whom God sent "to be a ruler and…”

PROPHETS

Aaron · Miriam · Eldad and Medad

THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL: 15 RULERS MOSES → SAMUEL

ACCESSION

How Moses came to power

  • Forty years before his call, a Hebrew had refused him: "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" Exodus 2:14 Acts 7:23–30
  • At Horeb, from the burning bush, God sent him: "I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people". Exodus 3:1–2 Exodus 3:10–12
  • Moses said he was "slow of speech"; God gave him Aaron as spokesman: "thou shalt be to him instead of God". Exodus 4:10–16
  • Moses and Aaron gathered the elders; the people believed and worshipped. Exodus 4:29–31
  • He was eighty when he and Aaron spoke to Pharaoh. Exodus 7:7

SUCCESSION

Before and after

ON THE WORLD STAGE: Egypt · Amalek · Edom and Moab · The Amorite kings · Midian

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • Stephen calls him the man whom Israel refused as "a ruler and a judge", and whom God sent "to be a ruler and a deliverer". Acts 7:35
  • "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." Numbers 12:3
  • God speaks with Moses "mouth to mouth", and calls him faithful "in all mine house". Numbers 12:7–8 Hebrews 3:5
  • "There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face." Deuteronomy 34:10–12
  • Moses stood "in the breach" to turn God's wrath from the people. Psalms 106:23 Exodus 32:30–32
  • Later Scripture remembers the Exodus as led "by the hand of Moses and Aaron", with Miriam sent before the people too. Psalms 77:20 Micah 6:4
  • "The law was given by Moses." John 1:17
  • At Meribah Moses struck the rock and said "must we fetch you water"; God told him he would not bring the people into the land. Numbers 20:10–12 Numbers 27:12–14
  • The Psalms say "it went ill with Moses for their sakes", because "he spake unadvisedly with his lips". Psalms 106:32–33

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

Each mark sits at the year of the reign the Bible gives for it.

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE LAND

The places Scripture names

The tribes of Israel · tribe of Levi. Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

THE NATION

What the nation did

  • The people answered "All the words which the LORD hath said will we do", and the covenant was sealed with blood. Exodus 24:3–8
  • They made a molten calf while Moses was on the mountain; about three thousand died that day. Exodus 32:15–20 Exodus 32:25–29

PROPHETS

Prophets of the reign

  • Aa Aaron “See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.”
  • Mi Miriam Miriam "the prophetess" led the women after the crossing of the sea; Micah names her with Moses and Aaron as sent before the people.
  • El Eldad and Medad Two men who "were of them that were written" stayed in the camp, and the spirit rested on them there; when Joshua said "forbid them", Moses answered "would God that all the LORD's people were prophets".

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

EGYPT

Pharaoh (not named in Scripture)

AMALEK

EDOM AND MOAB

Balak king of Moab

THE AMORITE KINGS

Sihon of Heshbon · Og of Bashan

MIDIAN

Hur, one of five kings of Midian

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S OWN NUMBERS

No years given

Scripture gives Moses' ages (80 when he spoke to Pharaoh, 120 at his death) and forty years of leadership, but no year BC. The two dates below are scholars' reconstructions of the Exodus, not of Moses' life.

EARLY EXODUS (1 KINGS 6:1 COUNTED BACK)

c. 1448 BC[30]

Mack (ISBE, 1915) counts the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 back from Solomon's temple and puts the Exodus about 1448 BC.

EXODUS UNDER MERENPTAH

c. 1234–1214 BC[31]

Driver (1911) places the Exodus under Pharaoh Merenptah; these are that pharaoh's years on Petrie's dates, not the years of Moses' leadership.

Two different bodies; Deuteronomy 1 retells Exodus 18

Keil (1871 and 1872 translations)

Keil reads Deuteronomy 1:12–18 as Moses' own account of the Exodus 18 appointment, and the seventy elders as a separate council given the Spirit to help Moses govern.[15][16]

One institution told in different sources

Knobel and the critics from Vater onward, as reported by Keil

These critics identified the seventy elders with the judges of Exodus 18 and took Deuteronomy 1:9–18 to refer to both, using the differences as evidence of separate documents. Keil reports and rejects this.[16]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 139

Exodus 2 Exodus 3 Exodus 4 Exodus 5 Exodus 6 Exodus 7 Exodus 8 Exodus 9 Exodus 10 Exodus 11 Exodus 12 Exodus 13 Exodus 14 Exodus 15 Exodus 16 Exodus 17 Exodus 18 Exodus 19 Exodus 20 Exodus 21 Exodus 22 Exodus 23 Exodus 24 Exodus 25 Exodus 26 Exodus 27 Exodus 28 Exodus 29 Exodus 30 Exodus 31 Exodus 32 Exodus 33 Exodus 34 Exodus 35 Exodus 36 Exodus 37 Exodus 38 Exodus 39 Exodus 40 Leviticus 1 Leviticus 2 Leviticus 3 Leviticus 4 Leviticus 5 Leviticus 6 Leviticus 7 Leviticus 8 Leviticus 9 Leviticus 10 Leviticus 11 Leviticus 12 Leviticus 13 Leviticus 14 Leviticus 15 Leviticus 16 Leviticus 17 Leviticus 18 Leviticus 19 Leviticus 20 Leviticus 21 Leviticus 22 Leviticus 23 Leviticus 24 Leviticus 25 Leviticus 26 Leviticus 27 Numbers 1 Numbers 2 Numbers 3 Numbers 4 Numbers 5 Numbers 6 Numbers 7 Numbers 8 Numbers 9 Numbers 10 Numbers 11 Numbers 12 Numbers 13 Numbers 14 Numbers 15 Numbers 16 Numbers 17 Numbers 18 Numbers 19 Numbers 20 Numbers 21 Numbers 22 Numbers 23 Numbers 24 Numbers 25 Numbers 26 Numbers 27 Numbers 28 Numbers 29 Numbers 30 Numbers 31 Numbers 32 Numbers 33 Numbers 34 Numbers 35 Numbers 36 Deuteronomy 1 Deuteronomy 2 Deuteronomy 3 Deuteronomy 4 Deuteronomy 5 Deuteronomy 6 Deuteronomy 7 Deuteronomy 8 Deuteronomy 9 Deuteronomy 10 Deuteronomy 11 Deuteronomy 12 Deuteronomy 13 Deuteronomy 14 Deuteronomy 15 Deuteronomy 16 Deuteronomy 17 Deuteronomy 18 Deuteronomy 19 Deuteronomy 20 Deuteronomy 21 Deuteronomy 22 Deuteronomy 23 Deuteronomy 24 Deuteronomy 25 Deuteronomy 26 Deuteronomy 27 Deuteronomy 28 Deuteronomy 29 Deuteronomy 30 Deuteronomy 31 Deuteronomy 32 Deuteronomy 33 Deuteronomy 34 Acts 7 Hebrews 3 Hebrews 11

PASSAGES · 8

Exodus 2:11–25 Exodus 3:1–40:38 Leviticus 1:1–27:34 Numbers 1:1–36:13 Deuteronomy 1:1–34:12 Acts 7:20–44 Hebrews 3:1–6 Hebrews 11:23–29

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture gives no year BC for Moses or the Exodus, and never names the Pharaoh he faced.
  • Scripture gives Moses no fixed title for his office. It calls him "the servant of the LORD" and a prophet, and Stephen calls him "a ruler and a deliverer" (Deuteronomy 34:5, 34:10; Acts 7:35). Whether Deuteronomy 33:5 calls him king is disputed.
  • Moses' sons held no office of rule. They "were named of the tribe of Levi" (1 Chronicles 23:14-15), and the leadership passed to Joshua of Ephraim.
  • Nothing more is recorded of the seventy elders after Numbers 11.

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 276–286 (chronology of the judges).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 322–323 (Judges 5:25–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 357–358 (Judges 8:27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 373 (Judges 10:3–5).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 387–394 (Judges 11:34–40).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 398 (Judges 12:8–10).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 156–157 (Joshua 15:13–19).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 208 (Joshua 19:50).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 17–18 (1 Samuel 1:1).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 39 (1 Samuel 2:27–36).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 56 (1 Samuel 4:18).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 117–118 (1 Samuel 12:11).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), pp. 123–124 (1 Chronicles 6:28, Hebrew 6:13).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), p. 165 (1 Chronicles 9:22).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 2 (1872 printing) (1872), p. 87 (Exodus 18:24–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 71–72 and note (Numbers 11:24–30).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 113–115 (Numbers 11:25–29).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), p. 499 (Deuteronomy 33:4–5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxxvii–xlii (Introduction §7, Chronology).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxviii–xxix (Introduction, the Minor Judges).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 27 and notes (Judges 1:13).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 66–67 (Judges 2:9).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 107–108 (Judges 4, the two accounts).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 113–114 (Judges 4:5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 231–232 (Judges 8:27).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 274–275 (Judges 10:4).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 302–305 and note (Judges 11:39).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 310 (Judges 12:8).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 311 (Judges 12:13–15, on 1 Samuel 12:11).
  • Edward Mack, in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, "Chronology of the Old Testament" (1915), section VII (From the Disruption to the Exodus).
  • S. R. Driver, The Book of Exodus (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1911), p. xxx (Introduction §4).
  • James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. III (1906), §617, p. 264 (Merneptah's Hymn of Victory).
  • Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, vol. 1 (Genesis to Deuteronomy) (1706), on Deuteronomy 33:5.
  • Julius Wellhausen, tr. J. S. Black and A. Menzies, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885), ch. VI (Chronicles), §III.2.

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