- Rameses: No, Moses. It is I who will possess all of her.
- [to Nefretiri]
- Rameses: You think when you are in my arms, it will be his face that you will see, not mine?
- Nefretiri: Yes. Only his face.
- Rameses: [to Moses] I defeated you in life. You shall not defeat me by your death. The dead are not scorched in the desert of desire. They do not suffer from the thirst of passion or stagger blindly towards some mirage of lost love. But you, Hebrew, will suffer all these things... by living.
- Nefretiri: You will let him live!
- Rameses: I will not make him a martyr for you to cherish. No phantom will come between you and me in the night. Yes, my sweet, I will let him live. Dead, you alone would possess him. From where I send him there is no returning, and you will never know if he has found forgetfulness within another woman's arms. Now look upon each other for the last time.
- Narrator: Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, this may seem an unusual procedure, speaking to you before the picture begins, but we have an unusual subject - the story of the birth of freedom - the story of Moses. As many of you know, the Holy Bible omits some 30 years of Moses' life... From the time, when he was a three-month old baby, and was found in the bulrushes, by Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh and adopted into the court of Egypt, until he learned that he was Hebrew and killed the Egyptian. To fill in those missing years, we turn to ancient historians, such as Philo and Josephus. Philo wrote at the time when Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth and Josephus wrote some 50 years later, and watched the destruction of Jerusalem, by the Romans. These historians had access to documents long since destroyed - or perhaps lost, like the Dead Sea Scrolls. The theme of this picture is whether men ought to be ruled by God's law, or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator, like Rameses. Are men the property of the state or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today. Our intention was not to create a story, but to be worthy of a divinely inspired story, created 3,000 years ago, the five books of Moses. The story takes three hours and 39 minutes to unfold. There will be an intermission. Thank you for your attention.
- Nefretiri: Did you think my kiss was a promise of what you'll have. No, my pompous one. It was to let you know what you will not have. I could never love you.
- Rameses: Does that matter? You will be my wife. You will come to me whenever I call you, and I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is your own affair... but I think you will.
- Yochabel: [Yochabel's last line, were said in deep joy] God of our fathers, who has appointed an end to the bondage of Israel, blessed am I among all mothers in the land, for my eyes have beheld Thy deliverer.
- Moses: [to Sethi, after Sethi came to see Moses completing the city to be built] Pharoah is pleased?
- Sethi: With the obelisk, yes. But not with certain accusations made against you.
- Moses: By whom?
- Sethi: You raided the temple granaries?
- Moses: Yes.
- [Rameses puts first weight on scale. The other scale dish holds a heavier weight, which keeps that dish on the table]
- Sethi: You gave the grain to the slaves?
- Moses: Yes.
- [Rameses puts second weight on scale, which causes opposite scale dish to bounce, but it still rests on the table]
- Rameses: You gave them one day in seven to rest.
- Moses: Yes.
- [Rameses puts third weight on scale. It's now heavier than its opposite dish, which is yanked up off the table]
- Sethi: Did you do all this to gain their favor?
- Moses: [Moses puts a brick on the dish that was yanked off the table. It's now heavier than Rameses' weights and crashes to the table with a bang! Moses has defeated his accusers] A city is built of brick, Pharoah. The strong make many, the starving make few. The dead make none. So much for accusations.
- Nefretiri: Don't exhaust yourself, Great One. Dear Great One.
- Sethi: [on his deathbed] Why not, kitten? You are the only thing I regret leaving. You have been my joy.
- Nefretiri: And you my only love.
- Sethi: Aha. Now you're cheating. There was another. I know. I loved him, too. With my last breath, I'll break my own law and speak the name of... Moses.
- [3 seconds]
- Sethi: Moses.
- [Sethi's last words, were spoken slowly, as he said Moses' name twice]
- Rameses: [to Nefretiri] You are going to be mine, all mine, like my dog or my horse or my falcon. Only I will love you more and trust you less.
- Yochabel: Why have you come here?
- Bithiah: Because Moses will come here.
- Yochabel: My son?
- Bithiah: No, my son! That's all he must know.
- Yochabel: My lips might deny him, Great One, but my eyes never could.
- Bithiah: You will leave Goshen, you and your family, tonight.
- Yochabel: We are Levites, appointed shepherds of Israel. We cannot leave our people.
- Bithiah: Would you take from Moses all that I have given him? Would you undo all that I have done for him? I have put the throne of Egypt within his reach! What can you give him in its place?
- Yochabel: I gave him life.
- Bithiah: I gave him love!
- Joshua: Here! Water lily!
- Lilia: My name is Lilia.
- Joshua: To me you are a lily, and I want water.
- Lilia: Joshua. Joshua, I thought you'd never come down.
- Joshua: Water before love, my girl.
- Lilia: Does it take the whole Nile to quench your thirst?
- Joshua: No, just your lips.
- Lilia: Be careful, my love. Dathan's eyes can see through stone.
- Joshua: Dathan is a vulture, feeding on the flesh of his own people.
- Lilia: When he looks at me, I am afraid.
- Joshua: If he touches you, I'll strangle him with his own whip!
- Lilia: And bring death to a thousand of us?
- Joshua: Is life in bondage better than death?
- Sephora: Which of my sisters did you choose?
- Moses: I made no choice, Sephora.
- Sephora: She was very beautiful, wasn't she? This woman of Egypt, who left her scar upon your heart. Her skin was white as curd, her eyes green as the cedars of Lebanon, her lips, tamarisk honey. Like the breast of a dove, her arms were soft... and the wine of desire was in her veins.
- Moses: Yes. She was beautiful... as a jewel.
- Sephora: A jewel has brilliant fire, but it gives no warmth. Our hands are not so soft, but they can serve. Our bodies not so white, but they are strong. Our lips are not perfumed, but they speak the truth. Love is not an art to us. It's life to us. We are not dressed in gold and fine linen. Strength and honor are our clothing. Our tents are not the columned halls of Egypt, but our children play happily before them. We can offer you little... but we offer all we have.
- Moses: I have not little, Sephora. I have nothing.
- Sephora: Nothing from some... is more than gold from others.
- Moses: You would fill the emptiness of my heart?
- Sephora: I could never fill all of it, Moses, but I shall not be jealous of a memory.
- Sethi: Let the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet, stricken from all pylons and obelisks, stricken from every monument of Egypt. Let the name of Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of men for all time.
- Nefretiri: But I have saved your son, Moses.
- Moses: It is not my son who will die. It is... it is the firstborn of Egypt. It is your son, Nefretiri!
- Nefretiri: No. You would not dare strike Pharaoh's son!
- Moses: In the hardness of his heart, Pharaoh has mocked God and brings death to his own son!
- Nefretiri: But he is my son, Moses. You would not harm my son.
- Moses: By myself, I am nothing. It is the power of God which uses me to work His will.
- Nefretiri: You would not let Him do this to me. I saved your son!
- Moses: I cannot save yours.
- Narrator: Learning that it can be more terrible to live than to die, he is driven onward through the burning crucible of desert, where holy men and prophets are cleansed and purged for God's great purpose, until at last, at the end of human strength, beaten into the dust from which he came, the metal is ready for the Maker's hand.
- Bithiah: Your tongue will dig your grave, Memnet!
- [Reminding Memnet of her vow, when she noticed the ark, 30 years earlier]
- Moses: [Moses opened the door, after Bithiah knocked] Bithiah.
- Bithiah: In fear of your God, they have set me free. May a stranger enter?
- Moses: There are no strangers among those who seek God's mercy.
- Bithiah: My bearers?
- Moses: All who thirst for freedom may come with us. The darkness of death will pass over us tonight, and tomorrow the light of freedom will shine upon us as we go forth from Egypt.
- Bithiah: I shall go with you, Moses.
- Miriam: A princess of Egypt?
- Aaron: An Egyptian?
- Miriam: An idol worshipper!
- Moses: This woman drew me from the Nile and set my feet upon the path of knowledge. Mered, bring a chair to our table for the daughter of Pharaoh.
- Bithiah: There is a great light that shines from your face, Moses. Perhaps someday I shall come to understand it.
- Joshua: Praise God, I have found you.
- Moses: Joshua? We thought you dead.
- Joshua: In the copper mines of Geber, the living are dead.
- Moses: Sephora! Bring water! How did you find me?
- Joshua: A merchant buying copper saw you in the tent of Jethro.
- Moses: [Moses softly tapped Josha's back] Here you, too, will find peace.
- Joshua: [a stunned look came over Joshua's face, as he almost crossed his eyes] Peace? How can you find peace or want it when Rameses builds cities mortared with the blood of our people?
- Moses: No son could have more love for you than I.
- Sethi: Then why are you forcing me to destroy you? What evil has done this to you?
- Moses: The evil that men should turn their brothers into beasts of burden, to be stripped of spirit, and hope, and strength - only because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a god, he did not mean this to be so.
- Moses: Does your god live on this mountain?
- Sephora: Sinai is His high place, His temple.
- Moses: If this god is God, he would live on every mountain, in every valley. He would not be the god of Ishmael or Israel alone, but of all men. It is said he created all men in his image. He would dwell in every heart, every mind, every soul.
- Rameses: [to Nefretiri] Did you lose your head, my sweet?
- Sethi: [to Rameses] I sent you to Goshen to bring me the head of the jackal who would free the slaves. Where is it?
- Rameses: The slaves do not need a deliver now. They have Moses.
- Nefretiri: Is that a riddle?
- Rameses: [to Sethi] He gives them the priests' grain and one day in seven to rest. They call it "The Day of Moses."
- [as if it is a holiday]
- Jannes: This man makes himself a god.
- Nefretiri: I prefer him as a man.
- Rameses: You would prefer him as Pharaoh.
- Nefretiri: Are you afraid of Moses?
- Rameses: Yes, because now he holds Ethiopia in his left hand, Goshen in right, and you, my Pharaoh, are in-between them.
- Sethi: Do you imply that he would raise the slaves against me? I've been his father.
- Jannes: Ambition knows no father.
- Nefretiri: Moses could no more betray you than I could, Sethi.
- Sethi: He can tell me that when he arrives.
- Rameses: He will not be here, my father.
- Sethi: What? I sent for both of you.
- Rameses: His word is that he cannot attend you, being pressed by other matters.
- Sethi: [to Nefretiri] Did you hear that? Other matters?
- [Sethi spoke as in an a shout of anger, or shock]
- Sethi: [Sethi then gets up and clangs a gong, for an Egyptian servant, immediately a servent appears] My escort. I will ride with you, my son, to see what rears itself in Goshen... a city or treason.
- Jethro's daughter: Is it true that Egyptian girls paint their eyes?
- Moses: Yes, but very few have eyes as beautiful as yours.
- Lilia: Water, Noble One?
- Baka: No, wine... the wine of beauty.
- Lilia: What beauty can my lord find in these mud pits?
- Baka: A lotus flower blooms in the Nile's gray mud. Dathan, she will do well as a house slave.
- Lilia: Do not take me from my people! There would be danger.
- Baka: Danger from such lovely hands?
- Lilia: There are other hands strong enough to kill!
- Baka: Our mud flower has a thorn.
- Lilia: Oh, please, Lord Baka, I beg you!
- Lilia: You are strange to the pits. Your back is unscarred.
- Moses: You bring a warm smile with your cool water.
- Lilia: My smile is for a stonecutter. The water is for you.
- Moses: I thank you.
- Lilia: Your voice is not strange. You are...
- Moses: [Moses spoke very quickly, preventing Lilia from recognizing his voice] One of many who thirst.
- Baka: You there! Come here!
- Lilia: That is Baka, the master builder.
- Moses: Does he call me or you?
- Baka: You, water girl! I'm thirsty.
- Lilia: He does not thirst for water.
- Slave: Beauty is but a curse to our women.
- Egyptian soldier: Out! Out, all of you!
- Dathan: Why do soldiers come here? I put no blood on my door!
- Egyptian soldier: Then stone bleeds!
- Dathan: Your stonecutter did this to me!
- Lilia: All your gold cannot wipe that mark from your door, Dathan, or from my heart.
- Dathan: Just for that, you'll walk all the way to... Where are we going? Do you know where we're going?
- Egyptian soldier: To hell, I hope!
- [Nefretiri and Sephora look upon one another for the only time]
- Sephora: The queen of Egypt is beautiful, as he told me.
- Nefretiri: [Nefretiri is sorting through various veils and scarves] This is for the temple ceremony... this is for my wedding night!
- Memnet: You will never wear it.
- Nefretiri: [surprised] Why not?
- Memnet: I have brought you a cloth more revealing... send them away.
- Nefretiri: [nodding to her servants] Go then, while I hear what this puckered old persimmon has to say.
- Memnet: For thirty years, I have been silent. Now, all the kings of Egypt, cry out to me, from their tombs, "Let no Hebrew sit upon our throne."
- Nefretiri: What are you saying?
- Memnet: Rameses has the blood of many kings.
- Nefretiri: And Moses?
- Memnet: He is lower than the dust. Not one drop of royal blood flows through his veins. He is the son of Hebrew slaves.
- Nefretiri: I'll have you torn into so many pieces, even the vultures wont find them. Who hatched this lie? Rameses?
- Memnet: Rameses does not know,
- [three seconds]
- Memnet: yet.
- Nefretiri: You will repeat this to Bithiah.
- Memnet: Bithiah drew a slave child, from the Nile, called him son and Prince of Egypt, blinding herself to the truth and the pain of an empty womb.
- Nefretiri: Were you alone, with, Bithiah?
- Memnet: A little girl led me to the Hebrew woman, Yochabel, that the child might be suckled by his true mother.
- Nefretiri: Take care, old frog. You croaked too much, against Moses!
- Memnet: Would you mingle the blood of slaves, with your own?
- Nefretiri: He will be my husband. I shall have no other.
- [Memnet then shows Nefretiri the Hebrew cloth, she had been kept hidden, for thirty years. Memnet got it, when she and Bithiah, were alone]
- Memnet: Then, use this, to wrap your firstborn. Torn from a Levite's robe. It was Moses' swaddling cloth.
- Nefretiri: And your shroud. Do you think I care whose son he is?
- Memnet: Rameses cares.
- Nefretiri: You won't live to tell him.
- Memnet: [Memnet's final line, as Nefretiri pushed her off the roof, in anger and killing her] Oh, oh!
- Bithiah: I am the Pharaoh's daughter, and this is my son. He shall be reared in my house as the prince of the two lands.
- Memnet: My mother and her mother before her were branded into the Pharaoh's service. I will not see you make this son of slaves a prince of Egypt.
- Bithiah: You will see it, Memnet. You will see him walk with his head among the eagles, and you will serve him as you serve me. Fill the ark with water. Sink it into silence.
- [Memnet then shoved the floating ark, into the Nile, but kept the piece of Hebrew cloth]
- Bithiah: Raise your hands, Memnet. What you have buried in the Nile shall remain buried in your heart. Swear it.
- Memnet: I will be silent.
- Bithiah: The day you break that oath will be the last your eyes shall ever see.
- [Bithiah put a curse, on Memnet with this quote]
- Dathan: Joshua's strength didn't kill the master builder.
- Rameses: Now speaks the rat that would be my ears.
- Dathan: Too many ears tie a rat's tongue.
- Rameses: [to the Egyptian soldiers] Go, all of you!
- [turns to Dathan]
- Rameses: Well... who killed him?
- Dathan: I am a poor man, Generous One; what I bring is worth much.
- Rameses: I have paid you much, and you have brought me nothing.
- Dathan: Now I bring you the world... true Son of Pharaoh.
- Rameses: You offer me the world when you cannot even bring me the deliverer. Who killed Baka?
- Dathan: The deliverer.
- Rameses: Would you play at words with me?
- Dathan: No, Lord Prince.
- Rameses: And this murderer has now fled to some distant land?
- Dathan: No, Lord Prince.
- Rameses: Name him.
- Dathan: One who made himself a prince and judge over us; and if he knew I were here, he would kill me as he killed the Egyptian.
- Rameses: I will hang you myself if you tire me further.
- Dathan: There are those who would pay much for what my eyes have seen.
- Rameses: Do you haggle with me like a seller of melons in the marketplace?
- Dathan: No, I will not haggle, Great Prince; here's your money. But for ten talents of fine gold, I'll give you the wealth of Egypt. Give me my freedom, and I'll give you the scepter. Give me the water girl Lilia, and I'll give you the princess of your heart's desire. Give me this house of Baka, and I'll give you the throne. Give me all that I ask... or give me leave to go.
- Rameses: I will give you more than leave to go; I will send you where you belong.
- Dathan: I belong in your service, Glorious One.
- Rameses: Very well, I will bargain with you. If what you say pleases me, I will give you your price, all of it; if not, I will give you the point of this blade through your lying throat, agreed?
- Dathan: Agreed; the deliverer... is Moses.
- Rameses: Draw one more breath to tell me why Moses or any other Egyptian would deliver the Hebrews?
- Dathan: Moses is not Egyptian; he's Hebrew, the son of slaves.
- Bithiah: They're going away, Moses, and the secret's going with them. No one need ever know the shame I brought upon you.
- Moses: Shame? What change is there in me? Egyptian or Hebrew, I am still Moses. These are the same hands, the same arms, the same face that was mine a moment ago.
- Yochabel: A moment ago you were her son, the strength of Egypt. Now you are my son, a slave of Egypt. You find no shame in this?
- Moses: If there is no shame in me, how can I feel shame for the woman who bore me, or the race that bred me?
- Joshua: God of Abraham, four hundred years we have waited.
- Moses: Pharaoh's soldiers won't wait so long.
- Joshua: The Almighty has heard our cries from bondage. You are the Chosen One!
- Moses: I know nothing of your god.
- Joshua: He knows you, Moses. He has brought you to us. You cannot turn your back upon us. You will deliver us!
- Moses: There is a beauty beyond the senses, Nefretiri, beauty like the quiet of green valleys and still waters, beauty of the spirit that you cannot understand.
- Memnet: What have you found?
- Bithiah: The answer to my prayers!
- Memnet: [in light humor] You prayed for a basket?
- Bithiah: No. I prayed for a son.
- Memnet: Your husband is in the House of the Dead.
- Bithiah: And he has asked the Nile god to bring me this beautiful boy.
- Bithiah: [Memnet raised her hands, as if she was stunned] Do you know the pattern of this cloth?
- Bithiah: If my son is covered in it, it is a royal robe!
- Lilia: Joshua!
- Joshua: Run, Lilia, run! The way is clear. The master builder will not follow.
- Baka: Neither will you, stonecutter.
- [Joshua tried to escape, running backwards, but was captured by Baka's guards]
- Baka: Bind him between the columns! See that his arms are tightly stretched!
- Egyptian guard: He'll cut him to pieces.
- Baka: Now go after the girl. Don't come back without her.
- Egyptian guard: We'll find her.
- Baka: You foolish, stupid man. I would have kept her only a short while. She would have returned to you, shall we say, more worthy. Now to whom shall I return Lilia? You will not be there, Joshua.
- [saying this, Baka starts to lash Joshua]
- Baka: You've seen me drive my chariot. I can flick a fly from my horse's ear without breaking the rhythm of his stride. You've seen me use my whip.
- [Baka lashed Joshua again]
- Baka: You make no outcry, Joshua, but you will. You will cry for the mercy of death.
- Joshua: One day you will listen to the cry of slaves.
- Baka: This is not that day, Joshua.
- [Baka lashed another stripe on Joshua]
- Baka: You hold your tongue almost as well as I hold my temper. It's a pity to kill so strong a stonecutter.
- Moses: [Moses caught Baka's whip, pulled it, and turned Baka around] Death will bring death, Baka!
- Baka: Who are you?
- Moses: One who asks what right you have to kill a slave.
- Baka: The right of a master to kill you or any slave.
- Moses: Then kill me, master butcher!
- [Moses then caught and used Baka's whip, choking Baka to death]
- Baka: Moses!
- [Baka's last line]
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