Original subtitles

- The tribes of Israel were enslaved by the Pharaoh,

but still he feared them for them they multiplied

even in bondage and he slew their men children.

But one of these was saved.

His name was Moses.

As a young man, Moses killed an Egyptian man

and fled to the desert,

but God ordered him to return

and demand the Israelites be freed.

The Pharaoh refused even when the Lord ravaged the land

with plague and pestilence.

Only when the Angel of Death took his son

did the Pharaoh yield.

Then the long march began to the land

the Lord had promised,

but freedom meant privation and thirst,

death in the desert and the attacks of warring desert tribes

such as the Amalekites,

but the Israelites quickly learned the art of war.

And with God's help, the road lay open to Mt. Horeb,

where the Lord had first spoken to Moses

and where he would speak again.

(soothing choral music)

Guarded by Joshua and his warriors,

the children of Israel,

in their endless wandering through the desert,

came near to Mt. Horeb, sacred to the Lord.

It was there that Moses had first heard the word of God,

and beneath it dwelt his wife, Zipporah

and his little son, Gershom.

- All clear!

(soothing music)

- Come on!

(soothing music)

(grunting)

- You're thin.

You've been a long time without the roast lamb

and the mutton stews I used to give you, and the love.

You're very thin.

- And older.

- I didn't say that.

- [Man] Moses!

Moses!

Moses, Moses!

Reuben and Judah, impossible.

- It was some matter over a woman,

a married woman of Judah and a single man of Reuben.

- They're developing a taste for war, tribal war.

Brother against brother.

- It was to be truthful the possession of weapons

that drove them to the use of weapons.

- It's always thus.

We have to fight other nations, so be it

but we must not fight among ourselves.

How many dead?

- Only one, a very small war.

- Was it by chance the--

- Yes, the single man of Reuben, no longer

able to love the married woman of Judah.

(shouting)

(flies buzzing)

- This is not war, this is murder.

War is against an enemy, someone strange.

Of strange tongue, of evil intention.

But we are one, of common speech and custom.

Of common belief, chosen together

as one people, as one family

with the special favor

and the special chastening of the Lord.

That deed is not a brave deed of warfare,

but a foul act of murder.

Let the accused come forward.

What have you to say?

- I acted under orders.

We were ordered to attack the enemy.

- Enemy?

There was no enemy.

A man killed a man and that is murder,

and what is the punishment for murder?

Let the elders of the tribes come forward and speak.

What is the punishment for murder?

- The washing out of the blood by compensation,

that the young man or his parents make good the loss of

one of our able bodied men.

Let us have a warrior or a slave or say cattle or sheep.

- No Evram, no.

We cannot value human life in terms of possessions,

for human life is precious and irreplaceable

and cannot be treated as a

kind of money.

What is the punishment for murder?

- If we cannot put a value on human life,

then we cannot compute the punishment.

- True, and yet not true.

We can value human life, but only in its terms.

A life for a life.

A death for a death.

- How shall the murderer,

I mean how is it to be done?

- Oh Joshua, to think of that now.

Do you suppose I intend it as immediate execution?

Let the judges of his guilt revel in their own confusion.

Did he or did he not do it?

Can we trust the witnesses?

Or did perhaps the dead man drop dead in fright

when he saw the knife approaching?

We've hardly begun to conceive any of this,

of the preciousness of a human life.

- I have promised one ewe and one ram.

- This is clearly a simple matter of misunderstanding.

You had a simple offer in mind.

- [Man] I said lamb, not ram!

(shouting, arguing)

(goats bleating)

- So quiet.

So peaceful.

- You'll wear yourself out.

I know, I know all about it.

Organize, delegate.

The basis of good government is the 10.

- The what?

- The 10.

Good junior officers, each one in charge of 10.

Then, senior officers in charge of 50.

Then you climb the ladder.

Very good men in charge of 100,

and then at last the cream, leaders of 1,000.

God-fearing men, trustworthy, family men,

preferably young men.

- Men like Joshua.

He is one who carries a new fire,

but first I must tend this fire for him

and warm my hands by it.

- Joshua, is he married? - No.

It sounds like, like the organization of an army.

- And so it is, you are an army.

But an army of human souls.

You will be fighting your way

towards this land of milk and honey.

It'll be a long time before the cows and goats are born

that will yield that milk,

and for that honey you must build your own hives.

(rumbling)

- I think I'm being summoned.

God help me.

- That is a prayer you will be able to express in person.

(rumbling)

(ethereal music)

- [God] Say this to the people of Israel,

if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant

you shall be to me a nation of holiness,

and the words of the covenant shall be set down

upon stone imperishable.

So that they may be seen by the eyes of men.

The choice, the choice is theirs.

- Soon I will leave you.

And I leave to you the main duties of administering,

ordering, judging.

The tasks which have long absorbed my time, my energy,

and such poor brains as I have

will be the task of making the law that you must administer.

They are laws for all men,

and they are laws the world has not seen before.

First we have to remember that these laws come from God.

But so long as men shall live in freedom, unoppressed,

it is on such laws that their lives must be based.

And they must know that these laws

are sanctified by God himself.

God is not a demon of the rivers or of fire or air.

He is not a stone idol.

He is spirit,

and as spirit he must be worshiped.

So there shall be no making of idols

of stone or iron or wood or silver.

The very name is sacred, and its use must be sacred.

The day of rest which is God's day shall be sacred also.

It shall be a day for the family

and the family itself shall be seen on that day as sacred.

The family and the bond of marriage,

the children that are the fruit of that marriage.

All shall be bound into a garland of honor and love.

And what a man owns shall be sacred,

since it comes from God.

Be it his goods, or be it his life

both are inviolate.

No killing, no stealing,

no coveting the things our fellow men possess,

for all sin begins in desire.

And above all, we are free beings.

Copies of that God who is

the primal and ultimate free being.

We are free but to choose to enter into a covenant with him,

with him who made us.

And now I ask you,

will you accept that covenant?

Will you accept that covenant?

- Yes!

- We accept!

- Will you accept the covenant?

(shouting agreements)

(soothing music)

I must enter.

You understand I must be entirely alone.

Make your camp here.

- How long will it be?

- The world took six days to make.

To make laws with the Israelites may take longer,

a good deal longer but remember

if all this should be too much for you--

- [Joshua] It won't, it won't.

- Remember, I say that you are the next chosen.

- But there must be others before me.

Your brother, some of the elders.

- I must look to the young, to you.

And now...

Be near Joshua, be near for you too are called.

(ethereal music)

- It's a cold night.

- It's a cold place, my friend.

- When will Moses be back?

- Soon, very soon.

- Aaron?

Aaron.

Any news from up there?

- You've a strange choice of words, my friend.

- Oh I apologize.

A very homely and earthy word.

I merely wondered, well, when he was coming back to us.

It seems to be already a long time.

- Two Sabbaths, one of which you remember

you neglected to keep.

- Well I forgot!

You will remember that I said I forgot.

You will also remember that I said

I thought it was nonsense.

- And you were rebuked for blasphemy.

The Lord's day is not to be termed nonsense.

- Coray.

- Oh I thought we were all free men now, huh?

All entitled to a free opinion.

- Free under the law.

- Where is this law you talk about so much?

Huh, I hear much about the law but I see nothing of it.

- You see all you want to see, Dathan.

All in good time.

- I wonder.

Well, is that blasphemy too?

Is it blasphemy to wonder

whether he'll ever come down again?

He may receive new orders.

Go down Moses to the other side.

There are more slaves to bring to freedom.

- We've slaves enough, Dathan.

Some men will always be slaves.

(spits)

- So no news?

No news?

- I told you before, don't ask me for news.

- I thought perhaps Joshua might have come down with news

or whatever I'm supposed to call it.

- Joshua has his orders.

- And you have yours. - And I have mine.

My orders were to give orders.

My order was to keep order, which I'm doing.

- Which you are doing.

- What's going on in that mind of yours?

Peace be to you.

Well come on, tell me.

- A very natural thought.

You keep order, until Joshua is ready

to come down from the mountain.

Then Joshua keeps order.

- This is nonsense.

Joshua has his work, and I have mine.

- Whatever it is.

- I am his voice.

Joshua is his right arm.

That has been fully agreed ever since the war.

- War?

Oh that little skirmish you mean

with those unwashed desert people.

Joshua, the great warrior.

General Joshua.

- What have you against Joshua?

- I have nothing against Joshua.

I just wonder sometimes how you fit in, I mean...

- What you mean I think is that you want the deference

due to the wife of a great man hm?

Now when did I pretend to be a great man?

There are no great men here,

believe me, not even my own brother.

We don't want greatness.

We ask very little to build our nation.

We need law, law, more law.

What we're all doing at this moment

is waiting for the

painful hammering out of the law.

There'll be judges, I shall be a judge hm?

That be great enough for you?

My husband the judge, will that do?

- You misunderstood my meaning.

I'm not even sure I understand it myself.

But, well, once there seemed

so much to look forward to.

Now there seems to be nothing.

- Nothing?

We've come out of Egypt free, a free people.

We've seen wonders, miracles.

- There are some who are saying it was trickery.

That he knew a strong wind would blow back the waters.

It's happened before, they say

and it was all supposed to be the power of this God.

His God.

And where is this God of his?

- This God is in everything.

In the power of the wind and the lightning,

in each of his own creatures.

And now he's talking to my own brother, giving him the law,

making a covenant with our people.

- And what are we supposed to do, look up at the sky

and pretend to see a God that isn't really there?

Who only lives in the mind of your Moses?

Have you ever thought that your Moses may be mad?

- I think we'd better go to bed.

- And tell them that no one is to work on the Sabbath.

Sabbath is my day.

Oh but I say, why don't we have that one day,

and you can have all the other days

so that we can lay down and rest?

Because I told you, and tell them,

if they do something wrong I will punish them!

(laughing)

What will you do?

I will come down in a thunderbolt!

(laughing)

- Go down on your knees, bow down to it

or it'll hit you a great clout on the head--

- Stop that.

You know the law, there is to be

no worshiping of graven images,

and that means also the pretense

of worshiping graven images.

- Is there no more room for children's games?

- No there is danger even in children's play.

(kids sigh)

- What do you want?

- The treasure.

- Treasure?

- To see it, just to see it.

To see if it's still here.

- Come, come with us, come on.

- Get on your feet.

- What do you want?

- To get away. - What do you want to do?

- The gods have abandoned us.

We must get away from here.

- We'll all die here.

This place is no good.

- We want to divide the treasure.

- We want to see the treasure! - I've delivered the treasure

to you, you know that.

That's no business of yours. - The treasure.

- Fine, take your hands off me.

(shouting)

Guards, guards!

- What is all this?

Be quiet, be quiet all of you!

Now, what is all this?

- Ask him.

- We wish to see the treasure.

(shouting)

Show us the treasure!

I speak in front of all the people!

- Show us the treasure!

- Dathan speaks for all of us! - Dathan is our leader!

(shouting)

We want to see the treasure!

- Keep them back.

(shouting)

- It's our treasure! - Ours!

- It belongs to us! - Our treasure!

- Like sheep without a shepherd.

Someone must care for them.

- There.

Are you satisfied?

- Quite satisfied.

My compliments.

Very well guarded.

- You knew this, Dathan.

So what game are you playing?

- Game, playing?

We are all afraid.

The gods of Egypt frown on us.

Your brother, our great leader, has been spirited away.

Tell him my friends, speak for yourselves.

- Dathan is right! (shouting)

- You've got to help us! - We want a true God!

- Fools, be silent, hear me!

- Gods who will help us! - Escape from here Aaron!

- Have you forgotten the covenant

that you swore to the God of Israel?

Remember his words.

You shall have no other gods but me.

(shouting) Be silent lest the Lord

strike you in his terrible anger!

- [Man] Moses is dead!

- My brother is not dead.

Do not be afraid.

Even now he's in the mountain conversing with our God.

- Lead us out of here, Aaron, lead us out of here, help us!

- You wish to leave this place yes, but how?

You will never find your way alone.

Who will lead you across the desert?

(shouting)

True, the treasure belongs to all of you,

but how can it be divided into equal parts?

See.

This vessel.

Can this vessel be broken equally

so not one family have more than another?

Or this jewel, what man has the skill

to divide this jewel in half?

No, no I tell you this treasure cannot be divided.

It belongs to the whole nation.

It was given to us by the Egyptians in payment

for years and years of suffering.

It represents the grief of generations.

- You see Aaron,

they are listening to you.

They love you.

You have their confidence already.

You Aaron, lead us, lead us Aaron.

(shouting)

- And all saying that he's no longer there,

that he's disappeared.

They're all saying it, even the young.

- Whether he's there or not, you are here.

The time has come for you to take charge, true.

- I'm doing all I can.

- You can't go on saying no, wait.

Have they been asking you for gods?

For gods, gods.

Not for some big bearded father of the mountain.

- Yes.

Yes they've been asking for gods.

They're fools!

- No they're afraid.

And you, you and your brother.

You talk of the big invisible God who brought us

out of the land of Egypt into the bondage of sheepdom

and they don't understand.

- No well of course they don't understand!

They've been slaves.

He's tried them too hard.

I will talk to them.

I will try to help them to understand.

- Talking is not enough now.

You have to do something.

(dog barking, howling)

(singing)

(murmuring)

- People of Israel, you have done great wrong.

You have murmured among yourselves and demanded gods.

But your wrongdoing was that of children

who cannot understand.

You still do not understand the great thing

that has happened to us.

We have been chosen by God himself,

not by gods, but by the one true indivisible God

who made us and made everything.

Try to understand this.

Now, this image is not God.

The very idea is absurd, but it will remind you of God

each day that you pass by it

for it is an image of strength, of loving strength.

Its head the sun, its forehead the moon,

its limbs the four corners of the universe.

- Look it's that animal, the one I saw in the sky!

- Yes it's a calf, and it is fashioned out of the gold

that belongs to all of you.

So what you see is the image of our unity as a people,

the unity of a people chosen by God himself,

the great God of gods whose silver is the moon,

whose gold the sun, whose jewels

the eternal constellations of heaven!

(cheering)

(drumming)

♪ Where will our wedding wedding be ♪

♪ Up in the fronds of a dika tree ♪

♪ Where will our wedding wedding be ♪

♪ Up in the fronds of a dika tree ♪

♪ What will we drink what will we eat ♪

♪ Moon for wine and sun for meat ♪

♪ What will we drink what will we eat ♪

♪ Moon for wine and sun for meat ♪

♪ Where will our wedding wedding be ♪

♪ Up in the fronds of a dika tree ♪

♪ Where will our wedding wedding be ♪

♪ Up in the fronds of a dika tree ♪

♪ What will we drink what will we eat ♪

- You see, they're like children.

They just needed to be kept busy.

They're happy now.

- It will not be just that for long.

♪ Moon for wine and sun for meat ♪

♪ Where will our wedding

- I saw some old men this morning

touching it for luck as they said,

and there was a young woman giving thanks.

- It's good to give thanks.

- To give thanks to an image?

Her child had been ill and now is better.

She said the, the thing,

the calf is magical.

- I tell you they don't think it's a god.

Anyway, had to gain some time.

♪ Where will our wedding wedding be ♪

♪ Up in the fronds of a dika tree ♪

♪ Where will our wedding wedding be ♪

♪ Up on the fronds of a dika tree ♪

♪ Where will our wedding wedding be ♪

♪ Up in the fronds of a dika tree ♪

- Wine! (laughing)

(hiccups)

Can you get any more of this?

- What do we buy it with, that gold thing up there?

- Risky, you'd never get away with it.

- I'd rather drink this than take that smoke stuff.

- What that? - It gives you visions

of the promised land, so they say.

It makes you sick afterwards.

(laughing)

- He's coming down soon. - Who says so?

- It's only a rumor.

We ought to have a night of it.

- [Man] How do you mean?

- There'll be no celebration when he gets here.

He'll have a law against celebrations.

All nicely carved out, hear?

We must celebrate before he gets down.

(all agreeing)

- Celebrate what?

- We can think of something.

- The fever must reach its height,

and then he'll grow cool again.

It's just a matter of waiting.

Give him nothing to drink.

Bathe his forehead with water.

(talking over each other) (drumming)

- [Man] Help us and save us oh God.

You are our God and we will worship you

and sacrifice you, show us your will God!

- [Woman] For our eyes to see and our hands to touch!

- [Man] Show us the way out of the desert.

Show us where we must go.

Help us!

(chanting)

- Listen.

(chanting)

All wasted.

All wasted.

- I must speak to them.

(percussive music)

(chanting)

(shouting)

- Out, get back, get back when I tell you!

Listen, listen to me all of you!

Friends, brothers, children of Israel!

Get back to your tents at once on pain of death!

- No, we don't want to! - Why should we?

- You know not what you do, stop!

- We can stop them. - No!

The hands of the Levites must remain clean.

Aaron started this, let Aaron finish it!

(shouting)

- [Aaron] Curse you all, I tell you!

- Aaron's wife, hey let's save her!

(laughs)

Come on, you don't want Aaron, he's an old man!

(percussive music) (shouting)

(moaning)

(ululating)

(soothing music)

(percussive music)

(chanting)

(shouting)

(screaming)

- This is another kind of slavery.

Stop this, God sees!

The true God sees!

Remember who you are, the people chosen by God, go back!

God will punish you!

Go back to your tents, listen!

(shouting)

(percussive music)

(groaning)

(crying)

(shouting)

(screams)

(percussive music)

(shouting)

- We have mischief below.

- Let us see what the mischief is.

(dog barking)

(baby crying)

- We were not involved.

Your people, the Levites, were not involved.

- Not involved?

Not in stopping it?

- What could we do?

- Assemble them.

(blows horn)

(screaming)

Not enough knowledge.

Never enough.

The work wasted.

All the work wasted.

- [Man] You'll be punished for what you've done!

Will punish you all!

(screaming)

(soothing music)

- Land of Canaan.

Yes, the promised land.

The land is ours, the land of our fathers.

It will not be ours for the easy taking,

but whoever now possesses that land

possesses it not by God's promise.

- We are without menfolk, thanks to your holy wars.

- I spit on your authority.

(screaming)

- Was my own brother you killed, do you know that?

Dead because of some nonsense about the Sabbath,

and all the world knows it for nonsense.

(shouting)

- You see you foolish children,

the land is flowing with milk and honey

and the land is ours.

(soothing music)

- [God] I have caused thee to see it, Moses

with thine own eyes.

Thou shalt not go over into the land.

(soothing music)

♪ Israel

♪ Israel

♪ Israel

♪ Israel