Moses was born as an Egyptian prince at a time which we would call the Bronze Age (about 3,400 years ago in this part of the world). Later he became a prophet, religious leader and lawgiver. Moses is believed to have begun the Hebrew Bible called the Torah. Moses is the most important prophet in Judaism, as well as being an important prophet in the other Religions of the Book: Christianity and Islam.
Moses is especially well known for leading the Hebrew tribes out of Egypt (the Exodus) and for receiving the Ten Commandments from God.
The Book of Exodus, tells how Moses was born in a time when the hebrews were living in the Egyptian empire as a slave nation. The Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that the Hebrews (Israelites) might ally with Egypt's enemies and cause trouble within Egypt. To make things worse, rumours began to get around that a messiah might emerge among the Hebrew slaves.
To try to curb the problem, the pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed. But Moses' mother hid him among reeds along the Nile banks and so he was not killed. Instead, the pharaoh's sister found and adopted Moses and as a result, he grew up with the Egyptian royal family. Moses' name was given to him by Pharaoh's daughter: Moshe (Moses), which actually means, simply 'son'. But when he was grown up, in an argument, Moses killed an Egyptian slavemaster and was forced to flee Egypt for a time. It was then that he was visited by God, who spoke to him from within a "burning bush" and explained that he was an Israelite, not an Egyptian and that he should lead the Israelites out of Egypt to a promised land.
God sent Moses back to Egypt to seek the release of the Israelites from slavery. To prove that this should be done, God then sent the Ten Plagues. After this Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, crossing because God commanded the waters to open in front of them and so give them safe passage. Then they went to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. But the Israelites still did not reach their promised land, although Moses died within sight of it.
