Moses, Man of the Mountain

“They did not question too closely for proof. They wanted to believe, and they did. It kept them from feeling utterly vanquished by Pharaoh.”

Hurston subverts the traditional Moses narrative by establishing doubt about whether Moses is actually Hebrew or the true son of the Princess. This passage suggests that the Hebrews need to believe that he is one of them, regardless of the truth, in order to hold onto hope that they will one day be free, pointing to the novel’s thematic interest in The Political Value of Storytelling.

“He had answers in the form of stories for nearly every question that Moses asked and he told stories unasked because they just came to him to tell. They were unexpected visitors.”

Storytelling is an important motif in the novel, suggesting the importance of community and oral history in preserving Black culture. Like Hurston herself, Mentu uses narrative and storytelling to communicate important truths indirectly.

“But the contributions at the altars are getting thin. Let us make a new sun-god to renew the devotions of the people. I have just invented a new incense that shall be known as his breath and indication of his presence at the altar.”

Hurston depicts the priests of Egypt as an impious, jealous group who use their power to manipulate the public and Pharaoh. This criticism of institutionalized religious power offers a stark contrast to the development of Moses as a reluctant and selfless religious leader.

“If the Hebrews were sent out, wouldn’t they go and join themselves with some enemies of Egypt and return as invaders? They knew all of the back roads and the weak spots of the country.”

Ta-Phar and other Egyptians oppose Moses’s attempts to free the Hebrews because they fear retribution for Egypt’s enslavement of and violence against them. This argument echoes many American enslavers’ arguments about the risk of freeing and granting citizenship to enslaved Africans and their descendants.

“He looked at the straining backs of the workmen and then at the face of the foreman, and suddenly he saw all Egypt in that face. The newness come to power, the cruelty and greed.”

Throughout the novel, Pharaoh’s cruelty towards the Hebrews in Egypt serves as a powerful allegory for America’s treatment of enslaved Africans and their descendants. In this passage, the Egyptian foreman acts as a stand-in for Pharaoh, and his murder foreshadows Moses’s defeat of Pharaoh.

“This sublime earth form was the living place of a god, certainly. It had peace and fury in its face. Moses slowed his mount to gaze on the eminence.”

The natural world is at the center of Moses’s understanding of power and divinity. Here and throughout the novel, the mountain acts as a symbol of The Presence of God’s Power in Nature.

“Perhaps it calls for more power than I have to really understand. But I feel the command to bring other people besides the Kenites to know this god and worship him.”

The character of Jethro acts as a father-figure for Moses, and Moses admits that he accepts the mission to evangelize the Hebrews partially to please Jethro. This passage suggests that—in the world of the narrative—God is using Jethro as a tool in the same way Moses is being used.

“So when Moses lifted his hand the smoke of the incense ceased to be smoke. It became the Presence. If it was not the actual Presence, then it enclosed and clothed the Presence. Finally the smoke itself was deified. It was not understood so it became divine.”

In Egypt, Moses encounters priests who invent gods out of incense in order to increase the monetary donations of the devout. In this passage, Moses is himself the mediator of a religious experience for others. Hurston keeps her narrative ambiguous about whether the smoke itself is truly divine or merely a mysterious, natural phenomenon.

“It’s not the title I am afraid of, it’s the thing itself. It makes no difference what he calls himself, king or rule, who sends the young men out to be killed and takes the people’s cattle away from them. Titles ain’t nothing but nicknames.”

Moses’s initial unwillingness to step into a leadership role is essential to his characterization in the first part of the book and positions him within the arc of a traditional hero’s journey—at first refusing the call to his mission. His reluctance to be in a position of power reinforces his narrative position as leader of the Hebrews and the hero of Hurston’s novel.

“Moses faltered nearer the flame and stood. For the first time in all his life he felt naked, meek and void.”

After reading the Book of Thoth, Moses receives the power to command all elements of nature and the ability to understand the languages of all creatures. Hurston’s characterization invests Moses with god-like qualities. However, this passage makes it clear that Moses is fully awe-struck in the presence of his true God on Mt. Sinai.

“Then Moses must recognize him as a brother. Moses refused at first to even listen, but Jethro persuaded him that the connection might be useful down in Egypt. He could make the old legend serve him.”

Throughout the novel, Hurston subverts the Moses legend by suggesting some elements of his narrative, such as his Hebrew heritage, are intentional inventions. This passage implies that his brother Aaron is not actually his brother, and that their relationship was invented in order to help Moses fit in among the Hebrews, highlighting the political value of storytelling.

“They had intended to ask many more questions about this strange god who had sent to them—about his wife, and his food and his children, and what especial sin he punished, but all these questions had been smothered.”

This passage illustrates the ideological and religious differences between the Hebrews, used to the worship of Egyptian gods, and this new God of Moses. Egyptian gods are living, familiar beings who must be appeased with sacrifices. Moses’s God is beyond comparison to humans, making it difficult for the Hebrews to accept him initially.

“What would slaves want to be free for anyway? They are being fed and taken care of. What more could they want?”

The Egyptian nobility, desperate to keep the Hebrews enslaved and reify their own power and privilege, convince themselves that they are doing the Hebrews a favor. Later, in the midst of their traumatic flight out of Egypt, the Hebrews repeat these dangerous assertions, which they have unconsciously accepted from the Egyptians.

“‘Tell them that we are forever striving for their good. We will pass a law: frogs must stay out of the houses of the people.’ The people thought that Pharaoh was very thoughtful of their comfort and needs when they heard about the law.”

This passage indicates Hurston’s political commentary in the novel, informed by her work as a journalist and anthropologist. Ta-Phar passes a law he knows he cannot enforce, and the people accept it, knowing his shortcomings. As a result of this passivity, the status quo is maintained.

“If the house of Pharaoh had not preached and practiced hatred and vengeance for generations, he could save himself by a show of generosity and dismiss the slaves. But the intolerance of Pharaoh and his fathers was fighting against him.”

Within the allegory of the novel, Ta-Phar’s Egypt enslaves and exploits the Hebrews just as the United States enslaved and exploited Africans and their descendants. This passage offers an explanation for America’s delayed response to calls for full legal rights as citizens for enslaved Africans and their descendants: Centuries of hatred and intolerance prevented them from any act of equality.

“He was no longer proud Pharaoh with the mask-like face. He was a man whose son was dead.”

This moment subverts the traditional Moses narrative by humanizing Pharaoh Ta-Phar, Moses’s principal antagonist. Ta-Phar’s poignant grief at the loss of his son offers a nuanced perspective on the massacre of the first-borns.

“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I’m free at last!”

The Hebrew’s cry after learning of their freedom directly echoes an African-American spiritual popular with enslaved Africans and their direct descendants, and evokes the words of civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during his speech from the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. This direct reference provides the clearest sign of Hurston’s allegorical connection between the Hebrews and enslaved Black Americans within the novel.

“Moses reached the rear of his great huddle of trembling humanity and took his stand, between danger and his charges. Again, he was one against all Egypt.”

As the Egyptian army approaches, the Hebrews begin to vocally doubt and criticize Moses’s leadership. Moses’s continued devotion to the Hebrews and their freedom despite this criticism evidences of the strength of his character.

“He looked at Aaron’s face and he noticed the way he walked. His face looked like Ta-Phar’s. There was the look of weak brains and strong pride.”

Throughout the novel, Aaron and Ta-Phar act as brother figures for Moses, their antagonism driven by a sense of competition, self-interest, and resentment. The comparison to Ta-Phar in this passage demonstrates Aaron’s failure to mature and grow as a leader with Moses.

“They had no more interest in prophecy and politics. They were still interested in the earrings of Mrs. Moses and her sandals, and the way she walked and her fine-twined colored linens.”

Throughout the novel, Hurston’s political allegory highlights the structural obstacles blocking people from achieving freedom. This passage suggests that materialistic interests—in this case, the celebrity of Moses’s wife Zipporah—can distract people from achieving political freedom, pointing to the novel’s thematic interest in Freedom as a Constant Struggle.

“He saw Moses standing higher up and seven suns circling around him and the moon was under his feet […] His right hand was lifted and glowed like the firmament at sunrise.”

The presence of God’s power in nature forms an important thematic concern throughout the novel. When Joshua sees Moses talking to God for the first time, he recognizes God in natural symbols, such as the sun and moon.

“Now men could be free because they could govern themselves. They had something of the essence of divinity expressed in order.”

Moses believes that the laws given to him by God are essential to the security and prosperity of the Hebrew people. Within Hurston’s allegorical framework, these laws may point to the Reconstruction-era legal protections designed to protect those recently released from enslavement, which many Americans initially resisted.

“The young ones were told what the old ones had forgotten—all about those days back in Egypt when the house of the prophetess Miriam was the meeting place of all those who were willing to work for freedom.”

Although Moses formally forgives Miriam for her treatment of his wife, she remains an outcast until the end of her life. Despite Miriam’s final antagonism towards Moses, he establishes a heroic legacy for her in death, highlighting her role in the Exodus. This moment of rebranding is representative of Hurston’s interest in the political value of storytelling.