Image Details

The Jewish Museum, Prague, MS. 240

Raising his club in the air, the young Moses beats the cruel Egyptian taskmaster to death in this 18th-century illuminated manuscript from Prague. Behind them are the cities of Pithom and Raamses, built by Hebrew slaves—among them Moses’ kin. When Pharaoh learns that Moses has murdered the taskmaster for beating a Hebrew slave, Moses is forced to flee Egypt. He hides in Midian, in the Arabian wilderness, where he meets and marries Zipporah, a daughter of a pagan Midianite priest. As adopted son of the Egyptian court and then son-in-law of a Midianite priest, the young Moses has not yet realized his destiny as the leader of the Israelites.