Moses definition

Moses





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6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Moses \Mo"ses\, n.
     A large flatboat, used in the West Indies for taking freight
     from shore to ship.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:



  Moses
       n 1: (Old Testament) the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites
            from Egypt across the Red sea on a journey known as the
            Exodus; Moses received the Ten Commandments from God on
            Mount Sinai
       2: United States painter of colorful and primitive rural scenes
          (1860-1961) [syn: {Grandma Moses}, {Anne Mary Robertson
          Moses}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  21 Moby Thesaurus words for "Moses":
     Abraham, Amos, Daniel, Ezekiel, Haggai, Hosea, Isaac, Isaiah,
     Jacob, Jeremiah, Joel, Jonah, Joseph, Joshua, Malachi, Micah,
     Nahum, Samuel, Zephaniah, prophet, vates sacer
  
  

From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:

  MOSES
       Major Open Systems Environment Standards
       
       

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Moses
     drawn (or Egypt. mesu, "son;" hence Rameses, royal son). On the
     invitation of Pharaoh (Gen. 45:17-25), Jacob and his sons went
     down into Egypt. This immigration took place probably about 350
     years before the birth of Moses. Some centuries before Joseph,
     Egypt had been conquered by a pastoral Semitic race from Asia,
     the Hyksos, who brought into cruel subjection the native
     Egyptians, who were an African race. Jacob and his retinue were
     accustomed to a shepherd's life, and on their arrival in Egypt
     were received with favour by the king, who assigned them the
     "best of the land", the land of Goshen, to dwell in. The Hyksos
     or "shepherd" king who thus showed favour to Joseph and his
     family was in all probability the Pharaoh Apopi (or Apopis).
     
       Thus favoured, the Israelites began to "multiply exceedingly"
     (Gen. 47:27), and extended to the west and south. At length the
     supremacy of the Hyksos came to an end. The descendants of Jacob
     were allowed to retain their possession of Goshen undisturbed,
     but after the death of Joseph their position was not so
     favourable. The Egyptians began to despise them, and the period
     of their "affliction" (Gen. 15:13) commenced. They were sorely
     oppressed. They continued, however, to increase in numbers, and
     "the land was filled with them" (Ex. 1:7). The native Egyptians
     regarded them with suspicion, so that they felt all the hardship
     of a struggle for existence.
     
       In process of time "a king [probably Seti I.] arose who knew
     not Joseph" (Ex. 1:8). (See {PHARAOH}.) The
     circumstances of the country were such that this king thought it
     necessary to weaken his Israelite subjects by oppressing them,
     and by degrees reducing their number. They were accordingly made
     public slaves, and were employed in connection with his numerous
     buildings, especially in the erection of store-cities, temples,
     and palaces. The children of Israel were made to serve with
     rigour. Their lives were made bitter with hard bondage, and "all
     their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour"
     (Ex. 1:13, 14). But this cruel oppression had not the result
     expected of reducing their number. On the contrary, "the more
     the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew"
     (Ex. 1:12).
     
       The king next tried, through a compact secretly made with the
     guild of midwives, to bring about the destruction of all the
     Hebrew male children that might be born. But the king's wish was
     not rigorously enforced; the male children were spared by the
     midwives, so that "the people multiplied" more than ever. Thus
     baffled, the king issued a public proclamation calling on the
     people to put to death all the Hebrew male children by casting
     them into the river (Ex. 1:22). But neither by this edict was
     the king's purpose effected.
     
       One of the Hebrew households into which this cruel edict of
     the king brought great alarm was that of Amram, of the family of
     the Kohathites (Ex. 6:16-20), who with his wife Jochebed and two
     children, Miriam, a girl of perhaps fifteen years of age, and
     Aaron, a boy of three years, resided in or near Memphis, the
     capital city of that time. In this quiet home a male child was
     born (B.C. 1571). His mother concealed him in the house for
     three months from the knowledge of the civic authorities. But
     when the task of concealment became difficult, Jochebed
     contrived to bring her child under the notice of the daughter of
     the king by constructing for him an ark of bulrushes, which she
     laid among the flags which grew on the edge of the river at the
     spot where the princess was wont to come down and bathe. Her
     plan was successful. The king's daughter "saw the child; and
     behold the child wept." The princess (see PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER
     ¯T0002924 [1]) sent Miriam, who was standing by, to fetch a
     nurse. She went and brought the mother of the child, to whom the
     princess said, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I
     will give thee thy wages." Thus Jochebed's child, whom the
     princess called "Moses", i.e., "Saved from the water" (Ex.
     2:10), was ultimately restored to her.
     
       As soon as the natural time for weaning the child had come, he
     was transferred from the humble abode of his father to the royal
     palace, where he was brought up as the adopted son of the
     princess, his mother probably accompanying him and caring still
     for him. He grew up amid all the grandeur and excitement of the
     Egyptian court, maintaining, however, probably a constant
     fellowship with his mother, which was of the highest importance
     as to his religious belief and his interest in his "brethren."
     His education would doubtless be carefully attended to, and he
     would enjoy all the advantages of training both as to his body
     and his mind. He at length became "learned in all the wisdom of
     the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22). Egypt had then two chief seats of
     learning, or universities, at one of which, probably that of
     Heliopolis, his education was completed. Moses, being now about
     twenty years of age, spent over twenty more before he came into
     prominence in Bible history. These twenty years were probably
     spent in military service. There is a tradition recorded by
     Josephus that he took a lead in the war which was then waged
     between Egypt and Ethiopia, in which he gained renown as a
     skilful general, and became "mighty in deeds" (Acts 7:22).
     
       After the termination of the war in Ethiopia, Moses returned
     to the Egyptian court, where he might reasonably have expected
     to be loaded with honours and enriched with wealth. But "beneath
     the smooth current of his life hitherto, a life of alternate
     luxury at the court and comparative hardness in the camp and in
     the discharge of his military duties, there had lurked from
     childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood, a secret
     discontent, perhaps a secret ambition. Moses, amid all his
     Egyptian surroundings, had never forgotten, had never wished to
     forget, that he was a Hebrew." He now resolved to make himself
     acquainted with the condition of his countrymen, and "went out
     unto his brethren, and looked upon their burdens" (Ex. 2:11).
     This tour of inspection revealed to him the cruel oppression and
     bondage under which they everywhere groaned, and could not fail
     to press on him the serious consideration of his duty regarding
     them. The time had arrived for his making common cause with
     them, that he might thereby help to break their yoke of bondage.
     He made his choice accordingly (Heb. 11:25-27), assured that God
     would bless his resolution for the welfare of his people. He now
     left the palace of the king and took up his abode, probably in
     his father's house, as one of the Hebrew people who had for
     forty years been suffering cruel wrong at the hands of the
     Egyptians.
     
       He could not remain indifferent to the state of things around
     him, and going out one day among the people, his indignation was
     roused against an Egyptian who was maltreating a Hebrew. He
     rashly lifted up his hand and slew the Egyptian, and hid his
     body in the sand. Next day he went out again and found two
     Hebrews striving together. He speedily found that the deed of
     the previous day was known. It reached the ears of Pharaoh (the
     "great Rameses," Rameses II.), who "sought to slay Moses" (Ex.
     2:15). Moved by fear, Moses fled from Egypt, and betook himself
     to the land of Midian, the southern part of the peninsula of
     Sinai, probably by much the same route as that by which, forty
     years afterwards, he led the Israelites to Sinai. He was
     providentially led to find a new home with the family of Reuel,
     where he remained for forty years (Acts 7:30), under training
     unconsciously for his great life's work.
     
       Suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the burning
     bush (Ex. 3), and commissioned him to go down to Egypt and
     "bring forth the children of Israel" out of bondage. He was at
     first unwilling to go, but at length he was obedient to the
     heavenly vision, and left the land of Midian (4:18-26). On the
     way he was met by Aaron (q.v.) and the elders of Israel (27-31).
     He and Aaron had a hard task before them; but the Lord was with
     them (ch. 7-12), and the ransomed host went forth in triumph.
     (See {EXODUS}.) After an eventful journey to and fro in
     the wilderness, we see them at length encamped in the plains of
     Moab, ready to cross over the Jordan into the Promised Land.
     There Moses addressed the assembled elders (Deut. 1:1-4;
     5:1-26:19; 27:11-30:20), and gives the people his last counsels,
     and then rehearses the great song (Deut. 32), clothing in
     fitting words the deep emotions of his heart at such a time, and
     in review of such a marvellous history as that in which he had
     acted so conspicious a part. Then, after blessing the tribes
     (33), he ascends to "the mountain of Nebo (q.v.), to the top of
     Pisgah, that is over against Jericho" (34:1), and from thence he
     surveys the land. "Jehovah shewed him all the land of Gilead,
     unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and
     Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, and
     the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of
     palm trees, unto Zoar" (Deut. 34:2-3), the magnificient
     inheritance of the tribes of whom he had been so long the
     leader; and there he died, being one hundred and twenty years
     old, according to the word of the Lord, and was buried by the
     Lord "in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor"
     (34:6). The people mourned for him during thirty days.
     
       Thus died "Moses the man of God" (Deut. 33:1; Josh. 14:6). He
     was distinguished for his meekness and patience and firmness,
     and "he endured as seeing him who is invisible." "There arose
     not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord
     knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the
     Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all
     his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand,
     and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of
     all Israel" (Deut. 34:10-12).
     
       The name of Moses occurs frequently in the Psalms and Prophets
     as the chief of the prophets.
     
       In the New Testament he is referred to as the representative
     of the law and as a type of Christ (John 1:17; 2 Cor. 3:13-18;
     Heb. 3:5, 6). Moses is the only character in the Old Testament
     to whom Christ likens himself (John 5:46; comp. Deut. 18:15, 18,
     19; Acts 7:37). In Heb. 3:1-19 this likeness to Moses is set
     forth in various particulars.
     
       In Jude 1:9 mention is made of a contention between Michael
     and the devil about the body of Moses. This dispute is supposed
     to have had reference to the concealment of the body of Moses so
     as to prevent idolatry.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Moses, taken out; drawn forth
  

















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