Israel

Abraham’s son Isaac, grew up to be a father himself. To a boy he named Jacob. Jacob, like his grandfather Abraham, coulld also hear the voice of God. And that voice told Jacob, that he would no longer be Jacob but Israel. Israel, meaning “Triumphant with God”. Jacob, now known as Israel had 12 sons. And so they were called the children of Israel, or - The Israelites.

Like his grandfather, Israel too was a herder who roamed about. And when the famine hit Canaan, he led the Israelites out of Canaan and south toward the river Nile. The Egyptians were welcoming and allowed them to settle close to the river. But as the Israelites began to prosper and multiply, and especially since they wouldn’t mingle with the Egyptians, they began to face some problems.

The Israelites were steadfast in their rejection of polytheism. The Egyptians worshipped a number of Gods shaped like animals. The Israelites wanted no part of that, and they continued to prosper. They refused to mix blood. They wanted their children and grandchildren to be purebred. And the Egyptians dislike turned to hatred and that turned to forced labour and persecution. And when that failed, strategic destruction.

So how’d they go about doing that exactly? To force the Israelites to marry the Egyptians, the Pharoah issued a decree - to kill every newborn male Israelite at birth. And thus, began the story of Moses.

One of the mothers decided to give up her son rather than have him murdered, and so left her son in a basket to drift off in the Nile’s current. It is said she left him in a place where she new the Pharoah’s daughter came to bathe. And as such she did. Saw the infant, and took him home to raise as her own. And that’s how he got the Egyptian name, Moses.