Narrator (Cecil B. DeMille) quotes
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[Introductory speech before the film]
Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, this may seem an unusual procedure, speaking to you before the picture begins, but we have an unusual subject - the story of the birth of freedom - the story of Moses. As many of you know, the Holy Bible omits some 30 years of Moses' life... From the time, when he was a three-month old baby, and was found in the bulrushes, by Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh and adopted into the court of Egypt, until he learned that he was Hebrew and killed the Egyptian. To fill in those missing years, we turn to ancient historians, such as Philo and Josephus. Philo wrote at the time when Jesus of Nazareth walked the Earth and Josephus wrote some 50 years later, and watched the destruction of Jerusalem, by the Romans. These historians had access to do****ents long since destroyed - or perhaps lost, like the Dead Sea Scrolls. The theme of this picture is whether man ought to be ruled by God's law, or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator, like Rameses. Are man the property of the state or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today. Our intention was not to create a story, but to be worthy divinely inspired story, created 3,000 years ago, the five books of Moses. The story takes three hours and 39 minutes to unfold. There will be an intermission. Thank you for your attention.
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[Introduction]
And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And from this light, God created life upon Earth And man was given dominion over all things upon this Earth, and the power to choose between good and evil, but each sought to do his own will because he knew not the light of God’s law. Man took dominion over man. The conquered were made to serve the conqueror. The weak were made to serve the strong. And freedom was gone from the world. So did the Egyptians cause the children of Israel to serve with rigor, and their lives were made bitter with hard bondage, and their cry came up unto God and God heard them. And cast into Egypt, into the lowly hut of Amram and Yochabel, the seed of a man upon whose mind and heart would be written God’s law and God’s commandments. One man to stand alone against an empire.
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[After Moses is exiled from Egypt]
Into the blistering wilderness of Shur, the man who walked with kings...now walks alone.
Torn from the pinnacle of royal power; stripped of all rank and earthly wealth; a forsaken man without a country, without a hope; his soul in turmoil like the hot winds and raging sands that lash him with the fury of a taskmaster's whip. He is driven forward, always forward, by a god unknown, toward a land unseen…
Into the molten wilderness of sin where granite sentinels stand as towers of living death to bar his way.
Each night brings the black embrace of loneliness. In the mocking whisper of the wind, he hears the echoing voices of the dark. His tortured mind wondering if they call the memory of past triumphs or wail foreboding of disasters yet to come or whether the desert's hot breath has melted his reason into madness.
He cannot cool the burning kiss of thirst upon his lips nor shade the scorching fury of the sun. All about is desolation. He can neither bless not curse the power that moves him, for he does not know where it comes.
Learning that it can be more terrible to live than to die, he is driven onward through the burning crucible of desert, where holy men and prophets are cleansed and purged for God's great purpose, until at last, at the end of human strength, beaten into the dust from which he came. The metal is ready for the Maker's hand.
And he found strength from a fruit-laden palm tree, and life-giving water flowing from the well of Midian.
Torn from the pinnacle of royal power; stripped of all rank and earthly wealth; a forsaken man without a country, without a hope; his soul in turmoil like the hot winds and raging sands that lash him with the fury of a taskmaster's whip. He is driven forward, always forward, by a god unknown, toward a land unseen…
Into the molten wilderness of sin where granite sentinels stand as towers of living death to bar his way.
Each night brings the black embrace of loneliness. In the mocking whisper of the wind, he hears the echoing voices of the dark. His tortured mind wondering if they call the memory of past triumphs or wail foreboding of disasters yet to come or whether the desert's hot breath has melted his reason into madness.
He cannot cool the burning kiss of thirst upon his lips nor shade the scorching fury of the sun. All about is desolation. He can neither bless not curse the power that moves him, for he does not know where it comes.
Learning that it can be more terrible to live than to die, he is driven onward through the burning crucible of desert, where holy men and prophets are cleansed and purged for God's great purpose, until at last, at the end of human strength, beaten into the dust from which he came. The metal is ready for the Maker's hand.
And he found strength from a fruit-laden palm tree, and life-giving water flowing from the well of Midian.
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[On the day of the Hebrews’ freedom]
And it came to pass, after the stifling night of terror, came a day such as the world had never seen. From east and west, from north and south, they came with all they had, driving their flocks and their herds and their camels before them. By tens, by hundreds, by thousands, unending streams of man and beast and burden, and even very much cattle, poured into the Avenue of Sphinxes. Beneath the stone feet of the four colossal images of Rameses, which their own sweat and blood and sinew had hewn from solid rock, a nation arose and freedom was born into the world.
Like Dathan, they did not know where they were going, and they cared no more than the flocks and herds they drove. Now they used the brick yokes to carry a very different burden. And there went forth among them planters of vineyards and sowers of seeds, each hoping to sit under his own vine and fig tree. Out off this glorious chaos, it is Joshua who brings order and purpose.
And he brought forth the people with joy and gladness. He bore them out of Egypt as an eagle bears its young upon its wings.
But again, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened…
Like Dathan, they did not know where they were going, and they cared no more than the flocks and herds they drove. Now they used the brick yokes to carry a very different burden. And there went forth among them planters of vineyards and sowers of seeds, each hoping to sit under his own vine and fig tree. Out off this glorious chaos, it is Joshua who brings order and purpose.
And he brought forth the people with joy and gladness. He bore them out of Egypt as an eagle bears its young upon its wings.
But again, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened…