Book of Exodus/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Moses

"Let my people go!"

  • Back From the Dead: While this would normally not apply to someone for whom they Never Found the Body, he shows up again over 1000 years later in the New Testament as a spirit.
  • Badass
  • Beyond the Impossible: He writes about his own death.
  • Cue the Sun: God prolongs the day in one battle for as long as Moses held up his arms. He got people to help him hold them up.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Staff/Snake miracle.
  • Dying Alone: They Never Found the Body. The book of Jude in the New Testament expands on this.
  • Genocide Backfire
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Given the area she came from, Its very likely that one of his wives was black. In any case, Miriam and Aaron where not happy about him marrying her, and spoke against him until God got angry at them and rebuked them.
  • Moses in the Bulrushes: The Trope Namer. Ironically, he is not a perfect fit for this trope as in the actual text he knew he was an Israelite. The movie changed it because of the Rule of Drama.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When the Israelites were complaining about a lack of water, God told Moses to speak to a stone to get a spring to appear, but Moses smacked it with his staff instead. As punishment for not following God's directions exactly, he was not allowed to enter the promised land. (While he was alive, see Brick Joke on YMMV tab.)
  • The Obi-Wan: Recognized as the greatest prophet in Judaism, and invoked in many major prayers.
  • Shiksa Goddess: His wife's Ethiopian.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Got quite angry when he came back to find some of the Israelites worshiping a golden calf. Understandable. The text ambiguously implies they were having a orgy.
  • Unaccustomed as I Am to Public Speaking: He had a speech impediment, so his brother Aaron did the talking for him. This is subverted in Deuteronomy which shows how much he's changed. The whole book is Moses' eloquent last instructions to Israel before his death.

Aaron

  • Pandering to the Base: When the Israelites demand a physical form to worship, he relents and allows them to melt down their jewelry to make a golden calf.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Often portrayed as a nicer person than his brother, especially in the Talmud, where he micromanages Israelite home life. His death is also given a lot more solemnity than Moses'.

Miriam

And Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, proceeded to take a tambourine in her hand; and all the women began going out with her with tambourines and in dances.

  • Guile Heroine: When the princess finds Moses, she asks the princess if she can find a woman to act as a wet nurse for the baby, which the princess agrees to. The wet nurse she chose? Their mother.
  • Jerkass: Temporarily; She didn't like Moses's new wife and roped Aaron into helping her speak out against her. God didn't like that very much.
  • Sick Episode: Punishment for her insolence; she got better.

Pharaoh

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country."

  • Determinator: He was stubborn even before God* started hardening his heart.
  • Too Dumb to Live
  • Ignored Epiphany: He admitted that "this time I have sinned", that his people were wrong and God is right, told Moses that he could go, then, right after Pharaoh saw that the hail and rain were gone and everything was fine and dandy again, Pharaoh "hardened" his own heart and refused to let the Israelites go.
  • Infant Immortality: Averted. He sent men to kill the Israelites kids. His own son died later.
  • Infanticide Backfire: One of the infants they tried to kill survived, and this ultimately resulted in the Israelites being freed and the death of Pharaoh.
  • Kill It with Water:Orders the first born sons of the Israelites to be thrown into the Nile river.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Send men to drown the infants of the people you enslaved? Your own people's children will die, including your own son, and your armies (possibly including you) will drown.
  • Nay Theist: He acknowledged the existence of God. He even went so far as to admits that he sinned, but he still refused to do what God said and let His people go.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Attempted unsuccessfully to kill the prophesied savior by killing all male hebrew babies. Ended unknowingly raising the child himself.
  • No Name Given / Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His real name is never given, as Pharaoh is just a title.
  • One Steve Limit: Averted, as there are other Pharaohs mentioned.
  • Rage Against the Heavens: He fought against God by refusing to let His people go, even after he saw proof that He exists.
  • Pride: His refusal to humble himself before God cost him quite dearly, any way you slice it.

Joshua

And Israel served the Lord throughout Joshua's lifetime.

  • Badass
  • Blind Idiot Translation: The translation directed by King James the 1st of England confuses him with Jesus at a few points. Helps that their Name's The Same, albeit under different naming conventions.
  • Cue the Sun: And that day was unlike any other before or since, when God listened to a man - Joshua 10:14
  • Curse: He foretold that whoever rebuilds Jericho will lose both his sons in the process and this came true during the time of Ahab.
  • Heroic Blue Screen of Death: When the attack on the city of Ai failed followed by God telling him "Get up! Why are you down on your face?|.
  • Kill'Em All: What happens to most of the cities he conquers.

Rahab

Balaam

"How can I curse those whom God had not?"

Balaam's Donkey

Then the LORD opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?"

  • Stubborn Mule: This is probably what Balaam thought, but in reality the Donkey refused to move because she saw an angel.
  • Talking Animal: It was due to a miracle, but it is not clear whether this literally happened or was a vision of some sort.
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