Charlton Heston credited as playing...
Moses
- Moses: [to Sethi, after Sethi came to see Moses completing the city to be built] Pharoah is pleased?
- Sethi: With the obelisk, yes. But not with certain accusations made against you.
- Moses: By whom?
- Sethi: You raided the temple granaries?
- Moses: Yes.
- [Rameses puts first weight on scale. The other scale dish holds a heavier weight, which keeps that dish on the table]
- Sethi: You gave the grain to the slaves?
- Moses: Yes.
- [Rameses puts second weight on scale, which causes opposite scale dish to bounce, but it still rests on the table]
- Rameses: You gave them one day in seven to rest.
- Moses: Yes.
- [Rameses puts third weight on scale. It's now heavier than its opposite dish, which is yanked up off the table]
- Sethi: Did you do all this to gain their favor?
- Moses: [Moses puts a brick on the dish that was yanked off the table. It's now heavier than Rameses' weights and crashes to the table with a bang! Moses has defeated his accusers] A city is built of brick, Pharoah. The strong make many, the starving make few. The dead make none. So much for accusations.
- Sephora: Which of my sisters did you choose?
- Moses: I made no choice, Sephora.
- Sephora: She was very beautiful, wasn't she? This woman of Egypt, who left her scar upon your heart. Her skin was white as curd, her eyes green as the cedars of Lebanon, her lips, tamarisk honey. Like the breast of a dove, her arms were soft... and the wine of desire was in her veins.
- Moses: Yes. She was beautiful... as a jewel.
- Sephora: A jewel has brilliant fire, but it gives no warmth. Our hands are not so soft, but they can serve. Our bodies not so white, but they are strong. Our lips are not perfumed, but they speak the truth. Love is not an art to us. It's life to us. We are not dressed in gold and fine linen. Strength and honor are our clothing. Our tents are not the columned halls of Egypt, but our children play happily before them. We can offer you little... but we offer all we have.
- Moses: I have not little, Sephora. I have nothing.
- Sephora: Nothing from some... is more than gold from others.
- Moses: You would fill the emptiness of my heart?
- Sephora: I could never fill all of it, Moses, but I shall not be jealous of a memory.
- Nefretiri: But I have saved your son, Moses.
- Moses: It is not my son who will die. It is... it is the firstborn of Egypt. It is your son, Nefretiri!
- Nefretiri: No. You would not dare strike Pharaoh's son!
- Moses: In the hardness of his heart, Pharaoh has mocked God and brings death to his own son!
- Nefretiri: But he is my son, Moses. You would not harm my son.
- Moses: By myself, I am nothing. It is the power of God which uses me to work His will.
- Nefretiri: You would not let Him do this to me. I saved your son!
- Moses: I cannot save yours.
- Moses: [Moses opened the door, after Bithiah knocked] Bithiah.
- Bithiah: In fear of your God, they have set me free. May a stranger enter?
- Moses: There are no strangers among those who seek God's mercy.
- Bithiah: My bearers?
- Moses: All who thirst for freedom may come with us. The darkness of death will pass over us tonight, and tomorrow the light of freedom will shine upon us as we go forth from Egypt.
- Bithiah: I shall go with you, Moses.
- Miriam: A princess of Egypt?
- Aaron: An Egyptian?
- Miriam: An idol worshipper!
- Moses: This woman drew me from the Nile and set my feet upon the path of knowledge. Mered, bring a chair to our table for the daughter of Pharaoh.
- Bithiah: There is a great light that shines from your face, Moses. Perhaps someday I shall come to understand it.
- Joshua: Praise God, I have found you.
- Moses: Joshua? We thought you dead.
- Joshua: In the copper mines of Geber, the living are dead.
- Moses: Sephora! Bring water! How did you find me?
- Joshua: A merchant buying copper saw you in the tent of Jethro.
- Moses: [Moses softly tapped Josha's back] Here you, too, will find peace.
- Joshua: [a stunned look came over Joshua's face, as he almost crossed his eyes] Peace? How can you find peace or want it when Rameses builds cities mortared with the blood of our people?
- Moses: No son could have more love for you than I.
- Sethi: Then why are you forcing me to destroy you? What evil has done this to you?
- Moses: The evil that men should turn their brothers into beasts of burden, to be stripped of spirit, and hope, and strength - only because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a god, he did not mean this to be so.
- Moses: Does your god live on this mountain?
- Sephora: Sinai is His high place, His temple.
- Moses: If this god is God, he would live on every mountain, in every valley. He would not be the god of Ishmael or Israel alone, but of all men. It is said he created all men in his image. He would dwell in every heart, every mind, every soul.
- Jethro's daughter: Is it true that Egyptian girls paint their eyes?
- Moses: Yes, but very few have eyes as beautiful as yours.
- Lilia: You are strange to the pits. Your back is unscarred.
- Moses: You bring a warm smile with your cool water.
- Lilia: My smile is for a stonecutter. The water is for you.
- Moses: I thank you.
- Lilia: Your voice is not strange. You are...
- Moses: [Moses spoke very quickly, preventing Lilia from recognizing his voice] One of many who thirst.
- Baka: You there! Come here!
- Lilia: That is Baka, the master builder.
- Moses: Does he call me or you?
- Baka: You, water girl! I'm thirsty.
- Lilia: He does not thirst for water.
- Slave: Beauty is but a curse to our women.
- Bithiah: They're going away, Moses, and the secret's going with them. No one need ever know the shame I brought upon you.
- Moses: Shame? What change is there in me? Egyptian or Hebrew, I am still Moses. These are the same hands, the same arms, the same face that was mine a moment ago.
- Yochabel: A moment ago you were her son, the strength of Egypt. Now you are my son, a slave of Egypt. You find no shame in this?
- Moses: If there is no shame in me, how can I feel shame for the woman who bore me, or the race that bred me?
- Joshua: God of Abraham, four hundred years we have waited.
- Moses: Pharaoh's soldiers won't wait so long.
- Joshua: The Almighty has heard our cries from bondage. You are the Chosen One!
- Moses: I know nothing of your god.
- Joshua: He knows you, Moses. He has brought you to us. You cannot turn your back upon us. You will deliver us!
- Moses: There is a beauty beyond the senses, Nefretiri, beauty like the quiet of green valleys and still waters, beauty of the spirit that you cannot understand.
- Lilia: Joshua!
- Joshua: Run, Lilia, run! The way is clear. The master builder will not follow.
- Baka: Neither will you, stonecutter.
- [Joshua tried to escape, running backwards, but was captured by Baka's guards]
- Baka: Bind him between the columns! See that his arms are tightly stretched!
- Egyptian guard: He'll cut him to pieces.
- Baka: Now go after the girl. Don't come back without her.
- Egyptian guard: We'll find her.
- Baka: You foolish, stupid man. I would have kept her only a short while. She would have returned to you, shall we say, more worthy. Now to whom shall I return Lilia? You will not be there, Joshua.
- [saying this, Baka starts to lash Joshua]
- Baka: You've seen me drive my chariot. I can flick a fly from my horse's ear without breaking the rhythm of his stride. You've seen me use my whip.
- [Baka lashed Joshua again]
- Baka: You make no outcry, Joshua, but you will. You will cry for the mercy of death.
- Joshua: One day you will listen to the cry of slaves.
- Baka: This is not that day, Joshua.
- [Baka lashed another stripe on Joshua]
- Baka: You hold your tongue almost as well as I hold my temper. It's a pity to kill so strong a stonecutter.
- Moses: [Moses caught Baka's whip, pulled it, and turned Baka around] Death will bring death, Baka!
- Baka: Who are you?
- Moses: One who asks what right you have to kill a slave.
- Baka: The right of a master to kill you or any slave.
- Moses: Then kill me, master butcher!
- [Moses then caught and used Baka's whip, choking Baka to death]
- Baka: Moses!
- [Baka's last line]
- Moses: I'll not leave a man to die in the mud.
- Simon: Thank you, my son... but death is better than bondage, for my days are ended and my prayer unanswered.
- Moses: What prayer, old man?
- Simon: That before death closed my eyes, I might behold the deliverer who will lead all men to freedom.
- Moses: What deliverer could break the power of Pharaoh?
- Egyptian guard: You!
- Moses: Blasphemers! Idolaters! For this, you shall drink bitter waters... God has set before you this day his laws of life, and good, and death, and evil... Those who will not live by the law, shall die by the law!
- Moses: You know it is death to strike an Egyptian?
- Joshua: I know it.
- Moses: Yet you struck him. Why?
- Joshua: To save the old woman.
- Moses: What is she to you?
- Joshua: An old woman.
- [Joshua was defending his Hebrew race]
- Egyptian guard: Lord Prince, send him to his death!
- Moses: The man has courage. You do not speak like a slave.
- Joshua: God made men. Men made slaves.
- Moses: Which god?
- Joshua: The God of Abraham. The Almighty God!
- Moses: If your God is Almighty, why does He leave you in bondage?
- Joshua: He will choose the hour of our freedom and the man who will deliver us!