The only human permitted to converse with God "face-to-face," Moses is the most commanding presence in the Old Testament. In this brilliant, stunningly original volume, Jonathan Kirsch also shows Moses as an enigmatic and mysterious figure-at once a good shepherd and a ruthless warrior, a spiritual leader and a magician, a lawgiver who broke his own laws, God's chosen friend and hounded victim. Moses: A Life accomplishes the wondrous feat of revealing the real Moses, s strikingly modern figure who steps out from behind the façade of Sunday school lessons and movie matinees. We see the marvels and mysteries of Moses' life in a new light: from his rescue in infancy by an Egyptian princess to his desperate vigil on Mount Sinai. We also see a darker, more ominous Moses: the sorcerer, the husband of a pagan woman, the military commander, the beloved of God whom God sought twice to murder. Drawing on the biblical text and a treasury of both, scholarship and storytelling, Moses: A Life examines all that is known and all that has been imagined by Moses.