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Israelites
Moses
"Let my people go!"
- Badass Israeli: Killed a guy just by speaking God's name. He also iced an Egyptian who was beating up Hebrew workers.
- Chekhov's Gun: The staff/snake miracle.
- Chessmaster Sidekick: Interestingly, Moses serves as this. When God first manifests in the burning bush, Moses protests that he cannot speak before Pharaoh because he is "slow of speech and slow of tongue"—most scholars believe this is a reference to some kind of speech impediment. As such, it is actually Aaron, Moses's brother, who does all of the talking and bargaining with Pharaoh, while Moses serves as something of a sidekick (albeit one who is infused with God's power). note As the story of the Golden Calf proves, Aaron was a terrible leader to the Israelites once they were free (largely because he was something of an Extreme Doormat who repeatedly bent to their will), and Moses ended up having to clean up a good deal of his messes. Most adaptations of the Exodus story ignore the "slow of speech" element, though, and simply have Moses do all of the talking as well.
- Cradle To Grave Character: Moses' conception, birth, and adulthood are described in the second chapter of the Book of Exodus before he's tasked with leading the Hebrews out of Egypt at age eighty. The books of Leviticus and Numbers detail the forty years he spends leading Israel while Deuteronomy records the final speech before Moses dies in the book's 34th chapter.
- Cue the Sun: God prolongs the day in one battle for as long as Moses holds up his arms. He gets people to help him hold them up.
- Dying Alone: They Never Found the Body. The book of Jude in the New Testament expands on this.
- Genocide Backfire: The only baby who survived the king’s Hebrew baby-killing massacre order.
- The Hero Dies: Dies after being the main character of 4 books.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Given the area she came from, it's very likely that one of his wives was a black African. In any case, Miriam was not happy about him marrying her, and spoke against him until God got angry and inflicted her with leprosy for her behavior.
- 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. Screen adaptations, some not all, tend to change it for dramatic effect.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When the Israelites were complaining about a lack of water, God told Moses to tell the rock to release water. Instead, he struck the rock and took credit for the miracle, angering God and losing his opportunity to cross into the Promised Land.
- Old Master: Died at 120 with what was implied in Deuteronomy to be most, if not all, of his peak physical and mental faculties.
- Prodigal Hero: Moses flees Egypt, lives happily in the desert, and then comes back to free the Israelites from slavery.
- Shiksa Goddess: His second wife is 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.
- Upbringing Makes the Hero: Trained by both his biological mother and by the Egyptians, and later spent forty years as a shepherd in the Wilderness before he got The Call from God to be a Moses Archetype when he was eighty years old.
Aaron
- Number Two: He follows his brother's lead.
- 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'. Though there may be a case of him being too nice. Even though he knew it was wrong, he built a Golden Calf to appease the angry Israelites.
- Remember the New Guy?: Is somewhat introduced this way in Chapter 4. Moses's sister, Miriam, is explicitly mentioned in the first couple of chapters as playing a key role in Moses's survival. Aaron's not brought up at all, despite also being an older sibling of Moses.
- Silver Tongue: He does the talking for Moses with Pharaoh because of Moses' speech impediment. There is a level of eloquence inferred as God Himself stated that Aaron could speak well. Also see the other tropes that apply to him.
- Ur-Example: Was the first high priest of Israel.
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.
- Distaff Counterpart: Often portrayed as leading the women while her brothers led the men.
- 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.
Joshua
And Israel served the Lord throughout Joshua's lifetime.
See also, Book of Joshua
- Changing of the Guard: Becomes the central character after Moses' death through the Book of Joshua.
- Meaningful Rename: Moses changes his name from Hoshea (meaning "salvation") to Joshua (meaning "the Lord is salvation").
- Number Two: Joshua serves as the second-in-command to Moses.
The Pharaohs of Egypt
In General
- No Name Given: Their real names are never given, as Pharaoh is just a title. There is some speculation as to his/their identity
, with Thutmose II being the best candidate for the Pharaoh of The Exodus. Popular adaptations often have Ramses II or his thirteenth son and successor Merneptah in the role, most likely from pure name recognition. H. Rider Haggard had him be the usurper Amenmesse, Sigmund Freud had suggested Akhenaten and Peter Danielson had put Kamose in the role. - Nepharious Pharaoh: Trope Codifier, they are intimidating and are notorious for being cruel to the Israelites.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. There was a different Pharaoh during the beginning of Moses' life and during the titular Exodus, which, given human lifespans, is not surprising. Pharaohs and their families also tended to practice incest to "keep the bloodline pure", which resulted in birth defects and would've further shortened their lives. Depending on the the date of birth given for Moses (1391, 1592 or 1571) there would have quite obviously been more than two.
The Pharaoh of Moses' adoption
"During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God." Exodus 2:23
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Orders the newborn sons of the Israelites to be thrown into the Nile river, where they would either drown or be eaten by animals.
- Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: Orders the midwives to be brought before him when he finds out they disobeyed his first order to kill the Hebrew male babies.
- 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, who will drown (if the Pharaoh of the Exodus is his son, it is extremely unlikely).
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Although Pharaoh decrees that the male Hebrew babies be killed while the females are to be spared. Males represented potential future fighters, inheritors, and fathers of more children that would be culturally Hebrew. As for why female babies were still spared, well,
it's not stated, but in an ancient patriarchal culture, the blanks are fairly easy to fill in. - Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Attempted unsuccessfully to kill the prophesied savior by killing all male Hebrew babies. Ended up unknowingly raising the child in his household.
- Offing the Offspring: He tried to have his adopted grandson Moses killed when he learned Moses killed an Egyptian overseer.
- The Paranoiac: He ordered the Hebrews oppressed and then later orders babies killed for fear that the Hebrews would ally with Egypt's enemies."Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country." Exodus 1:8-10
- Would Hurt a Child: While he didn't do so himself, he did order the midwives and then all the people of Egypt to do so.
The Pharaoh of The Exodus
Then the LORD said to Moses, "You shall soon see what I will do to Pharaoh: he shall let them go because of a greater might; indeed, because of a greater might he shall drive them from his land."
- Determinator: He was stubborn even before God started hardening his heart.
- Evil Uncle: To Moses, possibly. Given that it was a daughter of the at-the-time Pharaoh that adopted Moses as her child, if that Pharaoh died and was succeeded by a son that became the Pharaoh of the Exodus, said son would have been a brother of Moses's adoptive mother. However it ultimately turns out to be unlikely given the various dates of birth given for Moses (1391, 1592 and 1571) and the amount of pharaohs that would have come and gone by the time he was eighty.
- Too Dumb to Live: He saw the power of God at work and knew that God was directly opposed to what he was doing. He sought to defy Him anyway and got what he deserved.
- 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.
- I Lied: He constantly pretends to agree to let the Israelites go if the plague that is currently striking Egypt is removed, but goes back on his word the moment the plague is gone.
- Infanticide Backfire: One of the infants his predecessor tried to kill survived, and this ultimately resulted in the Israelites being freed and the death of many, including himself and his son.
- Legacy Character: The Pharaoh at the start of Exodus and the Pharaoh who Moses demands freedom from were two different Pharaohs, given how old Moses was during the reign of the latter."Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” " Exodus 4:19
- My God, What Have I Done?: No pun intended. Once he recovers from the grief of losing his son to the tenth plague, he immediately laments letting the Israelites and no longer having free labor and attempts to recapture them with his army.
- Nay-Theist: He acknowledged the existence of God. He even went so far as to admit that he sinned, but he still refused to do what God said and let His people go.
- 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.
- Rule of Three: His stubbornness is described 3 times."God hardened his heart.""Pharaoh hardened his heart.""His heart became hard."
Others
Balaam
"How can I curse those whom God had not?"
- Bowdlerise: Adaptations told to children tend to leave out the part where he learned nothing from his experience and tried to get Israel's enemies to seduce them into idol worship, instead falsely implying that he did a Heel–Face Turn.
- Cruella to Animals / Kick the Dog: Started beating his donkey when she refused to move.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He is later found to have been killed in an Israelite raid.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: He is later found guilty of encouraging Israel's enemies to seduce it into performing pagan worship.
- Shadow Archetype: To Moses. While Moses gave up life as an Egyptian prince to lead the Hebrews from slavery, Balaam is a sort of prophet-for-profit who tries to curse the Hebrews for King Balak. Jewish tradition says that Balaam was actually given abilities near Moses's level just so that the other nations couldn't claim that they would have been better if they had had a leader like Moses.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: His reaction to his own donkey suddenly talking to him? Argue with it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Balaam got this from a donkey. Though Balaam was not really a hero.
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?"
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: A call-out from your own donkey has got to sting.
- 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 happened or was a vision of some sort.
