Prophet Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses

MERGE: this card combines what were previously two separate entries — "Moses" and "Moses the God-seer" — both described the same person (identical life years and feast date); "God-seer" is not a separate saint but a liturgical epithet of Moses (from his theophanies — the burning bush and his sight of God on Sinai). The official liturgical title of the feast is "Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses." The slug "prophet_moses" is retained as primary (the more common form, with more confirmed images); the genuine images from the former "God-seer" card (removing sandals at the burning bush, the scene of his mysterious burial, a portrait with a scroll) have been transferred here.

CRITICAL IMAGE NOTE: 3 previous images have been removed as contamination — an Arabic calligraphic seal reading "Musa, peace be upon him" (Islamic style, inappropriate for this Orthodox database though referring to the same historical figure); a group icon "Prophet Elijah, Venerable Pimen the Great, and Moses Murin," where "Moses Murin" is an entirely different, much later saint (Moses the Black, a 4th-century Egyptian bandit-turned-ascetic, feast August 28), unrelated to the Old Testament prophet; and a portrait "Saint Moses the Wonderworker" in a black monastic klobuk — apparently also a different, local Russian ascetic, not the Old Testament lawgiver.

Moses, of the tribe of Levi, son of Amram and Jochebed, was born in Egypt during Pharaoh's decree to kill Hebrew male infants. His mother placed him in a pitch-sealed basket and set him adrift on the Nile to save him; Pharaoh's daughter found and adopted him, raising him in the royal household with a full Egyptian education. After killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, he fled to the land of Midian, where he married Zipporah, daughter of the priest Jethro, and tended sheep for forty years.

At Mount Horeb, God appeared to him in a burning bush, calling him to lead Israel out of bondage and revealing the divine Name: "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14). Together with his brother Aaron, he confronted Pharaoh, and through the Ten Plagues of Egypt secured the people's release. He led the Exodus from Egypt; parted the waters of the Red Sea so Israel crossed on dry ground while Pharaoh's pursuing army drowned.

At Mount Sinai he received from God the Ten Commandments and the Law on tablets of stone, becoming mediator of the covenant between God and Israel; his face shone with divine glory after speaking with the Lord face to face. He led Israel for forty years through the wilderness. At the waters of Meribah, when the people grumbled for water, God commanded Moses to speak to the rock, but he struck it twice with his staff in anger; because he and Aaron failed to sanctify God before the people through this act of doubt, God decreed that neither would enter the Promised Land.

He died at age 120 on Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab, having seen the Promised Land from afar; he was buried by God Himself in a valley near Beth-Peor, "and no one knows his burial place to this day" (Deuteronomy 34). He is venerated as the archetype of the prophet-lawgiver and God-seer; he appears beside Elijah on Mount Tabor at Christ's Transfiguration, representing the Law alongside the Prophets.