Bithiah Quotes in The Ten Commandments (1956)

Yochabel: Why have you come here?

Bithiah: Because Moses will come here.

Yochabel: My son?

Bithiah: No, my son! That's all he must know.

Yochabel: My lips might deny him, Great One, but my eyes never could.

Bithiah: You will leave Goshen, you and your family, tonight.

Yochabel: We are Levites, appointed shepherds of Israel. We cannot leave our people.

Bithiah: Would you take from Moses all that I have given him? Would you undo all that I have done for him? I have put the throne of Egypt within his reach! What can you give him in return?

Yochabel: I gave him life.

Bithiah: I gave him love!

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?

Bithiah: Your tongue will dig your grave, Memnet!

[Reminding Memnet of her vow, when she noticed the ark, 30 years earlier]

Bithiah: A conquerer, already conquered?

Moses: The first face I look for and the last I find.

[as Moses saw Bithiah, he knelt to her, to honor her]

Moses: Mother!

Bithiah: I was thanking the gods for your safe return. But I find you in grave danger here.

Moses: An intoxicating danger, mother.

Bithiah: Marry her if you can, my son, but never fall in love with her.

Nefretiri: Oh, I'll be less trouble to him than the Hebrew slaves of Goshen.

Bithiah: Goshen?

Memnet: What have you found?

Bithiah: The answer to my prayers!

Memnet: [in light humor] You prayed for a basket?

Bithiah: No. I prayed for a son.

Memnet: Your husband is in the House of the Dead.

Bithiah: And he has asked the Nile god to bring me this beautiful boy.

Bithiah: [Memnet raised her hands, as if she was stunned] Do you know the pattern of this cloth?

Bithiah: If my son is covered in it, it is a royal robe!

Bithiah: I am the Pharaoh's daughter, and this is my son. He shall be reared in my house as the prince of the two lands.

Memnet: My mother and her mother before her were branded into the Pharaoh's service. I will not see you make this son of slaves a prince of Egypt.

Bithiah: You will see it, Memnet. You will see him walk with his head among the eagles, and you will serve him as you serve me. Fill the ark with water. Sink it into silence.

[Memnet then shoved the floating ark, into the Nile, but kept the piece of Hebrew cloth]

Bithiah: Raise your hands, Memnet. What you have buried in the Nile shall remain buried in your heart. Swear it.

Memnet: I will be silent.

Bithiah: The day you break that oath will be the last your eyes shall ever see.

[Bithiah put a curse, on Memnet with this quote]

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.

Bithiah: They will stop for me!

Mered: A charging chariot knows no rank!

Bithiah: [just after Bithiah drew Infant Moses, off of the Nile River] You will be the glory of Egypt, my son, mighty in words and deeds. Kings shall bow before you. Your name will live when the pyramids are dust. And... because I drew you from the water, you shall be called "Moses."

[in pride of finding him]

Bithiah: Moses! Moses! Moses.

[while speaking, Bithiah, gently lifted lnfant Moses up in the air, for five to ten seconds and then gently lowered him back down, into her arms]

Moses: What has this child to do with me? Tell me.

Nefretiri: A child was wrapped in it.

Moses: Who was this child?

Nefretiri: Bithiah drew him from the river. Memnet was with her.

Moses: Who was this child?

Nefretiri: Memnet is dead. No one needs know who you are. I love you. I killed for you. I'll kill anyone who comes between us.

Moses: Why did you kill for me, Nefretiri? If you love me, do not lie.

Nefretiri: Hold me in your arms. Hold me close. You were not born prince of Egypt, Moses. You are the son of Hebrew slaves.

Moses: Love can not drown truth, Nefretiri. You do believe it, or you would not have killed Memnet.

Nefretiri: I love you. That's the only truth, I know.

Moses: Did this child, of the Nile, have a mother?

Nefretiri: Memnet called her Yochabel.

Moses: I will ask Bithiah.

[Moses then left Nefretiri, to speak with Bithiah]

Bithiah: How could you doubt me? You did not doubt me, as you took your first step. It's a wicked lie, spun by Rameses.

Moses: Did Rameses spin this?

[while he was asking Bithiah, Moses shows her the Hebrew cloth, that Memnet had kept hidden, as a secret and quiet for 30 years. In reality, it was infant Moses' swaddling cloth, 30 years earlier]

Bithiah: The word of your mother, against a piece of cloth found by Memnet?

Moses: How did you know it was Memnet?

Bithiah: Who else? Memnet nursed Rameses. She will pay, for spreading his lies.

Moses: She has paid.

Bithiah: She is dead?

Moses: At the hand of Nefretiri.

Moses: Memnet spoke of a woman named Yochabel. Did you ever know her?

Bithiah: [Trying to hide the truth] No.

Moses: Yours, was the face I saw, above my cradle. The only mother, I've ever known. Wherever I am led and whatever, I must do, I will always love you.

[Moses then left Bithiah, to visit Hebrew slave woman, Yochabel, and learn the complete truth, of the cloth]

Bithiah: Moses, do not enter! There is only sorrow here.

Moses: Are you comforting it, my mother? I followed you here to find this woman Yochabe...

[to Yochabel]

Moses: You were the woman who was caught between the stones.

Yochabel: Until you came.

Bithiah: My son, if you love me, you will...

Moses: I love you, my mother, but am I your son...

[to Yochabel]

Moses: or yours?

Yochabel: No, you are not my son. If you believe that men and women are cattle to be driven under the lash, if you can bow before idols of stone and golden images of beasts, you are not my son.