The Promised Land – season one, episode three
Aaron's authority slips while Moses is away, Miriam and Zipporah make plans for the women's tent, a well-digging program turns political, and more.
Season one recaps: one | two | three | four | five | six
Synopsis
Season 1, Episode 3 — ‘Pitfalls’ — Exodus 20, 24, 32; Deuteronomy 5, 9
Moses and the Israelites receive the first set of commandments from God. Moses goes back up Mount Sinai and leaves Aaron and Hur in charge of the camp. The river is polluted, so the Israelites start digging a well. Miriam and Zipporah come up with a design for the women’s tent, and Korah, who’s in charge of building it, reluctantly agrees to follow their plan instead of his own. Aaron’s authority slips as the Israelites argue about the wells. Eventually the people get tired of waiting for Moses to return, and they demand that Aaron make a god for them. Aaron gives in and makes a golden calf, and the people begin to worship it—but then Moses returns, and he is angry.
Bible references
The bulk of the episode focuses on the 40 days and nights that the Israelites spent at the bottom of Mount Sinai while Moses met with God at the top. In the text, this period spans almost nine chapters—from Exodus 24:12 to 32:29—and we see it mainly from Moses’ point of view, as God gives him one set of instructions after another. In the episode, on the other hand, we see this period from the Israelites’ point of view, as they wait and wait and wait for Moses to return… and then, eventually, they give up waiting.
But first, before the episode gets to all that, it covers what happened before Moses’ 40 days with God, in a pre-credits sequence that zips through Exodus 19-24. Along the way, the episode rearranges what happens in those chapters significantly.
