In popular culture, most references to Moses focus on the high points of his life. These include him leading the Israelites to freedom by parting the Red Sea and his trip to Mount Sinai to bring forth the ten commandments. But in the final scene of the film The Ten Commandments (1956), the film ends with a less celebratory scene. The movie ends with Charlton Heston’s Moses left behind, paying for what seems like a minor transgression.
I remember watching the movie as a kid, seeing the low-key ending as a letdown after the excitement of the action of the parting of the Red Sea. I also found it confusing because the entire movie shows Moses as special to God and then all of a sudden God is punishing him.
Perhaps my confusion about the ending of the movie is one of the reasons I immediately fell in love with Bruce Springsteen’s “The Price You Pay.” Springsteen captures the tragic sadness of that moment in his song from The River (1980).
Little girl down on the strand,
With that pretty little baby in your hands,
Do you remember the story of the Promised Land?
How he crossed the desert sands,
And could not enter the chosen land,
On the banks of the river he stayed,
To face the price you pay.
Similarly, in “Adam Raised a Cain,” he explains that the notion of sin and punishment is so deep that paying for our own sins is not enough: “You’re born into this life paying / For the sins of somebody else’s past.”
But Springsteen, who both embraces and rebels against his Catholic upbringing in his songs, does not let the story of “The Price You Pay” end there. Although there is nothing Springsteen can do about the story of Moses (or Cain and Able), in “The Price You Pay” the singer rebels against the rules that say we must always be paying for sins.
But just across the county line, a stranger passing through put up a sign
That counts the men fallen away to the price you pay;
And girl before the end of the day,
I’m gonna tear it down and throw it away.
In some ways, “The Price You Pay” is a sequel to Springsteen’s “The Promised Land” from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). In that song, the singer sang of faith in a promised land and a coming twister that will “blow away the dreams that break your heart.”
The idea of escape from punishment for sin is present in much of Springsteen’s music. In “The Price You Pay,” though, he connects the past and present in a way where the present-day hero is not crushed by old rules. Instead, he rises up and rebel not only for himself, but for the sinners of the past, including Moses. It may be nothing more than tearing down a sign, but he rejects the notion that life is about paying for sin.
Whether or not you celebrate one of the holidays this month, may you have a year free from the haunting of past sins. And at the same time may you tear down the sign and forgive others for their burdens.
What do you think is the meaning behind “The Price You Pay”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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(2000) out of the vault in Tampa, Florida. Without any comment from Springsteen, the reason for the song eventually became clear to the crowd. Although it was written about New York police shooting the unarmed Amadou Diallo in February 1999, the refrain about getting killed just for living in your “American Skin” resonated in Florida, where this February the 17-year-old unarmed