"Go Down Moses" is an American Negro spiritual. It escribes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 5:1: "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord , Let my people go, that they may serve me", in which God commands Moses to demand the release of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. The opening verse as published by the Jubilee Singers in 1872: