¹¹In the course of time Moses grew up. Then he went to ⸤see⸥ his own people and watched them suffering under forced labor. He saw a Hebrew, one of his own people, being beaten by an Egyptian. ¹²He looked all around, and when he didn’t see anyone, he beat the Egyptian to death and hid the body in the sand.

¹³When Moses went there the next day, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. He asked the one who started the fight, “Why are you beating another Hebrew?”

¹⁴The man asked, “Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought that everyone knew what he had done.

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard what Moses had done, he tried to have him killed. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian.

Moses Marries Zipporah

One day, while Moses was sitting by a well, ¹⁶seven daughters of the priest of Midian came. They drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s sheep. ¹⁷But some shepherds came and chased them away. So Moses got up, came to their defense, and then watered their sheep.

¹⁸When they came back to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you come home so early today?”

¹⁹They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from some shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the sheep.”

²⁰Reuel asked his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man there? Go, invite him to supper.”

²¹Moses decided to stay with the man. So Reuel gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his wife. ²²She gave birth to a son. Moses named him Gershom ^[Foreigner^[, because he said, “I was a foreigner living in another country.”

The Israelites Pray to God during Their Suffering

²³After a long time passed, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites still groaned because they were slaves. So they cried out, and their cries for help went up to God. ²⁴God heard their groaning, and he remembered his promise^ato Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵God saw the Israelites ⸤being oppressed⸥ and was concerned about them.

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Footnotes

[Proper names or foreign words whose meaning is significant for understanding a particular Bible passage are translated in brackets following the name or phrase
a 2:24 Or “covenant.”