Exodus 2

Moses’ Birth and Adoption

2Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman. ^v2The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, ^wshe hid him for three months. ^x3But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. ⁴Then his sister ^ystood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him.

⁵Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. Seeing the basket among the reeds, she sent her slave girl to get it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child—a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a woman from the Hebrews to nurse the boy for you?”

⁸“Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother. ⁹Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. ¹⁰When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” ^z

Moses in Midian

¹¹Years later, ^aafter Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people ^band observed their forced labor. ^cHe saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. ¹²Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand. ¹³The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?” ^d

¹⁴“Who made you a leader and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

Then Moses became afraid and thought: What I did is certainly known. ¹⁵When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, ^eand sat down by a well. ^f

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian ^ghad seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock. ¹⁸When they returned to their father Reuel ^hihe asked, “Why have you come back so quickly today?”

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

²⁰“So where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why then did you leave the man behind? Invite him to eat dinner.”

²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah ^jto Moses in marriage. ²²She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have been a foreigner ^kin a foreign land.” ^l

²³After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out; ^mand their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor. ²⁴So God heard their groaning, and He remembered ⁿHis covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ^o25God saw the Israelites, and He took notice. ^p