Exodus 2:11–25

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.^{* 12}He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting, and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?”^{* 14}He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”^{* 15}When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

So Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian and sat down by a well.^{* 16}The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock.^{* 18}When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?”^{* 19}They said, “An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” ²⁰He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to share a meal.”^{* 21}Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage.^{* 22}She bore a son, and he named him Gershom,^c for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”^*

²³After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Their cry for help rose up to God from their slavery.^{* 24}God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.^{* 25}God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.^*