Exodus 2

2 ¹Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. ²The woman conceived and bore a son; seeing he was healthy, she hid him three months. ³Unable to hide him longer, she got a papyrus basket, coated it with tar and pitch, put the child in, and set it among the reeds on the Nile's bank. ⁴His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. ⁵Pharaoh's daughter went down to bathe at the Nile, her maids walking along the Nile. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her maid to get it. ⁶She opened it, saw the child—a baby boy, crying. Her heart went out to him, and she said, "This is one of the Hebrew children."

⁷His sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I call a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you?"

⁸"Yes, go," Pharaoh's daughter answered. So the girl went and called the child's mother.

⁹Pharaoh's daughter told her, "Take this child and nurse him for me; I'll pay your wages." The woman took the child and nursed him.

¹⁰The boy grew; she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him, naming him Moses: "Because I drew him from the water." ^a a v10 The name Moses echoes the word for "to draw out" — naming him for the moment he was lifted from the water.

Moses Among His Own People

¹¹In those days Moses grew up, went out to his people, saw their burdens, and saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his relatives. ¹²He glanced around and, seeing no one, killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

¹³Next day he went out, saw two Hebrews fighting, and asked the offender, "Why hit your companion?"

¹⁴He said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses was afraid and thought, "Indeed, the matter is known."

¹⁵Pharaoh heard and sought to kill Moses; he fled from Pharaoh, settled in the land of Midian, and sat by a well.

¹⁶Midian's priest had seven daughters; they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. ¹⁷When the shepherds came and drove them away, Moses got up, rescued them, and watered their flock. ¹⁸When they returned to their father Reuel, he asked, "Why have you come back so early today?"

¹⁹They said, "An Egyptian saved us from the shepherds, even drew us water and watered the flock."

²⁰"Where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave the man? Call him to eat."

²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. ²²She bore a son; Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have been a foreigner in a foreign land." ^b b v22 The name Gershom sounds like the Hebrew for "a foreigner there" — Moses named his son for his own life as a stranger far from home.

²³Long after, Egypt's king died. Israel's sons groaned from slavery, cried out; their cry rose to our Father from slavery. ²⁴Our Father heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵Our Father looked on the Israelites, and he understood.