Exodus 2

Pharaoh’s daughter adopts Moses

There was a man and woman who were both descendants of Levi who got married and had a baby boy. When the mother saw how beautiful her newborn son was, she hid him for three months. But eventually she couldn’t keep him hidden any more, so she got him a woven basket and covered it with tar. Then she put the child into the basket and placed it in the reeds on the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

Pharaoh’s daughter came down with her maidens to wash off in the Nile, and as she approached, she saw the basket in the reeds. She had her maid retrieve the basket and bring it to her. When she opened it, she saw the crying boy, had compassion on him, and said,

“This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 

Then the boy’s sister approached Pharaoh’s daughter and asked,

“Should I go call a nursing Hebrew woman to nurse the boy for you?”

Pharaoh’s daughter replied, 

“Take the boy and nurse him for me, and I’ll pay you for your work.”

So she took the boy and nursed him. After he had grown a little older, she brought the boy to Pharaoh’s daughter and she adopted him as her son. She named him Moses (which means “drawn”) saying,

“Because I drew him out of the water.”

Moses kills an Egyptian and runs away

When Moses had grown up, he visited his people and witnessed their enslavement. He saw an Egyptian beating one of Moses’s Hebrew relatives to death, so Moses looked around to make sure no one was watching and then killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. He went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews brawling with each other, so Moses asked the offender,

“Why are you attacking your fellow Hebrew?”

The man replied,

“Who appointed you as a ruler over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?”

That made Moses scared that everyone had found out about what he did.

When Pharaoh heard about what had happened, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses ran away and settled in the land of Midian [which means strife] where he sat down by a well. 

Moses gets married and has a son

Now Midian’s ruling priest had seven daughters who came to draw water from the well for their father’s flock. Then the herders came and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue by standing up for them and watering their flock. When the girls returned to their father, Reuel, he asked,

“Why did you come back so soon today?”

They answered,

“And Egyptian rescued us from the herders, and on top of that he drew the water for us and watered our flock.”

Reuel replied,

“Where is he then? Why’d you leave him behind? Invite him over for some food.”

Moses began living with Reuel, and Reuel gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses. Zipporah gave birth to a son who they named Gershom [meaning “foreigner”] since Moses said,

“I’ve become a temporary resident in a foreign land.”

God notices Israel’s suffering

As time went on, Egypt’s Pharaoh eventually died. Israel’s descendants moaned about their enslavement, and their cries for help rose up to God. God heard their groans and remembered his alliance with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked at Israel’s descendants and acknowledged them.