Exodus 2

Birth and Youth of Moses

1 # Ex 6.19, 20 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2#Acts 7.20; Heb 11.23The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4#Ex 15.20; Num 26.59His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

5The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10#Acts 7.21When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses,#2.10 In Heb Moses resembles the word for drew “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Moses Flees to Midian

11 # Acts 7.23, 24; Heb 11.24–26 One 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. 12He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13#Acts 7.26–28When 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#Gen 19.9; Acts 7.27He 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#Gen 24.11; 29.2; Acts 7.29When 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. 16The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17#Gen 29.3, 10But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock. 18#Ex 3.1; Num 10.29When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?” 19They said, “An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20#Gen 31.54He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to share a meal.” 21#Ex 4.25; 18.2; Acts 7.29Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. 22#Ex 18.3; Heb 11.13, 14She bore a son, and he named him Gershom,#2.22 In Heb Gershom resembles the word for alien for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”

23 # Ex 3.9; Deut 26.7; Acts 7.30; Jas 5.4 After 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#Gen 22.16–18; Ex 6.5; Ps 105.8, 42God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25#Ex 3.7; 4.31God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

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