Exodus 2

1 Now there was a man from the tribe of Levi who took one of the daughters of Levi, and she became his wife. 2 She conceived and bore a boy; and seeing that he was a fine child, they hid him for three months. 3 When they could hide him no longer, his mother took a basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch, put the child inside, and set it in the marsh grass beside the river. [a] 4 And his sister kept watch from a distance, to learn what would happen to him. 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to bathe, while her maids walked along the bank. She saw the basket in the marsh grass, sent her maid, and took it up. 6 She opened it and saw a child in the basket, crying. And Pharaoh’s daughter had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Would you like me to call a nursing woman from the Hebrews, to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” And the young girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Keep this child for me and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 And when the child had grown, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

11 In those days, long afterward, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers, the children of Israel. And as he took in their hard labor, he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own brothers, the children of Israel. 12 He looked this way and that and saw no one; then he struck the Egyptian down and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrew men fighting, and he said to the one in the wrong, “Why are you striking your neighbor?” 14 The man said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?” Then Moses was afraid, and said, “So it has already become known.” 15 Pharaoh heard of it and tried to kill Moses. But Moses withdrew from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian; and when he came into the land of Midian, he sat down beside the well.

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, who shepherded their father Jethro’s sheep. They came and drew water until they had filled the troughs to water their father Jethro’s sheep. [b] 17 But the shepherds came and drove them off. So Moses got up and rescued them, and drew water for them and watered their sheep. 18 They came back to Reuel their father, and he said to them, “Why have you come home so quickly today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds, and drew water for us, and watered our sheep.” 20 He said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why did you leave the man behind like that? Call him, then, so that he may eat bread.” 21 So Moses settled with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his wife. 22 She conceived and bore a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I am a stranger living in a foreign land.”

23 After those many days the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel groaned under their labors and cried out, and their cry went up to God from their labors. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. 25 And God looked on the children of Israel, and he was made known to them. [c]