Moses Flees to Midian

After the Egyptians had been saved by Moses, they came to hate him, and were very eager to carry out their plots against him, suspecting that he would use his success as an occasion to stir up revolt and bring revolution into Egypt; and they told the king he ought to be killed. The king had some intentions of his own to the same end, both out of envy at his glorious campaign at the head of the army and out of fear of being brought low by him; and urged on by the sacred scribes, he was ready to set about killing Moses. But Moses learned beforehand of the plots against him and went away secretly. Because the public roads were watched, he made his escape through the deserts, where his enemies would not suspect him of traveling; and though he had no food, he went on, bearing that hardship bravely. When he came to the city of Midian, which lay on the Red Sea and was named after one of Abraham’s sons by Keturah, he sat down at a well and rested there after his toilsome journey and the hardship he had been through. It was not far from the city, and the time of day was noon. There the custom of the country gave him an occasion to do something that showed his virtue, and an opportunity to better his circumstances. [a]

For since that country has little water, the shepherds used to seize the wells before others came, so that their flocks would not go short of water and it would not be used up by others before they arrived. Now there came to this well seven sisters, unmarried girls, the daughters of Reuel, a priest, and a man the people of the country thought worthy of great honor. These girls looked after their father’s flocks — work that it was customary and quite usual for women to do in the country of the Troglodytes — and they came first and drew enough water out of the well for their flocks into troughs made to hold it. But the shepherds came upon the girls and drove them away, so as to have the water for themselves. Moses thought it would be a terrible disgrace to him if he overlooked the young women being unjustly treated and let the men’s violence prevail over the girls’ right. So he drove off the men, who wanted more than their share, and gave the women the help they needed. [b]

Having received such a kindness from him, they went to their father and told him how they had been insulted by the shepherds and helped by a stranger, and begged him not to let this generous act go for nothing or unrewarded. Their father was pleased that his daughters were so eager to reward their benefactor, and told them to bring Moses to him, so that he might be rewarded as he deserved. When Moses came, he told him what his daughters had testified about the help he had given them, and that he admired him for his virtue; and he said that Moses had given his help to people who were not insensible of kindness, but both able and willing to repay it, and even to go beyond the measure of his generosity. So he made him his son, gave him one of his daughters in marriage, and made him overseer and master of his flocks; for in old times all the wealth of the barbarians lay in their flocks.