Exodus 2

¹Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman .

²The woman conceived and bore a son , and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months .

³When she could hide him no longer , she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch . She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank .

⁴And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

⁵Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river , while her young women walked beside the river . She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman , and she took it.

⁶When she opened it, she saw the child , and behold , the baby was crying . She took pity on him and said , This is one of the Hebrews ’ children .

⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter , Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?

⁸And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go . So the girl went and called the child’s mother .

⁹And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages . So the woman took the child and nursed him.

¹⁰When the child grew older , she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter , and he became her son . She named him Moses , Because , she said , I drew him out of the water .

¹¹One day , when Moses had grown up , he went out to his people and looked on their burdens , and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew , one of his people .

¹²He looked this way and that , and seeing no one , he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand .

¹³When he went out the next day , behold , two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong , Why do you strike your companion ?

¹⁴He answered , Who made you a prince and a 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 .

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of it , he sought to kill Moses . But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian . And he sat down by a well .

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters , and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock .

¹⁷The shepherds came and drove them away , but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock .

¹⁸When they came home to their father Reuel , he said , How is it that you have come home so soon today ?

¹⁹They said , An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock .

²⁰He said to his daughters , Then where is he? Why have you left the man ? Call him, that he may eat bread .

²¹And Moses was content to dwell with the man , and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah .

²²She gave birth to a son , and he called his name Gershom , for he said , I have been a sojourner in a foreign land .

²³During those many days the king of Egypt died , and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God .

²⁴And God heard their groaning , and God remembered his covenant with Abraham , with Isaac , and with Jacob .

²⁵God saw the people of Israel —and God knew .