The Rejection and Flight of Moses

(Acts 7:23–29)

11 One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people[fn] and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 After looking this way [and] that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

13 The next day [Moses] went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”

14 But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?[fn] Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?[fn]” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”

15 When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.

18 When [the daughters] returned to their father Reuel,[fn] he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

19 “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

20 “So where is he?” [their father] asked “Why did you leave the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat

21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 And she gave birth to a son, and [Moses] named him Gershom,[fn] saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”