Open English Translation EXO Chapter 2

2 During this period, a man from the tribe of Levi married a woman who was also a Levite, 2 and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy boy, she hid him away for three months,[ref] 3 but then she wasn’t able to hide him any longer. So she got a basket made from woven reeds and plastered it with bitumen and pitch. Then she put the baby in it, and floated the basket in the reeds along the riverbank, 4 leaving the baby’s sister to watch from a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 After a while, Far’oh’s daughter came down to the river to wash herself, and she and her young attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the container among the reeds and sent one of her slave women to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby inside, and wow, he started crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This baby must be one of the Hebrew children.”

7 Then his sister approached and asked the princess, “Would you like me to go and find a Hebrew woman who’ll be able to breastfeed the baby for you?”

8 “Yes, go,” answered Far’oh’s daughter, and the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 “Take this baby,” said the princess, “and breastfeed him for me, and I’ll pay you for doing it.” So the woman took the baby and looked after him. 10 When the boy had grown enough, she brought him back to Far’oh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him ‘Mosheh’[fn] (which means ‘pulled out’) because she said that she’d plucked him out of the river.[ref]

11 Later on when Mosheh was fully grown, he went out to visit the Hebrews and saw their forced labour, and he saw an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew man—one of his own people.[ref] 12 Mosheh looked around to check that no one was watching, then he hit the Egyptian, killing him, then he hid his body in the sand. 13 The next day, he went out again and wow, two Hebrew men were fighting each other, and he said to the man in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”

14 “Who made you the ruler and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?” Then Mosheh was afraid because he realised that what he’d done had probably become widely known. 15 Indeed, when Far’oh heard about it, he ordered Mosheh to be killed. So Mosheh had to flee from the king and he took off east to live in Midian and he stayed near the well.[ref]

16 The priest there in Midian had seven daughters, and they would come to the well to draw water out and fill up the troughs there so their father’s sheep and goats could drink. 17 Now some male shepherds came along and started to shoo their flock away, but Mosheh got involved and helped them so that their animals could drink. 18 When they got home to their father Reuel, he asked, “How come you got home so early today?”

19 “There was an Egyptian man,” they answered, “who stood up for us against those other shepherds. And he even drew water for us and gave our flock water to drink.”

20 “Where is he now?” he asked them. “What’s this—you mean you all just left him there? Go and get him so we can give him a meal.”

21 Later it turned out that Mosheh was prepared to live with the man, and in due course he gave his daughter Zipporah to Mosheh in marriage. 22 When she gave birth to a son, he named him ‘Gershom’ (which means ‘foreigner’) because he said, “I’ve become a foreigner living in a foreign land.”

23 Eventually Egypt’s king died, but the Israelis groaned from the slavery they were still under and they cried out, and their cry for freedom from slavery went up to God. 24 He heard their groaning and remembered his agreement with Abraham, with Yitshak, and with Yacob,[ref] 25 and he looked down on the Israelis and he was concerned about them.