The Birth of Moses

¹Now a tman from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. ²The woman conceived and bore a son, and uwhen 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 bulrushes1 and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the vreeds by the river bank. ⁴And whis 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 xher son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I ydrew him out of the water.”2

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹One day, zwhen Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their aburdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.3 ¹²He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he bstruck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³When che 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, d“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 eMoses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by fa well.

¹⁶Now the gpriest of Midian had seven daughters, and hthey 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 iwatered their flock. ¹⁸When they came home to their father jReuel, 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 iwatered the flock.” ²⁰He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may keat bread.” ²¹And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter lZipporah. ²²She gave birth to a son, and he called his name mGershom, for he said, “I have been a nsojourner4 in a foreign land.”

God Hears Israel's Groaning

²³oDuring those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel pgroaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. qTheir cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. ²⁴And rGod heard their groaning, and God sremembered his covenant with tAbraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵God usaw the people of Israel—and God vknew.