Exodus 2
1 A man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi.
2 The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was beautiful and hid him for three months.
3 When she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him, sealed it with bitumen and pitch, put the child in it, and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the Nile.
4 His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
5 Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the Nile while her attendants walked along the bank of the Nile. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant girl to get it.
6 She opened it and saw the child: it was a boy, crying. She felt compassion for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew children.”
7 His sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nursing woman from among the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
8 Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Go.” The girl went and called the child’s mother.
9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay you your wages.” The woman took the child and nursed him.
10 The boy grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
11 In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to see his brothers and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
12 He looked this way and that, saw that no one was there, struck down the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 The next day he went out again, and there were two Hebrews fighting. He said to the one in the wrong, “Why are you beating your companion?”
14 He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid and said, “So the matter has become known.”
15 Pharaoh heard about this matter and sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh, went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.
16 The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came, drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses got up, helped them, and watered their flock.
18 When they returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, “Why have you come back so quickly today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds, and he even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 He said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why did you leave the man there? Call him to come and eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.
22 She gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom, because he said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 A long time later, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery rose up to God.
24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 God saw the Israelites, and God took notice.
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