Xuất Ai Cập Ký 2

Moses’ birth and flight to Midian

¹A man from the family of Levi married a woman who was also a descendant of Levi. ²She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw how fine a child he was, and for three months she kept him hidden. ³When she could not hide him any longer, she made him a small ark out of papyrus reeds and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She laid the child inside and set it among the reeds at the edge of the Nile. ⁴His sister took up a position some way off to find out what would become of him. ⁵Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the Nile to bathe, while her young women walked along the riverside. Catching sight of the ark among the reeds, she sent her servant girl to fetch it. ⁶She opened it and saw the child, a baby boy, and he was crying. She took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. ⁷Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Would you like me to go and find you a Hebrew woman who can nurse the child for you?” ⁸“Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and brought the child’s own mother. ⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child with you and nurse him for me. I will pay you for it.” So the woman took the child away and nursed him. ¹⁰When the child was older, his mother brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I pulled him out of the water.”^{a 11}Years later, when Moses was a grown man, he went out to his own people and saw for himself their heavy labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen. ¹²He glanced around in every direction, and when he saw no one there, he struck the Egyptian dead and buried him in the sand. ¹³The next day he went out again and found two Hebrews fighting each other. He said to the one who was at fault, “Why are you beating your neighbor?” ¹⁴The man answered, “Who put you in charge of us as ruler and judge? Do you intend to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid. “So it is known what I did,” he thought. ¹⁵When Pharaoh heard about it, he tried to have Moses put to death. But Moses escaped from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian. There he sat down beside a well. ¹⁶The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and fill the troughs for their father’s flock to drink. ¹⁷But some shepherds came and chased them off. Moses stood up and defended them, and he watered their flock. ¹⁸When the girls came home to Reuel their father, he asked, “How is it that you are back so soon today?” ¹⁹“An Egyptian came to our defense against the shepherds,” they answered. “He even drew water for us himself and watered the flock.” ²⁰He said to his daughters, “Where is he, then? Why did you leave the man behind? Go and ask him to come and share our meal.” ²¹Moses was content to live with the man, and the man gave Moses his daughter Zipporah as his wife. ²²She gave birth to a son, and Moses called him Gershom. “I have lived as an outsider in a foreign country,” he said.^b

God hears Israel’s groaning

²³A long time passed, and the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out, and their plea for help rose up to God from their bondage. ²⁴God heard how they groaned, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice.^c