1 Now a man
from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman
conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she
hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a
papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put
the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.
4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
5 The daughter of Pharaoh came
down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the
river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it.
6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took
pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7
Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a
nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s
daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s
mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it
for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and
nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s
daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,”
she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
11 One day, after Moses had
grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw
an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. 12 He looked this way
and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the
sand. 13 When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and
he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow
Hebrew?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a ruler and 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.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he
sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the
land of Midian, and sat down by a well.
16 The priest of Midian had
seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to
water their father’s flock. 17 But some shepherds came and drove them
away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock. 18
When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you
have come back so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian helped us
against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man?
Invite him to break bread.” 21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he
gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. 22 She bore a son, and he
named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a
foreign land.”
23 After a long time the king
of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried
out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. 24 God heard
their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. 25 God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.
CONTINUE |