CHAPTER 2
and she
conceived
and gave birth to
a son.
When she saw
that
he was a
beautiful child,
she hid
him for three
months.
But when she could
no
longer
hide him,
she got
him
a papyrus
basket
and coated it
with tar
and pitch.
Then she placed
the child
in
the basket
and set
it among the reeds
along
the bank
of the Nile.
Soon the daughter
of Pharaoh
went down
to bathe
in
the Nile,
and her attendants
were walking
along
the riverbank.
And when she saw
the basket
among
the reeds,
she sent
her maidservant
to retrieve it.
When she opened it,
she saw
the child,
and behold,
the little boy
was crying.
So she had compassion
on him
and said,
“This is one of
the Hebrew
children.”
Then his sister
said
to
Pharaoh’s
daughter,
“Shall I go
and call
one of
the Hebrew
women
to nurse
the child for you?”
Pharaoh’s
daughter
said
to her,
“Take
this
child
and nurse him for me,
and I
will pay
your wages.”
So the woman
took
the boy
and nursed him.
When the child
grew older,
she brought him
to Pharaoh’s
daughter,
and he became
her son.
She named
him Moses
and explained,
“I drew him out
of
the water.”
One day,
after Moses
had grown up,
he went out
to
his own people
and observed
their hard labor.
He saw
an Egyptian
beating
a Hebrew,
one of his own people.
After looking
all around
and seeing
no
one,
he struck down
the Egyptian
and hid his body
in the sand.
The next
day
Moses went out
and saw
two
Hebrews
fighting.
He asked
the one in the wrong,
“Why
are you attacking
your fellow Hebrew?”
But the man replied,
“Who
made
you
ruler
and judge
over us?
Are you
planning
to kill
me as
you killed
the Egyptian?”
Then Moses
was afraid
and thought,
“This thing I have done
has surely
become known.”
When Pharaoh
heard
about this matter,
he sought
to kill
Moses.
But Moses
fled
from
Pharaoh
and settled
in the land
of Midian,
where he sat down
beside
a well.
Now the priest
of Midian
had seven
daughters,
and they came
to draw water
and fill
the troughs
to water
their father’s
flock.
And when some shepherds
came along
and drove them away,
Moses
stood up
and came to their rescue
and watered
their flock.
When the daughters returned
to
their father
Reuel,
he asked them,
“Why
have you returned
so early
today?”
“An Egyptian
rescued
us from
the shepherds,”
they replied.
“He even
drew water
for us and watered
the flock.”
“So where is he?”
their father asked.
“Why
did you leave the man
behind?
Invite
him
to have something to eat.”
And she gave birth to
a son
whom he named
Gershom,
for
he said,
“I have become
a stranger
in a strange
land.”
After a long
time,
the king
of Egypt
died.
The Israelites
groaned
and cried out
under their
burden of slavery,
and their cry for deliverance
from
bondage
ascended
to
God.