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Exodus 2

1A man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. 2The woman conceived and bore a son. She saw that he was good, and she hid him for three months. 3When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and coated it with bitumen and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds at the Nile's bank. 4His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

5Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe at the Nile, while her young women walked along the Nile's bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave woman to get it. 6She opened it and saw him—the child—and there was a boy crying. She had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” 7His sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call a nursing woman from among the Hebrews to nurse the child for you?” 8Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. 9Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” The woman took the child and nursed him. 10When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

11In those days, when Moses had grown, he went out to his brothers and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers. 12He turned this way and that, and when he saw that no one was there, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13He went out the next day, and there were two Hebrews fighting. He said to the one in the wrong, “Why are you striking your neighbor?” 14He said, “Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter is known!” 15When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian. He sat down by a well.

16The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. 17Shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and rescued them and watered their flock. 18When they came to their father Reuel, he said, “Why have you come back so quickly today?” 19They said, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds' hand; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why have you left the man there? Call him, so that he may eat bread.” 21Moses agreed to live with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have been a resident foreigner in a foreign land.”

23During those many days, the king of Egypt died. The sons of Israel groaned because of the slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of the slavery rose to God. 24God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew.

Translation notes 7

2:2 — Good. The Hebrew adjective can describe beauty or soundness as well as goodness. “Beautiful” is a possible contextual rendering; the draft retains the broader word without making the child's worth depend on appearance.

2:3 — Basket. The Hebrew word also names Noah's ark, though it differs from the word for the covenant ark later in Exodus. Here it is a small papyrus container waterproofed for the river.

2:10 — Moses. The explanation connects the name Mosheh with Hebrew mashah, “draw out.” This wordplay need not supply the name's historical derivation; Egyptian naming provides another relevant background.

2:11 — Brothers. Here the word means Moses' fellow Hebrews, not only his biological siblings.

2:18 — Reuel. Chapter 3 calls Moses' father-in-law Jethro. The draft preserves both names without inserting an explanation of their relationship.

2:22 — Gershom. The name echoes ger sham, “a resident foreigner there.” The narrative emphasizes Moses' displacement.

2:24–25 — Remembered; knew. God's remembering introduces action on his covenant, not a claim that he had forgotten. The final “God knew” has no stated object in Hebrew; “their suffering” or “their situation” would make its implication explicit.