Exodus 2

New International Reader's Version

Moses Is Born

2 A man and a woman from the tribe of Levi got married. ² She became pregnant and had a son by her husband. She saw that her baby was a fine child. And she hid him for three months. ³ After that, she couldn’t hide him any longer. So she got a basket made out of the stems of tall grass. She coated the basket with tar. She placed the child in the basket. Then she put it in the tall grass that grew along the bank of the Nile River. ⁴ The child’s sister wasn’t very far away. She wanted to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile River to take a bath. Her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket in the tall grass. So she sent her female slave to get it. ⁶ When she opened it, Pharaoh’s daughter saw the baby. He was crying. She felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

⁷ Then his sister spoke to Pharaoh’s daughter. She asked, “Do you want me to go and get one of the Hebrew women? She could breast-feed the baby for you.”

⁸ “Yes. Go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and feed him for me. I’ll pay you.” So the woman took the baby and fed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter. And he became her son. She named him Moses. She said, “I pulled him out of the water.”

Moses Escapes to Midian

¹¹ Moses grew up. One day, he went out to where his own people were. He watched them while they were hard at work. He saw an Egyptian hitting a Hebrew man. The man was one of Moses’ own people. ¹² Moses looked around and didn’t see anyone. So he killed the Egyptian. Then he hid his body in the sand. ¹³ The next day Moses went out again. He saw two Hebrew men fighting. He asked the one who had started the fight a question. He said, “Why are you hitting another Hebrew man?”

¹⁴ The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking about killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses became afraid. He thought, “People must have heard about what I did.”

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard about what had happened, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses escaped from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian. There he sat down by a well. ¹⁶ A priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to fill the stone tubs with water. They wanted to give water to their father’s flock. ¹⁷ Some shepherds came along and chased the girls away. But Moses got up and helped them. Then he gave water to their flock.

¹⁸ The girls returned to their father Reuel. He asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

¹⁹ They answered, “An Egyptian saved us from the shepherds. He even got water for us and gave it to the flock.”

²⁰ “Where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”

²¹ Moses agreed to stay with the man. And the man gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses to be his wife. ²² Zipporah had a son by him. Moses named him Gershom. That’s because Moses said, “I’m an outsider in a strange land.”

²³ After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The people of Israel groaned because they were slaves. They also cried out to God. Their cry for help went up to him. ²⁴ God heard their groans. He remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites with concern for them.