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Exodus 2

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Exodus 2

Birth and Youth of Moses

1Now a man from the house of Levi went and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3And when she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch; and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river's brink. 4And his sister stood at a distance, to know what would be done to him. 5Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked beside the river; she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to fetch it. 6When she opened it she saw the child; and lo, the babe was crying. She took pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children." 7Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" 8And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." So the girl went and called the child's mother. 9And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son; and she named him Moses,a for she said, "Because I drew him outb of the water."

Moses Flees to Midian

11One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together; and he said to the man that did the wrong, "Why do you strike your fellow?" 14He answered, "Who made you a prince and a 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." 15When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

But Moses fled from Pharaoh, and stayed in the land of Mid'ian; and he sat down by a well. 16Now the priest of Mid'ian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. 17The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. 18When they came to their father Reu'el, he said, "How is it that you have come so soon today?" 19They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and even drew water for us and watered the flock." 20He said to his daughters, "And where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread." 21And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daugher Zippo'rah. 22She bore a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, "I have been a sojournerc in a foreign land."

23In the course of those many days the king of Egypt died. And the people of Israel groaned under their bondage, and cried out for help, and their cry under bondage came up to God. 24And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25And God saw the people of Israel, and God knew their condition.