1About this time, a man and woman from the tribe of Levi got married.
5Soon Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the riverbank. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her.
7Then the baby’s sister approached the princess. “Should I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” she asked.
8“Yes, do!” the princess replied. So the girl went and called the baby’s mother.
9“Take this baby and nurse him for me,” the princess told the baby’s mother. “I will pay you for your help.” So the woman took her baby home and nursed him.
10Later, when the boy was older, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her own son. The princess named him Moses,*2:10 Moses sounds like a Hebrew term that means “to lift out.” for she explained, “I lifted him out of the water.”
11Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews.
13The next day, when Moses went out to visit his people again, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. “Why are you beating up your friend?” Moses said to the one who had started the fight.
14The man replied, “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?”
Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Everyone knows what I did.”
When Moses arrived in Midian, he sat down beside a well.
18When the girls returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, “Why are you back so soon today?”
19“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they answered. “And then he drew water for us and watered our flocks.”
20“Then where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave him there? Invite him to come and eat with us.”
21Moses accepted the invitation, and he settled there with him. In time, Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife.
23Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God.