[1] Now a man from the house of Levi went and took to wife a daughter of
Levi. [2] The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was
a goodly child, she hid him three months. [3] And 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. [4] And his sister stood at a distance, to know
what would be done to him. [5] Now 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. [6] When 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." [7] Then 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?" [8] And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go."
So the girl went and called the child's mother. [9] And 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. [10] And the
child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her
son; and she named him Moses, for she said, "Because I drew him out of the
water." [11] One 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. [12] He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he
killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. [13] When 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?" [14] He 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." [15] When 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. [16] Now the priest of Mid'ian had seven daughters; and they came and
drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. [17] The
shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and
watered their flock. [18] When they came to their father Reu'el, he said,
"How is it that you have come so soon today?" [19] They said, "An Egyptian
delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and even drew water for us
and watered the flock." [20] He said to his daughters, "And where is he?
Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread." [21] And Moses
was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter
Zippo'rah. [22] She bore a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he
said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land." [23] In 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. [24] And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his
covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. [25] And God saw the
people of Israel, and God knew their condition.
