Exodus 2

¹ A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi. ² The woman became pregnant and bore a son, and she saw him that he was a goodly child; so she secluded him three months. ³ When she could no longer seclude him, then she took for him an ark of papyrus, daubed it with asphalt and with pitch and placed the boy in it; then she placed it in the weeds on the shore of the waterway. ⁴ Yet his sister stationed herself afar, to know what might be done to him. ⁵ Then Pharaoh's daughter descended to bathe at the waterway, while her maidens were going on the side of the waterway. When she saw the ark in the midst of the weeds she sent her maidservant and took it; ⁶ she opened it and saw him, the boy; and behold, the lad was lamenting. She spared him and said: "This is one of the boys of the Hebrews." ⁷ Then his sister said to the daughter of Pharaoh: "Shall I go and call for you a woman, a wetnurse from the Hebrews that she may nurse the boy for you?" ⁸ And Pharaoh's daughter said to her: "Go!" So the damsel went and called the boy's mother. ⁹ Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her: "Have this boy go, and nurse him for me, and I shall give you your hire." So the woman took the boy and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the boy was growing up she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She called his name Moses and said: "Because I have removed him from the water." ¹¹ It came to be in those days when Moses had grown up that he went forth to his brothers and saw their burdens. He also saw an Egyptian man smiting a Hebrew man, one of his brothers. ¹² He faced this way and that and saw that there was no one else; then he smote the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. ¹³ When he went forth on the second day, behold two men, Hebrews, were striving with each other. So he said to the wicked one: "Why are you smiting your associate?" ¹⁴ Yet he said: "Who appointed you as foreman and judge over us? Are you meaning to kill me just as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses became fearful and said: "Surely the matter is known." ¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. So Moses ran away from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, where he sat by the well. ¹⁶ Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came, drew out water and filled the troughs to let their father's flock drink. ¹⁷ But the shepherds came and drove them out; so Moses rose, saved them and let their flock drink. ¹⁸ When they came to Reuel, their father, he said: "For what reason did you hasten to come in today?" ¹⁹ They said: "An Egyptian man rescued us from the hand of the shepherds, and, moreover, he drew, yea drew out water for us and let the flock drink." ²⁰ Then he said to his daughters: "And where is he? Why is this that you have forsaken the man? Call him that he may eat bread." ²¹ Hence Moses was disposed to dwell with the man. He gave Zipporah, his daughter, to Moses for a wife. ²² When she bore a son, he called his name Gershom, for he said: "A sojourner have I become in a foreign land." ²³ In the course of these many days it came to be that the king of Egypt died. Yet the sons of Israel sighed under the servitude and cried out, and their imploration ascended to the One, Elohim, out of the servitude. ²⁴ Elohim heard their moaning, and Elohim was mindful of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ²⁵ Elohim saw the sons of Israel and was realized by them.