Exodus 2
Big idea: Three scenes and a hinge. A Levite mother obeys Pharaoh's decree with terrible literalism — she does put her son in the river, in a waterproofed basket — and the daughter of the man who ordered his death pays his own mother to nurse him and names him Moses. Grown, he goes out to his brothers, sees their burdens, kills an Egyptian, and discovers the next day that he has no standing with the people he tried to defend; he runs to Midian and becomes a shepherd, a stranger in a foreign land. Then the chapter turns on four verbs with God as their subject: God heard, God remembered, God saw, God understood.
Chapter 2 ends with God remembering his covenant and looking on the children of Israel. Chapter 3 shows what he does about it: he appears in a bush on the far side of the wilderness, to the shepherd who ran away.
2:1–10 — Drawn out of the water
A Levite couple have a son, and seeing that he is a fine child his mother hides him for three months. When she can hide him no longer she seals a papyrus basket with tar and pitch, puts him in the reeds by the river, and posts his sister to watch. Pharaoh's daughter finds him, has compassion, and recognises him as a Hebrew child; the sister steps forward and offers to fetch a nurse — so the mother is paid wages to nurse her own son. The child grows, becomes her son, and is named Moses.
1 A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. 4 His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him. 5 Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her servant to get it. 6 She opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” The young woman went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” The woman took the child, and nursed him. 10 The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
2:11–22 — The Egyptian, and forty years in Midian
Grown, Moses goes out to his brothers and looks on their burdens; seeing an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he looks both ways, kills him, and hides him in the sand. The next day he tries to break up a fight between two Hebrews and is answered with the question that ends his first attempt: who made you a prince and a judge over us? Pharaoh hears and seeks to kill him, so Moses flees to Midian, sits down by a well, defends seven shepherd daughters, and is taken into Reuel's household. He marries Zipporah and names his son Gershom — I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.
11 In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers. 12 He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. 13 He went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?” 14 He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.” 15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. 16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. 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 Reuel, their father, he said, “How is it that you have returned so early today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock.” 20 He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21 Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. 22 She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.”
2:23–25 — God heard, God remembered
The king of Egypt dies, and the situation does not change: the children of Israel sigh under the bondage and cry out, and their cry comes up to God. Four verbs answer it — God heard their groaning, God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God saw the children of Israel, and God understood.
23 In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the children of Israel, and God understood.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).