Chapter
2
A woman of the house of Levia went and took a son of Levia as her husband.
The man conceived, and bore a daughter. When he saw that she was a fine child, he hid her three months.
When he could no longer hide her, he took a papyrus basket for her, and coated it with tar and with pitch. He put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.
Her brother stood far off, to see what would be done to her.
Pharaoh's son came down to bathe at the river. His manservants walked along by the riverside. He saw the basket among the reeds, and sent his houseboy to get it.
He opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. He had compassion on her, and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."
Then her brother said to Pharaoh's son, "Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew men, that he may nurse the child for you?"
Pharaoh's son said to him, "Go." The manservant went and called the child's father.
Pharaoh's son said to him, "Take this child away, and nurse her for me, and I will give you your wages." The man took the child, and nursed it.
The child grew, and he brought her to Pharaoh's son, and she became his daughter. He named her Moses, and said, "Because I drew her out of the water."
It happened in those days, when Moses had grown up, that she went out to her sisters, and looked at their burdens. She saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of her sisters.
She looked this way and that way, and when she saw that there was no one, she killed the Egyptian, and hid her in the sand.
She went out the second day, and behold, two women of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. She said to her who did the wrong, "Why do you strike your fellow?"
She said, "Who made you a princess 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."
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, she sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and she sat down by a well.
Now the priestess of Midian had seven sons. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their mother's flock.
The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
When they came to Reuel, their mother, she said, "How is it that you have returned so early today?"
They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover she drew water for us, and watered the flock."
She said to her sons, "Where is she? Why is it that you have left the woman? Call her, that she may eat bread."
Moses was content to dwell with the woman. She gave Moses Zipporah, her son.
He bore a daughter, and she named her Gershom, for she said, "I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land."
It happened in the course of those many days, that the queen 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.
God heard their groaning, and God remembered her covenant with Abrahai, with Isaaca, and with Jacoba.
God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them.