1A man from the family of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi.
2The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.
3When she could not hide him any longer, she took a basket made of bulrushes and coated it with tar and pitch. She put the child in it and laid it among the reeds at the edge of the river.
4His sister stood a long way off, to see what would happen to him.
5Pharaoh's daughter came down to wash herself at the river, and her servant girls walked along the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and she sent her maid to fetch it.
6When she opened it, she saw the child. The baby was crying. She felt sorry for him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."
7Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a nurse from the Hebrew women for you, so that she may nurse the child for you?"
8Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." So the girl went and called the child's mother.
9Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will pay you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.
10The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and she said, "Because I drew him out of the water."
11In those days, when Moses was grown, he went out to his brothers and looked at their hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
12He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one about, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
13When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrew men fighting each other. He said to the one who was in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your companion?"
14The man said, "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, and said, "Surely this thing is known."
15When Pharaoh heard about it, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses ran away from Pharaoh and lived in the land of Midian. There he sat down by a well.
16The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
17The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18When they came to Reuel their father, he said, "How is it that you have come back so soon today?"
19They said, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
20He said to his daughters, "And where is he? Why have you left the man there? Call him, so that he may eat bread."
22She gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, "I have been a stranger in a strange land."
23After a long time the king of Egypt died. The children of Israel groaned because of their slavery, and they cried out. Their cry came up to God because of their slavery.
24God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25God looked on the children of Israel, and God cared about them.