11 Aug 2025 – jeffersonvann

Exodus 2

Exodus 2:1 Then a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a daughter of Levi.

Exodus 2:2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and seeing that he was special, she concealed him three months.

Exodus 2:3 When she could conceal him no longer, she prepared for him a basket made of papyrus and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

Exodus 2:4 And his sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

Exodus 2:5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave,[1] and she took it.

Exodus 2:6 After she opened it, she saw the child, and noticed the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Exodus 2:7 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?”

Exodus 2:8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So, the girl went and called the child’s mother.

Exodus 2:9 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.

Exodus 2:10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She called his name Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Exodus 2:11 Then after Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers.

Exodus 2:12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.

Exodus 2:13 When he went out the next day, notice, two Hebrews were fighting together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”

Exodus 2:14 He answered, “Who made you an official and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing has been made known.”

Exodus 2:15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses ran[2] from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

Exodus 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

Exodus 2:17 The shepherds normally came and would drive them away, but Moses stood up and saved[3] them, and watered their flock.

Exodus 2:18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “Why have you come home so soon today?”

Exodus 2:19 They said, “An Egyptian rescued us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

Exodus 2:20 He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”

Exodus 2:21 And Moses was agreeable to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.

Exodus 2:22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, because he said, “I have been a foreign guest in a foreign land.”

Exodus 2:23 And after many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue came up to God.

Exodus 2:24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Exodus 2:25 God saw the sons of Israel – and God knew.

[1] אָמָה = female slave. Exodus 2:5; 20:10, 17; 21:7, 20, 26, 27, 32; 23:12.

[2] בָּרָח = run, run through. Exodus 2:15; 14:5; 26:28; 36:33.

[3] יָשַׁע = save. Exodus 2:17; 14:30.

Exodus 2 quotes:

“The stories of Exodus 2 lead to verses 23-25. The point is that if humans can rescue other humans who are caught in strife, then how much more will the God that we know from Genesis, full of compassion and mercy and who has an established covenant relationship with his people, rescue them? If the daughter of Pharaoh can hear cries and be merciful against the stated will of her father, how much more will God hear, given his stated obligation to Abraham and his descendants? If Moses can see his people’s trouble and the trouble of a group of daughters of a priest of Midian, then how much more so will God, whose nature is to have mercy? If a priest of Midian can take on board a lonely fugitive and give him a home, then how much more so will the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, do so? If humans can do it, how much more so will God? This is the point of this chapter—God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. He looked on the Israelites and he was concerned. Where God ‘remembers’, ‘looks upon’ and ‘is concerned’, we can expect to see action.”

Reid, Andrew. Out of Darkness : Exodus 1- 18. Matthias Media, 2005. p. 15.

“Exodus 2:9 “took the boy and nursed him” Breastfeeding is the natural means planned by the Creator to forge an irrevocable bond between a mother and her child. This providential intervention gave the opportunity for physical and emotional bonding between Moses and his godly mother, giving to him immersion in her faith and values in his earliest, formative years.”

Patterson, Dorothy Kelley, Touched by Greatness : Women in the Life of Moses. Christian Focus, 2011. p. 38.

“Exodus 2 includes Moses’ birth, his amazing deliverance and adoption (2:1-10), his identification with “his” Hebrew people, the killing of an Egyptian, his escape to the land of Midian, his marriage to Zipporah, and the birth of their son, Gershom (vv. 11-22). The chapter concludes with a reminder of the groaning of the people in Egypt and God’s attentive ear (vv. 23-25).”

Bruckner, James K. Exodus. Hendrickson Publishers ; Paternoster, 2008. p. 26.