1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a daughter of Levi, 2 and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5 Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the little boy was crying. So she had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 “Go ahead,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. And the girl went and called the boy’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. 10 When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.” 11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. 13 The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?” 14 But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well. 16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock. 18 When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?” 19 “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. “He even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 “So where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat.” 21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.” 23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God. 24 So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 God saw the Israelites and took notice.
Exodus · Berean Standard Bible
Exodus 2 Berean Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Gershom
Moses' firstborn son, born during his years of exile in the land of Midian.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2:22; Exodus 18:3
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Zipporah
The Midianite daughter of Jethro who became Moses' wife in the wilderness.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2:16-22; Exodus 4:24-26; Exodus 18
Cross references (24)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Numbers 26:59; Exodus 6:16–20; 1 Chronicles 23:12–14; 1 Chronicles 6:1–3
- 2 Hebrews 11:23; Acts 7:20
- 3 Exodus 1:22; Acts 7:19; Genesis 6:14; Isaiah 18:2; Matthew 2:16
- 4 Numbers 26:59; Exodus 15:20; Micah 6:4; Numbers 20:1; Numbers 12:1–15
- 5 Acts 7:21; Psalm 12:5; Psalm 9:9; Exodus 8:20; Psalm 46:1
- 6 1 Kings 8:50; 1 Peter 3:8; Acts 7:21; Nehemiah 1:11; Psalm 106:46
- 7 Exodus 2:4; Numbers 26:59; Numbers 12:1; Exodus 15:20
- 8 Isaiah 46:3–4; Psalm 27:10; Exodus 6:20; Ezekiel 16:8
- 10 Hebrews 11:24; Acts 7:21–22; Genesis 16:11; 1 Samuel 1:20; Matthew 1:21
- 11 Hebrews 11:24–26; Acts 7:22–24; Exodus 1:11; Matthew 11:28; Luke 4:18
- 12 Acts 7:24–26
- 13 Acts 7:26–28; 1 Corinthians 6:7–8
- 14 Luke 12:14; Matthew 21:23; Genesis 37:19–20; Psalm 2:2–6; Genesis 19:9
- 15 Hebrews 11:27; Acts 7:29; Genesis 24:11; Genesis 29:2; 1 Kings 19:1–3
- 16 Genesis 24:11; Exodus 3:1; 1 Samuel 9:11; Genesis 24:14–20; Genesis 29:6–10
- 17 Genesis 29:10; Genesis 21:25; Exodus 2:12; Genesis 26:15–22
- 18 Exodus 3:1; Numbers 10:29; Exodus 4:18; Exodus 18:1–12; Numbers 19:20
- 19 Genesis 29:10; Genesis 50:11
- 20 Genesis 31:54; Genesis 43:25; Genesis 18:5; Hebrews 13:2; Job 31:32
- 21 Genesis 31:38–40; Hebrews 13:5; 1 Timothy 6:6; Exodus 2:10; Exodus 18:2–6
- 22 Hebrews 11:13–14; Acts 7:29; Exodus 22:21; Psalm 119:19; Psalm 39:12
- 23 Genesis 18:20–21; James 5:4; Exodus 3:7–9; Acts 7:30; Exodus 22:22–27
- 24 Genesis 26:3; Psalm 105:42; Exodus 6:5; Genesis 15:14–18; Luke 1:72–73
- 25 Exodus 4:31; Psalm 55:22; Exodus 3:7–8; Luke 1:25; Psalm 1:6
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… saith: "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife." Moses too, who was born of a Hebrew mother and was exposed, was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. There were not then indeed the same forms of law as now, but the choice …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)
For with respect to the patriarch it is said, "I remembered my covenant with Abraham;" but here He saith not "the covenant," but how?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
That perhaps the early life of Moses was sinful; for he fled from Egypt, after slaying a man. The early life of Aaron also was such as would displease God; for he allowed a maddened and infatuated people to make an idol to worship; and an idol was made for God's people to worship.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)