1: A man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.
2: The woman became pregnant and had a son. She saw there was something special about him and hid him. She hid him for three months.
3: When she couldn't hide him any longer she got a little basket-boat made of papyrus, waterproofed it with tar and pitch, and placed the child in it. Then she set it afloat in the reeds at the edge of the Nile.
4: The baby's older sister found herself a vantage point a little way off and watched to see what would happen to him.
5: Pharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile to bathe; her maidens strolled on the bank. She saw the basket-boat floating in the reeds and sent her maid to get it.
6: She opened it and saw the child--a baby crying! Her heart went out to him. She said, "This must be one of the Hebrew babies."
7: Then his sister was before her: "Do you want me to go and get a nursing mother from the Hebrews so she can nurse the baby for you?"
8: Pharaoh's daughter said, "Yes. Go." The girl went and called the child's mother.
9: Pharaoh's daughter told her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me. I'll pay you." The woman took the child and nursed him.
10: After the child was weaned, she presented him to Pharaoh's daughter who adopted him as her son. She named him Moses (Pulled-Out), saying, "I pulled him out of the water."
11: Time passed. Moses grew up. One day he went and saw his brothers, saw all that hard labor. Then he saw an Egyptian hit a Hebrew--one of his relatives!
12: He looked this way and then that; when he realized there was no one in sight, he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.
13: The next day he went out there again. Two Hebrew men were fighting. He spoke to the man who started it: "Why are you hitting your neighbor?"
14: The man shot back: "Who do you think you are, telling us what to do? Are you going to kill me the way you killed that Egyptian?" Then Moses panicked: "Word's gotten out--people know about this." [JC]
15: Pharaoh heard about it and tried to kill Moses, but Moses got away to the land of Midian. He sat down by a well.
16: The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, filling the troughs and watering their father's sheep.
17: When some shepherds came and chased the girls off, Moses came to their rescue and helped them water their sheep.
18: When they got home to their father, Reuel, he said, "That didn't take long. Why are you back so soon?"
19: "An Egyptian," they said, "rescued us from a bunch of shepherds. Why, he even drew water for us and watered the sheep."
20: He said, "So where is he? Why did you leave him behind? Invite him so he can have something to eat with us."
21: Moses agreed to settle down there with the man, who then gave his daughter Zipporah (Bird) to him for his wife.
22: She had a son, and Moses named him Gershom (Sojourner), saying, "I'm a sojourner in a foreign country." [JC]
23: Many years later the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Their cries for relief from their hard labor ascended to God:
24: God listened to their groanings. God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25: God saw what was going on with Israel. God understood. [JC]