A man from Levi’s tribe married a woman of his own tribe, and gave birth to a son. When she saw the beautiful baby, she hid him for 3 months. When she couldn’t hide the baby, she put the baby in a basket made with reeds and covered it with tar to make it watertight. The woman put the basket in the tall grass at the edge of the river, and the baby’s sister stood a distance away to see what happened to him.
The daughter of the king walked down the river for a bath, while the servants walked to the riverbank. She saw the basket in the tall grass and sent her slave woman to get it. The princess found the Hebrew baby boy crying and felt sorry for him. His sister asked, “Shall I go ahead and call a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you?” She answered, “Yes, go ahead,” and the girl brought the baby’s own mother. The princess said to the woman, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you,” so she took the baby and nursed him until he got old enough. Later, the king’s daughter adopted him as her own son and named him Moses.
When Moses grew up, he went to visit his people, the Hebrews, and saw how they were forced to do hard labor and saw an Egyptian kill one of the Hebrews. When he saw that nobody was watching, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The next day, he returned and saw two Hebrew men fighting. Moses asked the Hebrew men, “Why are you beating up a fellow Hebrew?” The man replied, “Are you going to kill me just as you killed that Egyptian? Who made you our ruler and judge?” Moses was terrified. He said, “People have found out what I have done.” When the king heard this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses ran and went to live in the land of Midian. When Moses was sitting near a well one day, Jethro’s daughters, the priest of Midian, drew water to fill the troughs for their father’s sheep and goats. But some shepherds drove Jethro’s daughters away. Then Moses went to their rescue and watered their animals. When they returned to their father, he asked, “Why have you returned this early?” “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew the water to feed our animals.”
He asked his daughters, “Where is that Egyptian, and why did you leave him out there? Ask him to eat with us.” Jethro gave Moses his daughter, Zipporah, in marriage, who gave birth to a son, whose name was Gershom. Later, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites were crying out for help and God heard their groaning. He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and was concerned about the Israelites’ slavery.