| 2:1 | A man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman. |
| 2:2 | 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. |
| 2:3 | 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. |
| 2:4 | The baby's older sister found herself a vantage point a little way off and watched to see what would happen to him. |
| 2:5 | 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. |
| 2:6 | 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." |
| 2:7 | 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?" |
| 2:8 | Pharaoh's daughter said, "Yes. Go." The girl went and called the child's mother. |
| 2:9 | 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. |
| 2:10 | 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." |
| 2:11 | 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! |
| 2:12 | 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. |
| 2:13 | 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?" |
| 2:14 | 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." |
| 2:15 | Pharaoh heard about it and tried to kill Moses, but Moses got away to the land of Midian. He sat down by a well. |
| 2:16 | The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, filling the troughs and watering their father's sheep. |
| 2:17 | When some shepherds came and chased the girls off, Moses came to their rescue and helped them water their sheep. |
| 2:18 | When they got home to their father, Reuel, he said, "That didn't take long. Why are you back so soon?" |
| 2:19 | "An Egyptian," they said, "rescued us from a bunch of shepherds. Why, he even drew water for us and watered the sheep." |
| 2:20 | He said, "So where is he? Why did you leave him behind? Invite him so he can have something to eat with us." |
| 2:21 | Moses agreed to settle down there with the man, who then gave his daughter Zipporah (Bird) to him for his wife. |
| 2:22 | She had a son, and Moses named him Gershom (Sojourner), saying, "I'm a sojourner in a foreign country." |
| 2:23 | 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: |
| 2:24 | God listened to their groanings. God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. |
| 2:25 | God saw what was going on with Israel. God understood. |
Exodus 2 - The Message Bible
