CHAPTER 2
1 After these things a man of the house of Levi went out, and took a wife of his kin into fleshly coupling*,
2 which conceived, and childed a son. And she saw him well-faring, and hid him three months.
3 And when she might not cover [him], then she took a basket of sedge, and balmed it with tar and pitch, and put the young child within, and put him forth in a place of spires of the brink of the flood,
4 the while his sister stood afar, and beheld the befalling of the thing.
5 Lo! forsooth the daughter of Pharaoh came down to be washed in the flood, and her damsels walked by the brink of the flood. And when she had seen a basket in the place of spires, she sent one of her servantesses,
6 and she opened the basket brought to her, and she saw a little child weeping therein. And she had mercy on the child, and said, It is of the young children of Hebrews.
7 To whom the child’s sister said, Wilt thou that I go, and call to thee an Hebrew woman, that may nourish the young child?
8 She answered, Go thou. The damsel went, and called the child’s mother.
9 To whom Pharaoh’s daughter spake, and said, Take thou this child, and nourish it to me; and I shall give to thee thy meed. The woman took, and nourished the child,
10 and she betook him, waxen, to Pharaoh’s daughter, whom she purchased into the place of a son; and she called his name Moses†, and said, For I took him from the water.
11 In those days, after that Moses increased, he went out to his brethren, and saw the torment of them, and a man Egyptian smiting an Hebrew man, one of his brethren.
12 And when he had beholden hither and thither, and had seen, that no man was present, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 And he went out in another day, and saw twain [or two] Hebrew men chiding, and he said to him that did [the] wrong, Why smitest thou thy brother?
14 Which answered, Who ordained thee prince, or judge, [or prince and doomsman] [up] on us? Whether thou wilt slay me, as thou killedest yesterday the Egyptian? Moses dreaded, and said, How is this word made open?
15 And Pharaoh heard this word, and sought to slay Moses, which fled from his face, and dwelled in the land of Midian; and he sat beside a well.
16 Forsooth seven daughters were to the priest of Midian, that came to draw water; and when the troughs were filled, they coveted to water their father’s flocks.
17 Shepherds came upon them, and drove them away; and Moses rose, and defended the damsels; and he watered their sheep.
18 And when they had turned again to Jethro, their father, he said to them, Why came ye swifter than ye were wont?
19 They answered, A man of Egypt delivered us from the hand of the shepherds; furthermore and he drew water with us, and gave drink to the sheep.
20 And he said, Where is that man? why left ye the man? call ye him, that he eat bread.
21 Therefore Moses swore, that he would dwell with Jethro, and he took a wife, Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter.
22 And she childed a son to him, whom he called Gershom‡, and said, I was a comeling in an alien land. Forsooth she childed another son, whom he called Eliezer§, and said, For [the] God of my father is mine helper, and he delivered me from the hand of Pharaoh.
23 Forsooth after much time the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel inwardly wailed for [the] works, and they cried [out], and the cry of them for their works went up to God.
24 And he heard the wailing of them, and he had mind of the bond of peace, which he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;
25 and he beheld the sons of Israel, and knew them, that is, showed love to them.
* CHAPTER 2:1 ‘into fleshly coupling’; for she was his wife before, and had childed Aaron, and Marie or Miriam, his sister. † CHAPTER 2:10 In Hebrew, ‘Moses’ sounds like the words for ‘pull out’. ‡ CHAPTER 2:22 In Hebrew, ‘Gershom’ sounds like the word for ‘foreigner’. § CHAPTER 2:22 In Hebrew, ‘Eliezer’ sounds like the words for ‘God helps me’.