Exodus 2:11–22

¹¹One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people^c and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. ¹²After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

¹³The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”

¹⁴But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?^d Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?^e”

Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”

¹⁵When 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.

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.

¹⁸When the daughters returned to their father Reuel,^f 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.”

²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. ²²And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,^g saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”