Exodus 2:1-15

1 A man from the family of Levi took a woman also descended from Levi as his wife.

2 When she conceived and had a son, upon seeing what a fine child he was, she hid him for three months.

3 When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket, coated it with clay and tar, put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the riverbank.

4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river while her maids-in-attendance walked along the riverside. Spotting the basket among the reeds, she sent her slave-girl to get it.

6 She opened it and looked inside, and there in front of her was a crying baby boy! Moved with pity, she said, "This must be one of the Hebrews'children."

7 At this point, his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Would you like me to go and find you one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"

8 Pharaoh's daughter answered, "Yes, go." So the girl went and called the baby's own mother.

9 Pharaoh's daughter told her, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will pay you for doing it." So the woman took the child and nursed it.

10 Then, when the child had grown some, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter; and she began to raise him as her son. She called him Moshe [pull out], explaining, "Because I pulled him out of the water."

11 One day, when Moshe was a grown man, he went out to visit his kinsmen; and he watched them struggling at forced labor. He saw an Egyptian strike a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen.

12 He looked this way and that; and when he saw that no one was around, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

13 The next day, he went out and saw two Hebrew men fighting with each other. To the one in the wrong he said, "Why are you hitting your companion?"

14 He retorted, "Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian?" Moshe became frightened. "Clearly," he thought, "the matter has become known."

15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he tried to have Moshe put to death. But Moshe fled from Pharaoh to live in the land of Midyan. One day, as he was sitting by a well,

Exodus 2:1-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 2

This chapter relates the birth of Moses, and his preservation in an ark of bulrushes, Ex 2:1-3. His being found by Pharaoh's daughter, took up, and put out to nurse by her, and adopted for her son, Ex 2:4-10, some exploits of his when grown up, taking the part of an Hebrew against an Egyptian whom he slew, and endeavouring to reconcile two Hebrews at variance, when one of them reproached him with slaying the Egyptian, Ex 2:11-14, which thing being known to Pharaoh, he sought to slay Moses, and this obliged him to flee to Midian, Ex 2:15 where he met with the daughters of Reuel, and defended them against the shepherds, and watered their flocks for them, Ex 2:16,17, which Reuel being informed of, sent for him, and he lived with him, and married his daughter Zipporah, by whom he had a son, Ex 2:18-22 and the chapter is concluded with the death of the king of Egypt, and the sore bondage of the Israelites, and their cries and groans, which God had a respect unto, Ex 2:23-25.

was Amram, the son of Kohath, and grandson of Levi, as appears from Ex 6:18,20

\\and took to wife a daughter of Levi\\; one of the same house, family, or tribe; which was proper, that the tribes might be kept distinct: this was Jochebed, said to be his father's sister, \\see Gill on "Ex 6:20"\\: her name in Josephus {s} is Joachebel, which seems to be no other than a corruption of Jochebed, but in the Targum in 1Ch 4:18 she is called Jehuditha.

{s} Antiqu. l. 2. c. 9. sect. 4. 09514-950103-1343-Ex2.2