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Now there was a man who was a descendant of Jacob’s son Levi. He married a woman who was also a descendant of Levi. 2 She became pregnant and had a baby boy. When she saw that he was a healthy baby, she {wanted to keep him alive, so she} hid him for three months. 3 When she was unable to hide him any longer, she got a basket made from tall reeds. She covered the basket with tar {so it would float in water}. Then she put the baby in the basket and put the basket in the water. It was at the edge of the Nile River, in the middle of the tall reeds. 4 His {older} sister hid nearby so she could find out what would happen to him.5 Soon the king’s daughter went down to the river to take a bath. Her female servants walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket in the tall reeds in the river, so she sent one of her servants to get it. {When the servant brought it back,} the king’s daughter took it from her 6 and she opened it and was surprised to see a baby inside that was crying. She pitied him and said, “This must be a Hebrew baby.”
7 Then the baby’s {older} sister {walked up} to the king’s daughter and said, “Do you want me to go and find a Hebrew woman who will be able to nurse the baby for you?”
8 The king’s daughter said to her, “Yes, go and find one.” So the girl went and found the baby’s mother {and brought her to the king’s daughter}. 9 The king’s daughter said to the mother, “Please take this baby and nurse him for me. I will pay you for doing that.” So the baby’s mother {agreed,} took him, and nursed him. 10 When he had gotten bigger, his mother brought the boy to the king’s daughter. She adopted him and said, “I pulled him out of the water, so I will call him Moses.”
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out {of the palace area} to see the hard work his people had to do. He also saw an Egyptian beating one of his people, the Hebrews. 12 He looked around {to see if anyone was watching}. Seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian man and buried his body in the sand. 13 The next day he was out again. He was surprised to see two Hebrew men fighting each other. He said to the man who started the fight, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man replied, “No one put you in charge of judging us! Do not think you {will get away with} killing me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday!”
Then Moses was afraid, because he thought, “Everyone knows what I did.” 15 When the king heard that Moses killed an Egyptian, he ordered {his soldiers} to kill Moses. But Moses ran away from the king {and left Egypt. He traveled east} to the region of Midian and started to live there. {One day as} Moses was sitting beside a well, 16 seven women came to the well. They were all the daughters of the man who was the priest for the Midianites. They got water and filled the troughs in order to give water to their father’s sheep and goats. 17 Some shepherds came and {started to} chase them away. But Moses got up and rescued them and helped their sheep and goats to drink.
18 When his daughters returned {home}, their father {Jethro (who people also called} Reuel) asked them, “How did you get back {from taking care of the sheep} so quickly today?”
19 They replied, “A man from Egypt kept the other shepherds from chasing us away. He also got water for us from the well and gave water to the sheep.”
20 He said to his daughters, “By leaving him at the well, you did not show this man that we welcome strangers or even repay his kind act. Invite him in so that he can have something to eat!” {So they did, and Moses ate with them.}
21 Jethro {invited Moses} to stay with his family and Moses accepted {his offer}. Jethro gave Moses his daughter Zipporah {to be his wife}. 22 When she gave birth to {their first} son, Moses said, “I am a foreigner living in a place foreign to me, so I will name him Gershom.”
23 Many years went by. During that time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites in Egypt were still groaning because of the hard work they had to do as slaves. They cried to God in heaven because of the work. 24 When he heard them groaning, he thought about his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 God saw {how the} Israelites {were being badly treated}, and he comprehended.