After Moses was born he was later adopted by the king's daughter
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1 I, Moses, had a father who was descended from Jacob's son Levi. My father married a woman who was also descended from Levi. 2 She became pregnant and gave birth to me. When she saw that I was a good-looking baby, she hid me for three months, because she was not willing to do what the king commanded. 3 When she was unable to hide me any longer, she got a basket made from tall reeds. She covered the basket with tar to make it waterproof. Then she put me in the basket and put the basket in the water in the midst of the tall grass at the edge of the Nile River. 4 My older sister was standing not far away, watching to see what would happen to me.5 Soon the king's daughter went down to the river to bathe. Her female servants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket amid the tall grass in the river. So she sent one of her servants to get it. 6 When the servant brought the basket to her, she opened it, and was surprised to see me, crying. She felt sorry for me, and said, “This must be one of the Hebrews' babies.”
7 Then my older sister approached the king's daughter and said, “Do you want me to go and find someone from among the Hebrew women 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 summoned my mother. 9 The king's daughter said to her, “Please take this baby and nurse him for me. I will pay you for doing that.” So my mother took me and nursed me. 10 A few years later she brought me to the king's daughter. She adopted me as though I was her own son. She named me Moses, which sounds like the Hebrew words 'pull out', because she said “I pulled him out of the water.”
Moses, after murdering an Egyptian, escaped to Midian and later married Zipporah
11 One day, after I had grown up, I went out of the palace area to see my people, the Hebrews. I saw how they were being forced to work very hard. I also saw an Egyptian man beating one of my Hebrew people. 12 I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Seeing no one, I killed the Egyptian man and buried his body in the sand.
13 The next day I returned to the same place. I was surprised to see two Hebrew men who were fighting each other. I said to the man who started the fight, “Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man replied, “Who made you our ruler and judge?You have no right to interfere with us! Are you going to kill me just like you killed that Egyptian man yesterday?” Then I was afraid, because I thought, “Since that man knows what I did, surely other people know, too.”
15 And that was correct. The king heard about what I had done to that Egyptian. So he ordered his soldiers to execute me. But I fled from the king and left Egypt. I traveled east to the Midian region and started to live there. 16 The man who was the priest for the Midian people, whose name was Jethro, had seven daughters. One day as I sat down beside a well, those girls came to the well and got water, and filled the troughs in order to give water to their father's flock of sheep. 17 Some shepherds came and started to chase away the girls. But I rescued the girls, and got water for their sheep. 18 When the girls returned to their father Jethro, whose other name is also Reuel, he asked them, “How is it that you were able to give water to the sheep and come home so quickly today?” 19 They replied, “A man from Egypt kept other shepherds from sending us away. He also got water for us from the well and gave water to the flock of sheep.”
20 He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave him out there? Invite him in, so he can have something to eat!” 21 So they did, and I accepted and ate with them. And I decided to live there. Later Jethro gave me his daughter Zipporah to be my wife. 22 Later she gave birth to a son, and I named him Gershom, which sounds like the Hebrew words that mean 'foreigner', because I said, “I am living as a foreigner in this land.”
23 Many years later the king of Egypt died. The Israeli people in Egypt were still groaning because of the hard work they had to do as slaves. They called out for someone to help them, and God heard them call out. 24 He heard them groaning. And he thought about the solemn promise he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bless their descendants. 25 God saw how the Israeli people were being badly treated, and he was concerned about them.