A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Exodus 2
Exodus 2 is the second chapter of the book of Exodus and the chapter of Moses's birth, rescue, exile, and the close of Israel's silent years in slavery. The 25-verse chapter follows Moses from a basket on the Nile to a well in Midian and ends with God hearing the cry of Israel.
The chapter opens with a Levite man marrying a Levite woman. She conceives and gives birth to a son. Seeing that he is a beautiful child, she hides him for three months. When she can no longer hide him, she gets a papyrus basket, coats it with tar and pitch, places the child inside, and sets it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. The boy's sister watches from a distance.
Pharaoh's daughter comes down to bathe at the Nile, sees the basket, opens it, and has pity on the crying child. The boy's sister steps forward and offers to get a Hebrew woman to nurse him. The princess agrees, and the girl brings the boy's own mother. When he grows older, he is brought to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopts him as her son and names him Moses, "because I drew him out of the water."
One day Moses, grown, goes out to his own people and sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He looks around, sees no one, and kills the Egyptian, hiding him in the sand. The next day he sees two Hebrews fighting and asks the one in the wrong why he is striking his fellow. The man answers, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses realizes the matter is known. Pharaoh hears and seeks to kill him. Moses flees to the land of Midian and sits down by a well.
The seven daughters of the priest of Midian come to water their father's flock. Shepherds drive them away. Moses defends them and waters the flock. Their father Reuel takes him in. Moses agrees to stay and is given Zipporah in marriage. She bears a son. Moses names him Gershom, saying, "I have become a foreigner in a foreign land."
The chapter closes after many years. The king of Egypt dies. The Israelites groan under their slavery and cry out, and their cry rises to God. God hears their groaning and remembers his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Verse 1. Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
Verse 2. and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.
Verse 3. But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
Verse 4. And his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Verse 5. Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it.
Verse 6. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the little boy was crying. So she had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew children.”
Verse 7. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
Verse 8. “Go ahead,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. And the girl went and called the boy’s mother.
Verse 9. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.
Verse 10. When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”
Verse 11. One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
Verse 12. After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.
Verse 13. The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”
Verse 14. But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”
Verse 15. When 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.
Verse 16. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
Verse 17. And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.
Verse 18. When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
Verse 19. “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. “He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
Verse 20. “So where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat.”
Verse 21. Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.
Verse 22. And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Verse 23. After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.
Verse 24. So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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