¹⁷ “But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied^{(A) 18} until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. ¹⁹ He dealt craftily with our people and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die.^{(B) 20} At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house, ²¹ and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. ²² So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.^(C)

²³ “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his kinfolk, the Israelites.^{(D) 24} When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. ²⁶ The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?’ ²⁷ But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses^[a] aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.