Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people^(A) were and watched them at their hard labor.^(B) He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. ¹² Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”^(C)

¹⁴ The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?^(D) Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”

²³ “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴ He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. ²⁶ The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

²⁷ “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?^{(A) 28} Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[a] 29} When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.^(B)

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.^{(A) 25} He chose to be mistreated^(B) along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He regarded disgrace^(C) for the sake of Christ^(D) as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.^(E)

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill^(A) Moses, but Moses fled^(B) from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian,^(C) where he sat down by a well. ¹⁶ Now a priest of Midian^(D) had seven daughters, and they came to draw water^(E) and fill the troughs^(F) to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue^(G) and watered their flock.^(H)

¹⁸ When the girls returned to Reuel^(I) their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

¹⁹ They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰ “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”^(J)

²¹ Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah^(K) to Moses in marriage. ²² Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,^[a](L) saying, “I have become a foreigner^(M) in a foreign land.”

²³ During that long period,^(A) the king of Egypt died.^(B) The Israelites groaned in their slavery^(C) and cried out, and their cry^(D) for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered^(E) his covenant^(F) with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned^(G) about them.