Exodus 2:11-22

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. ¹² He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, ‘Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?’ ¹⁴ He answered, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘Surely the thing is known.’ ¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. ¹⁶ The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defence and watered their flock. ¹⁸ When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, ‘How is it that you have come back so soon today?’ ¹⁹ They said, ‘An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.’ ²⁰ He said to his daughters, ‘Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.’ ²¹ Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. ²² She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, ‘I have been an alien^[a] residing in a foreign land.’