Exode 2
La Bible du Semeur
Moïse
Moïse, sauvé des eaux
2 Un homme de la tribu de Lévi épousa une fille de la même tribu. 2 Elle devint enceinte et donna le jour à un fils. Elle vit que c’était un beau bébé et le cacha pendant trois mois[a]. 3 Quand elle ne parvint plus à le tenir caché, elle prit une corbeille en papyrus, l’enduisit d’asphalte et de poix et y plaça le petit garçon. Puis elle déposa la corbeille au milieu des joncs sur la rive du Nil. 4 La sœur de l’enfant se posta à quelque distance pour voir ce qu’il en adviendrait.
5 Peu après, la fille du pharaon descendit sur les bords du fleuve pour s’y baigner. Ses suivantes se promenaient sur la berge le long du Nil. Elle aperçut la corbeille au milieu des joncs et la fit chercher par sa servante. 6 Elle l’ouvrit et vit l’enfant : c’était un petit garçon qui pleurait. Elle eut pitié de lui et dit : C’est un petit des Hébreux.
7 Alors la sœur de l’enfant s’approcha et dit à la fille du pharaon : Veux-tu que j’aille te chercher une nourrice parmi les femmes des Hébreux pour qu’elle t’allaite cet enfant ?
8 La fille du pharaon lui dit : Va !
La jeune fille alla donc chercher la mère de l’enfant.
9 La princesse lui dit : Emmène cet enfant et allaite-le pour moi. Je te paierai un salaire.
La femme prit l’enfant et l’allaita. 10 Quand il eut grandi, elle l’amena à la fille du pharaon. Celle-ci l’adopta comme son fils et lui donna le nom de Moïse (Sorti), car, dit-elle, je l’ai sorti de l’eau.
Le meurtre d’un Egyptien
11 Le temps passa. Lorsque Moïse fut devenu adulte, il alla rendre visite à ses frères de race et fut témoin des corvées qu’on leur imposait. Il vit un Egyptien qui rouait de coups l’un de ses frères hébreux. 12 Après avoir regardé de côté et d’autre pour voir s’il n’y avait personne, il frappa l’Egyptien à mort et l’enfouit dans le sable. 13 Le lendemain, il revint et aperçut deux Hébreux qui se battaient. Alors il dit à celui qui avait tort : Pourquoi frappes-tu ton compagnon ?
14 Mais celui-ci répliqua : Qui t’a établi chef et juge[b] sur nous ? Veux-tu aussi me tuer comme tu as tué l’Egyptien ?
Alors Moïse prit peur ; il comprit que l’affaire s’était ébruitée.
La fuite au désert
15 Effectivement, le pharaon apprit ce qui s’était passé et chercha à faire mourir Moïse, mais celui-ci prit la fuite. Il se rendit au pays de Madian[c] et s’assit près d’un puits[d].
16 Le prêtre de Madian avait sept filles. Elles vinrent puiser de l’eau et remplirent les abreuvoirs pour faire boire le petit bétail de leur père. 17 Mais des bergers survinrent et se mirent à les chasser. Alors Moïse intervint pour les défendre et fit boire leur troupeau. 18 Quand elles revinrent vers Reouel[e] leur père, celui-ci leur demanda :
Comment se fait-il que vous soyez si vite de retour aujourd’hui ?
19 – Un Egyptien nous a défendues contre les bergers, dirent-elles, et même : il a puisé pour nous beaucoup d’eau et a fait boire le troupeau.
20 – Où est cet homme à présent ? Pourquoi l’avez-vous laissé là-bas ? Allez le chercher pour qu’il vienne manger chez nous.
21 Moïse accepta de s’établir chez cet homme qui lui donna sa fille Séphora en mariage. 22 Elle lui donna un fils qu’il appela Guershom (Emigré en ces lieux) car, dit-il, je suis un émigré dans une terre étrangère.
Moïse envoyé par Dieu
Dieu intervient selon son alliance
23 Beaucoup de temps passa. Le pharaon d’Egypte mourut et les Israélites gémissaient et criaient encore sous le poids de l’esclavage, et leur appel parvint jusqu’à Dieu. 24 Dieu entendit leur plainte et tint compte de son alliance avec Abraham, avec Isaac et avec Jacob[f]. 25 Il vit les Israélites et prit leur situation en considération.
Footnotes
- 2.2 Voir Ac 7.20 ; Hé 11.23.
- 2.14 Le terme hébreu rendu par « juge » a aussi le sens de « dirigeant », « chef ». C’est certainement le cas ici, comme dans le livre des Juges.
- 2.15 Madian était un fils d’Abraham (Gn 25.2). Les Madianites étaient établis au nord de la presqu’île du Sinaï.
- 2.15 Voir Ac 7.23-29.
- 2.18 Autre nom de Jéthro (3.1). Jéthro pourrait être un titre signifiant : son excellence.
- 2.24 Voir Gn 15.13-14.
Exodus 2
EasyEnglish Bible
The birth of Moses
2 At this time, there was an Israelite man who belonged to the family of Levi. He married a woman who was also a descendant of Levi. 2 The woman became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a beautiful boy. So she hid him for three months. 3 Then she could not continue to hide him. So she took a basket that was made from river grass. She painted the basket with tar, to keep the water out of it. Then she put her baby in the basket. She put the basket among the reeds at the edge of the river.[a]
4 The baby's sister stood not very far away. She wanted to see what would happen to the baby.
5 Soon, Pharaoh's daughter came to wash herself in the river. Her servant girls were walking near the edge of the river. Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket among the river grasses. So she sent one of her servant girls to fetch it for her. 6 When she opened the basket, she saw the baby boy. He was crying. She was sorry for him and she said, ‘This is one of the Israelite children.’
7 Then the baby's sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, ‘Do you want me to fetch one of the Israelite mothers? She can take care of this baby and she can feed him for you.’ 8 Pharaoh's daughter said, ‘Yes, please do that.’
So the girl went and she fetched the baby's own mother. 9 Pharaoh's daughter said to the baby's mother, ‘Please take this baby to your house. You can take care of him for me. I will pay you to do this.’ So the woman took the baby home and she took care of him.
10 When the baby was older, his mother took him to Pharaoh's daughter. He now became her son. She gave him the name ‘Moses’. She said, ‘I will call him Moses because I pulled him out of the water.’[b]
Moses runs away to Midian
11 Many years later, Moses grew to become a man. At that time, he went out to visit his own people, the Israelites. He saw that they had to do very hard work without any rest. He saw an Egyptian man. He was attacking an Israelite man. The Egyptian was hitting someone from Moses' own country! 12 Moses looked in every direction. He saw that nobody was near. So Moses killed the Egyptian. He buried his body in the sand to hide it.
13 The next day, Moses went out again to visit his people. He saw that two Israelite men were fighting each other. Moses said to the guilty man, ‘Why are you attacking your friend, who is an Israelite like you?’[c]
14 The man answered, ‘You do not have authority over us! You cannot judge us! Do you want to kill me, as you killed that Egyptian man?’ Then Moses was afraid. He said to himself, ‘People must know what I have done!’
15 Pharaoh heard about what had happened. He wanted to kill Moses. So Moses ran away from Pharaoh. He went from Egypt to the country called Midian and he lived there.[d]
One day, Moses sat down by a well which was near where he lived.
16 There was a priest in Midian who had seven daughters. Those seven young women came to get water out of the well. They used the water to fill the places where the animals drink. Then their father's sheep and goats could drink there. 17 But some shepherds then arrived at the well. They made the girls go away. So Moses stood up and he went to help the young women. He gave water to their animals.[e]
18 Then the girls went back home to Reuel, their father. He asked them, ‘Why have you come home so soon today?’ 19 They answered, ‘An Egyptian man saved us from the shepherds. He even took water from the well and he gave it to our animals.’ 20 Reuel said to his daughters, ‘So where is the man? You should not have left him there. Ask him to come here so that he can eat a meal with us.’
21 Moses agreed to stay with Reuel. Reuel gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his wife. 22 Later, Zipporah gave birth to a son for Moses. Moses gave the boy the name ‘Gershom’. He called him that because he said, ‘I am living as a stranger in a foreign country.’[f]
23 After a long time had passed, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites were still slaves of the Egyptians. That made them very sad and they complained loudly. God heard them when they cried for help. 24 He thought about his promise to take care of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. 25 God saw what was happening to the Israelites. He knew that he must help them.[g]
Footnotes
- 2:3 The Israelite woman did not want her beautiful baby to die. She would not let the Egyptians throw him into the river. She believed that God would keep her baby safe.
- 2:10 Moses became like a son to Pharaoh's daughter. He grew to become a man in Pharaoh's house. God had important things for Moses to do in future times.
- 2:13 Moses was very angry because of what he saw. He was angry because of what the Egyptians were doing to the Israelites. He also saw one of his own people who was attacking another Israelite. Moses did not like it when people tried to hurt each other.
- 2:15 Midian was a country about 300 kilometres to the east of Egypt. It was also about 300 kilometres south of Canaan.
- 2:17 The shepherds were not kind to the daughters of the priest of Midian. But Moses was kind to them. He chased the shepherds away.
- 2:22 In the Hebrew language, ‘Gershom’ sounds like ‘a foreign person’. Moses remembered that he belonged to the Israelite people. He did not belong to Egypt or to Midian. Reuel's daughters had thought that Moses was an Egyptian. This was because he was wearing Egyptian clothes. Moses was happy to have a place in Reuel's family. He was happy to marry Zipporah and to have a son.
- 2:25 Now the king was dead. So the Israelites hoped that things would get better. But they could not help themselves. Only God could help them.
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