¹⁵ And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.

When Moses arrived in Midian, he sat down beside a well. ¹⁶ Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came as usual to draw water and fill the water troughs for their father’s flocks. ¹⁷ But some other shepherds came and chased them away. So Moses jumped up and rescued the girls from the shepherds. Then he drew water for their flocks.

¹⁸ When the girls returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, “Why are you back so soon today?”

¹⁹ “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they answered. “And then he drew water for us and watered our flocks.”

²⁰ “Then where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave him there? Invite him to come and eat with us.”

²¹ Moses accepted the invitation, and he settled there with him. In time, Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife. ²² Later she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,^[a] for he explained, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”