Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

David wrote this psalm.

The Lord's great King^[a]

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?’^[a]

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.^[b]

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.^[c]

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.’^[d]

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.^[e]

²⁷ As a result of his faith, Moses left Egypt. He knew that the king would be angry, but Moses was not afraid of him. Instead, he continued strongly to trust God. Nobody can see God, but Moses lived like someone who could see God.^[a]

²⁸ As a result of his faith, Moses told Israel's people to prepare the first Passover meal. He told them to put blood from the sacrifice round their doors. Then the angel who destroyed people came to every home. When he saw the blood, he did not kill the oldest sons in the families of Israel's people.^[b]