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Exodus 2

Exodus 2 follows Moses from rescue to exile, then turns to God’s attention to Israel’s suffering and his covenant.

A Levite mother hides her baby for three months, then places him in a basket among the river reeds. Pharaoh’s daughter finds him and adopts him, while his sister arranges for his own mother to nurse him. As an adult, Moses kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew and flees to Midian. There he helps Reuel’s daughters and marries Zipporah. Meanwhile, Israel’s bondage continues, and the account turns to God hearing their cries and remembering his covenant.

waitinginjustice and angerfeeling distant from God
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1A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife.
2The woman conceived and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
3When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.
4His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him.
5Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her servant to get it.
6She opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”
8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” The young woman went and called the child’s mother.
10The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
11In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
13He went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?”
14He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.”
15Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
17The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, “How is it that you have returned so early today?”
20He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”
21Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.
22She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
24God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25God saw the children of Israel, and God understood.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Exodus 2:23The king’s death leaves Israel’s bondage unchanged, and their cry brings the account’s focus back to their suffering.
Exodus 2:24God’s response to Israel’s groaning rests on his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Exodus 2:14A Hebrew challenges Moses’ authority and exposes his killing, setting up his flight from Pharaoh to Midian.
Where this chapter reaches

Genesis records God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the same covenant God remembers when Israel groans under bondage. Acts recounts Moses’ rescue, rejection, and flight, while Hebrews describes his parents’ hiding of the child as an act of faith.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What stands out about the women whose actions preserve Moses’ life in the opening scene?

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How does the ending shape your understanding of God’s attention while Israel remains in bondage?

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Questions people ask about Exodus 2

What does it mean that God remembered his covenant in Exodus 2?

God’s remembering marks his attention to the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The surrounding statements say that God heard Israel’s groaning, saw the people, and understood. The wording signals his commitment to that covenant; it does not suggest that their suffering had slipped his mind.

Why did Moses flee to Midian?

Moses fled after killing an Egyptian who was striking a Hebrew. He hid the body, but the next day another Hebrew showed that the killing was known. When Pharaoh heard about it, he sought to kill Moses. Moses escaped to Midian, where he later married Zipporah.

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Exodus · 40 chapters
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What the Bible says about patience →What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about doubt →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).