# Exodus 02 📖: The Birth of Moses [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Exodus Overview]] | [[Exodus 01]] | [[Exodus 03]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ## The Birth of the Deliverer [[#Verse 01.]]  A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi.  [[#Verse 02.]] The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months.  [[#Verse 03.]] But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile.  [[#Verse 04.]] His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him. [[#Verse 05.]] Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it,  [[#Verse 06.]] opened it, and saw the child—a boy, crying!—and she felt compassion for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” [[#Verse 07.]] Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get a nursing woman for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse the child for you?”  [[#Verse 08.]] Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes, do so.” So the young girl went and got the child’s mother.  [[#Verse 09.]] Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. [[#Verse 10.]] When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “Because I drew him from the water.” ## The Presumption of the Deliverer [[#Verse 11.]]  In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and observed their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking a Hebrew man, one of his own people.  [[#Verse 12.]] He looked this way and that and saw that no one was there, and then he attacked the Egyptian and concealed the body in the sand.  [[#Verse 13.]] When he went out the next day, there were two Hebrew men fighting. So he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your fellow Hebrew?” [[#Verse 14.]] The man replied, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Surely what I did has become known.”  [[#Verse 15.]] When Pharaoh heard about this event, he sought to kill Moses. So Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he settled by a certain well. [[#Verse 16.]] Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and began to draw water and fill the troughs in order to water their father’s flock.  [[#Verse 17.]] When some shepherds came and drove them away, Moses came up and defended them and then watered their flock.  [[#Verse 18.]] So when they came home to their father Reuel, he asked, “Why have you come home so early today?”  [[#Verse 19.]] They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds, and he actually drew water for us and watered the flock!”  [[#Verse 20.]] He said to his daughters, “So where is he? Why in the world did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat a meal with us.” [[#Verse 21.]] Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. [[#Verse 22.]] When she bore a son, Moses named him Gershom, for he said, “I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land.” ## The Call of the Deliverer [[#Verse 23.]]  During that long period of time the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God.  [[#Verse 24.]] God heard their groaning; God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  [[#Verse 25.]] God saw the Israelites, and God understood. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ###### Verse 23. ###### Verse 24. ###### Verse 25. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. The Hebrew word for the basket (*tevah*, 2:3) is the same word used for Noah's ark. These are the only two stories where it appears. 2. The basket was sealed with bitumen and pitch (2:3), common waterproofing materials in the ancient world. 3. Moses' sister is not named here, but she is likely Miriam (15:20; Numbers 26:59). 4. Moses' own mother was paid to nurse him (2:9). 5. Moses' name sounds like the Hebrew verb "to draw out" (2:10). It also resembles the Egyptian word *mose*, meaning "son" or "born," found in royal names like Thutmose. 6. Stephen says Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22). 7. According to Stephen, Moses was about forty years old when he tried to help his people (Acts 7:23). 8. The Midianites descended from Abraham through his wife Keturah (Genesis 25:1-2). 9. Moses' father-in-law is called Reuel here (2:18) and Jethro elsewhere (3:1). 10. Gershom's name sounds like the Hebrew for "a foreigner there" (2:22). ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the deliverer who, like Moses, was rejected by His own people at first (2:14; Acts 7:35). Moses chose to suffer with God's people, and Hebrews 11:26 calls this enduring the reproach of Christ. ## 🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. God used a mother's courage, a sister's watchfulness, and even Pharaoh's daughter to save Moses (2:1-10). How have you seen God work through unlikely people? 2. Moses tried to deliver his people in his own strength and timing (2:11-15). What can we learn from his failure? 3. God heard, remembered, saw, and knew (2:24-25). Which of those truths do you most need to hear right now? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 3: Moses' mother places him in a basket among the reeds of the Nile. - 📖 verse 10: Pharaoh's daughter names him Moses, because she drew him out of the water. - 📖 verses 24-25: God hears Israel's groaning, remembers His covenant, sees, and takes notice. ## 🔗 Related Passages - 🔗 [[Acts 07#Verse 20.|Acts 7:20-29]] - Stephen retells Moses' early life. - 🔗 [[Hebrews 11#Verse 24.|Hebrews 11:24-27]] - By faith Moses chose to suffer with God's people. - 🔗 [[Genesis 06#Verse 14.|Genesis 6:14]] - The same word for Noah's ark. - 🔗 [[Genesis 15#Verse 13.|Genesis 15:13-14]] - God's promise to judge Egypt and bring His people out. - 🔗 [[Psalm 34#Verse 15.|Psalm 34:15]] - The Lord's ears are open to the cry of the godly. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Exodus 02- SOAP|The LORD Hears You]] ## 📂 Internal Notes