1 ◄There was a man who/My father► was descended from Jacob’s son Levi. He married a woman who was also descended from Levi. 2 She became pregnant and gave birth to ◄a baby boy/me►. When she saw that he/I was a good-looking baby, she hid him/me for three months, because she was not willing to do what the king commanded. 3 When she was unable to ◄hide him/me/keep it a secret► any longer, she got a basket made from tall reeds. She covered the basket with tar ◄to make it waterproof/so water could not get in►. Then she put him/me in the basket and put the basket in the water in the middle of the tall grass at the edge of the Nile River. 4 His/My older sister was standing not far away, watching to see what would happen to him/me.

5 Soon the king’s daughter went down to the river to bathe. Her female servants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket amid the tall grass in the river. So she sent one of her servants to get it. 6 When the servant brought the basket to her, she opened it, and was surprised to see ◄a baby that was/me►, crying. She felt sorry for him/me, and said, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ babies.”

7 Then ◄the baby’s/my► older sister approached the king’s daughter and said, “Do you want me to go and find someone from among the Hebrew women who will be able to nurse the baby for you?” 8 The king’s daughter said to her, “Yes, go and find one.” So the girl went and summoned ◄the baby’s/my► mother. 9 The king’s daughter said to her, “Please take this baby and nurse him for me. I will pay you for doing that.” So ◄the woman/my mother► took him/me and nursed him/me. 10 ◄A few years later/when ◄the child/I► grew older►, she brought him/me to the king’s daughter. She adopted him/me as though I was her own son. She named him/me Moses, which sounds like the Hebrew words ‘pull out’, because she said “I pulled him out of the water.”

11 One day, after Moses/I had grown up, he/I went out of the palace area to see his/my people, the Hebrews. He/I saw how they were being forced to work very hard. He/I also saw an Egyptian man beating one of his/my Hebrew people. 12 He/I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Seeing no one, he/I killed the Egyptian man and buried his body in the sand.

13 The next day he/I returned to the same place. He/I was surprised to see two Hebrew men who were fighting each other. He/I said to the man who started the fight, “Why are you ◄you should not be► striking your fellow Hebrew.” 14 The man replied, “◄Who made you our ruler and judge?/No one made you our ruler and judge!► [RHQ] You have no right to interfere with us Are you going to kill me just like you killed that Egyptian man yesterday?” Then Moses/I was afraid, because he/I thought, “Since that man knows what I did, surely other people know, too.”

15 And that was correct. The king heard about what he/I had done to that Egyptian. So he ordered his soldiers to execute/kill Moses/me. But he/I fled from the king and left Egypt. He/I traveled east to the Midian region and started to live there. 16 The man who was the ◄priest/one who offered the people’s gifts to God► for the Midian people, whose name was Jethro, had seven daughters. One day as Moses/I sat down beside a well, those girls came to the well and got water, and filled the troughs in order to give water to their father’s flock of sheep. 17 Some ◄shepherds/men who took care of other sheep► came and started to chase away the girls. But Moses/I helped/rescued the girls, and got water for their sheep. 18 When the girls returned to their father Jethro, whose other name is Reuel, he asked them, “How is it that you were able to give water to the sheep and come home so quickly today?” 19 They replied, “A man from Egypt kept [MTY] other shepherds from sending us away. He also got water for us from the well and gave water to the flock of sheep.”

20 He said to his daughters, “Where is he? ◄Why did you leave him out there?/You should not leave him out there!► [RHQ] Invite him in, so he can have something to eat [MTY]!” 21 So they did, and Moses/I accepted and ate with them. And Moses/I decided to live there. Later Jethro gave him/me his daughter Zipporah to be his/my wife. 22 Later she gave birth to a son, and Moses/I named him Gershom, which sounds like the Hebrew words that mean ‘foreigner’, because he/I said, “I am living as a foreigner in this land.”

23 Many years later the king of Egypt died. The Israeli people in Egypt were still groaning because of the hard work they had to do as slaves. They called out for someone to help them, and God heard them call out [PRS]. 24 He heard them groaning. And he ◄thought about/did not forget► that he had solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bless their descendants. 25 God saw how the Israeli people were being badly treated, and he was concerned about them.