Exodus 2 - Easy To Read Version

¹ There was a man from the family of Levi. He married a woman who was also from the family of Levi.

² The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. The mother saw how beautiful the baby was, and she hid him for three months.

³ The mother was afraid that the baby would be found and killed because he was a boy. After three months, she made a basket and covered it with tar [6] so that it would float. She put the baby in the basket. Then she put the basket in the river in the tall grass.

⁴ The baby’s sister stayed and watched. She wanted to see what would happen to the baby.

⁵ Just then, Pharaoh’s daughter went to the river to bathe. She saw the basket in the tall grass. Her servants were walking beside the river. So she told one of them to go get the basket.

⁶ The king’s daughter opened the basket and saw a baby boy. The baby was crying and she felt sorry for it. Then she noticed that it was one of the Hebrew [7] babies.

⁷ The baby’s sister {was still hiding. She stood and} asked the king’s daughter, “Do you want me to go find a Hebrew [8] woman who can nurse the baby and help you care for it?”

⁸ The king’s daughter said, “Yes, please.”

⁹ The king’s daughter said to the mother, “Take this baby and feed him for me. I’ll pay you to take care of him.”

¹⁰ The baby grew, and after some time, the woman gave the baby to the king’s daughter. The king’s daughter accepted the baby as her own son. She named him Moses [9] because she had pulled him from the water.

¹¹ Moses grew and became a man. He saw that his own people, the Hebrews, [10] were forced to work very hard. One day Moses saw an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew man.

¹² Moses looked around and saw that no one was watching. Then Moses killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.

¹³ The next day Moses saw two Hebrew [11] men fighting each other. Moses saw that one man was wrong. Moses said to that man, “Why are you hurting your neighbor?”

¹⁴ The man answered, “Did anyone say you could be our ruler and judge? No! Tell me, will you kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday [12] ?”

¹⁵ Pharaoh heard about what Moses did, so he decided to kill Moses. But Moses ran away from Pharaoh. Moses went to the land of Midian.

¹⁶ There was a priest in Midian who had seven daughters. Those girls came to that well to get water for their father’s sheep. They were trying to fill the water trough with water.

¹⁷ But there were some shepherds there who chased the girls away and would not let them get water. So Moses helped the girls and gave water to their animals.

¹⁸ Then they went back to their father, Reuel. [13] Their father said to them, “You have come home early today!”

¹⁹ The girls answered, “Yes, sir. The shepherds tried to chase us away, but an Egyptian man helped us. He got water for us and gave it to our animals.”

²⁰ So Reuel said to his daughters, “Where is this man? Why did you leave him? Go invite him to eat with us.”

²¹ Moses was happy to stay with that man. Reuel let Moses marry his daughter, Zipporah.

²² Zipporah became pregnant and had a son. Moses named him Gershom. [14] Moses gave his son this name because Moses was a stranger in a land that was not his own.

²³ A long time passed and that king of Egypt died. But the people of Israel were still forced to work very hard. They cried for help, and God heard them.

²⁴ God heard their prayers, and he remembered the agreement he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

²⁵ God saw the troubles of the people of Israel, and he knew {that he would soon help them}.