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BOOK 2 OF 66 · LAW · KING JAMES BIBLE

Exodus 2

Exodus book home•Chapter 2 of 40•25 verses
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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Exodus 2 Overview

Exodus 2 introduces Moses within Pharaoh’s death decree. His mother hides him, places him in an ark among the flags, and Pharaoh’s daughter adopts him while his own mother is providentially hired to nurse him. As an adult, Moses kills an Egyptian who is striking a Hebrew, discovers that the act is known, and flees to Midian. There he defends the daughters of the priest of Midian, marries Zipporah, and has a son. The chapter closes by shifting from Moses’ private exile back to Israel’s suffering: God hears their groaning, remembers his covenant, looks upon them, and has respect unto them.

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Before you read Exodus 2

Coming from

Exodus 1 ends with Pharaoh commanding that every Hebrew son be cast into the river.

In this chapter

The future deliverer is preserved from the death decree, grows up between Hebrew and Egyptian worlds, fails in an impulsive attempt to act, and spends years in Midian while God hears Israel.

Leads into

Exodus 3 begins when God appears to Moses at the burning bush and personally commissions him to return to Egypt.

Key understanding

Exodus 2 introduces Moses within Pharaoh’s death decree. His mother hides him, places him in an ark among the flags, and Pharaoh’s daughter adopts him while his own mother is providentially hired to nurse him. As an adult, Moses kills an Egyptian who is striking a Hebrew, discovers that the act is known, and flees to Midian. There he defends the daughters of the priest of Midian, marries Zipporah, and has a son. The chapter closes by shifting from Moses’ private exile back to Israel’s suffering: God hears their groaning, remembers his covenant, looks upon them, and has respect unto them.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

God’s providence preserves Moses through the very household of the king whose policy threatened his life.

Truth 2

Moses identifies with his Hebrew brethren, but his killing of the Egyptian does not produce the deliverance Israel needs.

Truth 3

Flight to Midian is not the end of Moses’ usefulness; it becomes the setting in which God later calls him.

Truth 4

The chapter explicitly roots coming deliverance in God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Truth 5

Israel’s cries are heard before the people see any visible change in their circumstances.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Genesis 15 and 46–50 provide the covenant background for God remembering Israel in Egypt.

Connection 2

Acts 7:20–29 retells Moses’ birth, upbringing, killing of the Egyptian, and flight to Midian.

Connection 3

Hebrews 11:23–27 reflects on the faith surrounding Moses and his identification with God’s people.

Connection 4

The ark-like basket for Moses echoes the earlier theme of preservation through water, though the Hebrew term and narrative context should be handled on their own terms.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Moses’ killing of the Egyptian is narrated, not presented as God’s commissioned method of deliverance.

Keep this clear 2

When the text says God remembered his covenant, it does not mean God had forgotten and then regained information; covenant remembrance describes God acting in faithfulness to his promise.

Keep this clear 3

Pharaoh’s daughter’s role shows providence through an Egyptian royal household without implying that Pharaoh’s oppressive system is approved.

Keep this clear 4

The long delay before deliverance should not be mistaken for divine indifference; the closing verses explicitly say God heard, remembered, looked, and knew.

Read Exodus 2 watching for…

Every act of preservation surrounding infant Moses.

The contrast between Moses’ impulsive action and God’s later commissioned deliverance.

How Midian becomes preparation rather than abandonment.

The fourfold description of God hearing, remembering, looking, and knowing.

The covenant thread connecting Exodus back to Genesis.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline4 sections
1-10Moses is born, hidden, and raised by Pharaoh's daughter11-15Moses kills an Egyptian and flees16-22Moses settles in Midian and marries Zipporah23-25Israel groans and God remembers his covenant
1

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

2

And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

3

And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

4

And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

5

And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.

6

And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.

7

Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

8

And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.

9

And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.

10

And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

11

And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.

12

And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

13

And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?

14

And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.

15

Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.

16

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

17

And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.

18

And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?

19

And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.

20

And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.

21

And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

22

And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

23

And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

24

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

25

And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

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Exodus 2:10

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