The Rejection and Flight of Moses

Moses goes out to his people, sees their oppression, and kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew. But when he tries to stop a fight between two Hebrews, he is rejected, exposed, and driven to flee from Pharaoh.

O¹¹ne day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. ¹²After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. ¹³The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?” ¹⁴But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? ” ¹⁵When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.

In Midian, Moses helps the daughters of a priest at a well and is welcomed into their household. He stays, marries Zipporah, and names his son Gershom, giving voice to his life as a stranger in a foreign land.

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock. ¹⁸When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?” ¹⁹“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. “He even drew water for us and watered the flock.” ²⁰“So where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat.” ²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. ²²And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”