21 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi . 2 The woman conceived and bore a son ; and when she saw that he was beautiful , she hid him for three months . 3 But when she could hide him no longer , she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch . Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile . 4 His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile , with her maidens walking alongside e the Nile ; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid , and she brought it to her. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child , and behold , the boy was crying . And she had pity on him and said , "This is one of the Hebrews' children ." 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter , "Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?" 8 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go ahead." So the girl went and called the child's mother . 9 Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages ." So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 The child grew , and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son . And she named e him Moses , and said , "Because I drew him out of the water ."
11 Now it came about in those days , when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors ; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew , one of his brethren . 12 So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand . 13 He went out the next day , and behold , two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender , "Why are you striking your companion ?" 14 But he said , " Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian ?" Then Moses was afraid and said , "Surely the matter has become known ." 15 When Pharaoh heard of this matter , he tried to kill Moses . But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian , and he sat down by a well .
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters ; and they came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock . 17 Then the shepherds came and drove them away , but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock . 18 When they came to Reuel their father , he said , "Why have you come back so soon today ?" 19 So they said , "An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds , and what is more , he even drew the water for us and watered the flock ." 20 He said to his daughters , "Where is he then? Why is it that you have left the man behind ? Invite him to have something to eat ." 21 Moses was willing to dwell with the man , and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses . 22 Then she gave birth to a son , and he named e him Gershom , for he said , "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Exodus 2:1-22
Commentary on Exodus 2:1-4
(Read Exodus 2:1-4)
Observe the order of Providence: just at the time when Pharaoh's cruelty rose to its height by ordering the Hebrew children to be drowned, the deliverer was born. When men are contriving the ruin of the church, God is preparing for its salvation. The parents of Moses saw he was a goodly child. A lively faith can take encouragement from the least hint of the Divine favour. It is said, Hebrews 11:23, that the parents of Moses hid him by faith; they had the promise that Israel should be preserved, which they relied upon. Faith in God's promise quickens to the use of lawful means for obtaining mercy. Duty is ours, events are God's. Faith in God will set us above the fear of man. At three months' end, when they could not hide the infant any longer, they put him in an ark of bulrushes by the river's brink, and set his sister to watch. And if the weak affection of a mother were thus careful, what shall we think of Him, whose love, whose compassion is, as himself, boundless. Moses never had a stronger protection about him, no, not when all the Israelites were round his tent in the wilderness, than now, when he lay alone, a helpless babe upon the waves. No water, no Egyptian can hurt him. When we seem most neglected and forlorn, God is most present with us.
Commentary on Exodus 2:5-10
(Read Exodus 2:5-10)
Come, see the place where that great man, Moses, lay, when he was a little child; it was in a bulrush basket by the river's side. Had he been left there long, he must have perished. But Providence brings Pharaoh's daughter to the place where this poor forlorn infant lay, and inclines her heart to pity it, which she dares do, when none else durst. God's care of us in our infancy ought to be often mentioned by us to his praise. Pharaoh cruelly sought to destroy Israel, but his own daughter had pity on a Hebrew child, and not only so, but, without knowing it, preserved Israel's deliverer, and provided Moses with a good nurse, even his own mother. That he should have a Hebrew nurse, the sister of Moses brought the mother into the place of a nurse. Moses was treated as the son of Pharoah's daughter. Many who, by their birth, are obscure and poor, by surprising events of Providence, are raised high in the world, to make men know that God rules.
Commentary on Exodus 2:11-15
(Read Exodus 2:11-15)
Moses boldly owned the cause of God's people. It is plain from Hebrews 11. that this was done in faith, with the full purpose of leaving the honours, wealth, and pleasures of his rank among the Egyptians. By the grace of God he was a partaker of faith in Christ, which overcomes the world. He was willing, not only to risk all, but to suffer for his sake; being assured that Israel were the people of God. By special warrant from Heaven, which makes no rule for other cases, Moses slew an Egyptian, and rescued an oppressed Israelites. Also, he tried to end a dispute between two Hebrews. The reproof Moses gave, may still be of use. May we not apply it to disputants, who, by their fierce debates, divide and weaken the Christian church? They forget that they are brethren. He that did wrong quarreled with Moses. It is a sign of guilt to be angry at reproof. Men know not what they do, nor what enemies they are to themselves, when they resist and despise faithful reproofs and reprovers. Moses might have said, if this be the spirit of the Hebrews, I will go to court again, and be the son of Pharaoh's daughter. But we must take heed of being set against the ways and people of God, by the follies and peevishness of some persons that profess religion. Moses was obliged to flee into the land of Midian. God ordered this for wise and holy ends.
Commentary on Exodus 2:16-22
(Read Exodus 2:16-22)
Moses found shelter in Midian. He was ready to help Reuel's daughters to water their flocks, although bred in learning and at court. Moses loved to be doing justice, and to act in defence of such as he saw injured, which every man ought to do, as far as it is in his power. He loved to be doing good; wherever the providence of God casts us, we should desire and try to be useful; and when we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can. Moses commended himself to the prince of Midian; who married one of his daughters to Moses, by whom he had a son, called Gershom, "a stranger there," that he might keep in remembrance the land in which he had been a stranger.