2:1–4 Exodus 1 ends with Israel’s desperate need of deliverance as Pharaoh commands his people to throw any Israelite newborn sons into the Nile (1:22). Exodus 2 begins with the birth of an Israelite son. Is this the deliverer? How will he escape Pharaoh’s genocidal plan? Tensions of hope and fear are high and are sustained by the delayed mention of the child’s name until the section’s concluding verse (2:10).

The son is born to a couple from Levi’s tribe (v. 1). Their names are given later (6:20), since the story’s focus is the child, but their tribal affiliation would undoubtedly cause many Israelites to wonder, “Could their newborn be Moses or Aaron, who were from this tribe?” The suspense has just been magnified.

In the ancient world infant mortality was high, and it might quickly be evident that a baby would not live. But this is a “fine child” (2:2) or, in today’s language, a “healthy, beautiful baby.”70 Seeing he would live, his mother hides him three months, presumably by keeping him at home and not publicizing his birth. Her need to do so implies that other babies are being killed. The text does not mention such barbarism. Some acts are too evil to name.

A predictable problem arises. In dense populations hiding a newborn indefinitely is impossible, so an alternate plan is needed. Moses’ mother waterproofs a bulrush basket, lays him in it, and places it among the Nile’s “reeds” (2:3). Her thinking behind this action is not given; possible insight will come shortly. What is clear is that outside of Exodus 2 the word basket (Hb. tebah) occurs only in Genesis 6–9 to describe Noah’s ark, also covered in pitch (Gen. 6:14). The similarity hints that this child, like Noah, will be a covenant representative who will save others (Gen. 6:18), in this case by bringing the Israelites “relief from [their] work and from the painful toil of [their] hands” (Gen. 5:29). (For a comparison to Noah at the end of the book, cf. comment on 40:16–33.)

As the little ark bobs among the reeds, the baby’s sister—also unnamed—watches to see what will happen (2:4), her youth enabling her to do so with less suspicion than could a woman of childbearing age.

2:5–9 No sooner does she start watching than Pharaoh’s daughter comes to bathe in the Nile. Perhaps this is a regular event, known to the child’s mother, who has taken a calculated risk that Pharaoh’s daughter will respond with compassion and offer her newborn son the best possible protection. Whatever the case, when the daughter opens the lid and sees the child crying, her compassion is aroused. She notes that it is a Hebrew child, opening the door for Moses’ sister to intervene, offering to find a Hebrew woman to nurse it (v. 7). Pharaoh’s daughter agrees, and the girl calls the child’s own mother to fulfill this role (v. 8)! The beautiful irony continues: Pharaoh’s daughter tells her to nurse the child on her behalf (in the days before baby formula, wet nurses were needed for women unable to nurse their own children) and also assures the mother of payment (v. 9).

2:10 “When the child grew older,” presumably at least to the point of weaning (cf. Gen. 21:8),71 his mother brings him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopts him. Finally the child is named—and it is none other than Moses himself!72 For the Israelite audience the puzzle pieces come together immediately: this child, presented in Noah-type language, will indeed become their covenant representative and save them from their toil and labor. Moreover, in God’s providence he is not only spared but taken into Pharaoh’s house, the exact preparation needed for his later interactions with Pharaoh as his people’s deliverer.73 But Moses’ role as deliverer will not occur until he is eighty (Ex. 7:7), so the story turns quickly to what happens in between.

2:11–15 Many years pass, and Moses becomes an adult. Although he grows up in an Egyptian home, he does not forget his Hebrew roots, which verse 11 emphasizes by speaking twice of “his people” (“his brothers”; cf. ESV mg.). The Israelites are his true family.

Going into their midst, he sees the “burdens” Pharaoh has inflicted on them (cf. 1:11), as well as an Egyptian’s “beating/striking down [nakah] one of his brothers” (2:11). Moses responds in turn, “striking down” (nakah) the Egyptian and secretly burying the body (v. 12). In context this act is motivated by his solidarity with the Israelites.74 But it does not endear him to his people. The very next day he comes across two fighting Israelites and rebukes the one who is wrongly “striking” (again nakah) the other (v. 13). The use of the same word for “striking” makes the rebuke’s implication clear: “Egyptians do this (v. 11), not Israelites!” The offender responds with his own rebuke, saying in effect: “Who made you judge? And what are you going to do about it? Kill me like you killed that Egyptian?” (v. 14). Realizing the secret is out, Moses fears and for good reason: when Pharaoh learns of it, he tries to have Moses killed (v. 15a). Moses is forced to flee to Midian, an area “probably located in northwestern Arabia, just to the east of the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba),”75 where he sits “down by a well” (v. 15b).

2:16–22 No sooner does he sit down than seven daughters of Midian’s priest show up to water their father’s flocks (v. 16). (The religion for which Jethro was a priest is never identified, though he does come to be a Yahweh worshiper [18:10–12].) They draw water and fill the troughs, but other shepherds arrive and chase them away, taking advantage of their hard work (2:17a). For the third time Moses’ sense of justice is provoked (cf. v. 11, 13),76 and he steps in, “saving” them from the other shepherds (v. 17b)—a foretaste of how the Lord will use him to save his people.

The daughters return home sooner than normal (v. 18) and explain to their father, Reuel— known also as Jethro (cf. comment on 3:1–3)—how Moses not only rescued them but even watered the flocks (2:19). They also describe him as Egyptian, perhaps because of his language or his clothing and haircut or both. Reuel tells them to bring Moses over for a meal, leading to Moses’ living with Reuel’s family and marrying his daughter Zipporah (vv. 20–21). She gives birth to his first son, Gershom, the first half of whose name sounds like the Hebrew word for “sojourner” (ger), a fitting testimony to Moses’ status in this new land (v. 22; cf. comment on 18:2–5).77