Exodus 2

¹After these things there came forth a man of the house of Levi, and he took a wife of his own stock.

²Who conceived, and bare a son: & seeing him a goodly one, hid him three months.

³And when now she could not conceal him, she took a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitume and pitch: and put within it the little infant, and laid him in a sedgy place by the river's brink,

⁴his sister standing a far off, and considering the event of the thing.

⁵And behold the daughter of Pharao came down to be washed in the river, and her maids walked by the river's brink. Who when she saw the basket in the sedges, she sent one of her handmaids: and when it was brought,

⁶opening it, and seeing with it an infant crying, having pity on it, said: This is one of the infants of the Hebrews.

⁷To whom the child's sister said: Wilt thou that I go, and call to thee an Hebrew woman, that may nurse the little infant?

⁸She answered: Go. The maid went and called her mother.

⁹To whom Pharao's daughter speaking: Take, quoth she, this child, and nurse him for me: I will give thee thy hire. The woman took and nursed the child: and when he was grown, delivered him to Pharao's daughter.

¹⁰Whom she adopted into the place of a son, and called him Moyses, saying: Because from the water I did take him.

¹¹In those days after that Moyses was grown, he went forth to his brethren: and he saw their affliction, and a man that was an Ægyptian striking one of the Hebrews his brethren.

¹²And when he had looked about hither and thither, and saw no man present, he struck the Ægyptian, and hid him in the sand.

¹³And going forth another day, he saw two Hebrews brawling; and he said to him that did the wrong: Why strikest thou thy neighbour?

¹⁴Who answered: Who hath appointed thee Prince and Judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as yesterday thou didst the Ægyptian? Moyses feared, and said: How is this thing come abroad?

¹⁵And Pharao heard of this talk, and sought to kill Moyses: who flying from his sight, abode in the Land of Madian, and sat beside a well.

¹⁶And the Priest of Madian had seven daughters, which were come to draw water: and when the troughs were filled, they desired to water their father's flocks.

¹⁷The shepherds came upon them, and drove them away: and Moyses arose, and defending the maids, watered their sheep.

¹⁸Who being returned to Raguel their father, he said to them: Why are you come sooner than you were wont?

¹⁹They answered: A certain man an Ægyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds: moreover also he drew water with us, and gave the sheep to drink.

²⁰But he said: Where is he? Why have you let the man go? Call him that he may eat bread.

²¹Therefore Moyses sware that he would dwell with him. And he took Sephora his daughter to wife:

²²Who bare him a son, whom he called Gersam, saying: I have been a stranger in a foreign country. And she bare another, whom he called Eliezer, saying: for the God of my father my helper hath delivered me out of the hand of Pharao.

²³But after much time the king of Ægypt died: and the children of Israel groaning, cried out because of the works: and their cry ascended unto God from the works.

²⁴And he heard their groaning, and remembered the covenant which he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

²⁵And our Lord looked upon the children of Israel and knew them.