Exodus - Chapter 2

1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.

• Even in the midst of oppression, life went on among the Israelites - marriages were held and children were born.
• The tribe of Levi had not yet been established in its special role; it was simply one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 

• h.: good; [a parallel is offered here with God's pleasure in creation (Gen. 1:4; 1:10, etc.]
• The phrasing gives the impression that the couple married and had Moses as their first child after the wedding.
• Moses already had an older sister (probably Miriam; she must have been about ten years older), and a brother Aaron, three years older. Aaron still somehow "slipped through the cracks" - apparently the regime only became so draconian after his birth.
• The expression is strange - every child is beautiful to the mother. This makes it look as if the mother was watching the child and only when she saw that the child was "fine" did she decide not to hand it over to the Egyptians to drown. That's certainly not what happened. The infanticide order was apparently new.
• Perhaps the author (Moses is writing about his childhood) wants to express that the mother became attached to her child during that time.
• The boys apparently had to be "given up for dead" immediately after birth. Certainly we can assume that the penalties for disobedience must have been draconian.
• It is easy to read, but it must have been an unimaginably cruel situation. There's a scene in movie Sobibor where a woman hides a baby in a concentration camp. When a guard finds out, he takes it from her and carries it away. It's one of the most heartbreaking scenes I've ever seen.
• Hiding the pregnancy and birth must have been stressful all the time. The newborn may not have been able to come out at all, etc.
• Moses' prenatal development was not at all harmonious and peaceful - his mother's heart often beat with terror.

3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

• n.: ark (a term used elsewhere only for Noah's ark - Gen. 6:14, etc.) / box;
• It was clear that further hiding of the baby would no longer be possible. The search for a rescue plan must have been desperate.
• The mother gave up the boy in a desperate attempt to save his life. She abandoned him to his fate, placing his destiny in the hands of God.
• Although the basket was not dropped on the water, but put into the reeds by the shore, the probability that the child would survive in the floating basket or even be picked up was slim.
• It could have been a bet on chance, but it is more likely that the mother had a plan: that she had observed when and how the Egyptian princess descended to the Nile. She could have hoped for her compassion, pity for the abandoned baby.
• To some extent, this may be a reflection of the fact that we must all similarly place the fate of our children in God's hands.
• The parents of the Winton children must have experienced a similar desperate ordeal when they said goodbye to their children on the train platform before their departure for England. (It was the only chance to save the Jewish children from death).

4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 

• The fact that Moses' sister (probably Miriam) was to monitor the situation unobtrusively from afar shows that this was probably a plan. If something went wrong, such as the princess not coming to the Nile or not getting Moses, Miriam could have brought her brother back. Of course, anything could have gone wrong at any time - e.g., the princess could have "handed Moses over."
• The question is whether the family could have had any "backup" plan at all in the situation.

5 And Pharaoh's daughter came down to wash in the Nile, while her maidens walked on the banks of the Nile. When she saw a basket among the reeds, she sent her slave girl to fetch it.

• [some identify her with the famous princess Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I.] 
• The basket was not directly at the river bank and was covered. The aim was probably to arouse curiosity.

6 When she opened it, she saw the child, And behold, the baby was crying. "I have She took pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children." 

• Thankfully, compassion for the abandoned crying baby won out in the princess's heart.
• The fact that she was a princess made the situation easier - she had options to take care of the child. Not everyone would be able and willing to take in a stranger's child, and a "risky" child at that.
• Moses was circumcised. Maybe he was naked in the basket, or maybe he was stripped by the princess´servants.
• Of course, the circumcision was very risky - everyone immediately saw that he was a Jewish child and that as a Jewish boy he should "properly" be drowned.
• Had he not been circumcised, the adoption would have been easier for the Egyptian woman - but obedience to God's command was more important to the parents. This is an "exemplary" approach: We do what is right, and the rest is up to God.

7Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?"

• Again, it's obvious that this was a plan.
• Miriam just happened to "walk by".
• How old could she have been to handle such a difficult situation? At least ten, more likely.
• The sister offered the princess an elegant solution - she didn't have to worry about anything, just give vent to her compassion and "cover" the child´s future.

8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." So the girl went and called the child's mother.

• God's hand was with them. The plan worked perfectly.

9And 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. 

• n.: I will pay you; h.: I will give you your wages;
• The result was almost perfect - Moses survived, nursed and raised by his own mother. She was protected by the authority of an Egyptian princess, and she was paid for it.
• The downside, of course, was that Moses no longer belonged to his parents - they were only entrusted with him temporarily (until the princess claimed him) and could not decide his future.
• Certainly Moses gained an awareness of his "Jewishness" nonetheless (except that he was constantly reminded of it by his missing foreskin).

10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, "Because," she said, "I drew him out of the water." 

• h.: became great; [probably 2-3 years];
• [According to h. morpholog. "Pulling (out of the water)". The unusual verb m-sh-h was prophetically used in translating the words of the Egyptian princess, because he who was drawn out of the water of the Nile would also, through the water, "draw" the Israelites out of Egypt). According to the Egyptian morphology it means "begotten" and is part of many Egyptian names such as Rameses "begotten by (the god) Ra", Thutmose "begotten by Thoth". Thus, since he was drawn from the waters of the Nile, which meant life to Egypt, it is not impossible that we do not even know Moses' original full name].
• L (qal); in the causative active stem (hif.) (plucked);
• Moses was probably brought up in the palace at a very early age, as the CSP says, probably around two or three years old, when he stopped being nursed.
• But God could have made sure it was a little later, perhaps at age four or five or six - for example, so that Moses could learn Hebrew well and gain a stronger attachment to his people.
• The name was prophetic and given to him by the princess herself.
• The parting with his mother (the nurse) must have been sad, but considerably more optimistic than when his mother dropped him in a basket on the Nile. Moses had "improved" considerably from the economical point of view.
• The cultural change must have been great, although we do not know for sure how different the lifestyle of the Israelites was from that of the Egyptians. After all, they had been living in Egypt for four hundred years; they may have at least partially assimilated. They did not yet have a law that strictly distinguished them from their surroundings. Originally they had been shepherds, now they were also farming, either voluntarily or under compulsion. They had their own language and circumcision. They may even have held on to the knowledge that they were in Egypt only temporarily.
• Surely they knew the stories of their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with the story of Joseph. They were aware that they were a special people and the Lord's chosen people (when things were bad, they cried out to the Lord). They apparently shied away from worshipping local deities.
• Perhaps they had not forgotten God's words in Gen. 15:13-14 (although they were not written down until Moses, so it is questionable whether they were passed down orally for 400 years): and he said to Abram: "Know that your descendants will be guests in a land that is not theirs, and they will be slaves and oppressed there for four hundred years. But the nation to whom they are slaves I will judge, and then they will come out with great possessions."
• If they were counting the years, they may have had "eschatological" expectations - that the time was already fulfilled and their stay in Egypt would soon be over.
• As it is the case in the history of the Jews, even if they had considered assimilation, they were not allowed to do so - the Egyptians themselves made it clear to them that they were second-class citizens and treated them badly.

11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 

• h.: in those days;
• [according to Acts 7:23 he was forty years old (cf. Ex 7:7)]; How did Luke (or Stephen, this is Stephen's speech) figure this out in Acts? Apparently, it was tradition or Stephen was inspired by the Holy Spirit - the Bible does not give this information. We do know that Moses started his career among the Israelites late - in his eighties. The number forty was known from the flood (and the wilderness wanderings) - Stephen could also divide Moses' life into thirds: 40 years in Egypt, 40 in Midian, and 40 as a leader of Israel.
• h. the conjunction with the preposition bet can express a look of participation, pity (cf. Ex 2:25);
•  n.: will kill; h. nkh means "to strike," "to beat" and "to kill."
• So from the age of (say) three until he was forty, Moses lived in Pharaoh's palace as a prince. He was the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, that is, Pharaoh's grandson. His position must have been strong, but he was certainly not one of the leaders, a potential candidate for the throne or anything like that. A comfortable life was certainly assured for him, he certainly received a good upbringing, considerable education and physical (probably combat training).
• What was his career supposed to be? It would probably be a good leadership position in the military or civilian field. Did Moses live as a "golden youth"? Did he enjoy a life of fun or was he subjected to a harsh upbringing and had to work hard? Was he discriminated against in any way at court because of his half-breed background?
• Was he already married at the time? It is not very likely that he would have been unmarried or celibate by the age of 40.
• We don't know the answers to any of these questions.
• However, we learn that at forty he began to reflect on "life". He began to question his origins, he began to think about who he was and what his purpose in life was. (That he was different from the Egyptians, that he was a Jew, he was reminded every time he urinated.) He began to wonder about his origins and the fate of his people.
• Apparently he hadn't had much to do with Israelis until then. He went out among them to get an idea. It must have been exciting, he must have been uncertain at the same time. And adventurous.
• We can imagine a member of any discriminated minority who has risen to a high position and now goes to see how his family lives¹.
• I had a gipsy friend who grew up in an orphanage in Slovakia and then worked his way up to a normal "middle-class" status in Ostrava (he worked, had an apartment, a decent standard of living, etc.). Once a year he went to Slovakia to visit his family. They lived in a gheto settlement in very poor conditions. The cultural difference between him and his family was huge. I used to go with him as a "security guard" because he was a bit afraid of his family.
• Moses "accidentally" (but there are no accidents) stumbled into the conflict. The Israelites were severely oppressed and discriminated against, and the Egyptians treated them "abominably". Perhaps the Egyptian was the overseer (Again, we can imagine, for example, the situation of the Czechs towards the Germans during the Protectorate).
• Moses sided with the Israelites - apparently the injustice of the Egyptian's actions was obvious and Moses' sense of justice rebelled.

12 He looked this way and that, and seeing Call no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

• The situation was without witnesses, and Moses intervened forcefully on Israel's behalf. Moses was probably armed and knew how to use a weapon.
• The murder was premeditated - it was not a momentary movement of the mind where, for example, an Egyptian would be struck in anger and killed in a fall. Moses first made sure there were no witnesses before "reaching for the sword."
• Then he tried to cover his tracks.
• Předpokládal, že bitý Izraelec bude držet jazyk za zuby (v tom se mýlil).
• How did Moses perceive his action? As just retribution? Was he upset? Was he used to killing, for example, out of war? Was his conscience gnawing at him? As a prince, could the human life of a subject be of less "value" to him?

13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, "Why do you strike your companion?" 

• h.: a scoundrel (here in the legal sense, i.e., a culprit;
• Why did Moses return there the next day? Quite possibly he felt he had already begun his mission on behalf of his oppressed nation? That he would use his position to advocate for the Israelites and see that order was maintained among them?
• (The murder of the Egyptian did not affect him in any fundamental way - he would have been tormented by a bad conscience in the palace and would not have gone out again among the Israelites).
• This time the fight was "internal" (between Israelis) and it was clear that one Hebrew was the aggressor and the other was defending himself. Moses decided to intervene.

14 He answered, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, and thought, "Surely the thing is known."

• h.: a man ruler;
• Moses was not welcome among his own - if he thought his authority would be accepted and his opinion would be of interest to the Israelites, he was wrong.
• Did the Israelites know that this prince of the palace was a Jew like them? Perhaps they did, but, apparently, it did not affect their opinion of his authority. At the very least, the aggressive bully had no intention of taking Moses seriously.
• The story of how the Egyptian prince stood up for the Jew and killed his tormentor, as we see, quickly spread. But Moses did not become a folk hero. Why? Perhaps the Jews were afraid of investigation and further persecution - we can recall the disastrous consequences for Bohemia of the assassination of Heydrich.
• We don't know what the other Jews thought, at least of this one bully, but Moses' action the previous day made no impression.
• (And the rescued man from the previous day clearly didn't keep his mouth shut).

15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

•  [prav. Thutmose III.]. According to the note from Ex 4:19  [Moses was in Midian for forty years. At the time under consideration only Pharaoh Thutmose III (1504-1450;) reigned so long. According to this, Moses returned around 1450 B.C., at the beginning of the reign of Amenhotep II]. 
• And Moses' fears were justified - Pharaoh had indeed heard of Moses' act and was not about to let it go unpunished.
• So it is certainly a different Pharaoh than the one who was Moses' step-grandfather). (And a different one than the one Moses would come to in another forty years with the word of the Lord).
• Moses' life took an unexpected and quick turn. Just a few days ago, Prince Moses began to "search for his "roots" and suddenly he is an exile in a distant foreign land.
• It was, of course, all part of God's plan to help the captive nation of Israel. However, we see that to reflect on the meaning of life, on the deeper things of life, or on one's relationship to the Lord is a "risky" activity with immeasurable consequences. These are, of course, ultimately good, but far from always pleasant or easy.

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

• [The territory of Midian named after Abraham's son (Gen. 25:2 - it was Keturah's son) was in the southeastern part of Sinai and central-western Arabia. The desolate landscape in which Moses lived for forty years formed a strong contrast to the former home of the royal court]; 
• The "jolt" of life is enormous - one day a prince at court in the most powerful empire, the next a refugee in a distant "uncivilized" land. Thus ended Moses' attempt to help his people out of his own strength.
• But it was all part of God's plan. God had everything prepared and under control. The time had not yet come for the deliverance of the Israelites, and Moses needed more preparation.
• Reuel was a local priest, certainly not a priest of the Lord - he served some local deities, i.e. idols. As we shall see, this does not rule out his personal qualities.
• In addition to his profession, Reúel also "farmed" - and the whole family was naturally involved in the work.
• Having seven daughters is both a joy and a worry - finding seven grooms is no small matter.

17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.

• It was apparently a common "scrapping" between children or young people, perhaps even bullying. The girls' lives were probably not at stake.
• Moses intervened - he drove the shepherds away and even helped the girls draw water.

18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, "How is it that you have come home so soon today?" 19They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water and watered the flock."

• Moses greatly hastened the girls' watering.
• Moses was unmistakably Egyptian in appearance.

20 He said to his daughters, "Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread."

• Nice grateful and hospitable response. Hospitality in general was at a higher level then than it is today.

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

• n.: decided; [The Talmud understood this to mean that he "vowed" to stay. Therefore, when he wanted to leave (Ex. 4:18), he had to ask his father-in-law's permission];
• Jak byla Sipora stará? Proč ze sedmi děvčat právě ona? Líbila se Mojžíšovi? Nebo byla nejstarší nebo „na řadě“? Jak měli manželství? „Chudák“ Sipora netušila, do čeho jde. Možná se těšila na obyčejný život do smrti a po čtyřiceti letech se jí svět „rozsypal“?
• If Moses had a wife in Egypt, he didn't address it now.
• Moses was to work in his father-in-law's farm. No one had any idea that after many years he was about to have a change of life.
• Did she and her father-in-law Reuel (maybe even her mother-in-law) live together peacefully? Such an "ordinary" life may not be bad at all - farming during the day, at home with wife, children and family in the evening, a moderate standard of living and status.
• Was Moses frustrated for forty years of his "ordinary" Midianite life? Was he unhappy about his "inglorious" and ordinary end as an Egyptian prince? Or was he happy and enjoyed his lifre happily?
• Or did he feel a calling on him all along? Was there a restlessness in his heart? If he was looking for some divine action in his life, it must have slowly drained out of him over the passing decades. So, people may have aged (by about a third) more slowly, but he was no longer twenty or forty when he was called to Egypt.
• If we assume people then (or just Moses) were still aging about a third slower, he was in the form of today's 25 to 30 year old man, i.e. at the peak of his powers (and going to Egypt in the shape of a 50 to 50 year old).

22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land."

• [i.e., guest there]; 
• n.: to newcomers;
• Moses' non-Midianic ancestry was "written" into the name of his firstborn.
• By the way - how come Moses knew the Midianite language? Midian was Abraham's son, so the Midianites could have spoken Hebrew or at least similar. Or Moses could have been linguistically literate from the court.

23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. multiply, . 

• Nearly forty years passed - Moses was probably relieved by Pharaoh's death (he was no longer facing execution for murder in Egypt), but the Israelites were not relieved by the heir to the throne.
• If so, the Israelites would not have prayed so fervently, and Moses would probably have lived out his farming life in Midian in peace.
• The Israelites prayed to the Lord for help. And when someone prays to the Lord, their prayers reach the Lord. The question is how he will respond to them.

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel--and God knew. . .

• n.: paid attention to them / found out / noticed; h.: recognized; $
• The Lord heard the prayers, of course, and ... three steps followed:
  • remembered his covenant: The Israelites were in covenant with the Lord. He is their God, which means, among other things, that He is responsible for them to some extent. If someone hurts them, they are touching the LORD's property.
  • saw the people of Israel God focused His attention on the Israelites. It's not that there is anything on this planet that the Lord has missed, that He doesn't know about. But some things God lets go and doesn't intervene - the people wanted independence, so He grants it to them. Most of the time God doesn't interfere with people's affairs. People have free will and God respects it (and the world looks like it). But the moment people turn to Him, trying to drag Him into their situation, the situation changes completely. This is especially true for those who belong to the Lord.
  • God knew (in Czech translation: God took on the problem) . .: God took Israel's problem as His own. Suddenly it was no longer the problem of a nation in a land, but the problem of a nation belonging to God.
  • This is the best possible news for the Israelis and a big problem for the Egyptians.
• If we have any problem, there is nothing more important for us than to be able to draw the Supreme into it. God hears the cries of all people, but He is especially sensitive to the prayers of His children. Of course, we understand this - when my child is unhappy or even when someone slaps me, as a parent I will not remain cold.

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1. Srv. např. román Slečna Belle Greene od Alexandry Lapierre ↩︎