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Commentary on the book of Exodus, Chapter 2: 

Chapter 2 opens by introducing us to the person God will work through to save his people from their plight in Egypt. A male Hebrew baby is born, and, although Egyptian law says he should be killed, his mother puts him in a basket and floats him down the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter also disobeys her father’s rule and saves the child, raising him in the palace and naming him Moses. We miss Moses’ formative years, but once he reaches adulthood, three actions reveal his concern for justice. First, he kills an Egyptian who beats a Hebrew. Second, he tries to prevent two Hebrews from fighting. Because of his previous actions, they do not wish to hear his advice. Pharaoh wants to kill Moses because of these same actions, and that causes Moses to flee Egypt. He arrives in Midian where, in his third act of justice, he helps a group of sisters who had been driven away from a well. In the previous Book of Genesis, wells were often the location of salvation or meeting one’s future spouse, and both happen here. The end of the chapter explains God’s concerns: He hears, remembers, sees, and knows. Biblical remembering includes taking action, so we can expect God will now act.

The Book of Exodus, Chapter 2:

Birth and Youth of Moses

1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3 And when she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch; and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river’s brink. 4 And his sister stood at a distance, to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked beside the river; she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to fetch it. 6 When she opened it she saw the child; and behold, the baby was crying. She took 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 you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And 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 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son; and she named him Moses, for she said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Moses Flees to Midian

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. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together; and he said to the man that did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?”
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.” 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. 16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. 18 When they came to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 He said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22 She bore a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
23 In the course of those many days the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel groaned under their bondage, and cried out for help, and their cry under bondage came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew their condition.

*Daily Lectio Divina Question:

Like most of us, Moses had to overcome the circumstances of his birth and his own sinfulness in order to begin to accept the role God had chosen him for. Today, pray with gratitude for the times you or someone you know has overcome obstacles in order to choose the path of discipleship. Pray for those struggling to overcome now.

Biblical Commentary provided by the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan. Join a Catholic Biblical School of Michigan class this September at Holy Family in Grand Blanc or online.

Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006).
Permission to use the RSV-2CE given for Bishop's Year of the Bible by Ignatius Press. Many thanks to Ignatius for this.
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