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NOTES for Exo 2:1-25

Printable version
1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.
7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.
9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt 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 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
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Moses' whole life in the Book of Exodus fits into one comparatively short chapter. His whole life, because it describes Moses' childhood, youth, maturity, and even old age. The life has been lived, and meanwhile the main thing still lies ahead. He had to live an entire life in order to prepare for the main thing. He had to be born a Hebrew and grow up an Egyptian. He had to return to his own people and find himself a stranger among them. He had to kill a man while defending his people, and then flee into the wilderness from punishment for a crime he himself did not consider a crime.

Finally, he had to become a real nomad, a dweller in the wilderness, so that, following the flocks, he would find himself not at a pasture, but at the place of meeting with God. Such a life would have been enough for a whole novel, but in the Book of Exodus it all fit into one chapter. Yet everything that happens afterward will take up more than one book. What is this: a distortion of memory? The features of ancient epic, where ordinary things are described briefly, without details? Hardly only that. Especially since it is hardly possible to speak of ordinary things in connection with Moses' life. It is simply that God begins to act actively in Moses' life only when Moses has already passed eighty.

It turned out that God was able to prepare Moses for a meeting with Himself only by that time. That is why Moses' whole turbulent life is described so briefly: all of it was only preparation for the main thing, and this preparation did not deserve a detailed description. Moses' whole life before his meeting with God at Sinai was only school for him. When a person remembers his life in old age, of course, he will not say "only school," but "a whole childhood" or something of that kind.

In essence, however, school is school; schooltime is a special time, counted separately. Especially when the matter is God's providence and God's path. When the matter is the spiritual path, time usually begins to be counted anew from the day when a person stepped onto the path, because in a certain sense it really does become different. Before, there was human time; now God's time begins. For Moses it began after the meeting at Sinai, while the former, human time fit into one chapter, becoming what it was in God's eyes.

Other notes

 
For Exo 2:1-25
1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.
7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.
9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt 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 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
Hide
Salvation, the main theme of this book, is the mystery of God's action in the life of a human person and in the life of a people. This mystery cannot be expressed in words or images, just as life itself cannot, but we can...  Read more

Salvation, the main theme of this book, is the mystery of God's action in the life of a human person and in the life of a people. This mystery cannot be expressed in words or images, just as life itself cannot, but we can try to describe the main moments of interaction between God and humanity - this is exactly what the inspired author of the story of Moses does.

The first moment is expressed in the story of the rescue of little Moses: the basket, entrusted to the will of the waves, by God's will floats where it needs to go. Here the river's current, one of the least reliable things, becomes a symbol of hope based only on faith in God's providence, on the mysterious action of God in this world.

And the second is this: God accomplishes the salvation of people in cooperation with a human being. Moses' attempt to save his kinsman from slavery on his own ends badly: he finds himself in exile. But only now, having despaired of his own ability to help his brothers, can he meet God in order to continue this work together with Him. The reader can try to apply these images to his own life, in which there is plenty of action by God without the human being and action by the human being without God. Now the moment has come for joint efforts, which alone can lead to a real result.

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For Exo 2:1-25
1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.
7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.
9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt 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 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
Hide
The life of Moses could have served as the basis for an adventure novel. The policy the Egyptian authorities pursued toward the Semites of the delta condemned him to death before he was even born, and only by a miracle and through his mother's efforts...  Read more

The life of Moses could have served as the basis for an adventure novel. The policy the Egyptian authorities pursued toward the Semites of the delta condemned him to death before he was even born, and only by a miracle and through his mother's efforts did he remain alive (vv. 2-3). The only chance to save the boy was to place him in an Egyptian family, which is what was done (vv. 3-10).

Of course, a child who grew up in an Egyptian family and received an Egyptian education was supposed to become an Egyptian regardless of what blood ran in his veins. But he spent the first several years of his life with his own mother (vv. 9-10). In those days in Egypt it was customary for a boy to remain with his mother or nurse until the age of five, when it was time to go to school. And in those five years Moses could not help absorbing the language and traditions of his native tribe, and he hardly forgot them later.

And when, many years later, he found himself in his native area and saw an Egyptian overseer punishing one of those working on a state construction project, he stood up for the man being punished, perhaps even unexpectedly to himself (vv. 11-12). But if that killing was partly unexpected even for Moses himself, then his attempt to intervene in a fight and separate his fighting tribesmen was a fully deliberate act (vv. 13-14). The tragedy of the situation was that Moses wanted to be one of his own among his tribesmen, wanted to help them in every way he could, while his tribesmen considered him an outsider: Moses had grown up in an Egyptian household, received an Egyptian education, and therefore in their eyes he was an "Egyptian" who had come from far away to look at the life of his tribesmen, a life to which he had long had no relation and in which he therefore understood nothing. Of course, the time would come when God would use this "Egyptian" for the good of those very tribesmen, and would use him in a way that neither they nor he himself could have imagined.

But for the moment he had to flee: Egyptian laws punished murder severely, and Moses could expect, at best, hard labor in the quarries, and at worst, execution. So he decided to flee into the wilderness, as many before him had fled from Pharaoh's wrath (v. 15). For such a fugitive, if he did not die of thirst in the wilderness, there remained the possibility of settling somewhere in an oasis as a guest of some nomadic tribe and waiting for Pharaoh's death; when his successor came to the throne, one could count on amnesty or on the case being closed because the crime was too old. And Moses found shelter in the tribe of Midian, becoming a welcome guest there and then a relative by marriage (vv. 16-22).

So Moses, born a Hebrew and raised as an Egyptian, became a dweller of the wilderness. And God began to act, carrying out His plan (vv. 23-25).

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For Exo 2:1-15
1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.
7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.
9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
Hide
We read what seems like an outright fairy tale in the book of Exodus...  Read more

We read what seems like an outright fairy tale in the book of Exodus. But we call something a fairy tale when we do not believe it because the events described are miraculous. What if real events are themselves truly miraculous? The situation in Egypt is indeed extremely grave: God’s people are condemned to destruction and assimilation. God is preparing his salvation, but he needs a person who will become its instrument. That person must belong to the people of Israel but must not be a slave. Ah, there is no such person? Then God will arrange that person’s birth in a truly miraculous way. How can we call that a fairy tale?

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