And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he went out to his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he saw an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And he went out the second day, and, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, "Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?"
And he said, "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? thinkest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?"
And Moses feared, and said, "Surely the thing is known."
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. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, "How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?"
And they said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock." And he said to his daughters, "And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread."
And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she had a [{142}] son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a strange land."
And it came to pass in the course of those many days, 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. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered them.
THE VOICE OF GOD FROM THE BURNING BUSH.
The Lord Commissions Moses to Lead His People Out of Bondage.
Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt."
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, "Moses, Moses."