Exodus 2 begins with the birth of Moses. Which is a problem since all males born to the Hebrews must be thrown into the Nile by order of Pharaoh. Moses’ mother hides him for three months and then technically – technically – does cast him into the Nile, just after placing him in a little boat she made for him. That alone might not have saved him but getting rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter does the trick.

Exodus 2

A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife. 

2 And the woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a good child, she hid him for three months.

3 When she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, and daubed it with tar and pitch, and put the child inside. And she laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.    

4 His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him.

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along by the river’s side. When she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to fetch it.

6 And when she opened it she saw the child, and he was crying. She had compassion 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 for a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”

8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her “Go.” And the maid went and called the child’s mother.

9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” And the women took the child, and nursed it.

10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, saying “Because I drew him out of the water.”

11 When Moses was grown, he went out to his own people, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his people.

12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

13 When he went out the next day he saw two Hebrews fighting. And he said to him that did wrong “Why did you hit your fellow Hebrew?”

14 And he said “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” And Moses was afraid and said “Surely this thing is known.”

15 When Pharaoh heard this thing, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and went to live in the land of Midian, where 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 When they came to Reuel their father, he said “How is it that you have come back so soon today?”  

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 He said to his daughters “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”

21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

22 And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said “I have been a stranger in a strange land.”   

23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The children of Israel groaned because of their hard labor, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the labor.

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 he took notice.