¹ Now, there was a certain man of the tribe of Levi who married one of the daughters of [his tribe]. ² Then she got pregnant and gave birth to a male child. And when she saw how beautiful the child was, they hid him for three months. ³ But when they could no longer hide him, his mother got a box for him and coated it with tar, put the child inside, then she set it in the mud by the river ⁴ and had his sister keep watch in the distance to see what would happen to him.
⁵ Well, Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe. And as her handmaids were walking along by the river, they saw the box lying in the mud; so she sent a handmaid out to pick it up. ⁶ And when she opened it, she found the baby inside the box, crying. Well, Pharaoh's daughter felt sorry for it and said, 'This is a Hebrew child.'
⁷ Then [the baby's] sister went up and asked Pharaoh's daughter: 'Would you like me to call a Hebrew [woman] to nurse the child for you?'
⁸ And Pharaoh's daughter replied, 'Go!'
So the young woman went and called [her] mother.
⁹ Then Pharaoh's daughter said to [the mother]: 'Take care of this child and nurse it for me, and I'll pay you.'
So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰ And after the boy had grown, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. [Pharaoh's daughter] named him Moses (Egyptian: Mo-sheh, or, to draw), because she said, 'I drew him from the water.'
¹¹ In time, after Moses had grown, he went to see his brothers, the sons of IsraEl. And as he was observing how bad things were, he noticed an Egyptian beating one of his Hebrew brothers of the children of IsraEl. ¹² Then he looked around and he didn't see anyone, so he bludgeoned the Egyptian and hid [his body] in the sand.
¹³ Well on the next day, he noticed two Hebrew men fighting, and he asked the bully, 'Why are you beating your neighbor?'
¹⁴ And he replied: 'Who appointed you to be our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?'
This stunned Moses, and he thought: 'If [he knows], then others will know.' ¹⁵ And when Pharaoh found out about it, he tried to have Moses put to death. So Moses withdrew from the face of Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.
Then, upon arriving in the land of Midian, he sat down next to a well. ¹⁶ And nearby, the seven daughters of the Priest of Midian happened to be grazing their father’s sheep. Then when they came [to the well] to fill their jugs to water the flock, ¹⁷ some shepherds arrived and [tried to] chase them away, but Moses stood up and protected them. And thereafter, he drew water for them and watered their sheep.
¹⁸ Well, after they returned to their home, their father (RagouEl) asked them, ‘Why have you returned so quickly today?’
¹⁹ And they replied: ‘An Egyptian protected us from the shepherds; and then he drew water for us and watered our sheep.’
²⁰ So [RaguEl] asked his daughters: ‘Where is he… why did you leave the man? Invite him over [for a meal].’
²¹ Well [after that], Moses developed a good relationship with the man, and [RaguEl] gave his daughter SepPhoran to be Moses’ woman. ²² Then she got pregnant and gave birth to a son, whom Moses named Gersam (Visitor); for he said, ‘I’m a visitor in a strange land.’
²³ After a while, the king of Egypt died. But the children of IsraEl kept groaning and crying because of their hard work. And the cries over their labor ascended to God. ²⁴ [He] heard their groaning and God remembered the Sacred Agreement He had made with AbraHam, IsaAc, and Jacob. ²⁵ So He [started paying attention] to the children of IsraEl, and He made Himself known to them.