The birth of Moses

Exodus 1:1-2:10

     While Joseph was governor of Egypt, Israel and his twelve sons came there to live with their families and servants and animals. There were seventy people in the family of Israel who came to Egypt, not counting the servants. Soon more children were born, and the family grew and grew.

     When Joseph was very old, he died. His big family was treated well by the Egyptians, because they remembered what Joseph had done for them.

     After nearly four hundred years, a new king came to Egypt who did not know about Joseph. He said, "Now there are hundreds and thousands of these Hebrew people of Israel. They are becoming too powerful. If Egypt goes to war, there Hebrews might join our enemies."

     The king made the Hebrews work as slaves. All day these people had to do the hardest jobs in all Egypt. Some had to make bricks out of mud and straw. Others worked in the fields. They were not treated well by the men who were in charge of slaves.

     The king of Egypt was still not happy. He talked to two of the Hebrew midwives. These are women who help when babies are born.

     "When Hebrew boy babies are born, you must kill them," said Pharaoh the king. "But if girls are born, you may let them live."

     But these women believed in God, and they would not do what Pharaoh said.

    "Why are there so many Hebrew boys?" Pharaoh asked. "I told you to kill all the boy babies."

     "The Hebrew women are very strong," said the midwives. "Their babies are born before we get ther."

     Then Pharaoh said to everyone in Egypt, "When you see any little Hebrew boy babies, you must throw them into the Nile River."

     Now there were a man and his wife from the family of Levi. They had a baby boy, and they hid him in their house until he was three months old. When he was to big to hide, his mother took a big basket and painted it with pitch to keep the water out. She put the baby into the basket and let it float in the reeds by the river's edge.

     The baby's sister stood where she could see what would happen to him. Soon she saw Pharaoh's daughter. This princess of Egypt came down to the river to swim with her maids. She saw the basket and had one of her maids pull it out of the water.

     When the princess opened the basket, she saw the baby inside, crying, and she felt sorry for him.

     "This is one of those poor Hebrew children," she said.

     Then the baby's sister ran up. "Should I find a Hebrew woman to take care of the baby?" she said.

     "Yes, go!" said Pharaoh's daughter.

     Soon the little girl came back with the baby's own mother.

     "Please feed this baby and take care of him." So the baby's mother took him home. When he was a big boy, she took him back to the princess.

     The princess adopted the boy for her own son. She named him Moses, a name that means "out of the water."