Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Exodus
Chapter 2: The Deliverer Is Born
Into Pharaoh's death sentence on the Hebrew boys, God quietly sends the answer: a baby. A Levite mother hides her son three months, then sets him in an ark of bulrushes among the reeds of the very river meant to be his grave. There Pharaoh's own daughter finds him, and the child is raised in the palace and named Moses. Grown to manhood, Moses tries to deliver his people by his own hand, kills an Egyptian, and must flee to Midian, where he becomes "a stranger in a strange land" for forty years. The chapter ends not with Moses but with God: "God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant." Exodus 2 is about the God who works His salvation in hidden ways, who prepares His deliverers slowly, and who never forgets His people's cry.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Exodus chapter 2. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Chapter 2 introduces Moses, the deliverer God is raising up, and shows both the wonder of God's providence in his rescue and the patience of God in his preparation. It ends with the great turning point of the whole book: God hears, remembers, looks, and has respect unto His people. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Saved Through the Water
A mother's faith sets her baby in an ark of bulrushes, and the river of death becomes the road to the palace, all by the hand of God.
A Prince Who Chose His People
Raised as Pharaoh's grandson, Moses casts his lot with the enslaved people of God, though his first attempt to help runs ahead of God's time.
Forty Years in Midian
Fleeing for his life, Moses becomes a shepherd and a stranger in Midian, where God will spend forty years preparing him.
God Heard Their Groaning
The chapter ends with the covenant God hearing Israel's cry and remembering His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Drawn Out of the Water (Exodus 2:1-10)
A Levite mother hides her son, then trusts him to God in an ark on the river, and God brings him safely into Pharaoh's own house.
An Ark of Bulrushes
"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 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. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 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. 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. 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? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. 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. 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."
Hebrew Study
"ark," tebah (תֵּבָה). This is the same rare word used for Noah's ark, and nowhere else in the Bible. Both are vessels of salvation, sealed with pitch, that carry the promise safely through the waters of judgment. God saved the human race in one tebah and the deliverer of Israel in another.
"Moses," Mosheh (מֹשֶׁה). Pharaoh's daughter named him "because I drew him out of the water" (verse 10). The name means "drawn out," and it fit his whole life: the one drawn out of the water would one day draw a whole nation out through the water of the sea.
Explanation
A man and woman of the tribe of Levi have a son, and the mother sees "that he was a goodly child." When she can no longer hide him from Pharaoh's death order, she does not throw him into the river to die; she places him in a little waterproof basket and lays him among the reeds at the river's edge, with his sister watching from a distance. Then God takes over. Of all people, Pharaoh's own daughter comes down to bathe, finds the basket, opens it, and the baby weeps. Her heart melts: "she had compassion on him." Moses' sister steps forward and offers to fetch a Hebrew nurse, and so the baby's own mother is hired, and paid, to nurse her own son. In time the child is brought to the palace and becomes the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. The very household that ordered his death now raises and protects him.
Gospel Focus
This rescue is a masterpiece of God's quiet providence. Pharaoh had commanded that every Hebrew son be cast into the river, and God used that very river to carry His deliverer into the palace, and even arranged that Moses' mother be paid to raise him. What the enemy meant for death, God turned into the cradle of salvation. It began, as it always does, with faith: "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents ... and they were not afraid of the king's commandment" (Hebrews 11:23). His parents feared God more than Pharaoh, and their quiet, trusting obedience became the doorway of Israel's redemption. Never underestimate the acts of faith that seem small: a hidden baby, a basket of reeds, a watching sister. God weaves such humble threads into the greatest deliverances. The same God who guided a basket through the reeds is guiding your life, and He is able to bring salvation out of the very things the enemy means for your ruin.
He Went Out Unto His Brethren (Exodus 2:11-15)
Grown to manhood in the palace, Moses casts his lot with his enslaved people, but his attempt to deliver by his own hand forces him to flee.
He Looked on Their Burdens
"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. 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. 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? 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. 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 also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock. 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."
Hebrew Study
"When Moses was grown" he "went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens" — sivlotam, the same load-bearing word used of Israel's slavery (1:11); the prince deliberately takes his stand with the enslaved. He sees an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew (nakah, to strike) and smites the Egyptian in turn — the identical verb, a stroke answering a stroke. But his own people reject him: "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" Stephen fastens on that line — the deliverer refused at his first coming, received only at his second (Acts 7:35) — a pattern Israel would repeat with a greater Deliverer.
Explanation
Moses grows up as a prince of Egypt, but he never forgets who his people are. As a grown man he goes out to his Hebrew brethren and looks on their burdens, and when he sees an Egyptian beating one of them, he kills the Egyptian and hides the body in the sand. The next day he tries to make peace between two quarreling Hebrews, but one of them throws his crime back at him: "intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?" The deed is known. When Pharaoh hears of it, he seeks to kill Moses, and Moses flees to Midian. Moses had the right heart, he loved his people and hated their oppression, but he acted in the wrong way and at the wrong time, taking matters into his own hand. His fleshly attempt at deliverance failed and drove him into forty years of exile.
Gospel Focus
The New Testament shows us the greatness and the flaw of this moment. The greatness: "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Hebrews 11:24-26). Moses turned his back on the wealth and power of Egypt to stand with God's despised, enslaved people. That was faith, and it is the choice every believer must make: to identify with the people of God and the reproach of Christ rather than the passing pleasures and treasures of the world. But there was also a flaw. Stephen tells us Moses "supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not" (Acts 7:25). Moses knew God had called him to deliver, but he ran ahead of God's time and tried to do it in his own strength, and it ended in failure and flight. God's work must be done in God's way and God's time. The right calling pursued in the flesh brings ruin, not deliverance. God would have to spend forty years emptying Moses of his own strength before He could use him.
A Stranger in a Strange Land (Exodus 2:16-22)
In Midian Moses defends the daughters of the priest at a well, settles with the family, and marries, naming his son for his life as a sojourner.
I Have Been a Stranger in a Strange Land
"And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land."
Hebrew Study
"Gershom," Gershom (גֵּרְשֹׁם). The name sounds like the Hebrew for "a stranger there." Moses stamped his own experience on his son's name: he was a sojourner, at home neither in Egypt nor yet in the promise, living as a stranger in a foreign land.
Explanation
Moses arrives in Midian and sits down by a well, and there, like his forefathers before him, he meets his future wife at a well. When shepherds drive away the seven daughters of the priest of Midian, Moses stands up, helps them, and waters their flock. Their father Reuel welcomes him, and Moses is "content to dwell with the man," who gives him his daughter Zipporah. She bears a son, and Moses names him Gershom, "for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land." The mighty prince of Egypt is now a quiet shepherd in the wilderness, tending another man's flock. It looks like the end of his story, an obscure, ordinary life far from his people. But God was not finished; He was preparing. The forty years Moses spent as a shepherd in this wilderness would teach him the very land, and the very humility, he would need to lead a nation through it.
Gospel Focus
Gershom's name, "a stranger in a strange land," speaks to every believer. Like Moses, and like the patriarchs before him who "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13), the people of God are sojourners in this world, not fully at home here. But notice what God was doing in these hidden years. The man who had rushed ahead in his own strength was being slowed down, humbled, and taught in the desert. The prince became a shepherd, and the shepherd would become a deliverer, for God trains His servants in the wilderness before He uses them on the stage. Moses' forty years in Midian were not wasted or empty; they were the classroom of God. If you find yourself in a quiet, obscure season that feels like exile, do not despair. God often does His deepest preparing in the wilderness, out of sight, making a shepherd of the man He intends to make a leader. The desert years are never wasted in the hands of God.
God Heard Their Groaning (Exodus 2:23-25)
As the years pass, Israel cries out under its bondage, and the chapter ends by turning our eyes from Moses to the covenant God who hears.
God Remembered His Covenant
"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. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them."
Hebrew Study
The chapter ends with four verbs of divine attention, piled like the verbs of increase in chapter 1: God heard their groaning (shama), God remembered his covenant (zakar), God looked upon the children of Israel (ra'ah), and God had respect unto them — the last is simply yada, "God knew." It is covenant-knowledge, not mere information; the God who seemed silent through four centuries was hearing, remembering, seeing, and knowing all along. Their cry (ze'aqah) went up, and it struck the memory of His covenant.
Explanation
The chapter closes by lifting our eyes from Moses to God. Time passes, the old Pharaoh dies, but the bondage only grows heavier, and Israel groans and cries out. Then come four of the most important verbs in Exodus: God "heard" their groaning, God "remembered" his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God "looked upon" the children of Israel, and God "had respect unto them." These are not four things God did carelessly; they are the movement of heaven toward His suffering people. God had not been absent or asleep during the long, dark years. He heard every groan, He never forgot His promise, He saw their misery, and He was moved. This is the hinge of the whole book. From here on, God acts. The cry of the people has come up before Him, and the God who remembers His covenant is about to come down and save.
Gospel Focus
"God heard ... God remembered ... God looked ... God had respect." This is the heartbeat of our God. When His people were at their lowest and no deliverer was in sight, God had not forgotten them for a moment; He was hearing every cry and keeping every promise. "God remembered his covenant" does not mean He had let it slip His mind, but that the time had come to act upon it, just as Zacharias would later praise Him for coming "to remember his holy covenant" (Luke 1:72). The same God hears you. Your groaning, the prayers that seem to hit the ceiling, the long years of waiting, all of it comes up before God, and He remembers His promises to you in Christ. He may seem slow, but He is never absent and never forgetful. And notice that God moved to save on the basis of His covenant, not their worthiness. Our hope, too, rests not on how good we have been but on the faithful covenant God has made with us in Jesus. The God who heard Israel's groaning in Egypt is the God who hears us still, and who, having remembered His covenant, always comes down to save.
Chapter 2 in Review
Exodus 2 introduces the deliverer and, at the last, the Deliverer. A Levite mother's faith sets her baby in an ark on the river, and God turns Pharaoh's death sentence into the road to the palace, so that Moses is raised as a prince and even nursed by his own mother. Grown, Moses chooses his enslaved people over Egypt's treasures, but his attempt to deliver them by his own hand fails, and he flees to Midian, where he becomes a shepherd and "a stranger in a strange land" for forty years. Then the chapter turns from Moses to God: Israel groans, and "God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant."
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter is full of hope and instruction. God works His salvation in hidden, humble ways, through a basket of reeds and a mother's faith, turning the enemy's weapons into the cradle of deliverance. He calls us, like Moses, to choose the people of God and the reproach of Christ over the passing pleasures of the world. He teaches us that His work must be done in His way and time, not rushed in the flesh, and that the wilderness years are His classroom, not wasted exile. And above all He shows us a God who hears, remembers, looks, and is moved, who never forgets His covenant or His people's cry. The God who heard Israel in Egypt hears us still, and He is faithful to come down and save.
- God's providence turns the enemy's weapons into the cradle of deliverance; the river of death carried the deliverer to the palace (2:3-10; Hebrews 11:23).
- Faith chooses the people of God and the reproach of Christ over the treasures of the world (2:11; Hebrews 11:24-26).
- The right calling pursued in the flesh and ahead of God's time brings failure, not deliverance (2:12; Acts 7:25).
- The wilderness years are God's classroom, not wasted exile; He prepares His servants there (2:21-22).
- God hears, remembers, looks, and is moved; He never forgets His covenant or His people's cry (2:24-25; Luke 1:72).
Questions for Reflection
- Moses chose affliction with God's people over Egypt's treasures. Where is God asking you to identify with Him rather than the world?
- Moses ran ahead of God in his own strength. Where might you be forcing in the flesh what God wants to do in His way and time?
- God heard Israel's groaning and remembered His covenant. How does that steady you when your prayers seem unanswered?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon; "ark" (tebah) is the same word used for Noah's ark. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- Moses hidden and drawn out of the water: Exodus 2:1-10; Hebrews 11:23; Genesis 6:14.
- Moses chooses his people; runs ahead of God: Exodus 2:11-15; Hebrews 11:24-26; Acts 7:23-25.
- Moses a stranger in Midian: Exodus 2:16-22; Hebrews 11:13.
- God hears and remembers His covenant: Exodus 2:23-25; Luke 1:72.