On one occasion, after Moses had grown up, when he had gone out to his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor, he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.

Looking about and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting! So he asked the culprit, “Why are you striking your companion?”

But he replied, “Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses became afraid and thought, “The affair must certainly be known.”

When Pharaoh heard of the affair, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to the land of Midian. There he sat down by a well.

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.

But shepherds came and drove them away. So Moses rose up in their defense and watered their flock.

When they returned to their father Reuel, he said to them, “How is it you have returned so soon today?”

They answered, “An Egyptian delivered us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock!”

“Where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why did you leave the man there? Invite him to have something to eat.”

Moses agreed to stay with him, and the man gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage.

She conceived and bore a son, whom he named Gershom; for he said, “I am a stranger residing in a foreign land.”