The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Rejection and Flight of Moses
Exodus 2:11–22 — The Rejection and Flight of Moses. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
11One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî bay·yā·mîm hā·hêm mō·šeh way·yiḡ·dal way·yê·ṣê ’el- ’e·ḥāw way·yar bə·siḇ·lō·ṯām way·yar ’îš miṣ·rî mak·keh ’îš- ‘iḇ·rî mê·’e·ḥāw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-came-to-pass in-the-days the-those, and-Moses grew-great (way-yiḡdal), and-he-went-out unto his-brothers (ʼeḥāw), and-he-looked on-their-burdens; and-he-saw a-man, an-Egyptian, smiting a-man, a-Hebrew, of-his-brothers.
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“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” ( Hebrews 11:24-25 ). It is the first sign of that strong sympathy and tender affection for his people which characterises him throughout the narrative
The descent of some great sovereigns, like Diocletian and Charles V, from a throne into private life, is nothing to the sacrifice which Moses made through the power of faith.
What impelled him to this was not "a carnal ambition and longing for action," or a desire to attract the attention of his brethren, but fiery love to his brethren or fellow-countrymen, as is shown in the expression, "One of his brethren" ( Exodus 2:11 ), and deep sympathy with them in their oppression and sufferings
He had as yet no Divine mission, no command from God to act as he did, but only a natural sympathy with his people, and a feeling perhaps that in his position he was bound, more than any one else, to make some efforts to ameliorate what must have been generally known to be a hard lot.
12After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yi·p̄en kōh wā·ḵōh way·yar kî ’ên ’îš way·yaḵ ’eṯ- ham·miṣ·rî way·yiṭ·mə·nê·hū ba·ḥō·wl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-turned this-way and-that-way, and-he-saw that there-was no man, and-he-struck-down (way-yak) the-Egyptian, and-he-hid-him in-the-sand.
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But it was clearly the deed of a hasty and undisciplined spirit. The offence did not deserve death, and if it had, Moses had neither legal office nor Divine call, justifying him in making himself an executioner.
This action of Moses was extraordinary, and is not to be justified by the common right of defending the oppressed, which belongs not to private persons, Romans 12:19 ; but only by his Divine and special vocation to be the ruler and deliverer of Israel.
The slaying of the Egyptian is not to be justified, or attributed to a divine inspiration, but it is to be judged with reference to the provocation, the impetuosity of Moses' natural character
His zeal for the welfare of his brethren urged him forward to present himself as the umpire and judge of his brethren before God had called him to this, and drove him to the crime of murder, which cannot be excused as resulting from a sudden ebullition of wrath.K&D follow Augustine in calling the deed a crime while honoring the impulse behind it; the moral verdict is the commentator's, not a datum of the Hebrew, which only narrates.
13The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
haš·šê·nî bay·yō·wm way·yê·ṣê wə·hin·nêh šə·nê- ’ă·nā·šîm ‘iḇ·rîm niṣ·ṣîm way·yō·mer lā·rā·šā‘ lām·māh ṯak·keh rê·‘e·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-went-out on-the-second day, and-behold, two men, Hebrews, striving-together (niṣṣîm); and-he-said to-the-wicked-one (lā-rāšāʻ): Why do-you-smite (takkeh) your-companion?
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Him that did the wrong. —Heb., the wicked one. Our version follows the LXX. Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? —Comp. Acts 7:26 , where the words of Moses are reported somewhat differently, “Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?”
The next day after that achievement, he returns to execute the office in which God had set him as a judge, whose work it is both to destroy enemies, and to reconcile brethren.
It was by the staff and not the sword—by the meekness, and not the wrath of Moses that God was to accomplish that great work of deliverance. Both he and the people of Israel were for forty years more to be cast into the furnace of affliction, yet it was therein that He had chosen them (Isa 48:10).
May we not apply it to disputants, who, by their fierce debates, divide and weaken the Christian church? They forget that they are brethren.
14But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yō·mer mî śā·mə·ḵā lə·’îš śar wə·šō·p̄êṭ ‘ā·lê·nū ’at·tāh ’ō·mêr hal·hā·rə·ḡê·nî ka·’ă·šer hā·raḡ·tā ’eṯ- ham·miṣ·rî mō·šeh way·yî·rā way·yō·mar had·dā·ḇār ’ā·ḵên nō·w·ḏa‘
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said: Who set you for-a-man, a-prince (śar) and-a-judge (šōp̄ēṭ) over-us? To-kill-me are you saying, as you-killed the-Egyptian? And-Moses feared (way-yîrāʼ), and-he-said: Surely the-thing is-known.
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Here is the sting of the rejoinder; here was the assumption of authority—not in the interposition of to-day, but in the blow of yesterday. That fatal error laid Moses open to attack, and deprived him of the influence as a peacemaker which he might otherwise have exercised over his countrymen.
He challengeth his authority. A man needs no great authority for giving a friendly reproof; it is an act of kindness; yet this man will needs interpret it an act of dominion, and represents his reprover as imperious and assuming.
Though by his fear he showed his weakness, yet faith covered it; He 11:27.
In slaying the Egyptian, Moses acted without authority; his act was consequently unjustifiable, and there was cogency in the Israelite’s remonstrance, ‘Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?’
15When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
par·‘ōh ’eṯ- had·dā·ḇār way·yiš·ma‘ haz·zeh way·ḇaq·qêš la·hă·rōḡ ’eṯ- mō·šeh mō·šeh way·yiḇ·raḥ mip·pə·nê p̄ar·‘ōh way·yê·šeḇ bə·’e·reṣ- miḏ·yān way·yê·šeḇ ‘al- hab·bə·’êr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Pharaoh heard this thing, and-he-sought to-kill Moses; and-Moses fled (way-yiḇraḥ) from-the-face-of Pharaoh, and-he-settled (way-yēšeḇ) in-the-land-of Midian, and-he-sat-down by-the-well.
Where the English smooths the original
Things were not yet ripe for Israel’s deliverance. The measure of Egypt’s iniquity was not yet full; the Hebrews were not sufficiently humbled, nor were they yet increased to such a multitude as God designed: Moses is to be further fitted for the service
He sought to slay Moses; not out of zeal to punish a murderer, but to secure himself from so dangerous a person, probably supposing that this was the man foretold to be the scourge of Egypt, and the deliverer of Israel.
Sat down by a well. —Rather, the well. There must have been one principal well in these parts, copious, and so generally resorted to. Moses fixed his temporary-abode in its neighbourhood.
dwelt in the land of Midian—situated on the eastern shore of the gulf of the Red Sea and occupied by the posterity of Midian the son of Cush.JFB's derivation of Midian from "the son of Cush" departs from the majority view (Gen. 25:2 traces Midian to Abraham by Keturah); recorded as a minority reading, not endorsed.
16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·lə·ḵō·hên miḏ·yān še·ḇa‘ bā·nō·wṯ wat·tā·ḇō·nāh wat·tiḏ·le·nāh wat·tə·mal·le·nāh ’eṯ- hā·rə·hā·ṭîm lə·haš·qō·wṯ ’ă·ḇî·hen ṣōn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-to-the-priest (ḵōhēn) of-Midian [were] seven daughters; and-they-came and-they-drew-water (wat-tiḏlenāh), and-they-filled the-troughs (rᵉhāṭîm) to-water the-flock-of their-father.
Where the English smooths the original
Reuel may have been both “priest” and “prince,” like Melchizedek ( Genesis 14:18 ); but there is no reason to doubt that he is here called “priest.” In Exodus 18:12 , Jethro is represented as exercising priestly functions. The Midianites, descendants of Abraham by Keturah, worshipped the true God
The Priest of Midian; not of idols, for then Moses would not have married into his family; but of the true God; for some such were in those ancient times here and there, as appears by Melchisedek
To the present day, among the Bedawin of the Sin. Peninsula, ‘the men consider it beneath them to take the flocks to pasture’; it is ‘the exclusive duty of the unmarried girls,’ and those thus employed spend the whole day with the sheep
17And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·rō·‘îm way·yā·ḇō·’ū way·ḡā·rə·šūm mō·šeh way·yā·qām way·yō·wō·ši·‘ān way·yašq ’eṯ- ṣō·nām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-shepherds (rōʻîm) came and-they-drove-them-away (way-ḡārᵉšūm); and-Moses rose-up (way-yāqom) and-he-saved-them (way-yōwōšiʻān), and-he-watered their-flock.
Where the English smooths the original
Ever ready to assist the weak against the strong (supra, vers. 12, 13), Moses "stood up" - sprang to his feet - and, though only one man against a dozen or a score, by his determined air intimidated the crowd of wrong-doers, and forced them to let the maidens' sheep drink at the troughs.
He loved to be doing good: wherever the providence of God cast us, we should desire and endeavour to be useful; and when we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can.
Here Moses secured for himself a hospitable reception from a priest of Midian, and a home at his house, by doing as Jacob had formerly done ( Genesis 29:10 ), viz., helping his daughters to water their father's sheep, and protecting them against the other shepherds.
moved to see such rude and uncivil treatment of the weaker sex, rose up from the ground on which he sat, and took their parts, and obliged the shepherds to give way, and brought up their flock to the troughs, and drew water for them
18When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tā·ḇō·nāh ’el- ’ă·ḇî·hen rə·‘ū·’êl way·yō·mer mad·dū·a‘ bō mi·har·ten hay·yō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-came unto Reuel (rᵉʻûʼēl) their-father, and-he-said: Why have-you-hastened to-come today?
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Reuel ] Heb. רעואל , the ‘friend’ or ‘companion of God’
Reuel - Or, as in Numbers 10:29 , "Raguel." The name means "friend of God." It appears to have been not uncommon among Hebrews and Edomites; e. g. Genesis 36:4 , Genesis 36:10 .
Largely, i.e. their grandfather, for such are oft called fathers , as Genesis 31:43 2 Kings 14:3 16:2 18:3 ; so he was the father of Jethro, or Hobab, Numbers 10:29 .Poole's 'grandfather' reading is one harmonization of the Reuel/Jethro/Hobab name-puzzle; the unit records the difficulty without adjudicating it.
it being not only sooner than they were wont to come, but perhaps their business was done in so short a time; that it was marvellous to him that it could be done in it, so quick a dispatch had Moses made
19“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. “He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
miṣ·rî hiṣ·ṣî·lā·nū mî·yaḏ hā·rō·‘îm wat·tō·mar·nā ’îš wə·ḡam- dā·lōh ḏā·lāh lā·nū way·yašq ’eṯ- haṣ·ṣōn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-said: An-Egyptian (miṣrî) delivered-us (hiṣṣîlānū) from-the-hand-of the-shepherds; and-also drawing he-drew (dālōh dālāh) for-us, and-he-watered the-flock.
Where the English smooths the original
An Egyptian. —So they concluded from his dress and appearance, perhaps even from his speech. It would be natural for them to make the mistake, and for Moses to remember it. Any other author would probably have said, “a man,” or “a stranger.”
Drew water enough — Hebrew, In drawing he drew, which phrase means that he drew it readily and diligently, which caused their quick return.
An Egyptian - They judged from his costume, or language.
20“So where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’ay·yōw way·yō·mer ’el- bə·nō·ṯāw lām·māh zeh hā·’îš ‘ă·zaḇ·ten ’eṯ- qir·’en lōw wə·yō·ḵal lā·ḥem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said unto his-daughters: And-where [is] he? Why this [is it that] you-have-left (ʻăzaḇten) the-man? Call him, that-he-may-eat bread (lāḥem).
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That he may eat bread. —Arab hospitality was offended that the stranger had not been invited into the tent to partake of the evening meal. The feeling of the modern Bedouin would be the same.
In which he demonstrated a thankful mind, which would reward the good done to his.
call him, that he may eat bread; take meat with them, bread being put for all provisions.
21Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mō·šeh way·yō·w·’el lā·še·ḇeṯ ’eṯ- hā·’îš way·yit·tên ’eṯ- ḇit·tōw ṣip·pō·rāh lə·mō·šeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Moses was-content (way-yōwʼel) to-dwell (lāšeḇeṯ) with the-man; and-he-gave Zipporah (ṣippōrāh) his-daughter to-Moses.
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Although Moses received Reguel's daughter Zipporah as his wife, probably after a lengthened stay, his life in Midian was still a banishment and a school of bitter humiliation.
and, so far as his own intention went, cast in his lot with the Midianites, with whom he meant henceforth to live and die. Such vague ideas as he may previously have entertained of his "mission" had passed away
He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter — Whom he married, not immediately, but after some years of acquaintance with the family, as may be gathered from the youth of one of his sons, and his being uncircumcised forty years after this, Exodus 4:25 .
It has been conjectured that Reuel might have communicated to Moses traditions, or even documents concerning their common ancestor, Abraham, and his family.The 'Reuel handed Moses written documents about Abraham' suggestion is Ellicott's conjecture about Pentateuchal sources, not a statement of the text; recorded as a hypothesis.
22And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tê·leḏ bên way·yiq·rā ’eṯ- šə·mōw gê·rə·šōm kî ’ā·mar hā·yî·ṯî gêr nā·ḵə·rî·yāh bə·’e·reṣ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-bore a-son, and-he-called his-name Gershom (gērᵉšōm), for he-said: A-sojourner (gēr) I-have-been (hāyîṯî) in-a-foreign land.
Where the English smooths the original
Gershom. —Almost certainly from ger, “a stranger,” and shâm, “there.” So Jerome, who translates it advena ibi. (Comp. Josephus and the LXX., who write the name Gersam.)
It was through a descendant of this Gershom that the priests of Dan claimed in later days descent from Moses ( Jdg 18:30 ).
Those that know what it is to be alone with God, are acquainted with better delights than ever Moses tasted in the court of Pharaoh.
This feeling, however, had not passed into despair, but had been purified and raised into firm confidence in the God of his fathers, who had shown himself as his helper by delivering him from the sword of Pharaoh.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with a deliberate gap. Forty years of Moses' life pass in a single clause — way-yiḡdal mōšeh, "and Moses became great" — and the voices fill the silence with one event: a man choosing his people. Keil & Delitzsch locate the whole motive in a single repeated word: not ambition but "fiery love to his brethren... as is shown in the expression, 'One of his brethren.'" Ellicott reads the going-out through Hebrews 11: "'By faith, Moses... refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.'" Yet the Pulpit Commentary is careful to under-claim what the text itself grants: at this point Moses "had as yet no Divine mission, no command from God to act as he did, but only a natural sympathy with his people." The Hebrew presses the kinship word ʼaḥ ("brother") twice in one verse, and binds the scene with a single verb of striking — nākāh — that names the Egyptian's blow (v. 11), Moses' blow (v. 12), and the wrongdoer's blow (v. 13). The chapter is an argument carried in repeated words.
Moses "turned this way and that" (way-yip̄en) and struck. The voices are strikingly unanimous, and strikingly honest, in refusing to whitewash the act. Ellicott: "it was clearly the deed of a hasty and undisciplined spirit. The offence did not deserve death." Barnes measures its cost: it "far from expediting... delayed for many years the deliverance of the Israelites." Poole grants it could be justified "only by his Divine and special vocation," while K&D, following Augustine, call it bluntly "the crime of murder, which cannot be excused as resulting from a sudden ebullition of wrath." The reproof of v. 13 turns the tables: Moses addresses the guilty party as hā-rāšāʻ, "the wicked one" (Ellicott notes "our version follows the LXX"), and the offender's retort — "Who made you śar and šōp̄ēṭ (prince and judge) over us?" — lands because Moses had indeed seized the judge's role before God appointed him to it. JFB draw the lesson the failure teaches: "It was by the staff and not the sword — by the meekness, and not the wrath of Moses — that God was to accomplish that great work of deliverance." The fear of v. 14 (way-yîrāʼ) the older voices read against Hebrews 11:27: Geneva — "Though by his fear he showed his weakness, yet faith covered it."
Pharaoh "heard the thing" (had-dāḇār, the very word Moses feared was "known") and sought his life; Moses "fled from the face of Pharaoh." The Hebrew repeats one verb — yāšaḇ, to sit/dwell — twice: he "settled" in Midian and "sat down" by the well. Benson reads the exile as timing, not defeat: "Things were not yet ripe for Israel's deliverance. The measure of Egypt's iniquity was not yet full... Moses is to be further fitted for the service." Poole sees Pharaoh's motive clearly: he sought Moses "not out of zeal to punish a murderer, but to secure himself from so dangerous a person." And Ellicott catches the quiet article that opens the next scene: "Sat down by a well. — Rather, the well" — the principal well of the district, the appointed stage for a betrothal.
The well-scene is told in patriarchal vocabulary. Keil & Delitzsch see Moses "doing as Jacob had formerly done (Genesis 29:10)" — and the Verifier confirms the verbal kinship: the rare word for the watering troughs (rᵉhāṭîm, only 4 verses) is the same term used of Jacob's troughs in Genesis 30:38, 41. When the shepherds "drove away" (way-ḡārᵉšūm) the priest's daughters, Moses "rose up and saved them" — and here the English most fails the Hebrew: way-yōwōšiʻān is the salvation-verb yāšaʻ, the root of the name Joshua/Jesus. The future deliverer literally "saves" seven women at a well. The daughters then report him as an "Egyptian" who "delivered us" (hiṣṣîlānū, the Exodus deliverance-verb of 6:6) and "drawing drew" water — the emphatic Hebrew Benson renders "In drawing he drew... readily and diligently." Reuel's name, the voices agree (Cambridge, Barnes, Pulpit), means "friend of God" and marks him a worshipper of the true God among Abraham's Keturah-seed; his offended hospitality — "Why have you forsaken the man? Call him, that he may eat bread" — Ellicott ties to enduring desert custom.
Moses "was willing" (way-yōwʼel; K&D: "voluit") to dwell with Reuel, married Zipporah, and named his firstborn by a pun rather than a parsing. Ellicott: "Gershom — almost certainly from ger, 'a stranger,' and shâm, 'there'... So Jerome, who translates it advena ibi." Cambridge is scrupulous: the form "might conceivably be derived from גרש , and mean expulsion ," but "thinking, as in v. 10, of an assonance, rather than of an etymology, explains it as though it were equivalent to gêr shâm." The covenant word gēr ("sojourner") ties Moses' grief to Abraham's (Gen. 23:4) and to Israel's defining memory (Gen. 15:13). For the voices the exile is formation: Benson — "Those that know what it is to be alone with God are acquainted with better delights than ever Moses tasted in the court of Pharaoh"; K&D — the feeling "had not passed into despair, but had been purified and raised into firm confidence in the God of his fathers."
Read on its own terms, Exodus 2:11-22 is the story of a deliverer who must first learn that he cannot deliver. The unit argues by verbal rhyme. One verb of striking, nākāh, runs through the opening scene — the Egyptian smites, Moses smites, the wrongdoer smites — so that Moses' attempt at rescue is grammatically indistinguishable from the violence he avenged, and the offender's taunt ("Who made you prince and judge?") simply names the office Moses had seized ahead of God. Then the verb changes. At the well, Moses no longer smites; he saves (yāšaʻ, v. 17) and the daughters say he delivered (nāṣal, v. 19) — the two great verbs that will carry the Exodus itself (6:6). The same man, the same readiness to defend the oppressed (the Pulpit ties vv. 12, 13, 17 together), but the wrath has become rescue and the self-appointed judge has become a fugitive shepherd. The unit names its own thesis in its last word: Moses calls his son Gershom, "a stranger there," confessing that the prince of Egypt is now a gēr — and it is exactly that displacement, the voices agree, that prepares him. This reading is the tool's own and fallible. It leans on the parses as given and on the verbal links the Verifier confirmed (rᵉhāṭîm, dālāh, the yāšaʻ/nāṣal pairing), and it does not adjudicate the question the voices leave open — whether the slaying was sheer crime (K&D, Ellicott, Barnes) or a divinely-warranted act marred only by its timing (Poole, Henry's "special warrant from Heaven"). That dispute the unit hands forward, unresolved, to be tested.
The hand that smote the Egyptian had to be emptied at a well before it could be filled with a staff.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The rare load-word Moses 'looks on' in 2:11 — siḇlōṯām, "their burdens" (H5450) — is a keyword, not a generic term: it occurs in only six verses, and every one belongs to the oppression-and-Exodus narrative. It names the bondage imposed in 1:11 ("taskmasters... with their burdens"), the labor Pharaoh refuses to lighten (5:4-5), and — decisively — the very thing God promises to lift: "I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians" (6:6-7). The same word that opens Moses' compassion closes in God's redemption. The Verifier records the shared rare lexeme; because siḇlāh is genuinely uncommon and the contexts are a single connected narrative, this is a confirmed verbal link, not a mere thematic echo.
Exodus 2:11 · Exodus 1:11 · Exodus 5:4 · Exodus 5:5 · Exodus 6:6 · Exodus 6:7
basis: shared rare lexeme H5450 çᵉbâlâh 'burden' (in only 6 vv — all in the Exodus oppression/redemption narrative: 1:11; 2:11; 5:4,5; 6:6,7); low-frequency keyword link, not a quotation of one verse by another
The watering troughs the daughters fill in 2:16 — rᵉhāṭîm (H7298) — is one of the rarest nouns in the Pentateuch, occurring in only four verses. Two of them are the betrothal-flock scenes of Jacob and Laban (Gen. 30:38, 41, where the AV renders it "gutters"); the fourth is the wholly different love-poetry of Song of Solomon 7:5. The shared rare word is precisely what makes Keil & Delitzsch's observation — that Moses here does "as Jacob had formerly done (Genesis 29:10)" — verbally demonstrable and not merely thematic. Cambridge independently notes the same Genesis cross-reference. A rare-lexeme link between two well-betrothal type-scenes; the Song occurrence is recorded for completeness as the same word in an unrelated context.
Exodus 2:16 · Genesis 30:38 · Genesis 30:41 · Song of Solomon 7:5
basis: shared rare lexeme H7298 rahaṭ 'trough' (in only 4 vv — Ex 2:16; Gen 30:38,41; Song 7:5); rare-word verbal link binding the well-betrothal type-scenes of Moses and Jacob; Song 7:5 is the same word in an unrelated context
The verb for the daughters' (2:16) and Moses' (2:19) drawing of water — dālāh, "to draw up" (H1802) — is rare (four verses) and turns figurative in its other two homes. Proverbs 20:5 makes it the labor of insight: "counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out." Psalm 30:1 makes it deliverance: "I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up" (lifted me from the pit). The literal motion at the Midian well — lowering a vessel into the deep and lifting it full — is the same picture wisdom and salvation borrow. The Verifier ranks Proverbs 20:5 and Psalm 30:1 as the unit's top external verbal candidates on this shared rare lexeme. A genuine rare-word link; the connection lives in the verb, not in any quotation, and the literal and figurative senses are distinct.
Exodus 2:16 · Exodus 2:19 · Proverbs 20:5 · Psalm 30:1
basis: shared rare lexeme H1802 dâlâh 'draw up' (in only 4 vv — Ex 2:16, 2:19; Prov 20:5; Ps 30:1); the Verifier's top-ranked external candidates; rare-word verbal link across literal (water) and figurative (counsel, deliverance) uses, not a citation
Moses' wife, named in 2:21, bears a proper name (ṣippōrāh, H6855) that appears in only three verses of the whole Old Testament: this betrothal, the terrifying night-encounter where she circumcises their son and saves Moses' life (4:25), and her return to Moses with Jethro after the Exodus (18:2). The rare shared name stitches her three appearances into one arc — given to Moses here, decisive at the lodging-place there, restored at Sinai. The Verifier confirms the link on this rare proper-noun lexeme. A verbal link by shared name; the dramatic weight of 4:25 is supplied by that narrative, not by this verse.
Exodus 2:21 · Exodus 4:25 · Exodus 18:2
basis: shared rare proper-name lexeme H6855 Tsippôrâh (in only 3 vv — Ex 2:21; 4:25; 18:2); rare-name verbal link binding her three appearances, not a quotation
Moses names Gershom (2:22) by the covenant word gēr, "sojourner / resident alien" (H1616) — a common but theologically loaded term (83 verses). Abraham confesses himself a gēr wᵉtôšāḇ at Sarah's grave (Gen. 23:4); God foretells that Abraham's seed will be gērîm in a land not theirs (Gen. 15:13); and the Law repeatedly grounds its command to love the alien in Israel's own memory — "the land is mine; for you are sojourners (gērîm) with me" (Lev. 25:23). Moses' private grief at being a stranger becomes the seedbed of Israel's social ethic. Because gēr is common rather than rare, this is a confirmed thematic/structural link — a recurring covenant motif of sojourning, deliberately not over-claimed as a quotation.
Exodus 2:22 · Genesis 15:13 · Genesis 23:4 · Leviticus 25:23
basis: shared lexeme H1616 gêr 'sojourner' — common (83 vv); recurring covenant motif of sojourning (Abraham, the foretold bondage, the Law's care for the alien), not a rare-word quotation
The shepherds 'drive away' the priest's daughters in 2:17 with gāraš (H1644), the strong verb of expulsion — the same word that drives Adam from the garden (Gen. 3:24) and Cain from the ground (Gen. 4:14, where he is 'driven out' from God's face). The irony deepens across the Exodus: it is by the identical verb that God promises Pharaoh 'will drive them out of his land' (6:1), so that the small act of expulsion at the well foreshadows the great expulsion that frees the nation. And it is the very root Cambridge weighs and sets aside for Gershom's name (2:22, 'expulsion'). Here, uniquely, the verb of driving-out is answered: where the daughters are driven away, Moses 'rose up and saved them.' Because gāraš is a common word (45 verses), this is a recorded thematic/structural motif of expulsion, not a rare-word quotation — the Verifier confirms only the shared lexeme, and the link lives in the recurring picture, not in any citation.
Exodus 2:17 · Genesis 3:24 · Genesis 4:14 · Exodus 6:1
basis: shared lexeme H1644 gâraš 'drive out' — common (45 vv); a recurring expulsion motif (Eden, Cain, and Pharaoh's eventual driving-out of Israel in 6:1), inverted at the well where the driven-out daughters are saved; same root Cambridge weighs for 'Gershom' (2:22); not a rare-word quotation
The verb that compresses Moses' forty years in 2:11 — way-yiḡdal, "and he became great / grew up" (H1431) — is the same word and stem Keil & Delitzsch expressly cross-reference to Genesis 21:20, where Ishmael "grew" in the wilderness, and which recurs of the child Samuel and others. It is a common word (115 verses), so the link is a recurring narrative formula — "and the child grew" — that marks the passage of a chosen figure from infancy to the threshold of his calling, rather than a rare-word quotation. K&D make the cross-reference explicit.
Exodus 2:11 · Genesis 21:20 · Exodus 2:10
basis: shared lexeme H1431 gâdal 'grow/become great' — common (115 vv); a recurring 'and the child grew' formula (K&D cite Gen 21:20) marking a chosen figure's passage to his calling, not a rare-word quotation
The whole unit is retold in Stephen's speech (Acts 7:23-29), and the voices route nearly every verse through it: Ellicott, Cambridge, K&D, and the Pulpit Commentary all cite Acts 7 for the forty years (7:23), the misunderstood rescue ("he supposed his brethren would have understood... but they understood not," 7:25), the reworded reproof (7:26), and the flight "at this saying" (7:29). Hebrews 11:24-27 supplies the faith-reading that the older voices press on every verse. But these are cross-Testament links (Greek↔Hebrew): they cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers — the Verifier returns no shared lexeme — and they are interpretive retellings, not the Hebrew text quoting itself. Stephen's framing (Moses as the rejected-then-vindicated deliverer) and Hebrews' faith-construal are real and load-bearing for Christian reading, but as provenance they are the NT's reading of Exodus, which the spec requires us to flag. Flagged accordingly.
Exodus 2:11 · Exodus 2:14 · Exodus 2:15 · Acts 7:23 · Acts 7:25 · Hebrews 11:24
basis: cross-Testament Greek↔Hebrew link — no shared Strong's lexeme possible (Verifier returns none); Acts 7:23-29 and Heb 11:24-27 are the NT's interpretive retelling of this unit, cited by every voice but a reading of the text, not an internal verbal quotation; flagged per spec
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The voices read Moses' rejection here as a figure of Christ's: the appointed deliverer comes to his own brethren, who do not receive him, and is driven into exile before he returns to save. Keil & Delitzsch draw the line from Stephen: Moses' rescue "could and should have aroused the thought in their minds, that God would send them salvation through him. 'But they understood not' (Acts 7:25)." The pattern — a saviour first refused ("Who made you a ruler and judge over us?"), then exalted to rule and deliver — is the explicitly typological reading of the early church (Stephen sets Moses' rejection beside Israel's rejection of "the Righteous One," Acts 7:51-52). The Hebrew underlines the irony with its salvation-verb: at the well the rejected man literally "saves" (yāšaʻ, v. 17). This is a widely-held figural reading, an overlay on a narrative that, on its own terms, recounts Moses' failure and flight; the New Testament makes the typology, the Hebrew supplies the deliverer-vocabulary.
Exodus 2:14 · Exodus 2:17 · Acts 7:25 · Acts 7:35
The voices read Moses' renunciation of Pharaoh's court as a type of Christ's self-emptying. Ellicott and K&D both anchor v. 11 in Hebrews 11:24-26, where Moses "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God... esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." Jamieson, Fausset & Brown measure the descent against history itself: "The descent of some great sovereigns, like Diocletian and Charles V, from a throne into private life, is nothing to the sacrifice which Moses made through the power of faith." Hebrews reads Moses' choice Christologically — "the reproach of Christ" — making the deliverer who leaves a palace to share his brethren's burdens a figure of the One who "emptied himself" (Phil. 2:6-8). The Hebrew of 2:11 grants the raw material (Moses 'goes out' to his 'brothers' and 'looks on their burdens'); the messianic weight is Hebrews' own construal and the church's reading, not a datum of the Exodus text. Widely held, and marked as figural.
Exodus 2:11 · Hebrews 11:24 · Hebrews 11:26
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Honesty notes for this unit. (1) The moral verdict on the slaying (v. 12): the voices genuinely divide — Ellicott, Barnes, and Keil & Delitzsch (with Augustine) call it crime or at least an unjustifiable, harmful act; Poole and Matthew Henry allow a "special warrant from Heaven" / "Divine and special vocation." Our synthesis records the division and does not adjudicate it. (2) Priest or prince? (v. 16): the single Hebrew word kōhēn is read "priest" (Poole, Pulpit, Ellicott, citing 18:12) or "prince" (JFB, the Targums); we note both. (3) The name-puzzle (v. 18): Reuel here, Jethro in 3:1/18, Hobab in Num. 10:29 — Poole's "grandfather" harmonization, Cambridge's "gloss" hypothesis, and K&D's "title vs. proper name" solution are all recorded, none endorsed. (4) JFB on Midian's descent (v. 15): JFB derive Midian from "the son of Cush," against the majority view (Gen. 25:2: Abraham by Keturah); flagged as a minority reading. (5) Gershom's etymology (v. 22): the text offers an assonance (gēr shām), not a strict derivation; Cambridge notes the form could conceivably come from gāraš, "expulsion" — the same root that 'drove away' the daughters in v. 17 (see the gāraš thread). We follow the text's own word-play and say so. (6) Verbal tiers: four threads (siḇlāh, rahaṭ, dālāh, Tsippôrāh) carry "verbal / quotation — confirmed" on the strength of a genuinely rare shared lexeme — the basis lines state the frequency explicitly and note these are rare-word links, not actual quotations of one verse by another. (7) Cross-Testament limit: the Stephen/Hebrews thread and both Christ readings cannot use Strong's numbers (Greek↔Hebrew); they are flagged or marked figural. The Acts 7 and Hebrews 11 retellings are real and are cited by the voices throughout, but they are the New Testament's reading of this unit, not an internal verbal quotation. (8) The salvation-verb (v. 17): the BSB's "to help them" renders yāšaʻ, the deliverance-root behind Joshua/Jesus; we flag this as the unit's most significant translation softening. (9) All voices are verbatim contiguous excerpts of the supplied public-domain commentary; the ⚙ synthesis layer (literal renderings, divergence notes, grand commentary, sola reading, and badges) is the tool's own, fallible, and marked.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)