Chapter 2
A Levite man marries a Levite woman and Moses is born during the time when male children are being killed. His mother hides him three months, then puts him in a basket on the river. Pharoah's daughter finds him, adopts him, and hires Moses' own mother to nurse the baby for her. Then when he is older, Moses comes to live in the palace. It is Pharoah's daughter who names him Moses.
2021 - 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. [Exo 2:3 ESV] The underlined implies active, aggressive, continual searching for any Hebrew male children. I imagine patrols through the streets of the slave quarters, and any sound of a baby crying being investigated immediately, and any male being killed right at that second, in the presence of his mother. Unimaginable horror.
This verse: 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children." [Exo 2:6 ESV] So the movie is a bit misleading. There does not seem to be any indication that Moses true identity was concealed. As Pharoah's daughter, she could keep a Hebrew child if she wanted to do so. So many were being killed, who would care if Pharoah's daughter wanted a "doll" to play with? I wonder how she protected Moses from the patrols, though? It is clear that Pharoah's daughter didn't invite Moses' mother to the palace to nurse him. She went Moses home with her, with orders to bring him back to her, likely after he was weaned. There had to be a seal or something that made Moses immune to extermination by the Egyptians.
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. [Exo 2:11 ESV]
This surely implies that Moses grew up knowing he was Hebrew and not Egyptian, and that he identified always with his own people. Not like what is portrayed in the movie.
15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. [Exo 2:15 ESV]
So Moses ran away of his own accord, to escape Pharoah's justice. He was not captured and sent into exile against his will, as the movie shows.
Moses winds up in Midian, and helps some shepherd girls water their father's flocks. The father's name is given here as Reuel, and he is a priest of Midian. Moses stays with him and is given Reuel's daughter Zipporah as wife. Zipporah gives birth to Gershom.
During this time, Pharoah dies, and the people of Israel cry out to God over their slavery, and they cry to God for rescue.
25 God saw the people of Israel--and God knew. [Exo 2:25 ESV] What a great verse. God saw, and He knew.
2023 - This verse: 25 God saw the people of Israel--and God knew. [Exo 2:25 ESV]. Look at that last phrase. How much is implied by those three words? How universally true, how specifically true to every tiny thing in the universe. God sees, God knows. The KJV says it this very different way: 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto [them]. [Exo 2:25 KJV]. In the BLB, you can narrow the key words down to "yaw-dah". Makes you wonder if our "yada yada yada" comes from this Hebrew word? And how about "Yoda" from Star Wars? Looking strictly at the definition of the word, we find that it is complex in many many ways. It is translated "know" 625 times in the KJV. Next, at 105 times, is known. Here is what BLB says about the word: yaw-dah'; a primitive root; to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation, care, recognition; and causatively, instruction, designation, punishment, etc.):—acknowledge, acquaintance(-ted with), advise, answer, appoint, assuredly, be aware, (un-) awares, can(-not), certainly, comprehend, consider, × could they, cunning, declare, be diligent, (can, cause to) discern, discover, endued with, familiar friend, famous, feel, can have, be (ig-) norant, instruct, kinsfolk, kinsman, (cause to let, make) know, (come to give, have, take) knowledge, have (knowledge), (be, make, make to be, make self) known, be learned, lie by man, mark, perceive, privy to, × prognosticator, regard, have respect, skillful, shew, can (man of) skill, be sure, of a surety, teach, (can) tell, understand, have (understanding), × will be, wist, wit, wot. It can mean just about anything. So KJV seems to be saying, by the way it translates the phrase that includes "yada", that God fully comprehended the situation of the Hebrews. It wasn't just that he saw unfairness, but that he comprehended all the implications of their situation. The ESV is saying the same thing, just in fewer words. God knew. What a wonderful little verse.