A reading from the book of Exodus.

A certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman who conceived and bore a son.

Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months.

When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket, dobed it with bitumen and pitch,

and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the riverbank. His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe,

while her maids walked along the riverbank.

Noticing the basket among the reeds,

she sent her head maid to fetch it.

On opening it, she looked and lo, there was a baby boy, crying. She was moved with pity

for him and said, it is one of the Hebrew's children. Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter,

shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?

Yes, do so, she answered.

So the maiden went and called the child's own mother.

Pharaoh's daughter said to her,

Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you.

The woman therefore took the child and nursed it.

When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter,

who adopted him as her son and called him Moses.

For she said, I drew him out of the water.

On one occasion, after Moses had grown up, when he visited 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 slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

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