But some other shepherds came and chased them away. So Moses jumped up and rescued the girls from the shepherds. Then he drew water for their flocks.
Parallel translations
- WEB The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
- KJV And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
- BSB And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.
- NKJV Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
- NASB Then the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
When shepherds drive the women away, Moses defends them and waters their flock. His instinct to help the oppressed appears again, now rightly expressed.
Overview
Moses' readiness to stand against injustice resurfaces, but here it serves and protects rather than kills. The same zeal that led to violence in Egypt is now channeled into godly help. The episode shows God refining Moses' character even before formally calling him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Gen 29:10When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.
- Gen 21:25Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.
- Gen 26:15–22Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.
- Exod 2:12He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 2:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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