Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 2 tells Moses' birth, rescue from the Nile, adoption by Pharaoh's daughter, flight to Midian, marriage to Zipporah, and the death of the Pharaoh who had sought his life. The chapter's single most consequential LXX rendering is at 2:2 — asteios to paidion ('the child was refined/well-favored') — which supplies the exact vocabulary Hebrews 11:23 and Acts 7:20 use of the infant Moses. The LXX's asteios is NT-inherited Mosaic adjective.
Notable Variants
The asteios rendering at 2:2 that Hebrews 11:23 and Acts 7:20 quote; the LXX's identification of 'Midian' as 'Madiam' and 'Reuel' (also called Jethro) following Hebrew name-traditions; the concluding verse 25 where the LXX specifies that God 'was known to them' rather than the enigmatic MT 'God knew.'
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 2 preserves MT's 25-verse structure. The narrative flow is identical.
A man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi.
The marriage of Moses' parents (both Levites) is rendered in LXX without substantive variation.
The woman conceived and bore a son. She saw that he was a fine child, and she hid him for three months.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַתֵּרֶא אֹתוֹ כִּי־טוֹב הוּא
She saw that he was a fine child, and she hid him for three months
Septuagint (LXX)
ἰδόντες δὲ αὐτὸ ἀστεῖον ἐσκέπασαν αὐτὸ
Seeing that he was refined, they hid him
The LXX renders Hebrew ki-tov ('that he was good/fine') as asteion ('refined, urbane, well-favored') — an adjective that conveys physical beauty with overtones of cultural grace.
Acts 7:20 ('Moses was born and was asteios to God') and Hebrews 11:23 ('they saw that the child was asteion') both quote this LXX vocabulary verbatim. The NT reading of Moses as 'no ordinary child' is built on the LXX's specific word.
Philo of Alexandria (Life of Moses 1.9) also emphasizes Moses' asteios appearance as a sign of his destined greatness. LXX Exodus 2:2 is the textual basis for a strand of Hellenistic Jewish and early Christian piety that made Moses' physical beauty a divine omen.
When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket and coated it with bitumen and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
Masoretic (WLC)
תֵּבַת גֹּמֶא
a papyrus basket
Septuagint (LXX)
θῖβιν
a basket (thibin)
Hebrew tevat gome ('basket of papyrus') is rendered with a single Greek word thibis — a loanword from Egyptian, possibly the same word Hebrew tevah is itself borrowed from.
The Hebrew tevah is used for only two objects in the entire Hebrew Bible: Noah's ark (Gen 6–9) and Moses' basket here. The deliberate lexical link between the two rescue-arks is a striking inner-biblical pattern. The LXX loses the link by rendering Noah's vessel as kibōtos and Moses' as thibis — two different Greek words.
His sister stationed herself at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Miriam stationed at a distance watching is rendered closely in LXX.
Then Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe at the Nile, while her attendants walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant girl to fetch it.
Pharaoh's daughter's descent to bathe follows MT in LXX; the basket is the same thibis from v. 3.
She opened it and saw the child — a baby boy, crying. She felt compassion for him and said, "This is one of the Hebrew children."
Pharaoh's daughter's compassion (esplanchnisthē in LXX) on the Hebrew child uses the same splanchn- root that the Gospels use for Jesus' compassion.
Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you?"
Miriam's offer to fetch a Hebrew nurse is rendered closely in LXX.
Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." So the girl went and called the child's mother.
The Hebrew girl fetching Moses' mother is rendered without substantive variant.
Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.
Pharaoh's daughter's commission and payment offer is rendered directly in LXX.
When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "Because I drew him out of the water."
Masoretic (WLC)
וַתִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ מֹשֶׁה וַתֹּאמֶר כִּי מִן־הַמַּיִם מְשִׁיתִהוּ
She named him Moses, saying, 'Because I drew him out of the water'
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐπωνόμασεν δὲ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Μωυσῆν λέγουσα ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος αὐτὸν ἀνειλόμην
She named him Moysēs, saying, 'from the water I took him up'
The Hebrew name Moshe is etymologically 'the one who draws out' (from mashah, 'to draw out'), linked by wordplay to the participle meshitihu ('I drew him out').
LXX transliterates as Mōysēs and renders the etymological note with aneilomēn ('I took up'). The Hebrew wordplay is preserved semantically but loses its phonetic elegance.
Josephus (Antiquities 2.228) explains the name as Egyptian: mo ('water') + ysēs ('saved'). This etymology is historically more plausible but is not what the biblical text offers.
One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
Moses' visit to his brothers and the Egyptian beating a Hebrew is rendered closely in LXX.
He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Moses' killing of the Egyptian and hiding in the sand is rendered directly in LXX.
He went out the next day, and there were two Hebrew men fighting. He said to the one in the wrong, "Why are you striking your companion?"
The two Hebrews fighting follows MT in LXX.
The man replied, "Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "The matter is surely known."
Masoretic (WLC)
מִי שָׂמְךָ לְאִישׁ שַׂר וְשֹׁפֵט עָלֵינוּ
Who made you a ruler and judge over us?
Septuagint (LXX)
τίς σε κατέστησεν ἄρχοντα καὶ δικαστὴν ἐφ᾽ ἡμῶν
Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?
Acts 7:27, 7:35 cites this verse in Stephen's speech — 'Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?' (tis se katestēsen archonta kai dikastēn) — in its LXX wording.
Stephen's rhetorical turn is decisive: the Israelite who rejected Moses that day prefigures the nation that rejected Christ. Acts 7:35 references this Moses whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' — the citation works only with the LXX vocabulary.
This is one of Acts 7's clearest demonstrations of LXX dependency in typological argument.
When Pharaoh heard about this, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
Moses' flight to Midian and sitting by the well is rendered closely in LXX (Madiam for Midian).
The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, filling the troughs to water their father's flock.
The priest of Midian's seven daughters drawing water follows MT in LXX.
But shepherds came and drove them away. Moses rose up and defended them and watered their flock.
The shepherd-conflict and Moses' defense of the women tracks MT.
When they returned to Reuel their father, he said, "How is it that you have come back so soon today?"
Masoretic (WLC)
וַתָּבֹאנָה אֶל־רְעוּאֵל אֲבִיהֶן
When they returned to Reuel their father
Septuagint (LXX)
παρεγένοντο δὲ πρὸς Ραγουηλ τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν
They came to Ragouēl their father
Reuel here is also called Jethro (Exod 3:1, 4:18) and Hobab (Judg 4:11, Num 10:29). The name-cluster for Moses' father-in-law has long puzzled commentators. LXX preserves all the names in distinct forms (Ragouēl, Iothor, Chōbab) without attempting to resolve the multiplicity.
They said, "An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
The daughters' account of Moses' rescue from shepherds is rendered closely in LXX.
He said to his daughters, "Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to eat bread."
Reuel's invitation to dinner tracks MT.
Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.
Moses' marriage to Zipporah (Sepphōra in LXX) follows MT in LXX.
She bore a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land."
Masoretic (WLC)
וַיִּקְרָא אֶת־שְׁמוֹ גֵּרְשֹׁם כִּי אָמַר גֵּר הָיִיתִי בְּאֶרֶץ נָכְרִיָּה
he called his name Gershom, for he said, 'I have been a sojourner in a foreign land'
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐπωνόμασεν δὲ Μωυσῆς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Γηρσαμ λέγων ὅτι πάροικός εἰμι ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ
Moses named him Gērsam, saying, 'I am a sojourner in a foreign land'
LXX renders ger ('sojourner, resident alien') as paroikos — the same word that underlies NT usage of 'sojourners and exiles' (paroikoi kai parepidēmoi) at 1 Peter 2:11 and related passages. The identity-vocabulary of NT Christian self-understanding traces to this LXX-Exodus word.
Gershom's name etymology — ger-sham, 'a sojourner there' — is preserved in the LXX's explanation but the phonetic wordplay is lost in transliteration.
During those many days the king of Egypt died. The sons of Israel groaned because of the slavery and cried out, and their cry for help rose up to God from the bondage.
The death of the Egyptian king and Israel's cry to God under slavery is rendered closely in LXX.
God heard their cries of anguish and called to mind His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God's remembering the covenant with the patriarchs follows MT's theological triad (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) in LXX's standard form.
God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֵּדַע אֱלֹהִים
God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ ἐπεῖδεν ὁ θεὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς Ισραηλ καὶ ἐγνώσθη αὐτοῖς
God looked upon the sons of Israel, and was known to them
The Hebrew ends with the enigmatic absolute 'God knew' — knew what? The LXX resolves the ambiguity by reading a passive 'was known to them' (egnōsthē autois) — God made himself known to Israel.
The Hebrew's deliberate open-endedness (with the reader supplying the implied object — knew their suffering, knew them, knew the time had come) is replaced in LXX with a theophanic claim that matches the upcoming burning bush narrative.