Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
When Pharaoh heard what had happened, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses ran away from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.
Moses had to flee Egypt and become a refugee in Midian because Pharaoh wanted to execute him for killing an Egyptian taskmaster.
📚 Historical Context
In the book of Exodus, Moses, who was raised in Pharaoh's household but was Hebrew by birth, had just killed an Egyptian overseer who was beating a Hebrew slave, an act that exposed his sympathies and put him in grave danger. When Pharaoh learned of this murder, he sought to execute Moses, forcing him to flee Egypt to avoid death and seek refuge in the land of Midian, a region inhabited by nomadic tribes east of the Sinai Peninsula. There, by a well, Moses began a period of exile that would later become pivotal in his life as God prepared him for his calling.
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