Exodus 2 opens with the birth of Moses in Egypt. A Levite man and woman conceived a child. The mother hid him for three months to protect him from Pharaoh's decree that all Hebrew baby boys would be killed. When she could no longer conceal him, she placed him in "an ark of bulrushes" coated with slime and pitch and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. The baby's sister watched from a distance to see what would happen to him.

Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe and discovered the basket among the reeds. When she opened it and saw the crying baby, she felt compassion for him and recognized him as one of the Hebrew children. The baby's sister stepped forward and offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. Pharaoh's daughter agreed, and the girl fetched none other than the baby's own mother. Pharaoh's daughter paid the mother to nurse the child, and the boy was raised by his own mother until he was old enough to be brought back to Pharaoh's daughter. She adopted him as her own son and named him Moses because she "drew him out of the water."

Exodus 2 then jumps forward to Moses as a grown man. He went out among his own Hebrew people and witnessed their hard labor and suffering. When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he looked around to make sure no one watching. Then he killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand. The next day, he went out again and saw two Hebrews fighting each other. He confronted the one in the wrong, asking why he was attacking a fellow Hebrew. The man responded by asking who made Moses a ruler and judge over them — and whether Moses intended to kill him as he had killed the Egyptian. Moses was frightened, realizing that his act had become known.

When Pharaoh heard about what Moses did, he sought to kill him, and Moses fled to the land of Midian. He sat down by a well and encountered the seven daughters of a Midianite priest named Reuel (also called Jethro). When some hostile shepherds drove the women away from the well, Moses came to their defense and helped them water their flock. When they returned home earlier than usual, their father asked why, and they explained that an Egyptian man had helped them. Reuel invited Moses to share a meal, and Moses agreed to stay with him. In time, Reuel gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his wife. She bore him a son, whom Moses named Gershom, saying that he had been "been a stranger in a strange land."

Back in Egypt, the king died, and the Israelites continued to groan under the weight of their slavery. Their cry for help rose up to God, and He heard them. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He looked upon the Israelites with concern.