TANAKH · EXODUS · 5 OF 5
Hearing the cry
Read Exodus 2:23–25, build a supported account of Israel’s story, and follow the cry into Moshe’s commission.
In this lesson
Return to the people
We have followed Israel’s growth, Pharaoh’s oppression, the midwives’ refusal, a child’s rescue and Moshe’s flight. The story now turns back to the Israelites. Moshe has found a household in Midian, but our people still labor in Egypt. A change in one life has not yet brought the people out.
This final reading joins the parts. First listen to the people’s cry and the narrator’s account of God’s response. Then make your own explanation of how the two opening chapters prepare for deliverance. Finally, test that explanation against a new passage from chapter 3.
Hashem, “the Name,” is our customary way of referring to God. In the first source below the Hebrew calls him Elohim, rendered “God.” Brit means covenant: the enduring bond and commitments named here with our fathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Hear the repeated cause
וַיְהִי בַיָּמִים הָרַבִּים הָהֵם וַיָּמָת מֶלֶךְ מִצְרַיִם וַיֵּאָנְחוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִן־הָעֲבֹדָה וַיִּזְעָקוּ וַתַּעַל שַׁוְעָתָם אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִים מִן־הָעֲבֹדָה׃
וַיִּשְׁמַע אֱלֹהִים אֶת־נַאֲקָתָם וַיִּזְכֹּר אֱלֹהִים אֶת־בְּרִיתוֹ אֶת־אַבְרָהָם אֶת־יִצְחָק וְאֶת־יַעֲקֹב׃
וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֵּדַע אֱלֹהִים׃During those many days, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of the labor and cried out; their cry rose to God because of the labor. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Avraham, with Yitzchak and with Yaakov. God saw the Israelites, and God knew.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva; punctuation is editorial
The phrase “because of the labor” appears twice. The king’s death marks a change, but the verse still names the labor as the cause of the groaning and cry. Read what continues as carefully as what changes.
1. Does the king’s death end the oppression in this passage?
No release is narrated here. The Israelites groan and cry because of the labor, a cause repeated in verse 23. The passage moves from their continuing distress to God’s response.
2. List the four actions attributed to God in verses 24–25.
God heard, remembered, saw and knew. The hearing concerns their groaning; remembering concerns his covenant with the fathers; seeing concerns the Israelites. The last clause simply says “God knew,” without stating an object.
Follow the covenant through the story
Worked reading. A reader says, “The chapter ends by telling us that the Israelites left Egypt.” Return to the verbs. They tell us what God heard, remembered, saw and knew; they do not yet describe the departure. A precise summary says that the narrative brings Israel’s distress and God’s covenant together as the story turns toward deliverance.
“Remembered” directs our attention to an existing covenant, not a new agreement made in this scene. The named fathers connect the suffering people to the family story that came before them. The text gives us a basis for hope in Hashem’s faithfulness while the people’s suffering remains real.
Our reading should keep both truths. We need not make the suffering disappear to recognize God’s attention, and we need not treat the people as forgotten in order to hear the force of this turning point. In the next passage, Hashem himself speaks about seeing, hearing and knowing their distress.
3. Repair the sentence “God makes a new covenant here, and everyone is immediately free.”
God remembers his covenant with Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, hears the groaning and sees the Israelites. The verses do not describe a new covenant or the departure from Egypt. They direct the reader toward the rescue that follows.
Build your account of the opening
Before reading the model, write a five-part account of Exodus 1:1–2:25. You may reopen the earlier lessons. Give each part a short heading and at least one verse reference:
- What changes between the opening family list and the policy of the new king?
- How do the midwives respond to the king’s command, and what does the narrator say motivates them?
- Which people act to preserve the child by the river?
- How does Moshe’s life move from Egypt to Midian?
- What has changed, and what still awaits resolution, at the end of chapter 2?
Then write two sentences answering: How do particular acts of care stand within the larger story of oppression? Distinguish the actions the text names from a pattern you infer. Your account should include the people as well as Moshe.
4. Check the five parts against the narrative.
Israel grows after the generation of Yosef dies, and the new king treats that growth as a threat (1:6–11). The midwives fear God and keep the boys alive (1:17). The child’s mother, sister and Pharaoh’s daughter each act in his rescue and care (2:1–10). After the killing becomes known and Pharaoh seeks his life, Moshe flees to Midian and establishes a household (2:11–22). Israel still cries because of the labor, while God hears and remembers his covenant (2:23–25).
5. Compare your pattern with this supported example.
Pharaoh’s policies seek to suppress Israel and kill its boys, while the midwives keep boys alive and the women around the river preserve one child (1:16–17, 1:22, 2:1–10). I see a pattern of life preserved through particular people’s actions amid a larger threat; that is my synthesis of the scenes. Those acts matter, but the final cry shows that the people’s bondage has not yet ended.
Test your reading against a fresh passage
Now move forward. In Exodus 3, Moshe is tending a flock in Midian when God calls to him from the burning bush. Read this new passage without opening the answers. Find language that recalls chapter 2, then identify what is newly commanded.
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת־עֳנִי עַמִּי אֲשֶׁר בְּמִצְרָיִם וְאֶת־צַעֲקָתָם שָׁמַעְתִּי מִפְּנֵי נֹגְשָׂיו כִּי יָדַעְתִּי אֶת־מַכְאֹבָיו׃
וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ מִיַּד מִצְרַיִם וּלְהַעֲלֹתוֹ מִן־הָאָרֶץ הַהִוא אֶל־אֶרֶץ טוֹבָה וּרְחָבָה אֶל־אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ אֶל־מְקוֹם הַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַחִתִּי וְהָאֱמֹרִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי וְהַחִוִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי׃
וְעַתָּה הִנֵּה צַעֲקַת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בָּאָה אֵלָי וְגַם־רָאִיתִי אֶת־הַלַּחַץ אֲשֶׁר מִצְרַיִם לֹחֲצִים אֹתָם׃
וְעַתָּה לְכָה וְאֶשְׁלָחֲךָ אֶל־פַּרְעֹה וְהוֹצֵא אֶת־עַמִּי בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָיִם׃Hashem said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their pains. I have come down to rescue them from Egypt’s power and bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Now the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which Egypt oppresses them. Now go. I will send you to Pharaoh; bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva; punctuation is editorial
6. Which words connect this speech to the end of chapter 2?
Seeing, hearing, knowing and the people’s cry connect the passages. In 2:24–25 the narrator speaks about God; in 3:7–10 Hashem speaks to Moshe about his people’s distress and the rescue. The change of speaker strengthens the connection without making the passages identical.
7. What new responsibility does verse 10 give Moshe?
Hashem sends him to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. The man who fled Pharaoh is now sent back to him. This is a commission expressed in God’s speech, unlike the question about his authority in 2:14.
Carry the whole account forward
At your next session, close the pages and tell the opening of Shemot in about a minute. Include one named act of care, the continuing bondage, the covenant and Moshe’s commission. Then reopen the sources and correct one detail or add one missing link.
8. How can you judge the strength of your account?
It follows the order of the story, includes Israel rather than only Moshe, supports its claims with actual actions or words, and distinguishes rescue of a child from deliverance of a people. It ends with the commission in 3:10 rather than jumping ahead to events not yet read. A useful correction makes your next telling more faithful to the source.
Read in context
- Exodus 1: growth, oppression and the midwives.
- Exodus 2: the child, the fugitive and the people’s cry.
- Exodus 3: the burning bush and Moshe’s commission.
Return to Names under oppression to reread the opening with the whole movement in view.