Moses Kills the Egyptian and Flees to Midian
Defending a beaten Hebrew, Moses kills the taskmaster, flees Egypt, and spends decades shepherding in Midian for Jethro, whose daughter Zipporah he marries.
Going out to the labour sites, Moses saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew. He looked this way and that, saw that there was no man, killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. The next day he found two Hebrews fighting, tried to separate them, and was told: who made you ruler and judge over us — do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Realising the matter was known and that Pharaoh had condemned him, Moses fled east. In Midian he sat by a well and intervened again, this time for the seven daughters of Jethro, kept from the water by rough shepherds, and he watered their flocks. Jethro took him in, and Moses married Zipporah; their sons were Gershom and Eliezer. The elder son's name means I was a stranger in a foreign land — an Egyptian to the Hebrews, a Hebrew to the Egyptians, a foreigner in Midian. The Torah gives these decades a single line, but tradition treats them as an apprenticeship in leading a flock that neither understands the road nor gives thanks.