18When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

19They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

20“And where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”

21Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,^b saying, “I have become an alien in a foreign land.”

23During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.