You Shall Have No Other Gods:
The Book of Exodus
Lesson 2 God Hears His People Groaning
the book of Exodus 2:1–25
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the book of Exodus
cross references in the book of Exodus
next lesson: God Reveals His Name: ‘I AM WHO I AM’
This material coordinates with Lesson 2 on pages 10–14 in the study book You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus.
And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”—the book of Exodus 20:1–6
welcome to our in-depth study of the book of Exodus
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 28-
lesson Turning to 
God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson video overviews, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.
open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:
Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.
let’s review—the book of Exodus 1:1–22
Lesson 1 The More the People Are Oppressed, the More They Multiply sets the stage for the story of the LORD rescuing his people from bondage in Egypt. The first chapter picks up where the book of Genesis left off, describing how Jacob and his descendants settled in Egypt to begin with. A number of years have passed since then. (See “400 or 430 Years Living in Egypt?” on page 56 of You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus.) The current pharaoh isn’t concerned with how Jacob’s son Joseph helped the Egyptians during a famine that occurred centuries earlier. What does concern Pharaoh is the growing Israelite population and that for whatever reason these descendants of Jacob have failed to assimilate. Pharaoh’s solution is to oppress the Israelites with work. Despite being subjected to hard labor, the Hebrews continue to multiply at a rate Pharaoh finds alarming. He orders Hebrew midwives to kill all male babies born to the Israelites but to let female babies live. The midwives defy Pharaoh, letting the male children live. Shiphrah and Puah, midwives listed by name, tell Pharaoh that they’re unable to carry out his order because the Hebrew women deliver their babies before the midwives arrive. God is pleased with the midwives and blesses them with large families. Pharaoh then issues an edict that all Egyptians are to throw any male Hebrew baby they come across into the Nile River.
map notes—where is Midian?
The book of Exodus 2:11–15 describes Moses killing an Egyptian whom he’ss encountered beating a Hebrew. After learning that the murder is common knowledge and that news of it has reached Pharaoh, Moses realizes that Egypt no longer is a safe place for him. He hightails it to Midian to avoid facing certain death at the hands of Pharaoh. The book of Genesis 25:1–2 records that Midian is the name of one of the sons of Abraham born to Keturah, whom the patriarch married after the death of his wife Sarah. Midian himself is long dead, but his descendants dwell in territory to which Moses flees. Most scholars believe that this land was located on the Arabian Penninsula. Click on the map (right) to enlarge it. The original map is on page 12 in You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus.
three things are needed for the Israelites to be people of God (01:08:55)
Moses becomes a larger-than-life character in the Old Testament, and his actions 
described in the book of Exodus continue to influence descendants of Jacob even in the New Testament. Moses also remains a major religious figure in present-day Judaism. As Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps points out, however, the book of Exodus is about the development of Moses’ relationship with God. Three elements are needed for the entire Hebrew people to become the people of God—the people themselves, God, and a person to mediate between the Israelite people and God. That 
someone is Moses, but Moses isn’t chosen by God for the job because he’s the most qualified. He well may be the least suitable. The book of Exodus is relevant for present-day Christians because it offers guidance on how individuals can go about building on and improving their own individual relationships with God.
The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study from Turning to God’s Word match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus. You can follow along as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 2, “God Hears His People Groaning,” on pages 10–14 in the study book.
about the lineage of those Israelites
This family tree is one of six in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis. They show the lineage of the people of God as the story of 
salvation history progresses through the first book of the Old Testament. These visualizations make it easier to see the relationship between Old Testament figures beginning with Creation and stretching through the sons and grandsons of Jacob. Each genealogical chart takes up where the previous one left off. The red line that moves through these charts traces the descendants of Adam through to the grandsons of Perez in the tribe of Judah. This family line later will include Jesse and his son David, and into it Jesus eventually will be born. Click on the family tree (right) to enlarge it. The original genealogical chart is on page 41 in the study book In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis. A later family tree showing Jacob and his descendants who went to Egypt is included in Lesson 1 The More the People Are Oppressed, the More They Multiply on page 7 in You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus.
so what do we call these people?
It’s permissible to call the descendants of Jacob living in Egypt at the beginning of the book of Exodus either Hebrews or Israelites. (They aren’t properly referred to as Jews, a word that describes practitioners of the law-based religion of Judaism, which didn’t develope until the Babylonian Exile.) The Israelites take their name from Jacob, renamed Israel by God not once but twice—in the book of Genesis 32:28 and 35:9–10. Hebrews are in the line of Eber, a descendant of Noah in the line of Shem. Eber appears in the tenth chapter in the book of Genesis, usually referred to as the Table of Nations because it 
attempts to identify the 70 descendants of Noah. When that part of the Bible was compiled, the Table of Nations was thought to represent all of the peoples of the ancient world. Learn more about that period of salvation history in Lesson 7 Canaan, a Slave of Slaves in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.
what do the names Moses & Gershom mean?
The Egyptian name “Moses” or “Messes” means “born of,” and usually was combined with the name of a god (Thuth-moses or Ra-messes). The name Moses also may come from the Hebrew 
verb masha, which means “to draw out.” In the book of Exodus 2:10, Pharaoh’s daughter displays a surprising understanding of Hebrew language when she’s recorded saying that she named the child Moses “because I drew him out of the water.” The book of Exodus 2:22 recounts that Moses names his first son Gershom, which means “sojourner in a foreign land.” On the video overview for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps points out a couple of different ways that Moses might have understood the name Gershom to apply to his own life. You can learn more in the vocabulary box “Sojourner” on page 13 in the study book. Meanings of proper names are included with most entries in the online glossary for You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus.
kill—you could look it up in our archives
At the heart of Christianity is the New Covenant, emphasizing God’s total control over matters of life and death. Learn more about the spiritual laws that continue to govern human life and death even into the present day—including what it means to kill another person—in Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.
Moses’ identity crisis
On the video overview, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps points out that it seems weird in context to say Moses is opposed to witnessing injustice. Killing someone for beating someone else certainly is an excessive and unjust 
punishment. It probably speaks to Moses’ conflict about his own identity and sets the stage for the change that Moses will undergo when he meets God. This section of the book of Exodus isn’t about God or God’s justice; it probably isn’t even about the Hebrews or about justice in general. Despite being raised in the Egyptian palace, Moses seems to value his Hebrew lineage (and Hebrews) more highly than his Egyptian background (and Egyptians). In the book of Exodus 2:13, Moses treats two Hebrews fighting very differently from the book of Exodus 2:11–12, in which Moses kills an Egyptian he observes beating a Hebrew.
pay attention
The book of Exodus 2:24 contains the first mention of God’s covenant with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and indeed the first mention of any covenant at all in the second book of the Torah. (The Torah includes the first five books of the Old Testament—the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.)
? Why might the author choose at this time to introduce the idea of the LORD’s covenant with the Old Testament patriarchs?
? Consider whether it’s likely that God really had forgotten all about the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
? If it seems illogical that an all-knowing God would be capable of failing to remember anything, what might be the purpose for suggesting such a thing in the book of Exodus?
? How might any future covenants described in the Old Testament differ from the one God entered into with Abraham and extended to Abraham’s son Isaac and then to Abraham’s grandson Jacob?
? Consider how the Old Covenant described in the Old Testament differs from the New Covenant initiated by Jesus in the New Testament.
read the Catechism—sins that cry to heaven
The book of Exodus 2:23 describes the Israelites’ cry of bondage in Egypt reaching God. Scripture 
suggests that the LORD then remembers his covenant with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; this causes God to decide to rescue his people. Paragraph 1867 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that there are several sins guaranteed to attract the attention of the LORD.
1867 The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are “sins that cry to heaven”: the blood of Abel, the sin of the Sodomites, the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice to the wage earner.
a study leader shares her thoughts
The following exchange veers from our standard question-and-answer format, but others may find it helpful. It comes from a study leader in a group planning to tackle one of our other studies.
comment: Thank you for your online study pages. They’re such a bonus. In our Bible study, more questions come up in our leaders’ group than in my individual group about why you ask a certain question, or what you might be thinking, or where you’re leading with your questions. I’ve often been able to point to the online study pages for direction and clues. I need to remind the other group leaders and myself that you’re trying to get us to think and pray about Scripture and its impact in our lives rather than limiting Bible study to an assignment that can be completed with a single academic answer.
response: We appreciate your comments, especially since we know that these online study pages aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. We go to some effort to provide optional information here and in the videos for participants interested in digging a little deeper.
Matthew, Tami, and I feel that it’s important for people to know that sometimes asking the right questions is more valuable than having all the answers. It took us at Turning to God’s Word some time to reach this idea. The bottom line is that no one’s able to hold onto information that they’re spoon-fed the same way that they can remember and live it when they have to dig out concepts themselves. This is a big departure from the scholarly model of Bible study where everyone expects an expert to tell them what the Scripture means, what’s important, and why. Sometimes when one of us sits in with a group, someone will ask what we had in mind when we wrote a particular question. People almost always find it shocking when they’re told that we were thinking we wouldn’t mind hearing a discussion about how others view the Scripture passage that sparked the question.
Studying Scripture presents some special stumbling blocks. Some images and ideas in the Old Testament we might or might not recognize as also occurring in the New Testament. There’s a danger that we become so concerned with understanding the message as it originally would have been received, especially in the Old Testament, that we miss noticing that everything points toward Jesus. Then there’s the other side of that danger, in which we concentrate so much on a Christian interpretation that we miss important historical information that can shed light on Jesus and what he came to do. Finally, there’s a very real danger that we will begin to view Jesus as the end point and so miss seeing that the work of the Church only begins with Jesus’ death and Resurrection.
It’s easy to get derailed in one area and miss the big picture, which is why group discussion is helpful. If one person is focusing on history, someone else may be looking at the way the writing points to Jesus. Another person may be concentrating on how these ancient books are relevant in the present-day world. These different points of view combine to give us a clearer picture of who God is and what God is saying to us in Scripture.
more about the online study pages & videos
We hope that some people will find Bible study so compelling that they’ll want more information than realistically fits in the study books. We want to provide a vehicle for extra material and an easy way for people to ask questions and make comments, especially with so many contradictory views floating around on the Internet and elsewhere.
It’s also our intent that the books, online study pages, and videos each be able to stand alone if need be. We don’t want financial concerns or the lack of a compatible group to prevent anyone from reading and praying with the Bible. We know that there are people in our groups who never look at the website or watch the videos, just as there are people who do those things and more. The only really necessary part of studying the Bible, however, is reading the Bible. Everything else is secondary.
The caution we would add is that if you’re limiting your Bible study experience to reading the Bible—and you’re aware that you don’t understand what you’re reading—you probably should take a look at the commentaries in the study book and on the online study pages, and also listen to any related videos. Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps frequently addresses some of the more obvious difficulties in those places. If you’ve read all of our related commentaries and watched our related videos and still have questions, shoot us an email. We’re always happy to discuss Scripture, and some of our most cherished insights have come about in conversation with others.
the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic Bible study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however, including the passage in this lesson from the book of Exodus 2:1–25.
ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out when a person or place is mentioned in the biblical text under more than one name or more than one spelling. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the biblical text for every lesson in You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus.
to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a particular passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant 
cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page, and it includes links to cross references in the primary biblical text for You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus.
don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.
eex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
Link to magisterial documents referred to in our Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. 
This listing includes significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.
wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, open the link and click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
the book of Exodus 2:1–25 (NIV)
close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps. If you prefer, you can use the following short prayer based on this lesson’s text from the book of Exodus.
O God, all of humanity continues to groan
under the weight of sin.
Help us to trust in your love for us,
and grant us faith to believe that you always hear us
when we call on you for help.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,
who died, and behold, is alive for evermore. Amen.
Lesson 3 God Reveals His Name: ‘I AM WHO I AM’, the book of Exodus 3:1–22
Lesson 1 The More the People Are Oppressed, the More They Multiply, the book of Exodus 1:1–22
you also may like our two-part study of the prophets
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in their historical context using the First and Second Books of the Kings and other Old Testament passages written before the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the post-exilic prophets. This 51-lesson Catholic Bible study builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King. Click on the books’ covers to view a sample lesson from each volume.
start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus. 
Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer your questions and to offer support. You may use this email to contact us directly if you’re interested in starting a Turning to God study or in having your study schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer
*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?
Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.
The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.
Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.
You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.