The friendly act of Mo'ses was resented by the two He'brews, and the one who had been the aggressor in the quarrel said to him, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed that E'gyp-tian?" This placed Mo'ses in a very difficult position. His own people feared him because he had slain the E'gyp-tian while trying to protect one of them, and now they resented his friendly effort to promote peace and good will among them. He had been right in his sympathy for them, and was justified in using force to protect the man whom the taskmaster was treating so cruelly, but in killing the E'gyp-tian he had committed a serious crime against the government.
The life of Mo'ses was now in danger. If news that he had murdered one of the E'gyp-tian officers reached Pha'raoh, he would probably be put to death as a criminal. Fearing for his own life, and knowing that once his sympathy for the oppressed and hated He'brews became known to the king there would no longer be any hope of delivering them, he fled from the country at once. He went across the desert to the east of E'gypt into A-ra'bi-a, and into the part of the peninsula that was known as Mid'i-an. He was compelled to remain in hiding, for Pha'raoh was greatly angered when he learned of the death of the E'gyp-tian overseer. The king felt that his hospitality had been abused, and that a member of his own household had turned against him in order to help the He'brews; it was ordered, therefore, that the young prince be captured and put to death.
While hiding in Mid'i-an, Mo'ses lingered by the side of a well and gave serious thought to his problems. He had suddenly found it necessary to forsake the ease and comfort of the E'gyp-tian palace, and to give up the kindness of the princess who had adopted him.
Now in the country known as Mid'i-an there lived a noble priest who owned large flocks of sheep and other valuable properties. He had seven daughters who cared for his flocks, and who often brought them for water to the well where Mo'ses was resting. There were also in that vicinity certain shepherds who were unfriendly toward the young women, and who often molested them when they came to the well to draw water for their sheep.
While Mo'ses was sitting by the well lost in deep thought, the seven daughters of the Mid'i-an-ite priest came to water their flocks. Then the ill-mannered shepherds came and started to drive away the flocks that were being watered. Mo'ses saw the unkind treatment of the women, and knew that someone ought to help them. Realizing that he was now a wanderer because he had once tried to help others in a matter which they thought did not concern him, he must have been strongly tempted not to interfere, but he could not bear to see the women so ill treated. He rebuked the shepherds, drove them away, and then drew water for the flocks of sheep which belonged to the priest of Mid'i-an.
