He enslaves them and later decrees that all Jewish male babies should be thrown into the river. Two of his leading midwives, however, disobey the order. Moses is born, placed in a basket in the river, and found by Pharaoh's daughter, who eventually takes him into her home. Moses leaves the royal palace as a young man, and stumbles onto an Egyptian beating a Hebrew man. He kills the aggressor.
Word spreads quickly.
Moses flees to Midian. With Moses' good character established, God later appears to him in a burning bush and instructs him to go to Pharaoh to bring the Jews out of Egypt. Moses objects at first, but eventually God wins out. Moses and his brother Aaron go in God's name to Pharaoh and request a three-day holiday for the Jews in the desert, to worship their God. Pharaoh responds by making their slave labor more difficult.