What Does Exodus 2:12 Mean?

He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The looking this way and that before acting reveals a Moses who knows what he is about to do is dangerous and concealed: this is not a public act of justice but a private act of lethal violence. The hiding of the body in the sand is the act of someone who knows the killing is not sanctioned and cannot be publicly defended. Moses acts out of the fierce loyalty he expressed in verse 11, but he acts outside any recognized authority to do so. His motivation is right; his method is unsanctioned violence followed by concealment.

The killing of the Egyptian by Moses is typically read through two interpretive lenses: the morally sympathetic reading sees Moses defending a helpless man from unjust violence in a system that provides no legal remedy; the morally cautionary reading notes that Moses acts unilaterally, without divine commission, hides the evidence, and precipitates his own exile. Both readings are present in the text.

Stephen's speech in Acts 7:25 offers the sympathetic reading: "He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand." Moses believed he was acting on behalf of his people's deliverance; the people did not recognize it as such.

The contrast between Moses at verse 12 and Moses at the bush in chapter 3 is the contrast between the leader who acts on his own initiative and the leader who acts under divine commission. At the bush, Moses will be reluctant and resistant; here, he is decisive and immediate. The formation required for Moses' calling includes the failure of self-initiated deliverance and forty years in the desert before he returns with divine authority. The act Moses conceals in the sand is the beginning of a long process of being made fit for the task he cannot accomplish on his own terms.