Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 2:15

"Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well." — Exodus 2:15 (ASV)

When Pharaoh heard ... he sought to slay Moses. —Naturally. The administration of justice was one of the chief duties of the royal office; and the crime committed by Moses was one to be punished by death. There was nothing to reduce it from murder to manslaughter. And the motives which extenuate it in the eyes of moderns—patriotic zeal and hatred of oppression—would not have commanded the sympathies of a Pharaoh.

Moses fled. —Or, had fled. Moses would flee as soon as he found his act was known. He fled “at the saying” of the Israelite (Acts 7:29). When Pharaoh sought for him, he was gone.

Dwelt in the land of Midian —that is, “Was led to make Midian his home,” under circumstances about to be related. The Midian of this book seems to be the south-eastern portion of the Sinaitic peninsula, not the opposite Arabian coast, where the main settlements of the nation were.

Sat down by a well. —Rather, the well. There must have been one principal well in these parts, copious, and so generally resorted to. Moses fixed his temporary abode in its neighbourhood.