Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 2:23

"And it came to pass in the course of those many days, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage." — Exodus 2:23 (ASV)

in process of time. —Hebrew, in those many days. As Moses was now eighty years old (Exodus 7:7), and only forty when he left Egypt, the Pharaoh from whom he fled must have reigned for more than forty years. Between the beginning of the eighteenth and the end of the nineteenth dynasty, only two kings seem to have reigned for this long—Thothmes III and Rameses II. Our choice of the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled thus lies between these two.

The children of Israel sighed. —Or, “groaned.” They had perhaps expected that a new king would initiate a new policy, or, at any rate, signal his accession by a remission of burdens. But the new monarch did neither.

Their cry came up to God. —“Exceeding bitter cries” always find their way to the ears of God. The existing oppression was such that Israel cried to God as they had never cried before, and so moved Him to have compassion on them. The miraculous action, begun in Exodus 3:1, is the result of the cries and groans mentioned here.