Exodus Chapter 2 verse 12 Holy Bible
And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
read chapter 2 in ASV
And turning this way and that, and seeing no one, he put the Egyptian to death, covering his body with sand.
read chapter 2 in BBE
And he turned this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
read chapter 2 in DARBY
And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
read chapter 2 in KJV
And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
read chapter 2 in WBT
He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
read chapter 2 in WEB
and he turneth hither and thither, and seeth that there is no man, and smiteth the Egyptian, and hideth him in the sand.
read chapter 2 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - He looked this way and that way. Passion did not so move him as to make him reckless. He looked round to see that he was not observed,, and then, when he saw there was no man, slew the Egyptian. A wrongful act, the outcome of an ardent but undisciplined spirit; not to be placed among the deeds "which history records as noble and magnanimous (Kalisch), but among those which are hasty and regrettable. A warm sympathetic nature, an indignant hatred of wrong-doing, may have lain at the root of the crime, but do not justify it, though they may qualify our condemnation of it. (See the remarks of St. Augustine quoted by Keil and Delitzsch, 'Commentary on the Pentateuch,' vol. 1. p. 451: "I affirm that the man, though criminal and really the offender, ought not to have been put to death by one who had no legal authority to do so. But minds that are capable of virtue often produce vices also, and show thereby for what virtue they would have been best adapted, if they had but been properely trained," etc.) And hid him in the sand. There is abundant "sand" in the "field of Zoan," and in all the more eastern portion of the land of Goshen. (See the 'Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund' for July, 1880, p. 140.)
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) He looked this way and that way.--To see that no one observed him.He slew the Egyptian.--Jewish commentators gloss over the act, or even eulogise it as patriotic and heroical. But it was clearly the deed of a hasty and undisciplined spirit. The offence did not deserve death, and if it had, Moses had neither legal office nor Divine call, justifying him in making himself an executioner. The result was, that, by his one wrong act, Moses put it out of his power to do anything towards alleviating the sufferings of his brethren for forty years.Hid him in the sand.--To the east of the Delta the sand creeps up close to the cultivated grounds. There are even patches of it within the Delta itself. Moses naturally remembered that he dug the grave "in the sand." Any other writer would probably have said "in the ground."