Exodus 2:1 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

II.
THE BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND EARLY LIFE OF MOSES.

(1) There went. — Comp. Genesis 35:22; Hosea 1:3. The expression is idiomatic, and has no special force.

A man of the house of Levi. — Note the extreme simplicity of this announcement; and compare it with the elaborate legends wherewith Oriental religions commonly surrounded the birth of those who were considered their founders, as Thoth, Zoroaster, Orpheus. Even the name of the man is here omitted as unimportant. It is difficult to conceive any one but Moses making such an omission.

A daughter of Levi — i.e., a woman of the same tribe as himself, a descendant of Levi — not a daughter in the literal sense, which the chronology makes impossible.

Exodus 2:1

1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.