The Birth of Moses (Exodus 2:1-10).
It is noteworthy that out of this dreadful period God produced his man for that hour. For in the midst of the bloodbath and the despair a child was born, who would be the deliverer of his people.
a A man of Levi marries a daughter of Levi (Exodus 2:1).
b The woman bares a son and hides him for three months (Exodus 2:2).
c She puts him in a waterproofed basket of bulrushes and puts it in the reeds at the Nile's edge (Exodus 2:3).
d The baby's sister stands by to see what will happen to him (Exodus 2:4).
e The daughter of Pharaoh, watched over by her maids, comes to bathe in the river (Exodus 2:5 a).
f She sees the basket and sends a handmaid to fetch it (Exodus 2:5 b).
f She opens it and sees the child weeping (Exodus 2:6 a).
e She has compassion on him and declares him to be one of the ill-fated Hebrew children, a child of the river (Exodus 2:6 b).
d Moses' sister asks if she should seek a Hebrew wet nurse for him (Exodus 2:7).
c Pharaoh's daughter sends Moses' sister and she brings the child's mother, she who put the child in the basket, and Pharaoh's daughter pays her wages to wean the child (Exodus 2:8-9).
b The child grows and she adopts it as her son (Exodus 2:10 a)
a He is called Moses because he was drawn out of the water (Exodus 2:10).
The parallels here are striking. In ‘a' the child comes from the chosen tribe of Israel, and in the parallel comes forth from the river. In ‘b' the woman bears her son and in the parallel the daughter of Pharaoh adopts him as her son. In ‘c' the woman commits her son to God and in the parallel is called on to bring him up. In ‘d' the sister waits to see what will happen and in the parallel is there to find a wet nurse for the baby. In ‘e' Pharaoh's daughter comes to the river, and in the parallel she sees Yahweh's chosen one, a child of the river, and has compassion on him. The great enemy's household will protect the child of God's deliverance. In ‘f' she sends for the basket and in the parallel opens it
‘And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi, and the woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw him that he was a healthy child she hid him three months.'
“A man from the household of Levi.” Notice that the full blown tribal title ‘Levite' is not yet in use (contrast Exodus 4:14). These titles are gradually developing. We note also that no names are given here for Moses' father and mother. This may suggest that Amram and Yochebed were in fact ancestors of Moses and not his actual father and mother (compare Exodus 6:20, which see). What is important is that Moses came from the chosen tribe (Deuteronomy 18:5).
So here from the beginning of Exodus there is an emphasis on the special obedience of the tribe of Levi. This will come out again later, both with regard to the worship of the molten calf (Exodus 32:26-28), and with regard to the slaughter of the idolatrous Simeonite chief and his adulterous, idol-worshipping lover (Numbers 25:7). It was this special zeal for God that would make them suitable to be His chosen servants.
“Daughter of Levi.” Not necessarily directly so, but a woman descendant as with ‘son of' (but see Numbers 26:59). The question again is whether Numbers 26:59 is to be taken literally without any generations missed out. If so Yochebed cannot be the direct mother of Moses if they were in Egypt for four hundred years. But it was quite common in genealogies to miss out names and only include important ones.
The mother hid her baby for three months to prevent any ill-wisher from throwing him into the Nile. Possibly she stayed hidden in the house and did not announce the birth, or possibly she made out to everyone that he was a girl and kept him in secrecy, although it may be that that would be frowned on by worshippers of God (Deuteronomy 22:5). Note that Hebrew stresses that this was an act of faith (Hebrews 11:23). His parents were expecting God to do something.
“For three months.” That is, for a goodly time, until it was no longer possible.
“Was a healthy child.” The word can been translated, ‘goodly', ‘handsome', ‘beautiful'. It is the word used in Genesis 1 of the world being ‘good'. The point is rather that there was something about him that made his mother see him as good in God's eyes, as ‘promising' and ‘whole'.
The suggestion that ‘conceived and bore a son' indicates only a firstborn, as has been suggested, cannot be maintained as is evident from Genesis 38:4.
‘And when she could no longer hide him she took for him a papyrus basket and daubed it with slime and pitch, and she put the child in it and laid it in the reeds by the brink of the Nile. And his sister stood some distance away to see what would be done to him.'
Once the baby was too old to continue hiding she knew that she had to formulate another plan. She made (or had by her) a basket of papyrus (‘an ark of papyrus'). It would be made of papyrus strips bound or woven together. She then made it watertight by covering it with bitumen and pitch. Such chests often served as housing for the images of gods dedicated to temples. Perhaps she hoped that some Egyptian would see it as an offering to the Nile and would be disposed to keep it, not knowing it was a Hebrew child, although if he was circumcised on the eighth day that would be a give-away (when Egyptians circumcised they did so at around thirteen).
It will be noted that by her action she was technically following the law. To an Egyptian she would be seen as offering him to the Nile god, and by that she could cover herself. But in her heart she was offering him to God. She believed that somehow Yahweh would intervene to save him. It may well be that she had in mind the ‘ark' through which Noah had been delivered. Certainly the writer, in using the same word for ‘ark', would have that in mind. Once again then we have a parallel with Genesis.
The circumstances fit the times. It may be that Moses' mother was influenced by stories she had heard of similar things happening to others. That of Sargon of Agade is often quoted. In the case of Sargon, his own mother exposed him to drowning by putting him in a basket-shaped boat and setting him afloat, because he was an illegitimate child. But the record about Sargon is Babylonian, and the motive is different and even the term for the ark is different - Sargon's was a basket- shaped boat, kuppu, which was intended to go to sea, and to float away. Here it was no boat, and the desperate plan was not to set him afloat on the Nile to drift away so that she would be rid of him, but with the express purpose of saving her baby's life. There is no hint of Babylonian influence in the story here. It is purely Egyptian.
“In the reeds.” Probably actually in the water among the reeds, as she had waterproofed it. It may well have been a recognised place for ritual ablutions among wealthy and distinguished Egyptians, and she may even have known that Pharaoh's daughter went there to worship regularly.
“His sister stood some distance away”. The mother was committing her child into God's hands but her faith in God is demonstrated by the fact that she wanted if possible to know what happened to him, and so the daughter of the house kept watch in order to see what might happen. She had not just deserted her baby in despair.
‘And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along by the river side, and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her handmaid to fetch it.'
And so it happened that one of Pharaoh's daughters came down to bathe in the Nile. This may well have been for the purposes of a ritual act as the Nile was worshipped in the form of the god Ha‘pi, the spirit of the Nile flood. It would be a private place and her maids would patrol the banks to keep prying eyes away while she bathed. It was the princess herself who spotted the basket, for she was the one who entered the water among the reeds in order to bathe herself in the Nile, and she sent her personal servant to obtain it for her. It is probable that she thought it would contain an image of the gods and wondered why it was there.
“The daughter of Pharaoh.” This may not mean simply any daughter of the Pharaoh, but be a literal reproduction of the Egyptian Saat Nesu, "daughter of the king", being the official title of a princess of royal blood, just as Sa Nesu, "son of the king", was the official title of royal princes.
But Pharaoh had many daughters, born to both royal wives and concubines, living in harems throughout Egypt which would be regular hives of activity. An inscription on the temple at Abydos in Egypt gives the names of fifty nine daughters of Rameses II. Their children would be educated by ‘the overseer of the harem' (the ‘teacher of the children of the king'), and later be given a tutor who would be a high official at court or a military official close to the king.]
Note the contrast in the analysis. On the one hand is Pharaoh's daughter, descended from the great Pharaoh himself, the self-avowed enemy of the people of God, on the other is the baby, one of His people, chosen by God and under His protection. And He constrains Pharaoh's daughter to care for the babe.
‘And she opened it and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. And she had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” '
When she opened it to her surprise she saw a baby. And just then the baby woke and cried. This moved her heart and she clearly determined that she would keep it. Her quick mind immediately recognised that it was a Habiru child (see article, " "). That is how she would think of it) and she knew what their fate was to be. But she felt sorry for it and was ready to show it mercy. So she determined to adopt it as her own. Perhaps she herself had proved infertile. It may indeed have been that it was about that that she had prayed as she bathed. And she no doubt felt that she was above the wrath of Pharaoh, and anyway, she knew that she could depict it as a gift from the god Ha‘pi. And it may well be that that was how she saw it.
‘Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?” '
We are not told the detail of the princess's decision, except by implication, nor of what was said, but the quick-witted sister of Moses recognised the position, and managing to approach her, offered to find a nursemaid for her among the Habiru. A nursemaid would be needed who could breast-feed the child, for neither the princess or her maids were in that position, nor would they want the task of nursing the child and dealing with his ablutions, and that was what would be required of a nurse. What was needed was a woman who still had milk in her breasts. In those days women who had such milk available because their own child had died, often hired themselves out for the purpose of suckling a child.
‘And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” And the woman took the child and nursed it.'
Moses' mother was brought and was passed as suitable. Then she was sent away to look after the child, but hardly back to her home. Rather it would probably be to some sumptuous nursery with everything needed on hand. There she would have responsibility for the child and would be paid for her service. The princess would no doubt look in whenever she felt like it to find out ‘her child' was progressing.
‘And the child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and said “Because I drew him out of the water.”
When the child had been weaned at about three of four years old his mother brought him to Pharaoh's daughter who then officially adopted him.
“He became her son.” It would appear that this is the time at which she named him. It is probable that his mother has already been calling him ‘Moses' (mosheh - ‘one who draws forth') as the one who had been ‘drawn out' (mashah) of the water and had ‘drawn out' compassion from the princess, and that she had explained this to the princess. (Moses' mother would certainly speak some Egyptian). This would explain the princess's amused comment and how she introduced a Hebrew verb (mashah) into her Egyptian speech. She may have Egyptianised the name to ‘ms' (‘child' or ‘one born') or even mu-sheh (‘child of the lake' signifying the Nile), or initially she may have attached the name of a god to ms (‘child of --'). But we must be careful here. The ‘s' in ms is different from the ‘sh' in Moses and is not the usual transposition (which counts against the princess originally choosing the name ms for then it would be transposed correctly and not as Mosheh. The Egyptian for Ra‘amses, for example, does not take on ‘sh' in Hebrew. But if the name was already settled on the basis of the Hebrew a transposition to the Egyptian language need not have been quite so particular). But her naming of the child is mentioned because it was very important in political terms. It marked him as being of the royal house, and as being a gift from the Nile god.
The name is in deliberate contrast to the fate of other Hebrew males. They were thrown into the water, but Moses was drawn out of the water. We can compare here 2 Samuel 22:17; Psalms 18:16 which may well have had this incident in mind, and certainly illustrate it, ‘He sent from above, He took me, He drew me from many waters, He delivered me from my powerful enemy and from those who hated me for they were too strong for me'. God turned the tables on Pharaoh, and Moses was constantly there as a witness to the fact.
It is probable that Pharaoh's vindictive command did not last for too long a period. Perhaps he found that his own people were unwilling to carry out their invidious task enthusiastically, especially after the first waves of deaths. It was hardly a policy that most people would put much effort into on a continual basis once their blood lust and anger had been assuaged. Perhaps the Egyptians began to recognise that they would lose a good source of slave labour. And perhaps he was made to recognise that it was after all only a long term solution. It would be twenty or more years before it even began to work effectively. And the animosity which would arise among the large numbers of ‘Hebrews' would meanwhile be difficult to contain. The fact is that it was not a workable long term policy even for a tyrant.