Moses is born—and hidden
Exodus 2:1–10
In this desperate situation, one baby boy survives. His parents are from the tribe of Levi, which will one day become the priestly tribe. The baby is placed in a mini-ark and hidden in the reeds by the River Nile. There his loud cries, which had made it impossible to hide him at home, become an asset. He is found and adopted by none other than Pharaoh’s daughter. She asks his own mother to care for him through babyhood, and then adopts him. She names him ‘Moses’, which means ‘Draw Out’, because she drew him out of the water. Moses is brought up in the royal household, with the double advantages of an Egyptian education and his mother’s love.
NOW [Amram] a man of the house of Levi [the priestly tribe] went and took as his wife [Jochebed] a daughter of Levi. [Exod. 6:18, 20; Num. 26:59.]
2 And the woman became pregnant and bore a son; and when she saw that he was [exceedingly] beautiful, she hid him three months. [Acts 7:20; Heb. 11:23.]
3 And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark or basket made of bulrushes or papyrus [making it watertight by] daubing it with bitumen and pitch. Then she put the child in it and laid it among the rushes by the brink of the river [Nile].
4 And his sister [Miriam] stood some distance away to learn what would be done to him.
5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the bank; she saw the ark among the rushes and sent her maid to fetch it.
6 When she opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the baby cried. And she took pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children!
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?
8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and called the child’s mother.
9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she called him Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
Andrew Knowles, The Bible Guide,
