Exodus 2:1-10

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.¹ The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby,² she hid him for three months.³ When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch;⁴ she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.⁵ His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him.⁶

‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’⁷

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’⁸

So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’⁹ So the woman took the child and nursed it.

When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses,¹⁰ ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

1 His Levite identity mean little in the context, but for the author and his listeners this signals the beginnings of the priestly tribe.

2 Moses, the future hero, is already a “fine baby”. Reflects the “and saw it was good” language of Genesis 1

3 More nonviolent resistance.

4 Echoes of Noah's ark in Genesis 6:14

5 Hoping for a miracle? Hoping he would be mistaken for an Egyptian?

6 An Egyptian, even the very daughter of Pharaoh, can have pity on a Hebrew baby.

7 Quick thinking! More nonviolent resistance.

8 Even the daughter of Pharaoh is disobeying him now.

9 Gets not only her baby back, but wages too. God works things better than we could imagine.

10 Does Moses know who his true mother is?


Take-home: A new twist is given to the power dynamic behind the ethnic tensions – a Hebrew baby is raised in the Pharaoh's very household. God, though never mentioned, is clearly manipulating events behind the scenes.