Exodus 2:6

6 She opened it and looked inside, and there in front of her was a crying baby boy! Moved with pity, she said, "This must be one of the Hebrews'children."

Exodus 2:6 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 2:6

And when she had opened it
The ark, for it was shut or covered over, though doubtless there were some apertures for respiration:

she saw the child [in it], and, behold, the babe wept;
and which was a circumstance, it is highly probable, greatly affected the king's daughter, and moved her compassion to it; though an Arabic writer says {p}, she heard the crying of the child in the ark, and therefore sent for it:

and she had compassion on him, and said, this is one of the Hebrews'
children;
which she might conclude from its being thus exposed, knowing her father's edict, and partly from the form and beauty of it, Hebrew children not being swarthy and tawny as Egyptian ones: the Jewish writers ^F17 say, she knew it by its being circumcised, the Egyptians not yet using circumcision.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F16 Patricides apud Hottinger. p 401.
F17 T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 12. 2. Aben Ezra in loc.

Exodus 2:6 In-Context

4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river while her maids-in-attendance walked along the riverside. Spotting the basket among the reeds, she sent her slave-girl to get it.

6 She opened it and looked inside, and there in front of her was a crying baby boy! Moved with pity, she said, "This must be one of the Hebrews'children."

7 At this point, his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Would you like me to go and find you one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"

8 Pharaoh's daughter answered, "Yes, go." So the girl went and called the baby's own mother.