Exodus 2:7

7 Then the baby's sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"

Exodus 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 2:7

Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter
Miriam the sister of Moses, who observing the ark taken up, and the maidens that were walking upon the bank of the river, and other women perhaps, gathering about it to see it; she made one among them, and after hearing their discourse about it, proposed what follows to Pharaoh's daughter: Jarchi says, that Pharaoh's daughter tried several Egyptian women to suckle it, but it would not suck of them: Josephus ^F18 says the same, and it also is in the Talmud ^F19; and that, if true, gave Miriam a fair opportunity to offer to do the following message for her:

shall I go and call for thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may
nurse the child for thee?
for she perceived that she was desirous of having the child brought up as her own.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 Antiqu. l. 2. c. 9. sect. 5.
F19 T. Bab. Sotah, ut supra. (fol. 12.1)

Exodus 2:7 In-Context

5 While Pharaoh's daughter came to the Nile to take a bath, her servants walked along the bank of the river. She saw the basket among the papyrus plants and sent her slave girl to get it.

6 Pharaoh's daughter opened the basket, looked at the baby, and saw it was a boy. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. She said, "This is one of the Hebrew children."

7 Then the baby's sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"

8 She answered, "Yes!" So the girl brought the baby's mother.

9 Pharaoh's daughter said to the woman, "Take this child, nurse him for me, and I will pay you." She took the child and nursed him.