Exodus 2:1-10

The Birth and Adoption of Moses

1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, ¹

2 and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.

3 But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket ^[a] and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

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

5 Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it.

6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the little boy was crying. So she had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew children.”

7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”

8 “Go ahead,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. And the girl went and called the boy’s mother.

9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.

10 When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses ^[b] and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”

Exodus 2:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 2

This chapter relates the birth of Moses, and his preservation in an ark of bulrushes, Ex 2:1-3. His being found by Pharaoh's daughter, took up, and put out to nurse by her, and adopted for her son, Ex 2:4-10, some exploits of his when grown up, taking the part of an Hebrew against an Egyptian whom he slew, and endeavouring to reconcile two Hebrews at variance, when one of them reproached him with slaying the Egyptian, Ex 2:11-14, which thing being known to Pharaoh, he sought to slay Moses, and this obliged him to flee to Midian, Ex 2:15 where he met with the daughters of Reuel, and defended them against the shepherds, and watered their flocks for them, Ex 2:16,17, which Reuel being informed of, sent for him, and he lived with him, and married his daughter Zipporah, by whom he had a son, Ex 2:18-22 and the chapter is concluded with the death of the king of Egypt, and the sore bondage of the Israelites, and their cries and groans, which God had a respect unto, Ex 2:23-25.

was Amram, the son of Kohath, and grandson of Levi, as appears from Ex 6:18,20

\\and took to wife a daughter of Levi\\; one of the same house, family, or tribe; which was proper, that the tribes might be kept distinct: this was Jochebed, said to be his father's sister, \\see Gill on "Ex 6:20"\\: her name in Josephus {s} is Joachebel, which seems to be no other than a corruption of Jochebed, but in the Targum in 1Ch 4:18 she is called Jehuditha.

{s} Antiqu. l. 2. c. 9. sect. 4. 09514-950103-1343-Ex2.2

Cross References

• 1. (Acts 7:20–22; Hebrews 11:23)

Footnotes

• [a]. The Hebrew can also mean ark; also in verse 5; see Genesis 6:14.
• [b]. Moses sounds like a Hebrew term that means to lift out.