Exodus 2:4

4 And his sister was watching from a distance, to learn what would happen to him.

Exodus 2:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 2:4

And his sister stood afar off
This was Miriam, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; who is supposed to be about ten or twelve years of age, others say seven: she was placed ^F5, as the word may be rendered, by her parents, or, "she placed herself" ^F6, by their instruction, at some distance from the place where the ark was, that she might not be observed and be thought to belong to it, and yet so near as to observe what became of it, which was the intent of her standing there, as follows:

to wit what would be done to him;
to know, take notice, and observe, what should happen to it, if anyone took it up, and what they did with it, and where they carried it, for, "to wit" is an old English word, which signifies "to know", and is the sense of the Hebrew word to which it answers, see ( 2 Corinthians 8:1 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (butt) "collocata fuerat", Vatablus.
F6 "Stiterat sese", Junius & Tremellius, "stitit sese", Piscator, Drusius.

Exodus 2:4 In-Context

2 And she conceived, and bore a male child; and having seen that he was fair, they hid him three months.

3 And when they could no longer hide him, his mother took for him an ark, and besmeared it with bitumen, and cast the child into it, and put it in the ooze by the river.

4 And his sister was watching from a distance, to learn what would happen to him.

5 And the daughter of Pharao came down to the river to bathe; and her maids walked by the river's side, and having seen the ark in the ooze, she sent her maid, and took it up.

6 And having opened it, she sees the babe weeping in the ark: and the daughter of Pharao had compassion on it, and said, This of the Hebrew's children.