Exodus 2:4

4 the while his sister stood afar, and beheld the befalling of the thing.

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 which conceived, and childed a son. And she saw him well-faring, and hid him three months. (who conceived, and bare a son. And she saw that he was a fine boy, and hid him for three months.)

3 And when she might not cover [him], then she took a basket of sedge, and balmed it with tar and pitch, and put the young child within, and put him forth in a place of spires of the brink of the flood, (And when she could no longer hide him, then she took a reed basket, and balmed it with tar and pitch, and put the young child in it, and put him out in a place of reeds by the bank of the Nile,)

4 the while his sister stood afar, and beheld the befalling of the thing.

5 Lo! forsooth the daughter of Pharaoh came down to be washed in the flood, and her damsels walked by the brink of the flood. And when she had seen a basket in the place of spires, she sent one of her servantesses, (Lo! then Pharaoh's daughter came down to wash in the River, and her slave-girls walked by the river bank. And when she had seen a basket among the reeds, she sent one of her slave-girls,)

6 and she opened the basket (when it was) brought to her, and she saw a little child weeping therein. And she had mercy on the child, and said, It is (one) of the young children of (the) Hebrews.