#3 – Exodus 2:1-10
A Baby Boy is Spared
The setting (Exodus 2:1-4):
In a very familiar story, “boy meets girl” and they marry. In this instance, the writer of the story provides us with the details that both groom and bride are from the Tribe of Levi. But at this point these characters are unnamed[1] – a bit unusual in a book that begins with “These are the names . . . .”[2]
The wife conceives and bears a son. Happy news! Except . . . Hebrew baby boys are under a death sentence, remember?[3]
But this mom’s nurturing instincts prevail. She hides her beautiful baby for three months. And then, no doubt fearful of the implications should her defiant act be discovered, she places her infant son in a pitch-sealed wicker basket among the reeds on the bank of the Nile. Her daughter[4] is strategically placed as an unobtrusive guardian.
The turn of events (Exodus 2:5-10):
The king’s daughter (again, unnamed) goes to the Nile with her maidens to bathe. She spies the basket and has her maid fetch it. Opening it, she finds a crying baby boy.
The text records that “she had pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrews’ children.’”[5]
On such a small word, “pity,” hangs the fate of this infant. Surely Pharaoh’s daughter knew her father’s edict and what happened to those who disobeyed it.
And now the first daughter, the sister of the rescued infant, approaches with an offer. “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?”[6]
Pharaoh’s daughter consents. The mother is instructed to nurse her own little boy – for pay, even! After he is weaned, Pharaoh’s daughter claims him as her own. And gives him the name Moses.[7]
Fear factor/Misery index:
The focus of the story has narrowed. The majority of the Hebrews continue to suffer,
both in rigorous physical labor and psychic pain as infant boys are murdered. But for one family, there is delight in the preservation of a helpless little boy and giving him a hopeful future – even if it is within the walls of the palace of a wicked and cruel king.
Where is G-d?
Unmentioned in the text, we are left to see the silent hand of G-d. How many Hebrew mothers took steps to hide their infant sons? We aren’t told. We only learn of one boy who
is “fished out of the Nile” by a princess. That Jochebed has the joy of caring for her son until weaned is an unexpected blessing in the midst of a time of deep suffering. Heaven overrules the mandates of a powerful potentate once again, simply by arranging the “chance encounter” of Pharaoh’s daughter with Baby Moses and filling her heart with pity.
[1] Amram and Jochebed are named as Moses’ and Aaron’s parents in Exodus 6:20.
[2] In Hebrew, the Second Book of Moses is called “Shemot” (“Names”), taken from the opening sentence. The English title “Exodus” is Greek for “The road out.” The 12 sons of Israel are named in Exodus 1, as are the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. (It’s sad, really, that “Shiphrah and Puah” seem like strange names to most people today. One would think that many families would want to name their daughters after these G-d-fearing, pagan-king-defying heroes of the faith.)
[3] “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile” was Pharaoh’s edict in Exodus 1:22.
[4] We learn later the elder sister’s name is Miriam.
[5] Exodus 2:6.
[6] Exodus 2:7. We are left to wonder, Was it Pharaoh’s daughter evident pity that emboldened Miriam to approach?
[7] “The English name “Moses” comes from “Moshe,” which in Hebrew means “drawn out.”
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