1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. [Why does Moses not give us the names of his parents when he does give the names of the two midwives? Why does Moses come from Levite parents? The Levites are later chosen to be the tribe that serves God for worship.] 2 The woman conceived and bore a son [this is the sixteenth and final time that Moses uses this expression—having used it fifteen times in Genesis—and thereafter the expression ceases in his writings, suggesting he sees himself as the final figure in a long line of men and women through whom God had been preserving and preparing the formation of the nation of Israel], and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. [Moses’ parents saw he was special and hid him against the king’s edict. See Hebrews 11:23.] 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket [same word in Genesis 6-8 translated as “ark”] made of bulrushes [papyrus] and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. [Consider the significance of Moses’s mother protecting him from death in a small ark, just as God protected Noah and the animals by in a great ark. Why did his mother (Jochebed) hide him here?] 4 And his sister [Miriam (v. 15:20)] stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh [she was probably one of many/notice the salvation of Moses is by three women] came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. [The little ark was probably close to the shore for Moses’ sister to access it, and since the princess was in the water, she probably didn’t want to go through all the reeds to get to it and had her servant on the shore do it.] 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” [She is not a cold-blooded murderer like her father.] 7 Then his sister [who does not run away after the discovery but remains at her post] said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. 9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her [Jochebed], “Take this child away and nurse him for me [to her own house for about 3-4 years], and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. [Imagine how difficult it must have been for Jochebed to process all this at first.] 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses [an Egyptian name], “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” [The name Moses means “son” or “to beget a son.” It sounds like the Egyptians word for “draw out.”]
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