Moses in the Basket
During a time when Pharaoh had ordered every Hebrew baby boy to be thrown into the Nile River, a Levite woman gave birth to a son and hid him for three months, unable to bear the thought of losing him. When she could no longer keep him hidden, she made a basket of papyrus reeds, coated it with tar and pitch to make it watertight, and placed her baby inside. She set the basket among the reeds along the riverbank, and stationed the baby's older sister nearby to watch what would happen.
Soon, Pharaoh's own daughter came down to bathe in the river. She noticed the basket among the reeds and sent her attendant to fetch it. When she opened it, she found the baby crying, and her heart was moved with compassion, even though she recognized he must be one of the Hebrew children.
At that moment, the baby's sister stepped forward and asked if she should find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for her. Pharaoh's daughter agreed, and the girl brought back their own mother, who was hired to nurse her own son without anyone realizing the connection.
When the child grew older, his mother brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her own son and named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water." The baby rescued from a river of death would grow up in Pharaoh's own household, prepared for a role no one could have imagined.
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See the full scripture text this story is based on.
- 2:1And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
- 2:2And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
- 2:3And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.
- 2:4And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
- 2:5And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
- 2:6And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.
- 2:7Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
- 2:8And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.
- 2:9And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
- 2:10And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
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