The Birth of Moses #32

The birth of Moses takes place under a death sentence. In Exodus 1 and 2, a Hebrew baby is born in Egypt while Pharaoh is trying to reduce the Israelite population, and his mother hides him, then sets him afloat on the Nile in a basket. Pharaoh’s own daughter finds and adopts him, and the child who was meant to die becomes Israel’s deliverer.

Biblical Account

Exodus 1 opens generations after Joseph’s death. A new king, “which knew not Joseph,” feared that the growing Israelites might side with Egypt’s enemies, so he set taskmasters over them and forced them into heavy labor on building projects (Exodus 1:8-14). When that did not reduce their numbers, he told the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill the newborn boys. The midwives feared God and let the boys live, and God rewarded them (Exodus 1:15-21). Pharaoh then ordered that every newborn Hebrew boy be thrown into the Nile (Exodus 1:22).

A man and woman of the tribe of Levi had a son, and seeing that he was a fine child, the mother hid him for three months (Exodus 2:1-2). Their names, Amram and Jochebed, appear later in Exodus 6:20. When she could hide him no longer, she made a basket of bulrushes, waterproofed it with bitumen and pitch, and placed it among the reeds at the river’s edge, while the baby’s sister stood at a distance to see what would happen (Exodus 2:3-4). The Hebrew word for the basket is the same word used for Noah’s ark.

Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe, saw the basket, and felt compassion when she saw the crying child, saying, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children” (Exodus 2:5-6). The sister came forward and offered to find a Hebrew nurse, and the child’s own mother was called and paid to nurse him (Exodus 2:7-9). When the boy grew, he was brought to Pharaoh’s daughter, who named him Moses, “because I drew him out of the water” (Exodus 2:10).

Theological Significance

The account shows God at work through ordinary and often powerless people: two midwives, a mother, a sister, and an Egyptian princess. It also anticipates what Moses will do for Israel. He is drawn out of the water, and later he will lead a people through the sea. The pattern of a child preserved from a ruler’s decree also echoes in the birth of Jesus in Matthew 2.

The New Testament looks back on the story in two ways. Hebrews says that Moses’ parents hid him by faith because they saw that he was a beautiful child and were not afraid of the king’s edict (Hebrews 11:23). Stephen adds that Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds (Acts 7:20-22).

Historical and Archaeological Notes

The name Moses is explained in Exodus through a Hebrew word meaning “to draw out,” though many scholars note that it also resembles an Egyptian element meaning “born of,” found in names like Thutmose. The two explanations are not necessarily exclusive. A Mesopotamian text about the birth of Sargon of Akkad, who was also set in a reed basket on a river, is sometimes compared with the story, and scholars differ over what the similarity implies.