Baby Moses in the Basket

Jacob’s family had come to Egypt long before, seventy people in all, and Joseph was already there. After Joseph, his brothers, and that whole generation died, the children of Israel kept increasing. They became very many, and the land was filled with them.

Then a new king arose in Egypt, one who did not know Joseph. He feared the Israelites because they were numerous, so he set taskmasters over them and made them work hard. They built the store cities Pithom and Raamses. Yet the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and spread.

The king spoke to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, and ordered them to kill baby boys when the Hebrew women gave birth. But the midwives feared God and let the boys live. So Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw every Hebrew son into the river, while the daughters were to live.

In that time, a man from the house of Levi married a daughter of Levi, and she gave birth to a son. Seeing that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she made a papyrus basket, coated it with tar and pitch, and placed him among the reeds by the riverbank. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen.

Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to bathe, and her servant fetched the basket from the reeds. When she opened it, she saw the crying baby and had compassion on him, recognising him as one of the Hebrews’ children. The child’s sister offered to call a Hebrew woman to nurse him, so the baby’s own mother cared for him and was paid. When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she drew him out of the water.