Moses Is Preserved at the Nile
A Levite woman gives birth to a son and, seeing that he is a good or beautiful child, hides him for three months. When she can no longer hide him, she places him in a papyrus ark or basket coated with bitumen and pitch and sets it among the reeds by the Nile. His sister stands at a distance to learn what will happen.
Pharaoh’s daughter comes to the river, sees the basket, and has it brought to her. When she opens it and sees the crying child, she has compassion and recognizes that he is one of the Hebrews’ children. The child’s sister offers to find a Hebrew nurse, and the boy’s own mother is hired to nurse him. When the child grows, his mother brings him to Pharaoh’s daughter, he becomes her son, and she names him Moses because, as the story explains, she drew him out of the water.