The Finding of Moses

Pharaoh, alarmed by the growing power and number of the Israelites in Egypt, ordered that every newborn Hebrew boy be thrown into the river and drowned. But the wife of a man named Levi could not bear to give up her baby. For three months she hid him. When she could hide him no longer, she made a basket of reeds, coated it with tar and pitch so it would float and keep out water. She placed her infant son in this little ark and hid it among the reeds along the riverbank. She set the child's sister to watch from a distance.

Soon Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe, attended by her maidens. She noticed the basket among the reeds and sent a servant to fetch it.

When she opened it, the baby was crying. She felt sorry for him and said, "This is one of the Hebrew children." Then the child's sister approached and asked, "Shall I go and call a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you?" The princess answered, "Go." So the girl went and called her own mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to the woman, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the mother took her baby and cared for him.

When the child grew older, his mother brought him to the princess, who adopted him as her son and named him Moses, meaning "drawn out," because she had drawn him out of the water. Moses grew to be a great man, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.