Exodus 2:2

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹ A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife. ² The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. ³ When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank. ⁴ His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 2433, bc 1571

she saw: Psalms 112:5, Acts 7:20, Hebrews 11:23

Reciprocal: Exodus 6:20 - Amram Numbers 26:59 - General Joshua 2:6 - hid them Matthew 2:13 - for Acts 7:21 - when

Cross-References

Genesis 1:31
God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:8
Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 2:11
The name of the first is Pishon: this is the one which flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

Exodus 23:12
"Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the alien may be refreshed.

Exodus 31:17
It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.'"

Deuteronomy 5:14
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God: [in it] you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your man-servant and your maid-servant may rest as well as you.

Isaiah 58:13
If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, [and] the holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking [your own] words:

John 5:17
But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, so I am working, too."

Hebrews 4:4
For he has said somewhere about the seventh day like this, "God rested on the seventh day from all his works;"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the woman conceived, and bare a son,.... Which was not her first child, nor indeed her first son, for she had both Aaron and Miriam before this: this son, which was Moses, was born, as the Jews say t, in the thirty seventh year after the death of Levi, A. M. 2365, (or, as others, 2368,) on a Wednesday, the seventh of the month Adar, in the third hour of the day: some say it was on the twenty fourth of Nisan; but, according to Bishop Usher u, he was born forty one years after the death of Levi, A. M. 2433, and in the year before Christ 1571,

and when she saw him that he was a goodly child; exceeding fair and beautiful, as Stephen expresses it, Acts 7:20, the Jews say w his form was like an angel of God, and Trogus x, an Heathen writer, says his beautiful form recommended him: this engaged the affections of his parents to him, and who, from hence, might promise themselves that he would be a very eminent and useful person, could his life be preserved:

she hid him three months; in her bedchamber, some Jewish writers say y; others z, in a house under ground, that is, in the cellar; however, it was in his father's house, Acts 7:20.

t Shatshalet Hakabala, fol. 5. 2. Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 7. 1. u Annal. Vet. Test. p. 18. w Pirke Eliezer, c. 48. fol. 57. 2. x Justin e Trogo, l. 36. c. 2. y Chronicon Mosis, fol. 3. 2. z Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c.48. fol. 57.2)

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bare a son - Not her firstborn; Aaron and Miriam were older than Moses. The object of the writer is simply to narrate the events which led to the Exodus, and he mentions nothing that had no direct bearing upon his purpose.

A goodly child - See the marginal references. Probably Jochebed did not call in a midwife Exodus 1:15, and she was of course cautious not to show herself to Egyptians. The hiding of the child is spoken of as an act of faith in Hebrews 11:23. It was done in the belief that God would watch over the child.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 2:2. Bare a son — This certainly was not her first child, for Aaron was fourscore and three years old when Moses was but fourscore, see Exodus 7:7: and there was a sister, probably Miriam, who was older than either; see below, Exodus 2:4, and see Numbers 26:59. Miriam and Aaron had no doubt been both born before the decree was passed for the destruction of the Hebrew male children, mentioned in the preceding chapter.

Goodly child — The text simply says כי טיב הוא ki tob hu, that he was good, which signifies that he was not only a perfect, well-formed child, but that he was very beautiful; hence the Septuagint translate the place, Ιδοντες δε αυτο αστειον, Seeing him to be beautiful, which St. Stephen interprets, Ην αστειος τῳ Θεῳ, He was comely to God, or divinely beautiful. This very circumstance was wisely ordained by the kind providence of God to be one means of his preservation. Scarcely any thing interests the heart more than the sight of a lovely babe in distress. His beauty would induce even his parents to double their exertions to save him, and was probably the sole motive which led the Egyptian princess to take such particular care of him, and to educate him as her own, which in all likelihood she would not have done had he been only an ordinary child.