Exodus 2:6

_AND WHEN SHE HAD OPENED IT, SHE SAW THE CHILD: AND, BEHOLD, THE BABE WEPT. AND SHE HAD COMPASSION ON HIM, AND SAID, THIS IS ONE OF THE HEBREWS' CHILDREN._ When she had opened it - the princess exclaimed, "This is one of the Hebrews' children" - most probably recognized to be one of that race by the mark of circumcision upon his body ('Cause Morale de Circoncision,' p. 180). The narrative is picturesque. No tale of romance ever described a plot more skillfully laid or more full of interest in the development. The expedient of the ark-the slime and pitch-the choice of the time and place-the appeal to the sensibilities of the female breast-the stationing of the sister as a watch of the proceedings-her timely suggestion of a nurse-and the engagement of the mother herself,-all bespeak a more than ordinary measure of ingenuity, as well as intense solicitude on the part of the parents. But th...

5-10 Come, see the place where that great man, Moses, lay, when he was a little child; it was in a bulrush basket by the river's side. Had he been left there long, he must have perished. But Providence brings Pharaoh's daughter to the place where this poor forlorn infant lay, and inclines her heart to pity it, which she dares do, when none else durst. God's care of us in our infancy ought to be often mentioned by us to his praise. Pharaoh cruelly sought to destroy Israel, but his own daughter had pity on a Hebrew child, and not only so, but, without knowing it, preserved Israel's deliverer, and provided Moses with a good nurse, even his own mother. That he should have a Hebrew nurse, the sister of Moses brought the mother into the place of a nurse. Moses was treated as the son of Pharoah's daughter. Many who, by their birth, are obscure and poor, by surprising events of Providence, are r...

Verse Exodus 2:6. _SHE HAD COMPASSION ON HIM_] The sight of a beautiful babe in distress could not fail to make the impression here mentioned; Exodus 2:2, Exodus 2:2. It has already been conjectured that the cruel edict of the Egyptian king did not continue long in force; see Exodus 1:22. And it will not appear unreasonable to suppose that the circumstance related here might have brought about its abolition. The daughter of Pharaoh, struck with the distressed state of the Hebrew children from what she had seen in the case of Moses, would probably implore her father to abolish this sanguinary edict....

SHE HAD COMPASSION ON HIM - The Egyptians regarded such tenderness as a condition of acceptance on the day of reckoning. In the presence of the Lord of truth each spirit had to answer, “I have not afflicted any man, I have not made any man weep, I have not withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings” (‘Funeral Ritual’). There was special ground for mentioning the feeling, since it led the princess to save and adopt the child in spite of her father’s commands....

EXPOSITION. Exodus 2:1. THE BIRTH, ESCAPE, AND EDUCATION OF MOSES. Some years before the Pharaoh issued his edict for the general destruction of the Hebrew male children, Amram of the tribe of Levi, had married Jochebed, his kinswoman (Exodus 6:20). They had already had two children — Miriam, a daughter, born probably soon after the marriage, and Aaron, a son, born some twelve years later. Soon after the issue of the edict, Jochebed gave birth to her third child, a son, who therefore came under its terms. Knowing as she did what fate was in store for him, if his existence became known to the Egyptians, she "hid him three months." Then, despairing of being able to keep him concealed much longer, she devised the plan related in...

AND WHEN SHE HAD OPENED IT,.... The ark, for it was shut or covered over, though doubtless there were some apertures for respiration: SHE SAW THE CHILD [IN IT], AND, BEHOLD, THE BABE WEPT; and which was a circumstance, it is highly probable, greatly affected the king's daughter, and moved her compassion to it; though an Arabic writer says p, she heard the crying of the child in the ark, and therefore sent for it: AND SHE HAD COMPASSION ON HIM, AND SAID, THIS IS ONE OF THE HEBREWS' CHILDREN; which she might conclude from its being thus exposed, knowing her father's edict, and partly from the form and beauty of it, Hebrew children not being swarthy and tawny as Egyptian ones: the Jewish writers q say, she knew it by its being circumcised, the Egyptians not yet using circumcision. p Patricides apud Hottinger. p 401. q T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 12. 2. Aben Ezra in loc....

2. MOSES THE CHOSEN DELIVERER CHAPTER 2 Moses: His Birth, Education, Choice, and Exile _ 1. His birth and concealment (Exodus 2:1)_ 2. His rescue and education (Exodus 2:5) 3. His choice and failure (Exodus 2:11) 4. His exile (Exodus 2:15) 5. His marriage (Exodus 2:21) 6. The answered cry (Exodus 2:23) The history of the chosen deliverer, recorded by himself under the guidance of the Spirit, follows the dark picture of Israel

EXODUS 2:1 TO EXODUS 4:31. PREPARATION AND CALL OF MOSES. Exodus 2:1 E. His Birth and Upbringing. If the text can be trusted, we are informed that a man of the house of Levi took (to wife) the (only) daughter of Levi (_cf. Exodus 6:20_, Numbers 26:59 P), who would thus be, according to the genealogy of P, his aunt, or the sister of his father Kohath. Possibly, however, the text has been abridged, and ran, as LXX with some variations suggests, took one of the daughters of Levi to wife and made her his own (lit. had her). It is implied in...

SHE SAW THE CHILD. Rather; "She saw him, the child, and behold,. male infant weeping." The weeping child appealed to. sympathy, natural to the heart of. woman. She was. merciful daughter of. cruel father, and though she recognized him as one of the Hebrew children, doomed to death, she obeyed the dictates of her woman's heart, rather than the king's edict.... The voice of Egyptian edicts said, "It is. Hebrew, he must die." The mightier voice of nature--no, of God, spake within her, and said, "It is. human being--bone of your bone, and sharing the same life." That moment the princess of Egypt escaped from the trammels of time-distinctions and temporary narrowness, and stood upon the rock of the eternal. So long as the feeling lasted she breathed the spirit of that kingdom in which there is "neither Jew nor Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." So long as the feeling lasted, she br...

THE BABE WEPT. Hebrew. babe weeping. compassion. In that tear lay the defeat of the enemy, the preservation of the Nation, the faithfulness of Jehovah's word, the bringing to naught "the wisdom of Egypt", and the coming of "the seed of the woman", Genesis 3:15. Compare Exodus 1:10 and Job 5:12; Job 5:13. (See App-23.)...