23 The words “its mother” and “its flesh” are among the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” According to this tradition the text originally had here “our mother” and “our flesh,” but the ancient scribes changed these pronouns from the first person to the third person. Apparently they were concerned that the image of Moses’ mother giving birth to a baby with physical defects of the sort described here was somehow inappropriate, given the stature and importance of Moses.

In other versions

Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”

Please don’t let her be like a dead baby whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

Don’t let her be like a stillborn baby, already decayed at birth.”

Please do not let her be like the dead, whose flesh is half consumed when coming out from the womb of its mother.”

Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb.

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