Exodus 2:1–10

The Birth of Moses

2Now a man of the tribe of Levi^c married a Levite woman,^{d 2}and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine^e child, she hid him for three months.^{f 3}But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus^g basket^a for him and coated it with tar and pitch.^h Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reedsⁱ along the bank of the Nile. ⁴His sister^j stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank.^k She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

⁷Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

⁸“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. ⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named^l him Moses,^b saying, “I drew^m him out of the water.”