The Birth and Adoption of Moses

(Acts 7:20–22, Hebrews 11:23)

Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he [was a] beautiful [child], she hid him for three months.

3 

But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket[fn] and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in [the basket] and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 

Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the little boy was crying. So she had compassion on him and said,“This is one of the Hebrew children.”

7 

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter,“Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”

8 

“Go ahead,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. And the girl went and called the boy’s mother.

9 

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her,“Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.

10 

When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses[fn] and explained“I drew him out of the water.”

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