Exodus 2

30 Mar 2026 - Theology

God Heard Their Cry

When Moses was born, his mother put him in an ark (box) of papyrus to hide him from being killed (3). This reminds us of the story of Noah, who built an ark for himself and his family to be safe from the impending judgment of a flood (Genesis 6-9a).

How did the daughter of Pharaoh know that the child was a Hebrew baby? She knew because of the circumcision of Moses, which was performed on the eighth day of his life (according to the covenant of circumcision that God made with Abraham in Genesis 17).

Why did Pharaoh’s daughter name the baby Moses? The name Moses (or Mosheh in Hebrew) is similar to the Hebrew word mashah, meaning ‘to draw out’. The Torah says that Pharaoh’s daughter named him this “because I drew him out of the water” (10).

It is interesting to note that she gave the baby a Hebrew name even though he was to be considered her son (10). In Egyptian, “moses” means “child of”, so it is possible that she also named the child Moses because she did not know who the true mother was.

The name “moses” in Egyptian is normally joined to the name of a god to make a complete name. For instance, “Tutmose(s)” means “child of [the god] Tut” and “Rameses” means “child of [the god] Ra”. So something could be missing in Moses’ name! Where is the name of a god that it should begin with? Perhaps it was meant to be this way: the name Moses may mean “child of [the invisible God]”.

Babies in the River

Folk tales are told about almost all great people in history, and most include how, as a baby, he or she narrowly escaped death.

One Bible scholar counted thirty two stories from the ancient Near East, all of them about famous babies who were saved by being placed where they would easily be found. In Egypt there was a story that the god Horus as a baby was saved by being floated on the Nile. In Mesopotamia the baby who later became King Sargon (2334-2279 BCE) was saved in the same way. Sargon tells how his mother “set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid. She cast me into the river which … carried me to Akki [who took me] as his son.”

God Heard Their Cry

Exodus 2:23-25 - “And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.”

“had respect unto” = Hebr. “knew”

This is how the exodus from Egypt begins: the people of Israel cried out to God, and He heard their cry, remembering His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is listening, and He hears the cry of those who are suffering. This is a common theme all throughout the Bible, in fact we have seen it a few times already.

References

1. The Hebrew - Greek Key Study Bible (KJV Version)
2. The Torah Portion-by-Portion by Rabbi Seymour Rossel (2007)