Exodus 2:7 Study Bible: Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?"

◄ Exodus 2:7 ►

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

Then his sister
This phrase refers to Miriam, the older sister of Moses. Her presence in this narrative highlights the protective and proactive role she plays in her brother's life. In the Hebrew context, family bonds were strong, and siblings often took on responsibilities for one another. Miriam's quick thinking and courage are evident here, showcasing her as an early example of female leadership and initiative in the Bible.

said to Pharaoh’s daughter
Pharaoh's daughter is a pivotal figure in this story, representing a bridge between the Hebrew and Egyptian worlds. Her willingness to listen to Miriam and her eventual adoption of Moses demonstrate a divine orchestration of events. Historically, Egyptian princesses had significant influence and autonomy, which is reflected in her ability to make decisions independently of her father's decrees.

Shall I go and call
This question is both strategic and respectful. Miriam approaches Pharaoh’s daughter with a suggestion that is both helpful and culturally appropriate. The Hebrew culture placed a high value on hospitality and service, and Miriam's offer is in line with these values. Her question is a subtle yet powerful act of faith, trusting that God will protect her brother through her actions.

one of the Hebrew women
This phrase underscores the ethnic and cultural identity of the Hebrews in Egypt. Despite their status as slaves, the Hebrews maintained a distinct cultural identity. Miriam's suggestion to involve a Hebrew woman ensures that Moses will be nursed by someone who shares his heritage, preserving his connection to his people from the very beginning.

to nurse the baby for you
Nursing in ancient times was not only a means of providing physical nourishment but also a way to bond and impart cultural values. By suggesting a Hebrew nurse, Miriam ensures that Moses will receive not only sustenance but also an early education in the faith and traditions of his people. This act of nursing becomes a symbol of God's providence and care for Moses, preparing him for his future role as a leader of the Israelites.

Persons / Places / Events

1. The Girl (Miriam)
Miriam, the sister of Moses, plays a crucial role in the preservation of her brother's life. Her quick thinking and courage are evident as she approaches Pharaoh's daughter with a suggestion that ultimately ensures Moses is cared for by his own mother.

2. Pharaoh’s Daughter
An unnamed Egyptian princess who discovers Moses in the Nile. Her compassion leads her to adopt Moses, which sets the stage for his future role in leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

3. The Baby (Moses)
Moses, who will become a central figure in the history of Israel, is saved from death by the actions of his sister and the compassion of Pharaoh's daughter.

4. The Hebrew Women
Refers to the Hebrew midwives and mothers, including Jochebed, Moses' mother, who are part of the account of preserving Hebrew children despite Pharaoh's decree.

5. The Nile River
The place where Moses is hidden and later discovered, symbolizing both danger and deliverance in the account.

Teaching Points

Courage in Adversity
Miriam's boldness in approaching Pharaoh's daughter teaches us the importance of courage and initiative in difficult situations.

Divine Providence
The orchestration of events leading to Moses' survival and upbringing in Pharaoh's household demonstrates God's sovereign plan and care for His people.

Role of Women in God's Plan
The actions of Miriam, Jochebed, and Pharaoh's daughter highlight the significant roles women play in God's redemptive history.

Faith and Family
The account emphasizes the importance of family and faith in nurturing and protecting the next generation, even in hostile environments.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does Miriam's quick thinking and courage inspire you to act in faith in your own life?

2. In what ways can you see God's providence at work in your life, similar to how He orchestrated events for Moses?

3. How do the actions of the women in this passage challenge or encourage you in your own role within your family or community?

4. Reflect on a time when you had to trust God in a difficult situation. How does the faith of Moses' family encourage you to continue trusting Him?

5. How can you apply the lessons of faith and courage from this passage to support and nurture the next generation in your community or church?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Exodus 1
The background of Pharaoh's decree to kill Hebrew male infants, setting the stage for Moses' birth and the need for his protection.

Acts 7:20-22
Stephen's speech in the New Testament recounts Moses' early life, highlighting God's providence in his upbringing.

Hebrews 11:23-27
The faith of Moses' parents is commended, showing their trust in God's plan despite the king's edict.

Sermons

The Infancy of Moses	D. Young	Exodus 2:1-9
A Picture of True Faith	J. Urquhart	Exodus 2:1-10
By Works was Faith Made Perfect	G.A. Goodhart	Exodus 2:1-10
The Child of the Water	H.T. Robjohns	Exodus 2:1-10
A Child of Providence	J. Orr	Exodus 2:1-11
Moses and Christ	J. Orr	Exodus 2:1-25

People

Gershom, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Levi, Moses, Pharaoh, Reuel, Zipporah

Places

Egypt, Midian, Nile River

Topics

Baby, Breast, Child, Daughter, Hebrew, Hebrews, Lad, Nurse, Pharaoh, Pharaoh's, Sister, Suckle, Suckling, Wet-nurse, Women

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Exodus 2:7

5428 nurse

Exodus 2:1-8

5737 sisters

Exodus 2:1-10

5652 babies
7775 prophets, lives

Exodus 2:7-8

5669 children, examples

Library

The Ark among the Flags
'And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. 4. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh came …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Home as a Stewardship.
"Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."--EXODUS II., 9. "For look, how many souls in thy house be, With just as many souls God trusteth thee!" The Christian home is a stewardship. The parents are stewards of God. A steward is a servant of a particular kind, to whom the master commits a certain portion of his interest to be prosecuted in his name and by his authority, and according to his laws and regulations. The steward must act according to the will of his …
Samuel Philips—The Christian Home

The Upbringing of Jewish Children
The tenderness of the bond which united Jewish parents to their children appears even in the multiplicity and pictorialness of the expressions by which the various stages of child-life are designated in the Hebrew. Besides such general words as "ben" and "bath"--"son" and "daughter"--we find no fewer than nine different terms, each depicting a fresh stage of life. The first of these simply designates the babe as the newly--"born"--the "jeled," or, in the feminine, "jaldah"--as in Exodus 2:3, 6, 8. …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

The Secret of Its Greatness
[Illustration: (drop cap G) The Great Pyramid] God always chooses the right kind of people to do His work. Not only so, He always gives to those whom He chooses just the sort of life which will best prepare them for the work He will one day call them to do. That is why God put it into the heart of Pharaoh's daughter to bring up Moses as her own son in the Egyptian palace. The most important part of Moses' training was that his heart should be right with God, and therefore he was allowed to remain …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

Motives to Holy Mourning
Let me exhort Christians to holy mourning. I now persuade to such a mourning as will prepare the soul for blessedness. Oh that our hearts were spiritual limbecs, distilling the water of holy tears! Christ's doves weep. They that escape shall be like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity' (Ezekiel 7:16). There are several divine motives to holy mourning: 1 Tears cannot be put to a better use. If you weep for outward losses, you lose your tears. It is like a shower …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

The Faith of Moses.
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a goodly child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

Jesus Sets Out from Judæa for Galilee.
Subdivision B. At Jacob's Well, and at Sychar. ^D John IV. 5-42. ^d 5 So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 and Jacob's well was there. [Commentators long made the mistake of supposing that Shechem, now called Nablous, was the town here called Sychar. Sheckem lies a mile and a half west of Jacob's well, while the real Sychar, now called 'Askar, lies scarcely half a mile north of the well. It was a small town, loosely called …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Consolations against Impatience in Sickness.
If in thy sickness by extremity of pain thou be driven to impatience, meditate-- 1. That thy sins have deserved the pains of hell; therefore thou mayest with greater patience endure these fatherly corrections. 2. That these are the scourges of thy heavenly Father, and the rod is in his hand. If thou didst suffer with reverence, being a child, the corrections of thy earthly parents, how much rather shouldst thou now subject thyself, being the child of God, to the chastisement of thy heavenly Father, …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Man's Misery by the Fall
Q-19: WHAT IS THE MISERY OF THAT ESTATE WHEREINTO MAN FELL? A: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever. 'And were by nature children of wrath.' Eph 2:2. Adam left an unhappy portion to his posterity, Sin and Misery. Having considered the first of these, original sin, we shall now advert to the misery of that state. In the first, we have seen mankind offending; …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Genealogy According to Luke.
^C Luke III. 23-38. ^c 23 And Jesus himself [Luke has been speaking about John the Baptist, he now turns to speak of Jesus himself], when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age [the age when a Levite entered upon God's service--Num. iv. 46, 47], being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son [this may mean that Jesus was grandson of Heli, or that Joseph was counted as a son of Heli because he was his son-in-law] of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Adoption
'As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' John 1:12. Having spoken of the great points of faith and justification, we come next to adoption. The qualification of the persons is, As many as received him.' Receiving is put for believing, as is clear by the last words, to them that believe in his name.' The specification of the privilege is, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.' The Greek word for power, exousia, signifies …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Appendix xii. The Baptism of Proselytes
ONLY those who have made study of it can have any idea how large, and sometimes bewildering, is the literature on the subject of Jewish Proselytes and their Baptism. Our present remarks will be confined to the Baptism of Proselytes. 1. Generally, as regards proselytes (Gerim) we have to distinguish between the Ger ha-Shaar (proselyte of the gate) and Ger Toshabh (sojourner,' settled among Israel), and again the Ger hatstsedeq (proselyte of righteousness) and Ger habberith (proselyte of the covenant). …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Appendix ii. Philo of Alexandria and Rabbinic Theology.
(Ad. vol. i. p. 42, note 4.) In comparing the allegorical Canons of Philo with those of Jewish traditionalism, we think first of all of the seven exegetical canons which are ascribed to Hillel. These bear chiefly the character of logical deductions, and as such were largely applied in the Halakhah. These seven canons were next expanded by R. Ishmael (in the first century) into thirteen, by the analysis of one of them (the 5th) into six, and the addition of this sound exegetical rule, that where two …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

John the Baptist's Person and Preaching.
(in the Wilderness of Judæa, and on the Banks of the Jordan, Occupying Several Months, Probably a.d. 25 or 26.) ^A Matt. III. 1-12; ^B Mark I. 1-8; ^C Luke III. 1-18. ^b 1 The beginning of the gospel [John begins his Gospel from eternity, where the Word is found coexistent with God. Matthew begins with Jesus, the humanly generated son of Abraham and David, born in the days of Herod the king. Luke begins with the birth of John the Baptist, the Messiah's herald; and Mark begins with the ministry …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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