Years passed after Jacob’s family came to Egypt. Joseph and his brothers died, but the Israelites multiplied until they filled the land. A new king who did not know Joseph feared that they might join Egypt’s enemies in war and leave the country. He set taskmasters over them and forced them to build the store cities of Pithom and Rameses. Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they increased.
The king told the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill Hebrew boys at birth. The midwives feared God and let the children live. When Pharaoh questioned them, they said Hebrew women gave birth before a midwife arrived. The people continued to multiply, and Pharaoh then commanded all his people to throw every Hebrew boy into the Nile while allowing the girls to live.
A man and woman from the tribe of Levi had a son. Seeing that he was a fine child, his mother hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she made a papyrus basket, coated it with tar and pitch, placed the baby inside, and set it among the reeds by the riverbank. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen.
Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river while her attendants walked beside it. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent a servant to bring it. When she opened it, the child was crying. She pitied him and recognized him as a Hebrew baby. The child’s sister stepped forward and offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse him.
At the princess’s command, the sister brought the child’s own mother. Pharaoh’s daughter told her to nurse the child and promised her wages. When the boy was older, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter. She took him as her son and named him Moses, saying that she had drawn him out of the water.