Exodus 2:10

And the child grew,.... In stature and in strength, thriving under the care of its mother and nurse, through the blessing of God: and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter; when grown up and

And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. She brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter.

He became her son, by adoption, . For, as Philo reports, she, though long married, had no child of her own; and therefore treated him as her own, and gave him royal education and instruction. See . Moses; it matters not whether this be an Egyptian name, or a Hebrew name answering to it in signification, seeing the meaning of it is here explained.

Exodus 2:10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’ s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.Ver. 10. She called his name Moses.] He was also by the Egyptians called MOneves, as Diodorus Siculus relateth; and Monies, as Aben Ezra. Musaeus calleth him υδρογενης, Water sprung, because "drawn," as David was afterwards, "out of many waters." Clement of Alexandra saith, that at his circumcision, Moses was called Melchi; others say Joachim: but that is as uncertain as that he was the same with Mercurins Trismegistus.

(10) The child grew.—Josephus regards these words as implying a growth that was strange and abnormal (Ant. Jud. ii. 9, § 6). But nothing more seems to be intended than nature’s ordinary course. The child grew and reached the time when it was usual in Egypt that children should be weaned. We have no means of determining what this time was. It may have been the completion of the first year; but more probably it was the completion of the second (2Ma 7:27). She brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter.—Jochebed carried out the terms of her engagement faithfully, and gave up her son to the princess at the time agreed upon. He became her son.—Possibly by a formal act of adoption; but we have at present no evidence that adoption was an Egyptian custom. Perhaps the writer means simply that she brought him up as if he had been her son, gave him a son’s education, and a son’s privileges. (On the education of Moses, see Excursus II. at the end of this Book.) She called his name Moses.—In Egyptian probably “Mesu,” which is found as a name in the monuments of the nineteenth dynasty, and which is common as the latter half of a name—e.g., Ra-mesu, Aah-mesu, Amen-mesu, &c. In ordinary use this word meant “born” and “son.” (Comp. the Latin natus.) It was, however, derived from an Egyptian verb, meaning “to produce,” “to draw forth;” and the princess justified her imposition of the name by a reference to this etymology. Owing to the existence of a cognate verb in Hebrew, it was possible to transfer her explanation into the Hebrew language exactly and literally. The play upon words cannot be rendered in English. B: ON THE OF MOSES (Exodus 2:10) Moses would be educated like the sons of princesses generally, not like those of priests, or of persons destined for the literary life. St. Stephen, when he says that Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” does not (probably) mean more than this. The question then is, In what did the education of princes and young nobles at the time of the exodus consist? It would consist, in the first place, of orthography and grammar. Moses would be taught to speak the Egyptian language, and to write it, correctly. He would probably not be taught the hieroglyphic character, the knowledge of which was reserved to the priests, but would be familiarised with the ordinary cursive writing—the hieratic, as it was called in later times—which was the common character for books, and even for official documents, in his day. Care would be taken to instruct him in the graces of style, so far as they were understood at the time; and he would be especially practised in epistolary correspondence, which was regarded as one of the most necessary of all gentlemanlike accomplishments.

Verse 10. And he became her son.] From this time of his being brought home by his nurse his education commenced, and he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, Acts 7:22, who in the knowledge of nature probably exceeded all the nations then on the face of the earth. And she called his name] משה mosheh, because מן המים min hammayim, out of the waters משיתהו meshithihu, have I drawn him. משה mashah signifies to draw out; and mosheh is the person drawn out; the word is used in the same sense Psalms 18:16, and 2 Samuel 22:17. What name he had from his parents we know not; but whatever it might be it was ever after lost in the name given to him by the princess of Egypt. Abul Farajius says that Thermuthis delivered him to the wise men Janees and Jimbrees to be instructed in wisdom.

10. grew] Heb. became great, implying (cf. Genesis 21:8) that he was 3–4 years old, and was weaned. became a son to her] was adopted by her, and naturally, therefore, cared for and educated by her. In the Old and Middle kingdoms, as Dillm. remarks, royal princesses had their own establishments, in a separate part of the palace. Moses] Heb. Mτsheh. Probably the Egypt, mosi, ‘born,’ which occurs not only as the second part of a theophorous name, as Thutmosi (Thothmes), ‘Thoth is born,’ Aḥ ?mosi (Amβsis), ‘The moon is born,’ but also as a name by itself (Ebers, Gosen1, p. 526). LXX. vocalize Μωυσῆς, which was explained by the ancients as meaning ‘saved [νσης] from the water [μω]’ (Jos. Ant ii. 9. 6, and others), or ‘taken [σης] from the water’ (gloss in Cod. Sarrav. [Swete, Introd. to the OT. in Greek, p. 137], cited by Ges. Thes. s.v.); but though the Egyptian words are correctly given, the compound is not correct; for ‘saved from the water’ would in Egyptian be wezenmφou (Griffith). Because I drew him, &c.] ‘Mosheh’ could mean only ‘drawing out’; ‘drawn out’ would in Heb. be mβshϋy. The explanation, like those of many other names in the OT. (e.g. Cain, Genesis 4:1, Noah, Genesis 5:29), rests not upon a scientific etymology, but upon an assonance: the name is explained, not because it is derived from mβshβh, to ‘draw out,’ but because it resembles it in sound. The note in RV. is intended to indicate this: it does not, it will be observed, say that ‘Mosheh’ means ‘drawn out,’ but only gives the reader to understand that it resembles the Heb. word signifying to ‘draw out.’ So in similar cases, as Gen. ll.cc., and Exodus 29:32 to Exodus 30:24. The verb mβshβh is rare, occurring otherwise in Heb. only Psalms 18:16 = 2 Samuel 22:17. The simple Biblical narrative of Moses’ youth was decorated in later times with many imaginative details. Thus according to Josephus (Ant. ii. 9. 3–9, 10), his father, Amram, when his wife was pregnant, had a vision foretelling how her child would in the future deliver his people; the Egyptian princess, being childless, adopted him that he might ultimately succeed to the throne; he was a precocious child, and attracted by his beauty the notice of the passers by; when Egypt was invaded by the Ethiopians, he was, in consequence of an oracle, appointed leader of the Egyptians, defeated the invaders, and pursued them to the gates of their capital, Meroe, &c.: according to Philo (Vit. Mos. i.

He became her son - See the margin reference. His training and education was, humanly speaking, all but indispensable to the efficient accomplishment of his work as the predestined leader and instructor of his countrymen.

10. The child grew… and he became her son — This is all that Moses tells us of his own youth. How easily could he here have written lines which would have satisfied the curiosity of ages!