The mother of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. (Exod. vi, 20.) The name is of Cabad, glory; and Jah, the Lord. JOEL The prophet, whose writings form part of the sacred canon of Scripture, and are quoted by Peter in his sermon on the day of Pentecost. (See Joel 2: 28, 29, &c. Acts 2: 16, &c.) There were several Joels beside the prophet, whose names are recorded in Scripture.
Joel, son of Samuel, 1 Sam. 8. 1, 2.
Joel, son of Josebiah, I Chron. 4: 35.
Joel, son of Jorabiah, 1 Chron. 7: 3.
Joel, one of David’s army, 1 Chron. xi. 38.
Joel, a Levite, 1 Chron, xv. 7.
Joel, son of Pedaiah, 1 Chron. 27. 20.
Joch´ebed (God-glorified), wife of Amram and mother of Miriam, Moses and Aaron. In Exo 6:20, Jochebed is expressly declared to have been the sister of Amram’s father, and consequently the aunt of her husband. As marriage between persons thus related was afterwards forbidden by the law (Lev 18:12), various attempts have been made to show that the relationship was more distant than the text in its literal meaning indicates. We see no necessity for this. The mere mention of the relationship implies that there was something remarkable in the case; but if we show that nothing is remarkable, we do away the occasion for the relationship being at all noticed. The fact seems to be, that where this marriage was contracted, there was no law forbidding such alliances, but they must in any case have been unusual, although not forbidden; and this, with the writer’s knowledge that they were subsequently interdicted, sufficiently accounts for this one being so pointedly mentioned. The candor of the historian in declaring himself to be sprung from a marriage, afterwards forbidden by the law, delivered through himself, deserves especial notice.
("Jehovah her glory".) Aunt and wife of Amram (Exo 2:1; Exo 6:20; Num 26:59). But Jochebed could not be strictly daughter of Levi, for three centuries must have intervened between Levi’s death and Moses’ birth. Amram and Jochebed were descendants of Levi, seven or eight generations removed. In Moses’ time the Kohathites, from Kohath Levi’s son, were divided into four branches, Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, amounting to 8,600 males, of whom the Amramites were 2,000. Amram Kohath’s son is therefore not Amram Moses’ father. Omission of links in Scriptural genealogies is frequent.
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By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn, Solomon Schechter
Biblical Data:
Wife and aunt of Amram, and mother of Aaron, Moses, and Miriam (Ex. vi. 20). She was the daughter of Levi, and was born in Egypt (Num. xxvi. 59). In the account of Moses' birth, Jochebed is indicated merely as being the daughter of Levi, her name not being given (Ex. ii. 1).
E. G. H. M. Sel.—In Rabbinical Literature:
Jochebed is identified by the Talmudists with Shiphrah, one of the midwives ordered by Pharaoh to kill the new-born male children (Ex. i. 15 et seq.); the name is given various interpretations (Soṭah 11b; Ex. R. i. 17). The "houses" with which God recompensed the midwives (Ex. i. 21) were those of priesthood and royalty, realized, in the case of Jochebed, in the persons of her two sons Aaron and Moses (Ex. R. xlviii. 5). She is further identified with Jehudijah (I Chron. iv. 18), this name, interpreted as "the Jewess," being given to her because, by disobeying Pharaoh's order, she founded the Jewish nation (Lev. R. i. 3). To elucidate Gen. xlvi. 15, where the children of Leah are said to be thirty-three, while only thirty-two are enumerated, the Midrash names Jochebed as the thirty-third. But as this would appear to conflict with Num. xxvi. 59, where Jochebed is said to have been born in Egypt, it is further explained that she was born when her parents were entering Egypt, in the "gateway of the city" (Gen. R. xciv. 8; Ex. R. i. 23).
Moses was eighty years old when the Israelites went out from Egypt (comp. Ex. vii. 7), and the Israelites were in Egypt 210 years; Jochebed therefore was 130 years old when she bore Moses. An allusion to this is found in the weight (130 shekels) of the silver chargers offered by the princes for the dedication of the altar (Ex. R. i. 23; Num. R. xiii. 19).
The Midrash also explains why Jochebed could hide Moses no longer than three months. When Pharaoh had given the order to throw the male children into the river, Amram repudiated Jochebed, who had been pregnant three months. But, urged by Miriam, he immediately remarried her, and the Egyptians calculated the time for Moses' birth from that day (Ex. R. i. 17). The second wedding was as splendid as the first; Jochebed sat in her nuptial chamber, and Miriam and Aaron danced before her (ib. i. 23). The story of Jochebed was used by Rabbi (R. Judah ha-Nasi) to divert his audience when they became sleepy. There was once a woman in Egypt, he told them, who gave birth to 600,000 children at once; on being asked who that woman was, he said she was Jochebed, whose son Moses was worth 600,000 Israelites (Cant. R. iv. 2).
In the Maḥzor Romi (p. 79a, Mantua, 1718) there is a piyyuṭ for Simḥat Torah, beginning "Azlat Yokebed," the subject of which is Jochebed's lamentation over Moses' death (comp. Epstein, "Mi-Ḳadmoniyyot ha-Yehudim," pp. 128 and xlv.).