A Basket Among the Reeds

The Story

Pharaoh was afraid the Hebrew slaves were growing too strong, so he gave a terrible order: every Hebrew baby boy was to be thrown into the Nile River.

A Hebrew woman named Jochebed gave birth to a son. She looked at him and saw that he was a beautiful child, and she hid him for three months. But a baby can’t be hidden forever.

So she did something both desperate and full of faith. She made a little basket of reeds, sealed it with tar, laid her son inside, and set it among the reeds at the edge of the very river Pharaoh had turned into a grave. Her daughter Miriam stood at a distance to see what would happen.

Of all the people in Egypt, Pharaoh’s own daughter came down to bathe. She saw the basket, opened it, and the baby was crying. Her heart went out to him. “This is one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said.

Miriam stepped forward. “Shall I go and call a nurse from the Hebrew women?” The princess said yes, and Miriam ran and brought her own mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said, “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.”

Jochebed got her son back, safe, and she was paid to raise him. She named him Moses.

Reflection