“Moses’ Mother” by Alexey Tyranov, circa 1840. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. 

We meet Jochebed in Exodus, where she is enslaved in Egypt. In defiance of the Pharaoh’s orders, she does not kill her newborn son. Instead, using the materials and skills available to her, she creates a basket for the boy reinforced with pitch and places her child among the reeds of the Nile. 

In a strange twist of fate, an Egyptian princess finds Jochebed’s baby. Jochebed’s daughter Miriam conveniently recommends a wet nurse for the infant: Jochebed herself. Thanks to Miriam’s quick thinking, mother and child are covertly reunited. 

Jochebed’s baby boy grows up to be Moses, who delivers God’s people out of Egypt.

But before Moses can deliver the Israelites, he’s first delivered by the defiant acts of the brave women in his life—the Pharaoh’s daughter, Miriam, and, of course, Jochebed. 

  • Jochebed’s name means “YHWH is glory.” 

  • Jochebed goes unnamed in the Exodus 2 story but is listed by name in the genealogical lists of Exod 6:20 and Num 26:59.

  • Moses’ basket is called “tevah.” The only other instance where “tevah” is used in the Hebrew Bible is in reference to Noah’s ark. 

  • The Nile was associated with Egyptian prosperity. That it features in Moses’ birth story illustrates the ironic twists and turns of the Exodus. Slave women will defy kings, the Hebrew deliverer will be raised in the Pharaoh’s own household, and the Nile itself will aid in the Israelites' salvation.