Bible verse wall art
Exodus 2: Moses is drawn out of the water
The man who would lead Israel out of Egypt begins his life in a basket on the Nile, hidden from a king's decree. Exodus 2 tells how a mother, a sister and a princess each played a part in saving him.
Exodus 2 print
Exodus 2 · King James Version
10 Because I drew him out of the water
A baby hidden from Pharaoh
At the end of Exodus 1, Pharaoh orders that every Hebrew son born be cast into the river. In chapter 2 a couple from the tribe of Levi have a son, and his mother hides him for three months. When she can hide him no longer, she makes an ark of bulrushes, seals it with slime and pitch, and sets it among the reeds at the river's edge. His sister stands at a distance to see what will happen.
The Hebrew word used for this little basket, tevah, appears in only one other story in the Bible: it is the word for Noah's ark. In both cases a vessel sealed with pitch carries someone through the water that brings death to others.
What does “Because I drew him out of the water” mean?
Pharaoh's own daughter comes down to bathe, sees the basket and opens it. The baby is crying, and she has compassion on him, knowing he is one of the Hebrews' children. The sister steps forward and offers to find a Hebrew nurse, and fetches the child's own mother, who is then paid to raise her own son.
When the child is older, he is brought to the princess and becomes her son. Verse 10 records how she named him: “Because I drew him out of the water.” The name Moses sounds like the Hebrew verb for drawing out. There is a quiet irony in it, since the one drawn out of the water will one day lead his people through the waters of the Red Sea.
The rest of the chapter
Grown up, Moses kills an Egyptian he sees beating a Hebrew, and flees to Midian when the deed becomes known. There he defends the daughters of a priest at a well, marries Zipporah and names his son Gershom, saying he has been a stranger in a strange land. The chapter closes with the Israelites groaning under their bondage and God hearing them and remembering his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Baby Moses in a nursery
Our Baby Moses print shows the basket resting among the reeds on still water. As Christian wall art for a nursery it tells a child that God watches over the smallest and most vulnerable, and it is a thoughtful gift for adoptive families, for whom the story of a child raised in love by another mother carries particular meaning.