2.01.2011

Moses' Name

Exodus 2:6-10 (ESV): When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Hosea 11:1 (ESV): When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.

From the notes in the ESV Study Bible regarding Exodus 2:10:

Moses. In Hebrew, the name sounds like the verb mashah, "to draw out". The name may also be related to the common Egyptian word for "son." Since Pharaoh's daughter clearly knows that Moses is a Hebrew child (Ex. 2:6-9), it is possible that she chose the name for both its Hebrew ("drawn out of water") and Egyptian ("son") senses. The irony of such a dual reference would be that her action not only prefigures but is also a part of the means that God uses to "draw" Israel as his "son" out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1).

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