Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 2:7
Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
7. of the Hebrew women ] The Egyptians, even till the time when they came in contact with the Greeks (Hdt. ii. 178), were exclusive, and unfriendly towards foreigners (cf. ibid. 41; Gen 43:32). So a native Egyptian woman would not have undertaken the task.
a nurse ] lit. a woman giving suck: so Gen 24:59; Gen 35:8. So the verb ‘nurse’ is lit. give suck to ( vv. 7, 9).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 7. Shall I go and call a nurse] Had not the different circumstances marked here been placed under the superintendence of an especial providence, there is no human probability that they could have had such a happy issue. The parents had done every thing to save their child that piety, affection, and prudence could dictate, and having done so, they left the event to God. By faith, says the apostle, Heb 11:23, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. Because of the king’s commandment they were obliged to make use of the most prudent caution to save the child’s life; and their faith in God enabled them to risk their own safety, for they were not afraid of the king’s commandment- they feared God, and they had no other fear.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter,…. Miriam the sister of Moses, who observing the ark taken up, and the maidens that were walking upon the bank of the river, and other women perhaps, gathering about it to see it; she made one among them, and after hearing their discourse about it, proposed what follows to Pharaoh’s daughter: Jarchi says, that Pharaoh’s daughter tried several Egyptian women to suckle it, but it would not suck of them: Josephus r says the same, and it also is in the Talmud s; and that, if true, gave Miriam a fair opportunity to offer to do the following message for her:
shall I go and call for thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? for she perceived that she was desirous of having the child brought up as her own.
r Antiqu. l. 2. c. 9. sect. 5. s T. Bab. Sotah, ut supra. (fol. 12.1)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(7) Then said his sister.Miriam had bided her time. She had still kept in the background, but had approached within hearing distance; and when the princess observed that the babe must be one of the Hebrews children, was prompt with the rejoinder, Shall I not fetch thee then a Hebrew mother to nurse him? If the child was to be nursed at allif he was to be brought upa Hebrew nurse would be the fittest.
That she may nurse the child for thee.For thee. Miriam divines the thought of the princess, or half divines, half anticipates it, and helps to make it take a fixed shape. She assumes that the child is to be brought up, and for the princess, as her proteg, at any rate, if not something more.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 2:7. Then said his sister, &c. The hand of Providence was very visible in this whole event: and as it inspired the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter to have the child educated as her own; so it inspired Miriam to approach the princess, and offer her services, to go and call a Hebrew nurse. One may easily imagine, that the taking the child from out the flags, occasioned some hurry and trouble; and Miriam, who stood at a distance on the watch, might approach, as it were by chance, or from natural curiosity, to see the poor little infant; and, finding the princess determined to save it, she might propose a Hebrew nurse, as it was a Hebrew’s child. We may easily conceive with what joy she flew to her mother on this occasion, as well as with what transport the mother must have received her infant from the hands of the princess, with an express order to take the same care of him, as if he were her own. In Josephus, Eusebius, and others, the reader may find many anecdotes respecting this event, to which he will give what credit their authority may be thought to demand.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Who doth not, or will not, see divine wisdom arranging all this to his glory, and the mother’s joy? But is there not also a gracious, as well as a providential lesson read to us here? Is not the unexpected blessing of receiving her child back again in this way by Moses’ mother, a figure of the unexpected recovery of every lost sinner, whom divine mercy hath watched over during the season of unregeneracy, and at length restored in the day of God’s power. See Luk 15:32 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 2:7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
Ver. 7. A nurse of the Hebrew women. ] God’s providence excludeth not man’s prudence. Here is a concurrence of both, for the preservation of the child.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 2:4, Exo 15:20, Num 12:1, Num 26:59
Reciprocal: Num 20:1 – Miriam 1Ch 6:3 – Miriam