[18][21], According to Josephus Flavius the birth of Moses was an extraordinary event because Jochebed was spared the pain of child-bearing due to both her and Amram's piety. Pharaoh only decreed against the males, but you have decreed against both the males and the females [since all the Israelites withdrew from their wives, neither sons nor daughters would come into the world]. Pharaohs daughter, although a heathen princess, had a womans (a mothers) instinct, and one thing that touches a womans heart is a crying baby. Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 02:24, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jochebed&oldid=1140850169, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 02:24. The Story Although her jealously later in life led to . Again, the second time, was this time even harder for her? The smaller lad began to cry even more, because he thought his brother was trying to sink the boat. An additional midrashic explanation of her name is that she smoothed over (shiprah) her daughter Puahs words. Life comes with the opportunity to learn the art of Releasing when we have no control, of dealing with extenuating circumstances that we can do nothing about. The expected thing for her to do was to have the little boy tilted over into the water. Imagine the emotions, the feelings Jochebed had as she placed him down and backed away. What if she had been found out, they would take the baby and kill him, perhaps she would lose her life, potentially the whole family, husband, 2 other children= Miriam=young little girl and Aaron=3 years old. Amram Remarries Jochebed His Name Bringing Heaven Down to Earth Sinless Amram Marries Jochebed Amram married his aunt Jochebed in Egypt. [1] Amram was the son of Kohath, who was a son of Levi. Hanover, PA 17331 According to the Bible, Jochebed (/ j k b d /; Biblical Hebrew: , romanized: Yee, lit. And her influence is felt to this day by the followers of the God of the Bible as we read about the great things that her son did for the people of God of his time. Their heartbreak at giving up their baby is balanced by God's favor when they obey his command not to kill the unborn. And in Ephesians 6:16, we read, Above all, (put on) the shield of faith, (by which you) shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. The shield of faith is the piece of armor which we are to use to quench the flaming arrows of the evil one! Exodus 1; 2. The proving of our faith is planned by God to bring praise and honor and glory to Him in the day when Jesus Christ reveals himself at His Second Coming. Summary of the story of Jochebed in the Bible Generations after Joseph died, the reigning Pharaoh became paranoid. By faith, Jochebed and her husband Amram hid their son Moses even against the king of Egypts edict that all Hebrew boys should be put to death at birth. This is a clear example of how God gives, provides, and answers more abundantly than we can even ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). All must work for good to me. For those who have become followers of Jesus Christ, the final note of this message is a call to persevere in the faith no matter how many obstacles have appeared along the way. She did not sit down and brood about the current situation in Egypt, and say, If this child is to be Israels deliverer, God will somehow spare him and deliver him; theres nothing we can do; so well throw him in the river, and if God wants him, He can save him. She knew that God expects us to do our part, and that He will not do for us what we are able to do for ourselves. [29] The significance of this comparison is understood to spring from the affinity of Arabic folklore for Hebrew traditions.[29]. The Pharaoh had decreed that all their baby boys were to be thrown into the Nile, because he feared that they might become too powerful. Not only was Moses spared, but his older sister (later identified as Miriam in Exodus 15:20), who was standing somewhere within sight, offered the Egyptian princess her services. This kind of marriage between relatives was later forbidden by the law of Moses. [Amram lived 137 years]. Jochebed had such a deep abiding faith in the trustworthiness of Gods Word that it drove her to act. The new Pharaoh reduced the Hebrews to slavery, he robbed them of their liberties, and he put them to work in the brick yards under cruel taskmasters. Some, its likely all of us, know the pain of giving up, letting go of someone, or something precious to you: A relationship, a job, a dream. Israel (Jacob) and his family had gone into Egypt to escape the famine in Palestine. Jochebed just happened to put Moses in the right spot on the Nile? The film The Ten Commandments calls her "Yoshebel". Moses would become God's servant who would lead Israel out of Egypt. Rabbah 1:25). In the Old Testament this is the name of the mother of Miriam, Aaron and Moses. The woman conceived and bore a son, since she conceived before this second marriage? Under her influence and teaching, she . 2 Later, the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a beautiful child, and hid him for three months. She is described as the daughter of Levi, born to him in Egypt (Num. The basket fell in the hands of the Pharaoh's daughter who was bathing in the river. And this is true; consideration must be given to the years that Jochebed, Moses' mother, was upon the earth after Levi died and before Moses was born. Joshua 24:14 throw away gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the river and in Egypt. Jochebed: Mother of Moses. Instead of letting him be murdered, she took a basket and coated the bottom with tar, to make it waterproof. The Apocrypha calls her Tharmuth, other names suggested are Merris, or Bityah, perhaps even the well-known Hatshepsut( HAT shep shoot). [17][18] Biblical scholars have instead simply proposed that the discrepancy in the enumeration of Leah's children is due to the list not originally having included Dinah, who was added by a later editor to introduce consistency with the story of the Rape of Dinah. The name Jochebed is the earliest known compounded with Jah, or Jehovah. Truthfully, there is a certain amount of pain, a loneliness pain, when they leave home to go to college, when they get married, when they start their own life. 6:20: Amram took to wife his fathers sister Jochebed. Amram was the son of Kohath and the grandson of Levi, while Jochebed was the daughter of Levi, and therefore his aunt. Family tree. 78). She is a witless baby. Still another notion bases its understanding of the name on Job 26:13: By his wind the heavens were calmed [shifrah]. The verse describes the heavens that were created by God for Israel, and it was Shiphrah who returned Israel to their Father in heaven (Eccl. On the foundation of Gods promise not to destroy Israel, and on the basis of a four hundred year servitudethe parents of Moses believed that God would preserve him and use him for His purpose. The Rabbis say that when the daughter of Pharaoh asked of Jochebed: Take [helikhi] this child and nurse it for me (Ex. Growing up, we wanted him to have all the normal experiences of childhood, sleepovers, soccer, basketball, baseball, and football, field trips, then dates, eventually college and marriage: without me. Subscribe our channel: http://bit.ly/1MeurZHBeginners Bible - Encounter a time in ancient Egypt when Baby Moses was plucked from the reeds of the Nile River . The Pharaoh in the opening of the book of Exodus was afraid of the Jews because there were so many of them. Or would it be wise to just distance herself from this baby and let someone else throw him in the Nile? Joseph had revealed himself to his eleven brothers and requested that his father come to Egypt, which the family did. Yet another tradition explains that she shiprah her actions before God (i.e., performed good deeds that were pleasing to the Lord). We are thinking of faith in this lesson, not as saving faith, but as sustaining faith. An Impossible Problem Solver. She is identified as Shiphrah, one of the Hebrew midwives who saved the newborn baby boys from Pharaoh. But there came a day when she knew she couldnt hide him any longer, had to let him go, Exodus 2:3-4 But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. Amram was the Levite man who was Moses father. When Moses was born, Jochebed saw (Ex. In the film, she sings a lullaby to baby Moses as she sets the basket carrying him adrift in the river, also pleading the river to deliver Moses "somewhere he can live free". He wanted her for his wife and was willing to . In addition to her given name, the Torah she-bi-khetav: Lit. (NET), Exodus 6:20 Amram married his fathers sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. After Moses was born, Yocheved hid him at home for three months. He plants His footsteps in the sea, Alphabetical Exposition of Named Bible Women J Jochebed. Clearly Jochebed and Amram married before the prohibition was given, but it is a bit of a shocker that for all those Israelites who knew the law looking back on it with hindsight. In the Rabbinic retelling, when Amram returned his wife, Jochebed was a hundred and thirty years of age, but signs of youth appeared on her: her body became smoother, her wrinkles were straightened out, and her former beauty was restored. To protect Moses from Pharaoh's command that every male Hebrew child be killed, she placed him in an ark of bulrushes on the river. [27], Stories of unusual events during the pregnancy of Aminah, mother of the Islamic prophet Muhammad,[28] are compared with the similar experiences of Jochebed when she was carrying Moses. Jochebed was a daughter of Levi (Exodus 2:1), and the mother of Aaron, Moses, and Miriam (Exodus 6:20; Numbers 26:59). "We cannot save our little boy from the forces of death,"Moses' parents decided, "but God can.". This was God responding to the faith of a mother who dared to trust in Him. 14:1: The wisest of women builds her house is applied to Miriam (Midrash Proverbs 14:1). According to another interpretation, Jochebed named her son Tov or Tobiah, which was what his parents called him until Pharaohs daughter renamed him Moses (BT Sotah 12a). Answer (1 of 15): Yes, it was forbidden in Lev. The Lit. 18. About 1486, the reigning Pharaoh tried to kill Moses when he sought identity with his people Israel, but Moses escaped to Midian. Jochebed nursed Moses for twenty-four months (Ex. According to one midrashic view, Shiphrah and Puah were mother and daughter Jochebed and Miriam, while another states that they were daughter-in-law and mother-in-lawJochebed and Elisheba daughter of Amminadab. Hebrew: MSH Mosheh (M. T.), Greek: Mouses, Moses. According to Jewish legend, she is buried in the Tomb of the Matriarchs, in Tiberias. After three months Jochebed was forced to obey the decree of Pharaoh. A number of miracles were performed for Jochebed in connection with the birth of Moses: she bore him at the age of one hundred and thirty, and God restored her youth and her beauty. Rabbah 7:3; Ex. When the child was born, the baby was a boy, and we learn in Exodus 2:10 that he was later named Moses.. She lived in Egypt, where the descendants of Israel were being oppressed. She looks like and is voiced by the late Ofra Haza. God returned her child to her, thus granting her a part of her reward for keeping alive the Hebrew boys (Ex. All Israel saw this, and in consequence they also divorced their wives. The painting "The Mother of Moses" by Simeon Solomon depicts Jochebed and Miriam looking and holding Moses. Exodus 2, which describes the birth of Moses, does not name her, or, for that matter, the father or sister of Moses. 11:23 By faith Moses was hidden by, Amram and Jochebed, his parents, for three months after he was born, because they saw that he was a beautiful child and were not afraid of the kings order. She loved all of her children dearly and proved this when she risked her life to save her youngest child, Moses, from Pharaoh Seti I's soldiers. Some Greek and Latin manuscripts of the Septuagint state that Jochebed was Amram's father's cousin, and others state that she was Amram's cousin. And the woman took the child, and nursed it (Exodus 2:9). For some, poverty comes, friends disappoint, children bring heartaches, and feelings of inferiority torment. First, many unwed mothers refuse to have an abortion, yet have no choice but to place their baby for adoption. That Jochebed could still be bearing children at the age of forty-eight might seem unlikely by modern standards. Maybe you need to let go of a dream that is not going to come true; yet, the idea of letting it go seems too painful. We learn that secret by reading Hebrews 11:23, which says, By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the kings commandment. Moses was hid in his home for three months, and then in the reeds by the river, not because Jochebed could not bear to see her child perish, or because she loved him too much to cast him into the river. Yet the Bible reveals that Levi and his son and grandson all had very long life spans. The latest date that Jochebed could have been born was 2385 AM, the year her father died. The ruler had thought sparing women was safe, but the midwives, the Hebrew mother, the daughter of Pharaoh, and Miriam, all work together to spare one child5. Jochebed which in Hebrew means: Jehovah is glory both she and her husband were from the tribe of Levi the priestly tribe. That was in the year 2238 after Creation. Devorah was as active an anti-vaxxer as you'll see on this site. She took leave of her baby with a heavy heart, and tried with all her might to protect him and ensure that he remain alive. 18:1214 (BT Sanhedrin 58b). The Rabbis identify Jochebed with Shiphrah, one of the two Hebrew midwives (Shiphrah and Puah) who delivered the children of the Israelites during the Egyptian servitude. Jochebed: Levi's daughter and Amram's wife. Thats a significant fact. Print copies of this booklet may be obtained from: BIBLE HELPS I would have wondered if he would be safe? 4 Then his sister positioned herself some distance away in order to find out what would happen to him. By merit of her good deeds, she gave birth to the three leaders of the Exodus generation: Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. She was seen crying once she let the basket that held . When you let go, when you released that person or that thing, did you feel like part of you was breaking; now there was some new emptiness in your life? Exodus 2:3 But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She appears briefly in The Prince of Egypt under the name 'Yocheved', voiced by (and resembling) Israeli vocalist Ofra Haza. The wording she placed it among the reeds (ibid.) Jochebed placed Moses in a basket and released him in the flow of River Nile. She hid Moses for a period of time, but as the childs lungs developed it became impossible to hide him. Jochebed hid Moses because he was in danger of being killed since he was a Hebrew boy. Im curious, how many here are either adopted, have adopted children or someone in your family has been adopted? The answer: It was based on the promises of Gods Word. A compilation of the commentary and discussions of the, Yael Wife of Heber The Kenite: Midrash and Aggadah, Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab: Midrash and Aggadah, They will spit: In the tradition of Miriam, Jewish women will continue to challenge the establishment, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Copyright 19982023, Jewish Women's Archive. [5] Jochebed is also called Amram's father's sister in the Masoretic text of Exodus 6:20, but ancient translations differ in this. And when the little crib was brought to Pharaohs daughter, she saw that it was a little Hebrew baby. Help JWA continue to lift up Jewish womens stories, this month and every month, by. ), and which, consequently, knew not the God of Joseph. But Exodus 2:5 says that the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. He lived 137 years. (NET). How do we know? Sometimes we need to slow down and learn to see Him and His presence in our circumstances and thank Him for His care. " That decree applied only to the men and not to the women. Yet the Bible reveals that Levi and his son and grandson all had very long life spans. They had faith that God had made promises to them through Abraham that they would be a nation, a people with land, their land. Accordingly, Prov. The gay analogy must include a marriage relationship not universally accepted in scripture. Surely Jochebed would have told little Moses stories of the faithfulness of the God of Israel. The baby was discovered by Bithiah, Pharaoh's daughter. Rabbah 1:16). Since Jochebed was the daughter of Levi, and Moses was her son (as shown above), then to complete the 430 years, Jochebed had to be 48 years or older when she gave birth to Moses. 3:31) (Seder Eliyahu Rabbah 29). The midrash apparently understands builds her house in a broad sense, because Jochebeds wisdom in the raising of her own children led to the building and firm establishment of the entire people of Israel. The Scripture says, And, behold, the babe wept (Exodus 2:6). Exodus 6: 20 - "Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, and she gave birth to his sons Aaron and Moses. I have called Thee Abba Father; Consequently, Miriam came and offered to the daughter of Pharaoh her mother Jochebed, who was a Hebrew (Ex. The Bible; the Pentateuch; Tanakh (the Pentateuch, Prophets and Hagiographia)Torah also designates Jochebed as the daughter of Levi (Num. He said, for example, I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth (Job 19:25). The cry of the little child aroused the maternal instinct of Pharaohs daughter, and the baby Moses was spared. A compilation of the commentary and discussions of the amora'im on the Mishnah. The A type of non-halakhic literary activitiy of the Rabbis for interpreting non-legal material according to special principles of interpretation (hermeneutical rules).midrash portrays Jochebed as a wise woman who was righteous and God-fearing. This exegesis teaches of Jochebeds longevity, and that she was still alive when Moses died. The narrative in Exodus 2 about Moses' birth introduces her, without providing her name, as a member of the priestly tribe Levi; she marries a Levitical man, also unnamed here.The mother, in defiance of the Pharaoh's order that every male Hebrew . Another midrash has Jochebed building a little canopy for Moses inside the ark, for she said to herself: Perhaps I will not see him under his wedding canopy (BT Sotah 12ab). Would he be treated differently because he was Hebrew? Yes, Miriam is watching from a distant place on the shore, but she, his mother had to let him go. We indeed must marvel at Jobs faith. 31 December 1999. Exodus 1:10-14 describes the hardships placed upon the Hebrew people. God always honors such faith as theirs. In the midrashic account, the daughter of Pharaoh saw that Moses was hungry when she drew him from the river. The story is familiar to many, but so that we have it clearly in mind, we summarize it here. It is doubtful whether the decree of the wicked Pharaoh will be fulfilled, but you are righteous, and your decree will undoubtedly be fulfilled. Amram heeded his daughter, and returned to his wife, whom he remarried in a public celebration with all possible pomp and ceremony: he sat her in a palanquin, Aaron and Miriam danced before her, and the ministering angels proclaimed (Ps. Pharaohs daughter just happened to see the basket? 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