Aaron Simons

RELST 202 – Ancient Jewish Wisdom

Professor H. Ravven
August 30, 2018

In Chapters 1 and 2 of the Book of Exodus, we are given a brief background of Moshe’s

childhood. Pharaoh comes to power and forces the Israelites into slavery. Pharaoh asks Pu’a and

Shifra to kill all Hebrew sons, but when this fails, he demands that all Egyptians throw Hebrew

sons into the Nile river. A young Israelite boy is born to two parents, sent down the river in a

teiva, and found and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. He is named Moshe. After he grows up,

Moshe kills an Egyptian, flees, and marries Tzippora.

The first (and perhaps most interesting) device to examine is the text’s use of the verb “to

know” (‫)ידע‬. It is in the book of Exodus that “to know” comes to mean “to understand.” When

stating that Pharaoh comes to power, the text declares, “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who

had not known Yosef” (Exodus 1:8, Fox). It can be noted that only the Israelites, the chosen

people, are given the opportunity in this text to know. In this verse, it clearly states that Pharaoh

had not known; he had not understood Yosef, and therefore, he did not understand the Hebrew

people. Because of this, he is scared of the Israelites and commands them to be slaves. He is

unable to know; to understand. The next time ‫ ידע‬is mentioned is in Chapter 2. When Yocheved

(whose name is not mentioned, incidentally) places Moshe in the teiva, Miriam (also unnamed)

“stationed herself far off, to know what would be done to him” (Exodus 2:4, Fox). Miriam was

seven years old at the time, so she might have been too young to truly comprehend why Moshe

was being sent in a basket down the river; she wanted to understand. The next time that ‫ ידע‬is

used is after Moshe kills an Egyptian and is criticized by a Hebrew slave. He “became afraid and

said: / Surely the matter is known!” (Exodus 2:14, Fox). On the surface, it appears that Moshe is

afraid Pharaoh will discover his crime, but that is not what the text actually says. Moshe declares
that his crime is surely known. Moshe believes that surely, his wrongdoing is understood;

understood by God. Moshe killed an Egyptian who was striking a Hebrew slave; surely, God

knows and understands his crime. Immediately after this, in fact, the text states that “Pharaoh

heard of this matter and sought to kill Moshe” (Exodus 2:15, Fox). Obviously, Pharaoh doesn’t

know, he doesn’t understand. Pharaoh hears of the matter, but does not know the matter. The

final time in these chapters ‫ ידע‬is used is at the very end. The Children of Israel are suffering and

prayed to God to help them. “God saw the Children of Israel, / God knew” (Exodus 2:25, Fox).

God understands their prayers and intends to help them.

Something that Will Koelbl, my discussion partner this week, noted was that in this

chapter, the focus is kept on Moshe. Yocheved, Amram, Miriam (and Aaron) are all kept

nameless in Chapter 2. It is “a man from the house of Levi” and “the woman” who give birth to

Moshe (Exodus 2:1-2, Fox). Will noted that like many other hero stories, the main emphasis is

the protagonist. A question that was raised was how, then, do we know Yocheved and Amram’s

names? Where are they found? Aren’t Moshe’s parents’ names just as important as his own?

One final language note about the Everett Fox translation. I noticed that the text often

hyphenates certain phrases (“gave-drink,” “little-ark,” “many-more,” etc.) and wondered why. I

turned to the original Hebrew text and noticed that in all of these places (‫וישק‬, ‫תיבה‬, ‫)רב‬, only one

word is used. To emulate the Hebrew text, Fox uses short phrases that more accurately convey

the meaning of that verse. Specifically, the text uses the hyphenated phrase “for-what-reason” in

place of the word “why.” I found this very interesting and tried to guess exactly why Fox would

do this. The Hebrew word for “why” is “‫לָמָ ה‬,” which can be broken down into “‫מָ ה‬-ְ‫ל‬,” which

means “for what” (similar to the Spanish “porque,” which also means “for what”). Therefore,

Fox uses “for-what-reason” to truthfully and eloquently imitate the cadence of the Hebrew text.
Works Cited
Fox, Everett. The Five Books of Moses. New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1995.
Mindel, Nissan. Chabad. Kehot Publication Society.
<https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112396/jewish/Miriam.htm>.
^ Used to learn Miriam's age.