על חיי משה, ספר א ד׳On the Life of Moses, Book I 4
א׳
1[12] While they departed ignorant of the future, overcome by grief and sorrow, the sister of the infant castaway, a girl still unmarried, moved by family affection, remained at a little distance, waiting to see what would happen, all this being brought about, in my opinion, by the providence of God watching over the child.
ב׳
2[13] The king of the country had but one cherished daughter, who, we are told, had been married for a considerable time but had never conceived a child, though she naturally desired one, particularly of the male sex, to succeed to the magnificent inheritance of her father’s kingdom, which threatened to go to strangers if his daughter gave him no grandson.
ג׳
3[14] Depressed and loud in lamentation she always was, but on this particular day she broke down under the weight of cares; and, though her custom was to remain at home and never even cross the threshold, she set off with her maids to the river, where the child was exposed. Then, as she was preparing to make her ablutions in the purifying water, she saw him lying where the marshland growth was thickest, and bade him be brought to her.
ד׳
4[15] Thereupon, surveying him from head to foot, she approved of his beauty and fine condition, and seeing him weeping took pity on him, for her heart was now moved to feel for him as a mother for her own child. And, recognizing that he belonged to the Hebrews, who were intimidated by the king’s orders, she considered how to have him nursed, for at present it was not safe to take him to the palace.
ה׳
5[16] While she was still thus debating, the child’s sister, who guessed her difficulty, ran up from where she stood like a scout, and asked whether she would like to take for his foster-mother a Hebrew woman who had lately been with child.
ו׳
6[17] When the princess agreed, she brought her own and the babe’s mother in the guise of a stranger, who readily and gladly promised to nurse him, ostensibly for wages. Thus, by God’s disposing, it was provided that the child’s first nursing should come from the natural source. Since he had been taken up from the water, the princess gave him a name derived from this, and called him Moses, for Möu is the Egyptian word for water.