Exodus 2:1-2

"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son, and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months."

"Of the house of Levi ..." This means "a descendant of Levi," but not actually a literal son of Levi who had been dead for centuries as the time of the exodus approached. Levi was the head of the tribe which later became the Levites and who had charge of the religious life of Israel. The names of the parents, not given here, are recorded in Exodus 6:1 as Amram and Jochebed. There were two older children: Miriam, already a young woman of about 15 years of age and Aaron who was some three years older than Moses. Both of these had been born before Pharaoh's cruel edict to destroy all the male children. The fact of Moses' birth being recorded here without mention of the birth of any older children is due solely to the importance of Moses. Certainly, we may set aside the critical claim that, "It is implied in Exodus 2:2 that Moses was the firstborn, but in Exodus 4:8 he has a grown-up sister![2] Of course, Exodus 2:2 carries no such implication.

"He was a goodly child ..." This appears to be based upon the extraordinary and captivating beauty of the child Moses, an endowment given to him by Almighty God and designed to produce just such a reaction in a gracious woman's heart as that which occurred when Pharaoh's daughter saw him. Jewish writers recount the most fantastic incidents based upon the beauty of the infant Moses. Such great beauty might also have lain behind the determination of his parents to defy the edict of Pharaoh. "The very beauty of the child was to her a token of divine approval, and a sign that God had some special design concerning him."[3] This could have been the special factor that sent Amram and Jochebed to their knees in prayer to God, which prayer God no doubt answered. The very fact that their defiance of Pharaoh's order was an act of faith (Hebrews 11:23) has the meaning that their actions were based upon God's commandments.