Exodus 2:5-6

"And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river-side; and she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her handmaid to fetch it. And she opened it, and saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children."

"Daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe ..." This action does not conform to the behavior of royal daughters in modern times, but it was indeed an event common enough in the times of Pharaoh, a fact attested by the depiction on the ancient monuments of such scenes with as many as four handmaids in attendance. [10]"

The Nile was worshipped; and bathing in its waters was supposed to enrich, protect, and/or heal such bathers. It is probable that special secluded areas along the river were prepared, protected from sharks, and set aside for the private use of such persons as Pharaoh's daughter. Evidently Jochebed knew, not only WHERE the princess would bathe, but WHEN. In this connection, it is interesting that Cook affirmed that sharks are never found in that area of the Nile river.[11]

"And behold the babe wept ..." The child's tears went straight to the heart of the daughter of Pharaoh, "reaching the common humanity that lies below all differences of race and creed, and she pitied it."[12] How precise and exactly all of the elements of this astounding narrative are dovetailed, synchronized, and fitted together! However incidental or accidental it may appear to have been, it all came about exactly as God had ordained!

It is especially interesting that the "Egyptians regarded tenderness to an infant as a condition of acceptance on the day of reckoning."[13] There was a line in their funeral ritual which claimed on behalf of the dead that, I have not withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings."[14]

The use of the word "ark" for the little chest or basket in which Moses was launched was thought by Keil to have been for the purpose of "calling to mind the ark in which Noah was saved.[15] Another ark mentioned in Scripture is "the ark of the covenant." All three were vitally related to the divine purpose of human redemption.

We cannot identify this daughter of Pharaoh. Josephus called her Thermutis, and Eusebius called her Merris.[16] Unger suggested that her name might have been Hatshepsut.[17] She was the only woman known to have become a Pharaoh, but until ancient Egyptian history is much more than the patchwork of guesses that it is today, the certain identification is impossible.