Pharaoh's Daughter

Biblical Figures

There are two women referred to in Tanakh as "daughter of Pharaoh." The first is the woman who pulled Moses from the Nile and raised him as her son, in her father's house. According to rabbinic tradition, she converted to Judaism, and her name was Bityah, meaning "daughter of God." The second is a wife of King Solomon.

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The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay your wages…

King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Phoenician, and Hittite women, from the nations of which GOD had said to the Israelites, “None of you shall join them and none of them shall join you, lest they turn your heart away to follow their gods.” Such Solomon clung to and loved. He had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. In his old age, his wives turned away Solomon’s heart after other gods…

The verse states: “And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe [lirḥotz] in the river” (Exodus 2:5). Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: This teaches that she came down to the river to cleanse herself from the impurity of her father’s idols, as she was immersing herself as part of the conversion process. And similarly it states: “When the Lord shall have washed [raḥatz] away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment…

Go and learn what the daughter of Paraoh sought to teach the Children of Israel at the time that she had compassion upon one of the children of the Hebrews and raised him like her own son: 'That one who raises an orphan boy or an orphan girl in his house is considered by Scripture as if he gave birth to them.' Hence the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Bityah (a name that means the daughter of the Lord), the daughter of Pharaoh, "Moshe was not your son, nor are you My daughter; but I will call you My daughter (biti)…

Dirshuni I, Exodus, V 2-3

Rabbi Simon, in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, and Rabbi Ḥama father of Rabbi Hoshaya, in the name of Rav, said: Chronicles was given only for expounding. “His Judahite wife bore Yered father of Gedor, [Ḥever father of Sokho, and Yekutiel father of Zano'aḥ; these are the sons of Bitya daughter of Pharaoh whom Mered took as a wife]” (I Chronicles 4:18). “His Judahite wife” – this is Yokheved. Was she from the tribe of Judah? Was she not from the tribe of Levi? Why was she called Judahite? It is because she brought Jews into the world.
“Bore Yered” (I Chronicles 4:18) – this is Moses…

Vayikra Rabbah 1:3

But another midrash carries the idea of an over-developed organ even further. The na’ar in the text evokes another na’ar: “For Israel is a youth and I love him” (Hosea 11:1). In the words of Hosea, God loves Israel as one loves a young man who is volatile, full of turbulent energy. By offering this verse as a proof-text, the midrash suggests that Moses is precociously identified with his people’s pain, giving voice to a transpersonal anguish. Perhaps it is the princess who hears the baby’s voice as expressive of a larger trauma?…

Moses; A Human Life, 1 Identities 33-35

את אמתה means her handmaid. Our Rabbis, however, explained it in the sense of hand (cf. Sotah 12b) — but according to the grammar of the Holy Language it should then have been written אַמָּתָה , dageshed in the מ. — And the reason why they explained את אמתה to mean את ידה “she stretched forth her hand” is because they hold that Scripture intentionally uses this term to indicate that her hand increased in length several cubits (אמה, a cubit) in order that she might more easily reach the cradle.

Rashi on Exodus 2:5:3

Rabbi Shimon began and said: "Blast the beast of the reed[s] (kaneh), the herd of bulls among the peoples, the calves" (Psalms 68:31). "Blast the beast" - that is the beast that Esav grabbed a hold of. "The reed" - We have learned that on the day that King Shlomo married the daughter of Pharoah, Gavriel appeared and planted a reed in the Great Sea, and the city of Rome was built upon it. What is a kaneh? It is the male of that evil beast, and it has a small side that grabs holiness. And that is that kaneh that he planted in the Great Sea…

Zohar, Pinchas 106:740

"And when she saw that he was a goodly child." Good is only knowledge of holiness, knowledge of the holy Torah. As it is written (Proverbs 19:2), "A person without knowledge is surely not good"; and as it is written (Proverbs 4:2) "For I give you good instruction, My Torah, etc." And hence, because knowledge was then beginning to become complete, that is why the daughter of Pharaoh immediately turned to holiness. And it is specifically the daughter of Pharaoh that saved Moshe from the river. That is a hint that knowledge was completed with a great completion…

Likutei Halakhot, Choshen Mishpat, Laws of Damages 3:4:2

And in those days Tharmuth, the daughter of Pharaoh, came to bathe in the river, and she heard thy voice crying, and she told her maidens to bring thee forth, and they brought thee unto her.

Book of Jubilees 47:7

There were nine who entered the Garden of Eden alive, viz.: Enoch the son of Yered, Elijah, the Messiah, Eliezer the servant of Abraham, Hiram, king of Tyre, Ebed-melech the Cushite, Jabeẓ the son of R. Judah the Prince, Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, and Seraḥ the daughter of Asher. Some say: Also R. Joshua b. Levi.

Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta 1:18

There is someone who says that even a female firstborn should fast. For behold they were also certainly killed in the plague of the first born in Egypt. And the proof is that it says in the Midrash that Batyah the daughter of Pharaoh was saved in the merit of Moshe. Hence the plague of the first born was also with the females. Nevertheless, this is not the custom, based on the reason that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not command to sanctify them, but rather only the [first born] males. And one who comes after a miscarriage needs to fast, since he is the first born for the inheritance…

Arukh HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 470:3

The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him.

And his Judahite wife bore Jered father of Gedor, Heber father of Soco, and Jekuthiel father of Zanoah. These were the sons of Bithiah daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered married.

I Chronicles 4:18

Why is she, who we are told at the end of the verse was Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah, referred to as Yehudiyya? Because she repudiated idol worship, as it is written: “And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself in the river” (Exodus 2:5), and Rabbi Yoḥanan said: She went down to wash and purify herself from the idols of her father’s house.

Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Proof for the aforementioned statement can be derived from here: “And his wife Hajehudijah gave birth to Jered the father of Gedor, and Heber the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah, and these are the sons of Bithiah, daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took” (I Chronicles 4:18). Mered is Caleb, and why was his name called Mered? Because he rebelled [marad] against the counsel of the spies. And according to the midrash, Jered, Heber, and Jekuthiel all refer to Moses our teacher…

Sanhedrin 19b:15

לרחוץ על היאור. She had a view of the river, her room in the palace bordering on the embankment. No doubt, royal etiquette would not permit an Egyptian princess to actually bathe in the river. [the author was alerted by the preposition על instead of ב, “in,” in front of the word יאור. Ed.] ונערותיה הולכות, this is the reason why she did not command one of them to bring the basket to her as they were not with her at that time. ותשלח את אמתה, the servant who was attending her at the time when she bathed herself…

Sforno on Exodus 2:5:1-3

ונערותיה הולכות, walking with her ladies-in-waiting, etc. Why is that detail pertinent to the story of Moses' rescue? Perhaps the Torah felt that inasmuch as Batya (Pharaoh's daughter) had performed such a great deed in rescuing the life of a Jewish baby, she deserved that all the details be revealed for all to know. It is a well known fact that a Royal princess does not go down to the river to bathe without her attendants. Moreover, it is customary that amongst her attendants there should be one who is senior, in charge of all the other junior attendants…

Or HaChaim on Exodus 2:5:1

TO BATHE ‘AL’ (BY) THE RIVER. “Transpose [the order of the words in] the verse and then explain it: the daughter of Pharaoh went down by the river to bathe in it.” Thus the language of Rabbeinu Shlomo [Rashi]. If so, al haye’or (by or upon the river) is like el haye’or (to the river). Similarly, And Elkanah went to Ramah ‘al beitho’ (upon his house) [is like el beitho (to his house)]; Thus shall ye say every one ‘al rei’eihu’ (upon his neighbor) and every one to his brother [is like el rei’eihu (to his neighbor)]…

Ramban on Exodus 2:5:1

ותפתח ותראהו lit., AND SHE OPENED IT AND SHE SAW HIM — whom did she see? את הילד THE CHILD. This is the literal sense of the suffix in ותראהו. A Midrashic explanation is (taking את in the sense of “with”— she saw Him with the child): she saw the Shechina with him (cf. Sotah 12b).

Rashi on Exodus 2:6:1

Pharaoh's Daughter, Janet Shafner. Yeshiva University Museum, PD.

Pharaoh's Daughter, Janet Shafner. Yeshiva University Museum, PD.

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