The Adopted Son

A child was born among the Israelites whose life was to be one of the most remarkable that history has recorded for us. His father's name was Amram and his mother's Jochebed, and they belonged to the tribe of Levi, the third son of Jacob. They had two older children, a son named Aaron and a daughter named Miriam. The mother of this little boy managed to keep him out of sight for three months, and then she made a little boat of the water-reeds called papyrus, fastening them together with clay and pitch. It was not much more than a basket, but she put the baby into it and placed it among the rushes at the edge of the river Nile, leaving her daughter Miriam to see what became of her baby brother. While Miriam was watching the little boat and its precious burden, the daughter of Pharaoh, with her attendants, came to the river to bathe. She saw the little boat floating among the rushes and ordered it to be brought to her. As she looked down at the baby it cried, and, while she must have known that it was the child of Israelitish parents, her heart went out to it in pity, and she declared that she would bring it up as if it had been her own child.