Yocheved and the Vulnerability of Mothering
We pour ourselves into our children without the guarantee of success.
Becoming a mother has changed how I read scripture. Not only do I understand the trials and joys of the mothers in scriptures in a way I didn't before, but I also ask more questions about all the characters in general. I wonder about how their parents (or lack of them) influenced who they became as adults. For example, the story of Samson makes me pause and consider whether his backstory as a miracle child prompted his parents’ overindulgence or whether given a different backstory if he’d still been as selfish due to other factors like personality.
Can we “blame” parents for how their kids turn out? I hate using that word, but often in our society we do blame parents if kids go awry as adults. I think it’s more complicated than that. Scripture directs parents—as well as the community at large and spiritual leaders—to raise children well, suggesting that we do impact how a person matures. It’s not just nature. But the Bible also exhorts (adult?) children to bring honor to their parents by choosing good over evil. While this puts the onus on the (again, adult?) children to be responsible for their own actions, it reflects the cultural context of honor and shame. In that time, a parent’s success was largely borne out by their grown-up children bringing them honor later in life.
If this is the case, then Yocheved is a person to appraise with fresh eyes.
Yocheved (or Jochebed in English Bibles) is the mother of three very strong, crucially important characters in the nation of Israel’s formation (Miriam, Aaron, and Moses).1 She is revered in Jewish tradition but often overlooked in Christian churches.2 The church’s attention is often on Moses in his birth narrative (arguably, that is the focus of the writer of Exodus, too). Yet we’d be remiss to ignore the role of Yocheved and consider her influence on her three children, especially Moses. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah (and their maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah) are not Israel’s only matriarchs. Yocheved stands out among them with her children’s star power. Her daughter Miriam is a prophetess (another woman who looms large in Jewish tradition, but is sadly neglected in church history), Aaron is the father of the Levitical priesthood, and Moses is Israel’s first deliverer.
The opening chapter of Exodus frames the book as an epic saga. We're given a sweeping, birds eye view of the centuries of Israel's sojourn in Egypt following the deaths of Jacob and Joseph, showing how the Israelites went from favored foreigners to feared slaves. The writer (historically assumed to be Moses) sets the stage for an unlikely hero, Moses, by introducing us to the several women who played a role in protecting him over the course of his life.3
First, the midwives Shiphrah and Puah stood up to Pharaoh and refused to kill any baby boys born on their watch contrary to royal decree. Next Moses’s own mother and older sister, Miriam risk their lives by hiding him for three months before launching him into the Nile where he's found by a daughter of Pharaoh. He experiences a rebirth when Pharoah’s daughter (traditionally identified as Bithiah) defies her father’s orders and compassionately brings Moses out of the waters and names him.4 At the urging of clever Miriam, Moses’s adoptive mother pays Yocheved to nurse her son until he is weaned and able to be raised as member of Pharoah’s household.
Finally, Moses’s life is saved as an adult when his wife, Zipporah, performs last-minute circumcisions on their sons in order to prevent God from killing him. It's a truly strange story in which God seems bent on the destruction of his chosen savior. There is also some discussion whether Moses or Zipporah is the reluctant parent preventing the ritual from being done. Zipporah’s words as she casts the bloody foreskins at Moses’s feet in Exodus 6 may indicate that she was the holdout and Moses didn’t push her on it. Regardless of who was originally stonewalling the procedure, it is Zipporah who carries out the circumcisions thereby saving Moses’s life.
The first couple of chapters in Exodus are emotional, riveting reads, especially when we slow down and contemplate the stakes involved for all the parties. By listening carefully to the text, we can see the very real people behind the words and allow the possible motivations and emotions driving their actions to bleed through.
Yocheved isn’t named in her one brief scene in Exodus 2. She is simply “a Levite woman,” or “the baby’s mother.” She is identified by name later in Exodus 6 and 29, along with Moses’s father, Amram, who gets no airtime in the story. While the writer of Hebrews praises both parents in the “hall of faith” chapter, Exodus shines the spotlight on Yocheved alone and Miriam as her accomplice.
Last year, I stumbled across this story again while reading my Bible app one bleary nursing night. I had to put my phone down and try not to sob. The baby in my own arms at the time, was my third born, a boy, the same age as Moses at the time Yocheved tucked him into the basket.
With such little detail provided, I am left with so many questions. What about Moses as a baby struck Yocheved so much she decided to risk hiding him? I would assume most parents would hide their newborns when presented with this situation, but Scripture takes the time in a sparsely detailed chapter to note that he was a “fine” child (Exodus 2:2). In Hebrew, it is the word, tov, commonly translated as “good.” Stephen provides additional commentary that Moses was not an “ordinary child” (Acts 7:20). But perhaps Moses is mirroring the Genesis creation account in the use of tov. God creates and declares that what he sees is tov. Yocheved helped create Moses and says he is tov.
Other questions I have are how did Yocheved keep him quiet for 3 months? Did his temperament aid in his hiding? My third born was a very chill baby at this stage until he got hungry. Then he required the whole world to know of his state.
Exodus 2:3 says, “when she could hide him no longer,” she took drastic action by putting him in a basket. I wonder what changed. Was he simply moving around too much that she wasn’t able to keep him strapped to her all day? My kids all started to roll over about that time and although crawling didn’t come until 4 or 5 months.
And why choose a basket in the reeds? She clearly took the time to waterproof it and left Miriam to watch him, so she wasn't just a casting him out into the elements. And the fact that she set him in the reeds (not just out into the open water) near where nobility bathed indicates a measure of forethought and planning.
The very idea of leaving a baby in open waters makes my heart lurch. And yet, this was safer. This unknown Yocheved deemed better than however else she had been hiding him. She then leaves because the text says that Miriam, strong girl that she was, stands nearby to watch and later fetches Yocheved after Pharaoh’s daughter claims him. It's possible she was required elsewhere for other duties, but perhaps she was so overcome she fled.
Was she planning to return to feed him? Or was this . . . goodbye?
The desperation she must have felt is relatable. Because anyone who has been a parent or full-time caregiver for a baby or young child for even a few hours realizes the heavy weight of parenting. Foster parents, godparents and involved aunts and uncles feel this. They understand that that they would do anything to try to save their child's life, while at the same time realizing that nothing is guaranteed. Survival is not promised.
You don't have to be a biological mother to bear this burden. Just love another person or an animal deeply enough and you'll experience this horrific sense of vulnerability. Because love requires risk.
Maybe Yocheved had a knowing from God that gave her unswerving faith that He would intervene and save her son. Or maybe she was an ordinary mom faced with an impossible situation. We know the outcome of the story, but she lived this moment by heartbreaking moment, fighting to keep her head, her faith, and her sanity as she hid her newborn. She didn’t know what would happen—whether it would be enough. There’s no way she could have gamed this out. She simply acted according to what she thought would give him the best chance at survival.
We aren't told what happens to Yocheved, just that she is able to nurse and care for Moses until he was older. That could have been 2-5 years until weaning, possibly longer if she ended up serving as a nurse in the way that Deborah is described as a doing for Rebecca in Genesis 24:29. Either way, I’m relieved at this outcome for Yocheved. Her son not only lives, but she is able to care for him a little longer (and get paid doing it!)
How long she lived beyond this is unknown. Exodus 26 says Amran lived to be 137 years of age; however, we don’t know how old he was when he fathered Moses. I like to think that Yocheved lived long enough to see her son become Israel’s deliverer.5
Although the Bible offers us very little detail on Yocheved herself, I believe her lasting influence can be seen on all three of her children. Just consider how Moses instructs children to obey/respect/honor their parents. He does so from a place of knowledge. The conclusion of his life demonstrates this.
Yocheved means “YHWH is glory” or “Glory to YHWH.” This fits her as all of her children, despite moments of failure, do indeed bring glory to God, thereby bringing glory and honor also to her.
I’ve chosen to use the common Hebrew phonetic version of her name because I think its prettier to read.
Rabbinical literature offers some interesting commentary on Yocheved, her birth narrative, her biological relationship to and marriage with Amram, and even her possible identification as one of the midwives in Exodus 1. Warning, some of it gets a bit weird. Google is your friend here.
Interestingly, Moses does not name his mother in his birth narrative but does draw attention to the midwives by naming them.
See Leviticus Rabbah 1:3 and 1 Chronicles 4:18.
Jewish tradition supports this, although I don’t necessarily buy the argument for her longevity described in the Seder Olam Rabbah 9.
Sheesh, reading that story while nursing a baby? Oy. It would hit hard.
It is easy to forget the parents in the narrative, buy so interesting to reflect on!
Love this tribute to an unsung Biblical mother--there's so much in her story to reflect on. Thanks for bringing her to my attention!