וילך איש מבית לוי, a reference to Amram.

ויקח את יוכבד בת לוי, She had been born for Levi in Egypt (Numbers 26,59). He married her many years before Moses was born, for Aaron was 83 years old when he appeared before Pharaoh with Moses who was 80 years old at the time.

ותהר האשה, during the period that Pharaoh’s decree that every male baby had to be thrown into the Nile to be drowned.

ותלד בן. ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא ותצפנהו, anyone who translates this as “she (only) hid him because he was good, is lying.” Mothers display mercy for all their children. If this is so, we need to explain the reason why the Torah added the words כי טוב הוא. At the end of the story of creation in Genesis 1,31 the Torah wrote וירא אלוקים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד. G’d, at the end of six days of creation surveyed all He had done to find out if any of it needed improving. He was pleased to find that all had turned out as He had wished it to be.”

Here too, seeing that Moses had been born 3 months premature, just as we encounter such a phenomenon in Samuel 1,20, when the prophet Samuel was born prematurely, the prophet writing לתקופת הימים, there was good reason to examine such a premature baby as to its viability. The word תקופה, a season, is a period of 91 days. Seeing that Samuel was born after 2 such תקופות he was born after 182 days of pregnancy. [perhaps the fact that the Torah did not mention that the time for Moses to be born had arrived, as happens very often, is another support for the assumption that he was 3 months premature. Ed.] At any rate, she had nothing to fear during the three months she hid Moses at home as the Egyptians had not expected Yocheved to give birth until the end of that period of time. When Yocheved had noted that in spite of being born so much prematurely, Moses was fully formed in every way, she decided it was worthwhile to hide him and to hope that somehow he would be spared from the decree. When an inspector would show up, she would tell the inspector that he had been premature and incapable of living so that she had had to bury him or that the Egyptians had drowned him anyway.

בחמר, on the inside,

ובזפת, on the outside, so that the water would not get inside the basket.

ותשם בסוף; which was על שפת היאור, near the embankment of the river. People walking along the river would not automatically be able to spot the basket from the outside, but people bathing in the river would be able to see it. Yocheved had not entered the water to hide the basket from all directions. This is why the daughter of Pharaoh saw the basket while she was bathing in the river. Her maidservants, who were only walking along the embankment, had not noticed the basket and who was inside it.

אמתה, not “her nursemaid,” but “her maidservant.”

ותפתח ותראהו את הילד, anyone explaining that the meaning of the line is that “she saw the infant,” is in error. Who does not know that when someone would open the basket that he or she would see the infant? Surely, the Torah did not have to tell us something so elementary! Therefore, the meaning of the line is this: when she opened the basket and saw the infant and wanted to know if it was male or female, she found that the baby was a נער, that it was male and not female. When she also observed that his member had been circumcised, she realised that this baby had not been abandoned but had been hidden in the reeds. If she would have found that the baby was a girl, she would have assumed that it had been abandoned (as an illegitimate birth) There is nothing unusual about an infant being called נער, as we find Manoach asking the angel who had predicted the birth of Simshon מה נעשה לנער אשר יולד,”what shall we do for the boy once he will be born?” (Judges 13,8).

והנה נער בוכה, ותחמול עליו, because he was crying she took pity on him. Furthermore, because she saw that he was a circumcised boy, she added: מילדי העברים זה, that it was one of the Hebrew children. We find something parallel in Samuel I 1,5 where we are told ולחנה יתן מנה אחת אפים, that Elkanah would give his wife Chanah a double portion, the reason being explained later with the words: כי את חנה אהב “for he deeply loved Chanah.” This is all very fine, but why does the prophet stress the word אחת in the description מנה אחת אפים, “one portion twice,” instead of writing שתי מנות, “two portions?” The reason is that although she was childless her husband gave her a double portion (only), whereas Peninah, having numerous children received far more than 2 portions. Elkanah compensated Chanah for her childlessness. Here the daughter of Pharaoh reacted to the miserable condition Moses found himself in.

ותיניק לך את הילד, A transitive construction, meaning the Hebrew nursing woman would perform on her behalf as if it were her own child.

ותניקהו, There is no need to assume that we are dealing with a two-letter mode of the verb as in שב, בא, or קם, and that the letter י of the root ינק is missing here as is usual in the transitive form, הפעיל of the roots קום or שוב, so that we have the construction ותקימהו “she made him stand up,” or ותשיבהו, “she brought him back.” The root we are dealing with here is the verb ינק, and in order to shorten the word somewhat the Torah writes instead of ותיניקהו simply ותניקהו.

משיתיהו. As if to say: משכתיהו, “I pulled him forth.” We know that the word used here is also used elsewhere in connection with pulling something out of the water, as in Psalms 18,17 ימשני ממים רבים, “He drew me out of the mighty waters.” The construction follows the same pattern as with the root קנה the intransitive form of which parallel to ours would be קניתיהו, “I have acquired him, whereas the transitive mode, הפעיל would be יקנני, yakneyni in the future tense, “he will acquire me.”

מכה, perhaps he only struck him and did not kill him.

הלהרגני אתה אומר?, because I am striking my fellow ?

כאשר הרגת את המצרי, .on account of an Egyptian hitting an Israelite.

אכן , Moses had come to the realisation that he had been wrong when he buried the Egyptian thinking that no one had observed his death and burial. It turned out that the matter had been witnessed.

וישב בארץ מדין. A general description of the locality, followed by more details of why he settled there, i.e. his experience at the well. He had originally only stopped there for refreshment as do most travelers. The Torah follows this with the story of Yitro and his daughters.

THE PRIEST OF MIDIAN ... TO R'U'EL, the father of THEIR FATHER (v. 18). If so, their father's name is Yitro, and Hovav, the son of R'u'el, who is mentioned below in Parashat B'ha'alot'cha (Num. 10:29) -- "Moses said to Hovav son of R'u'el" -- Hovav and Yitro are the same. And if R'u'el is Yitro, then he [Hovav] was Yitro's son. But what is written in the Prophets (Jud. 4:11) -- "descendants of Hovav, father-in-law of Moshe" -- proves that Hovav is Yitro, since all other mentions of "Moshe's father-in-law" mention Yitro.

בארץ נכריה. The meaning of the name Gershom, i.e. a stranger in a distant land.

ויהי בימים הרבים ההם, after Moses had slain the Egyptian and Pharaoh had tried to execute him for murder, and Moses had fled from his presence and remained in hiding until he was 80 years of age when G’d decided to speak with him, the King of Egypt who had tried to kill him died (only now). The Children of Israel had merely groaned under his persecution all this time. G’d now saw their suffering, while Moses during all that time had been a shepherd of his father-in-law’s flocks. At that time G’d appeared to Moses and commanded him to return to Egypt (3,1). Moses was unwilling to return to Egypt as he was still afraid of criminal proceedings against him, until G’d told him (4,19) that there was no cause for this, as all the people who wanted him dead had already died themselves. This is why the Torah reports here וימת מלך מצרים, so that we would understand what 4,19 is all about. The entire literary construction is similar to Genesis 9,18 וחם הוא אבי כנען. [verses 19-21 after that are in parenthesis before the Torah continues about Cham. Ed]

ויזכר אלוקים, which He had sworn to all three patriarchs, and the end of the period of the 400 years G’d had spoken of to Avraham in Genesis chapter 15 promising to give his descendants the land of Canaan was fast approaching.