Jochebed

Jochebed (Hebrew: יוכבד, Yōḵẹḇeḏ; "Name means::Glory of YHWH") (ca. Born::2385 AM–Died::2518 AM) was the daughter of Levi, wife of Amram, and mother of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses.

Life and family

The Masoretic Text states that Jochebed was Amram's father's sister. Jochebed's younger son Moses was born in 2433 AM, forty-eight years after the death of Jochebed's father Levi ({{#show: Levi|?Died}}). The latest date that Jochebed could have been born was 2385 AM, the year her father died. That Jochebed could still be bearing children at the age of forty-eight might seem unlikely by modern standards. Yet the Bible reveals that Levi and his son and grandson all had very long life spans.

A desperate measure

In 2433 AM, Jochebed gave birth to Moses. This was the year that the reigning Pharaoh (probably Sesostris III of the 12th dynasty) decreed that every male Hebrew child be thrown into the Nile River. For three months Jochebed hid Moses in her home, but she could not hide him indefinitely. So she took a wicker basket and covered it with tar and pitch. Then she placed Moses into it and set it adrift in the Nile.

Jochebed's daughter Miriam followed the basket as it drifted into the private beach area that belonged to the royal family. The Pharaoh's daughter (probably Sobekneferu) was bathing in the Nile, when one of her maids saw the basket and brought it to her. Instead of drowning the child, she kept him for herself and gave him the name of Moses, which means "drawn out."

Adding to the irony, Miriam stepped forward and offered to find a nurse for the baby. The Pharaoh's daughter gave her consent, and Miriam introduced Jochebed to the princess. The princess then hired Jochebed to nurse her own son. (Exodus 2:1-10 )

Miriam was thus old enough to walk and even to speak. Though the Bible gives no specific date for Miriam's birth, Ussher suggests that it took place in 2422 AM, eleven years before the birth of Moses.^[1]

As there were no other heirs to the throne, Moses was to be raised to be the next Pharaoh Amenemhet IV although this remains somewhat speculative.

Death

The Bible gives no specific date for the death of Jochebed. Because she was the sister of Kohath, who lived for {{#show: Kohath|?Life span#years}}, she probably lived the same number of years and died five years after the Exodus of Israel.