When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
This child was born at the very hour Pharaoh's cruelty reached its peak to murder Hebrew infants. What begins as the parents' deepest fear becomes their greatest joy. God prepares the deliverer in the shadow of the oppressor's rage.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 2:1-4
And when she could no longer hide him,.... Because of her neighbours, who might hear the crying of the child, or because of the diligent search made by Pharaoh's officers, which some think was made every three months: the Jews (a) have a notion that his mother was delivered of him at six months' end, and therefore when the other three months were up women...
she took for him an ark of bulrushes--papyrus, a thick, strong, and tough reed. slime--the mud of the Nile, which, when hardened, is very tenacious. pitch--mineral tar. Boats of this description are seen daily floating on the surface of the river, with no other caulking than Nile mud (compare Isa 18:2), and they are perfectly watertight, unless the coating is forced off by stormy weather.