“The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile while her maidens were walking on the bank of the Nile. She saw the basket among the reeds and she sent her maidservant [amatah] and she took it” (Exodus 2:5). “To bathe in the Nile” (Exodus 2:5) – to wash off the idolatry of her father’s home. “While her maidens were walking [holekhot],” Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The term halikha here is nothing other than an expression of death, and likewise it says: “Behold, I am going [holekh] to die” (Genesis 25:32).
They said to her: ‘Our mistress, the way of the world is that a king issues a decree and the entire world does not fulfill it, but his children and the members of his household fulfill it; and you are violating the command of your father.’ Immediately, [the angel] Gabriel came and slammed them onto the ground [and killed them]. “She sent her maidservant [amatah] and she took it.” Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya, one says her arm, and one says her maidservant.
The reason for the one who says “her arm” is that amatah is written.49Had the verse been referring to her maidservant, it should have said na’aratah, maiden, which is the expression employed earlier in the verse. The reason for the one who says “her maidservant” is that yadah50The more common term for “her arm.” is not written. According to the opinion of the one who says her maidservant, when Gabriel came and slammed them onto the ground, he spared one of them, as it is not the way of a princess to remain alone.
They raise an objection: According to the one who says “her hand,” let it write “yadah.” This is not difficult, as this is the reason that amatah is written, because her arm was stretched.51Her arm stretched, so it was the length of several cubits (amot). We learned: Likewise you find: “You have broken [shibarta] the teeth of the wicked” (Psalms 3:8); do not read it as shibarta, but rather as shirbavta, that you enlarged and extended.
The Rabbis say: Pharaoh’s daughter was a leper; that is why she went to bathe. When she touched the basket she was cured. That is why she had compassion for Moses and loved him exceedingly.