Why was Pharaoh's daughter in the river that morning? The Hebrew says simply: "to bathe." The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (2:5) has a different answer — and it is startling.
"And the Memra of the Lord sent forth a burning sore and inflammation of the flesh upon the land of Mizraim; and the daughter of Pharoh came down to refresh herself at the river. And her handmaids, walking upon the bank of the river, saw the ark among the reeds, and put forth the arm and took it, and were immediately healed of the burning and inflammation."
A plague. A preview of the ten plagues, years early. The Holy One sends a skin affliction across Egypt, and the princess — desperate for relief — wades into the Nile. Her handmaids follow. One of them spots the basket. The moment she touches it, her burning skin cools.
The Targum's theology is radical. The rescue of Moses is engineered from heaven with the choreography of a great opera. A plague to move the princess to the water. A basket to move her heart. A miracle of instant healing to confirm that this baby is not ordinary cargo. Every Egyptian who touches the ark is healed; anyone who might have killed the baby is divinely stayed.
The image is unforgettable. Hebrew babies have been thrown into the Nile and drowned. One Hebrew baby is placed in the Nile and heals the skin of Egyptians. The same river that became a grave for the hunted becomes a bath for the one who will end the hunt.
Beloved, the Holy One does not only rescue. He stages.