Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “You must throw every Hebrew boy that is born into the Nile, but let every girl live.” [...] Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female servant to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him and said: “This is one of the Hebrew babies.” Then the baby’s sister asked the Pharaoh’s daughter: “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to the Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 1,22 and 2, 1–10:

According to the narration in the Bible, believed by scholars to be based on the story of King Sargon I, under Joseph’s protection, many Hebrews settled in Egypt and grew in number. When a new Pharaoh came to power who saw them as a threat, he ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed. To save her son from death, Jochebed placed him in a basket, sealed it with pitch, and set it afloat on the Nile River. The daughter of the Pharaoh saw the basket while she was about to take a bath in the river, she discovered the baby, and decided to adopt him, naming him Moses, which means “drawn out of the water.” Miriam, Moses’ older sister, who had been hiding nearby, approached and convinced the princess to let a Hebrew woman nurse the child, the woman chosen was Jochebed. Moses was raised as the younger brother of the future Pharaoh.

This scene represents the moment of the encounter: a maid shows the princess the baby inside the basket; all the ladies of her court seem to pause their duties for a moment to look at the child, while Miriam stands by shyly.