The account of the life of this amazing woman can be found in the Bible at the book of exodus chapter 2. His name is mentioned for the first time in Exodus 6:20 and again in in the book of numbers in chapter 26 verse 59.
What can we learn from the mother of the child, that when he grew up he would be called by God to be the liberator of Israel? That is what we are going to study in this article, so join us in reading and do not miss any detail.
Jochebed was a descendant of Levi, who was born in Egypt and was the wife of Amram and mother of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. She hid her son Moses for three months despite Pharaoh’s order to kill all male children by throwing them into the river.
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What does the name Jochebed mean?
The meaning of the name Jocabeb from Hebrew «יוֹכֶ֫בֶד» or its transliteration «Yokebed» is «the Lord is glory» or «glorified by God».
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The story of Jochebed mother of Moses
After Joseph’s death, the people of Israel remained in Egypt and were slaves for 430 years (Exodus 12:40).
Thus, when there was a new Pharaoh in Egypt who realized that the children of Israel were numerous, since they had gone from being 70 males to 603,000 aged twenty and over, that is, a total population of two million (Numbers 1:46); he tried to stop them from multiplying.
Then he ordered the midwives to kill the babies of the children of the Israelites if they were male. Because this did not happen, because the midwives feared God, he ordered the children to be thrown into the river (Exodus 1:22).
Jochebed appears in this context in the Bible. Jochebed was from the tribe of levi and was one of the Israelites who were born in Egypt during the time the people of Israel lived there (Numbers 26:59).
The Bible only mentions two references to Jochebed and both are found in the Old Testament, in Exodus 6:20 and Numbers 26:59 respectively. A curious fact in this regard is that Jochebed is not directly mentioned in the narrative of the birth of Moses.
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Moses’ Mom
Jochebed married Amram, who was her nephew (Exodus 6:20). You may be interested in our article Is it a sin to fall in love or marry a cousin?.
As a result of this marriage, Jochebed had Aaron, Miriam and Moses as children.
It should be remembered that at that time there were probably no official restrictions on the marriage of close relatives, as we can see, for example, in the case of Abraham and Sarah.
Subsequently, it can be seen that the Lord prohibited this type of marriage in mosaic law, saying: «The nakedness of your father’s sister you will not discover; she is related to your father. » (Leviticus 18:12).
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Jochebed’s attitude before the birth of Moses
When Moses was born, Jochebed hid him for three months (Exodus 2:2).
At that time, the Pharaoh of Egypt had ordered that the Hebrew children, at birth, be thrown into the river so that the Hebrew people would not become stronger.
At one point, Jochebed realized that she could no longer hide her son. So he prepared a small waterproof basket, and put Moses in it and left him on the bank of the river to be carried away by the current.
When Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the river to bathe, she saw the small basket among the reeds on the bank and asked one of her maids to carry it. Seeing Moses, Pharaoh’s daughter took pity on him, although she knew that she was one of the sons of the Hebrews.
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Who raised Moses when he was a baby?
Miriam, Moisés’s sister, had been watching everything that was happening with her brother’s basket when their mother had left it on the river bank.
When Miriam saw that Pharaoh’s daughter took Moses, she came up and offered to find a nursemaid from among the Hebrew women who could raise Moses.
So Miriam went looking for her mother Jochebed, and was eventually hired to raise her own son as a nurse until he was grown (Exodus 2:10).
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What do we learn from Jochebed?
The attitude of Jochebed and her husband Amram was an example of courage and confidence in the providence and sovereignty of the Lord.
Jochebed and Amram were mentioned, though not by name, in the gallery of heroes of faith recorded in the Letter to the Hebrews, for their act of faith in hiding Moses for three months, unafraid of Pharaoh’s decree (Hebrews 11:23).
This was represented by the author of the epistle as an evident demonstration of authentic faith, which invites us as children of God to trust in the Lord despite any circumstance.
They might have feared what Pharaoh would do to them if he found out where the baby was hiding. However, hopeful in the Lord, they did not fear death, but hoped in God’s favor, in the same way as the parents of Moses, we, the children of God, must hope in the Lord and be strengthened in faith in any situation.
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