Jochebed

Jochebed was a Levite woman and the mother of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. She demonstrated faith by hiding her infant son Moses from Pharaoh's decree to kill Hebrew baby boys, placing him in the Nile where he was found and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. Her actions preserved the future leader of the Exodus.

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Biography

Occupation: Mother
Tribe: Levi
Spouse: Amram
Children: Moses, Aaron, Miriam
Era: Exodus
Nationality: Hebrew

Family

Jochebed ⚭ Amram

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Children

Moses, Aaron, Miriam

Did You Know?

Jochebed married her nephew Amram, as recorded in Exodus 6:20, a consanguineous union that was later prohibited by the laws in Leviticus 18.

Her name, incorporating the divine element "Yah," is one of the earliest known examples of a theophoric name using Yahweh among Israelite women, indicating pre-Exodus familiarity with this divine designation.

Although Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses, Jochebed was hired to nurse him, enabling her to shape his earliest years and transmit Hebrew identity within the Egyptian royal court.

Biblical genealogies identify Jochebed as a direct daughter of Levi, linking her immediately to the tribe that would later hold exclusive priestly and tabernacle duties through her son Aaron.

Jochebed concealed Moses for three full months before resorting to the Nile, a prolonged act of defiance against a death decree that required exceptional resourcefulness in concealing an infant from household searches in ancient Egypt.

Key Passages

Marriage and Children

Exodus 6:20

Records Jochebed's marriage to Amram and identifies her as the mother of Aaron and Moses.

A²⁰nd Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years.

Read full chapter: Exodus 6 →

Birth of Moses

Exodus 2:1-10

Describes Jochebed hiding Moses and placing him in the Nile, leading to his adoption by Pharaoh's daughter.

A¹nd there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

² And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. ³ And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. ⁴ And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. ⁵ And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. ⁶ And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. ⁷ Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? ⁸ And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. ⁹ And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. ¹⁰ And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

Read full chapter: Exodus 2 →

Genealogy of Levi

Numbers 26:59

Confirms Jochebed as the daughter of Levi and mother of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

A⁵⁹nd the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

Read full chapter: Numbers 26 →