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Exodus 2 says that Moses' mother saw he was a good child and hid him, using singular verbs. The Greek Septuagint changes these to plurals, "when they saw," perhaps to describe both parents being involved.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 2:2
Hebrew Bible
1 A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi. 2 The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a good child8, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile. 4 His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Exodus 2:2
Septuagint
1 And there was a certain man of the tribe of Levi, who took as wife one of the daughters of Levi. 2 And she conceived, and bore a male child; and having seen that he was fair, they hid him three months. 3 And when they could no longer hide him, his mother took for him an ark, and besmeared it with bitumen, and cast the child into it, and put it in the ooze by the river. 4 And his sister was watching from a distance, to learn what would happen to him.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Greek translator pays attention to the details of the dramatis personae. In the beginning of the story (2:1), the Hebrew text says וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי ("A man from the household of Levi took/married a daughter of Levi") while the Greek provides a more general description: Ἦν δέ τις ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Λευι, ὃς ἔλαβεν τῶν θυγατέρων Λευι ("There was someone from the tribe of Levi who took one of the daughters of Levi"). MT's description of Moses' choice of a wife is thus more detailed, referring to a single daughter of Levi, while according to the LXX Moses chose one of several daughters of Levi. ..."
Emanuel Tov, “Moses in the Septuagint,” in Figures Who Shape Scriptures, Scriptures That Shape Figures: Essays in Honour of Benjamin G. Wright III (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018), 9–10.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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