Biblical Hebrew Forum

[barre AT freedsl.com]

Here is a telling parallel to consider.  Was Moses and Egyptian?

Now Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the river, and the girls
attending her were walking along the riverside.  Among the reeds, she
noticed the basket, and she sent her maid to fetch it.  She opened it
and looked, and saw a baby boy crying; and she was sorry for
him.  “This is a child of one of the Hebrews,” she said.  The child’s
sister said to the Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and find you a
nurse among the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” “Yes, go,”
said Pharaoh’s daughter; and the girl went off to the baby’s own
mother.  To her the daughter of Pharaoh said, “Take this child away
and suckle it for me. I will see that you are paid.”  So the woman
took the child and suckled it.  When the child grew up, she brought
him to Pharaoh’s daughter who treated him like a son; she named
him “Moses” saying, “I drew him out of the water.” [Heb. mashah, “to
draw out”].


Here is the relevant portion of the Akkadian text:

Sargon, the mighty king, king of Agade, am I.
My mother was a priestess, my father I did not know.
The brothers of my father loved the hills.
My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the bend of the Euphrates.

My mother, the priestess, conceived me, in secret she bore me.
She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid.
She cast me into the river, which rose not over me.

The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water.
Akki, the drawer of water lifted me out as he dipped his bucket.
Akki, the drawer of water, took me as his son and reared me.

While I was a gardener, Ishtar granted me her love,
and for four and [...] years I exercised kingship.
The black-headed [people] I ruled, I gov[erned] ....







L.M. Barre, Ph.D.
Angelfire.com/ca2/AncientIsrael
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