Exodus 2:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As the tsarevna gazed upon him and beheld the child's beauty, she was instantly drawn to him, choosing him in place of her own son. However, due to a natural dislike for the foreign nourishment, he was fed at his mother's breast, as intended by one of his kin.

Mariam approached, her demeanor neither sorrowful nor elated, masking her true purpose with an appropriate facade. She addressed the daughters of Pharaoh, saying, “I will seek out a nurse from among the Hebrews, a woman with pure milk and a beautiful heart, who is perfectly suited for your royal needs.”

Miriam, the sister of Moses, observed from a distance the actions of Pharaoh's daughter and approached her seemingly by coincidence, captivated by the remarkable sight of the basket drawn from the water. To reunite the child with his mother, she proposed to the kind-hearted princess that she procure a Hebrew woman to nurse him. However, she was wary of raising any doubts that could reveal her true purpose, knowing well that no Egyptian woman would nurse an infant from a people deemed unclean by the Egyptians (Genesis 41:33).

An Egyptian woman may have revealed the secret surrounding the child's delivery and, in any case, would likely have shown less regard for it compared to a Hebrew woman.