Miscellanies 1.23.155

About the upbringing of Moses, Ezekiel too, the poet of Jewish tragedies, will agree with us, in the drama entitled The Exodus, writing thus in the person of Moses: “For seeing our race greatly increased, King Pharaoh devised much guile against us, tormenting men with brickwork and heavy building, and fortifying cities by the labor of us wretched ones. Then he proclaimed to us, the Hebrew race, to throw the males into the deep-flowing river. Then the mother who bore me hid me three months, as she used to say; but, not escaping notice, she put me out, dressing me in fine clothes, by the edge of the river, into a thick, deep marsh. Miriam my sister watched nearby. And then the king's daughter came down with her maidens to refresh her young body in the bath. Seeing me, at once pitying, she took me up, and knew that I was a Hebrew. And Miriam my sister, running to the princess, says this: ‘Do you wish me to find you quickly a nurse for this child from among the Hebrews?’ And she urged the girl on. She went and told our mother, and quickly my mother herself came and took me in her arms. And the king's daughter said: ‘Woman, nurse this child, and I will pay you your wage.’ And she called me by the name Moses, because she took me up from the wet bank of the river. When my time as an infant had passed, my mother brought me to the princess's palace, having first told and explained everything to me, my ancestral race and God's gifts. So as long as we had the time of boyhood, with royal nurture and education she provided everything, as if from her own womb; but when the full circle of days had come, I went out from the royal house.”