Pharaoh’s Daughter

Also known as מוקדם שהוא מאוחר בענין, “phrases written out of order,” Rabbi Eliezer’s 31st principle of exegesis helps solve interpretive difficulties, such as: Does Samuel really sleep in the Tabernacle next to the ark? Why is Lot’s property referred to as “Abraham’s nephew”? What does it mean that Pharaoh’s daughter washes on the Nile?

Among Solomon’s many foreign wives, only Pharaoh’s daughter receives individualized attention—but why does her story center on Solomon’s building projects?

In Exodus, the daughter of Pharaoh is presented as an empathetic princess who saves the infant Moses after discovering him in the Nile and raises him as one of her own. Late Second Temple and rabbinic writers reimagine her based on their own values, and even give her a name.