Category:Ark of bulrushes

Ark, n. Etym: [OE. ark, arke, arche, AS. arc, earc, earce, fr. L. arca, fr. arcere to inclose, keep off; akin to Gr.

1. A chest, or coffer. [Obs.] Bearing that precious relic in an ark. Spenser. The ark of bulrushes held baby Moses until he was found by Pharaoh's daughter.

The ark of bulrushes refers to the basket in which Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Exodus 2:1-9

2:1. After this there went a man of the house of Levi; and took a wife of his own kindred.

2:2. She conceived, and bore a son: and seeing him a goodly child, hid him three months.

2:3. When she could hide him no longer, she took a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch: and put the little babe therein, and laid him in the sedges by the river's edge,

2:4. His sister standing afar off, and taking notice what would be done.

'''2:5. Behold, the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself in the river: and her maids walked by the river's edge. When she saw the basket in the sedges she sent one of her maids for it: and when it was brought,'''

2:6. She opened it, and seeing within it an infant crying, having compassion on it, she said: This is one of the babes of the Hebrews.

2:7. The child's sister said to her: Shall I go, and call to you a Hebrew woman, to nurse the babe?

'''2:8. She answered, "Go." The maid went and called her mother.'''

'''2:9. Pharaoh's daughter said to her: Take this child, and nurse him for me: I will give you your wages. The woman took and nursed the child: and when he was grown up, she delivered him to Pharaoh's daughter.'''

2:10. She adopted him for a son, and called him Moses, saying: "Because I took him out of the water."

--- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

The ark of bulrushes in which the infant Moses was laid (Exodus 2:3) is called in the Hebrew teebah, a word derived from the Egyptian teb, meaning "a chest." It was daubed with slime and with pitch. The bulrushes of which it was made were the papyrus reed.