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{{Short description|Mother of Aaron, Miriam, and Moses in the Bible}}

{{Infobox religious biography
| name               = Jochebed
| image              = Pedro Américo - Moisés e Jocabed.jpg
| image_size         = 250px
| caption            = ''Moses and Jochebed'' by [[Pedro Américo]] (1884) 
| religion           = 
| father            = [[Levi]]
| relatives          = {{Plainlist|
* [[Gershon]] (brother)
* [[Kehath]] (brother)
* [[Merari]] (brother)
* [[Elisheba]] (daughter-in-law)
* [[Nadab (son of Aaron)|Nadab]] (grandson)
* [[Abihu]] (grandson)
* [[Eleazer]] (grandson)
* [[Ithamar]] (grandson)
* [[Zipporah]] (daughter-in-law)
* [[Gershom]] (grandson)
* [[Eliezer]] (grandson)
}}
| spouse             = [[Amram]]
| native_name        = {{lang|he|יוֹכֶבֶד}}
| birth_place        = (most likely) [[Land of Goshen|Goshen]], [[Lower Egypt]], [[Ancient Egypt]]
| children           = {{Plainlist|
* [[Miriam]]
* [[Aaron]]
* [[Moses]]
}}
| death_place        = Unknown
| resting_place  = [[Tiberias]], [[Israel]]
| native_name_lang   = hbo
| nationality        = [[Israelite]]<br />[[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]]
}}

According to the [[Bible]], '''Jochebed''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|j|ɒ|k|ɪ|b|ɛ|d}}; {{Langx|hbo|יוֹכֶ֫בֶד|Yōḵeḇeḏ|[[Yahweh]] is glory}},<ref>{{Cite web |title=Yocheved |url=https://hebrewnamer.com/names/yocheved/ |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=HebrewNamer |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Septuagint]] {{langx|grc-x-koine|Ἰωχάβεδ|Iokhábed}}) was a daughter of [[Levi]] and the mother of [[Miriam]], [[Aaron]], and [[Moses]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Numbers 26:59 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Numbers.26.59 |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref> She was the wife of [[Amram]] and also his aunt.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Exodus 6:20 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.6.20 |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref> No details are given concerning her life. According to Jewish legend, she is buried in the [[Tomb of the Matriarchs]] in [[Tiberias]]. In the [[New Testament]], she is praised for her faith in God in [[Hebrews 11]]:23.

==Birth of Moses==
The story of Jochebed is thought to be described in the [[Book of Exodus]] (2:1–10) – although she is not explicitly named here. (Her name is first mentioned in Exodus 6:20.) She lived in [[Egypt]], where the descendants of [[Jacob|Israel]] were being oppressed. The [[Pharaoh]] had decreed that all their baby boys were to be thrown into the [[Nile]], because he feared that they might become too powerful. When Moses, her youngest child, was born, Jochebed hid him for three months until she could hide him no longer. To save her son's life, she waterproofed a basket and put the child in it, placing the basket in the flow of the River Nile. The basket fell in the hands of the Pharaoh's daughter who was bathing in the river. Moved with compassion when she discovered the child, she decided to adopt him. The "sister" of the child (presumed to be Miriam), who had come forward, suggested finding her a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. The Pharaoh's daughter agreed and so Miriam called her mother, who was appointed to take care of him. Thus Jochebed nursed her son until he was old enough and brought him to the Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her son.<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|2:1–10|}}</ref> The story continues with Moses, who grew up to become the leader of the [[The Exodus|Exodus]], leading his people out of the land of Egypt.

==Relation to Amram==
According to the [[Book of Numbers]], Jochebed was born to [[Levi]] when he lived in Egypt.<ref name="NUM">{{bibleverse||Numbers|26:59|}}</ref> Amram was the son of [[Kohath]], who was a son of Levi. This would make Jochebed the aunt of Amram, her husband. This kind of [[incest|marriage between relatives]] was later forbidden by the law of Moses.<ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|18:12|}}</ref> Jochebed is also called Amram's father's sister in the Masoretic text of Exodus 6:20, but ancient translations differ in this. Some Greek and Latin manuscripts of the [[Septuagint]] state that Jochebed was Amram's father's cousin, and others state that she was Amram's cousin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Larry J. |first=Perkins |author-link=Larry J. Perkins |url=https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/02-exod-nets.pdf |title=New English Translation of the Septuagint |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780195289756 |pages=55 |language=en-GB}}</ref> In the [[Apocrypha]]l ''[[Testament of Levi]]'', it is stated that Jochebed was born, as a daughter of Levi, when Levi was 64 years old.

== In Jewish rabbinic literature ==

Jochebed is identified by some [[Chazal]] ([[Talmud]]ic rabbis) with Shiphrah, one of the midwives described by the book of Exodus as being ordered by [[Pharaoh]] to kill newborn male children.<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|1:15–16|}}</ref> In making this identification, the rabbis interpret the "houses" with which Exodus describes God as having compensated the midwives,<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|1:21|}}</ref> as having been those of [[Kohen|priesthood]] and royalty. These "houses" are interpreted by the Chazal as allegorical references to Jochebed's sons, Moses and Aaron.<ref>[[Exodus Rabbah]] 48:5</ref> 

[[Exodus Rabbah]] 1:17 argues that when [[Pharaohs in the Bible#In the Book of Exodus|first Pharaoh of Exodus]] instructed the midwives to throw all male children into the [[Nile]], Amram divorced Jochebed, who was three months pregnant with Moses at the time, but Miriam soon persuaded him to remarry Jochebed. It also argues that the Egyptians estimated the date of Moses' birth by counting nine months from the remarriage, thereby allowing Jochebed to hide him for the three months that were overestimated. The [[Targum Pseudo-Jonathan]] identifies Jochebed as also having been wife of Elitzaphon ben Parnach, and the mother of [[Eldad and Medad]];<ref>Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Numbers 11:26</ref> the text is ambiguous as to when this marriage occurred concerning the marriage(s) to Amram.

Jochebed's name is given various allegorical interpretations in Sotah 11b and Exodus Rabbah 1:17. [[Leviticus Rabbah]] identifies her as the person named in [[1 Chronicles 4]]:18 as {{langx|hbo|הַיְהֻדִיָּ֗ה|haYəhuḏiyyā|the female Judean}}, by arguing that it should be interpreted as her founding the people by disobeying the Pharaoh's order to dispose of the firstborn males.

Some rabbinic literature attempts to resolve the textual discrepancy in which the Torah lists 34 children of [[Leah]] born in [[Mesopotamia]], stating that two were dead, and then immediately states that there were 33 in total,<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|46:15|}}</ref> by arguing that the figure referred only to the surviving children, and that Jochebed was the 33rd;<ref name="Genesis Rabbah 94:8">Genesis Rabbah 94:8</ref><ref name="Exodus Rabbah 1:23">Exodus Rabbah 1:23</ref> however, since the [[Book of Numbers]] describes Jochebed's birth as occurring in Egypt,<ref name="NUM"/> this necessitated the further rabbinic argument that Jochebed was born exactly on the border of Egypt, in the ''gateway of the city''.<ref name="Genesis Rabbah 94:8"/><ref name="Exodus Rabbah 1:23"/> Biblical scholars have instead simply proposed that the discrepancy in the enumeration of Leah's children is due to the list not originally having included [[Dinah]], who was added by a later editor to introduce consistency with the story of the [[Vayishlach#Fifth reading—Genesis 34:1–35:11|Rape of Dinah]].<ref>[[Richard Elliott Friedman]], ''Who wrote the Bible?''</ref>

According to traditional rabbinic biblical chronology, Moses was 80 years old when [[the Exodus]] occurred, the Israelites had been in Egypt for 210 years in total, and thus in combination with the rabbinical claim that Jochebed was born on the border of Egypt, as her parents had entered it, this would require Jochebed to have been 130 years old when she gave birth to Moses;<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia''</ref> Rabbinical literature regards this to have been alluded to be the biblical description of the dedication of the Israelite altar, at which 130 [[shekel]] weight of silver was offered.<ref name="Exodus Rabbah 1:23"/><ref>Numbers Rabbah 13:19</ref>

According to [[Josephus Flavius]], the birth of Moses was an extraordinary event because Jochebed was spared the pain of childbearing due to both her and Amram's piety. The [[Haggadah]] extends this miraculous nature to Moses' conception by marking as 130 the age of Jochebed at conception. Several rabbinic commentaries attest to this, commenting that maidenhood was restored to Jochebed at the time of her marriage to Amram. The restoration of maidenhood also included the resumption of her fertility.<ref name="Allison2013">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_rFNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA147|title=The New Moses: A Matthean Typology|author=Dale Allison|year=2013|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=978-1-62032-876-7|pages=147–}}</ref>

==Textual criticism==
Textual scholars attribute the genealogy to the [[book of generations]], a hypothetical document originating from a similar [[wiktionary:religiopolitical|religiopolitical]] group and date to the [[Priestly source]].<ref>[[Richard Elliott Friedman]], ''Who Wrote The Bible?''</ref> According to some Biblical scholars, the Torah's genealogy for Levi's descendants is an [[etiology|etiological myth]] reflecting the fact that there were four different groups among the [[Levite]]s: the [[Gershonites]], [[Kohathites]], [[Merarites]], and Aaronids.<ref name="ReferenceA">''[[Peake's commentary on the Bible]]''</ref> Aaron – the eponymous ancestor of the Aaronids – couldn't be portrayed as a brother to Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, as the narrative about the birth of Moses, brother of Aaron, which textual scholars attribute to the earlier [[Elohist]] source, mentions only that ''both'' his parents were Levites (without identifying their names).<ref>{{Bibleverse||Exodus|2:1–2|}}</ref> Some Biblical scholars suspect that the Elohist account offers both [[matrilinear descent|matrilinial]] and [[patrilinear descent|patrilinial]] descent from Levites to magnify the religious credentials of Moses.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

It has been proposed by several biblical scholars that [[Ichabod]] and [[Jacob]] may ultimately be linguistic corruptions of ''Jochebed''.<ref>Cheyne and Black, ''[[Encyclopedia Biblica]]''</ref>

==Family tree==
{{Levi to Moses family tree}}

==Islamic view==
{{Musa}}
Along with the [[parting of the Red Sea in Islam|parting of the Red Sea]], the [[burning bush in Islam|burning bush]] and the [[Ten Commandments in Islam|Ten Commandments]], the [[Quran]] relates the story of Moses with some added details and slight differences. His mother, Jochebed ({{Langx|ar|يوكابد|translit=Yūkābid}}), and her efforts to save the baby Moses are recounted.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islam in a Nutshell|last=Roraback|first=Amanda|publisher=Enisen Publishing|year=2004|page=27}}</ref> 

Stories of unusual events during the pregnancy of [[Amina bint Wahb]], mother of the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islam in the Middle Ages: the origins and shaping of classical Islamic Civilization|last=Lassner|first=Jacob|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2010|page=21}}</ref> are compared with the similar experiences of Jochebed when she was carrying Moses.<ref name="Lassner 2010 31">{{Cite book|title=Islam in the Middle Ages: the origins and shaping of classical Islamic Civilization|last=Lassner|first=Jacob|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2010|page=31}}</ref> The significance of this comparison is understood to spring from the affinity of Arabic folklore for Hebrew traditions.<ref name="Lassner 2010 31"/>

==In popular culture==
The film ''[[The Ten Commandments (1956 film)|The Ten Commandments]]'' calls her "Yoshebel". She was portrayed by [[Martha Scott]].

She appears briefly in ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'' under the name 'Yocheved', voiced by (and resembling) Israeli vocalist [[Ofra Haza]].  In the film, she sings a lullaby to baby Moses as she sets the basket carrying him adrift in the river, also pleading the river to deliver Moses "somewhere he can live free".  Ofra sang the lullaby in 18 languages for the film's dubbing (including her native Hebrew). In the 2020 [[The Prince of Egypt (musical)|West End adaptation of the film]], Yocheved was portrayed by [[Sweden|Swedish]] actress and singer [https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mercedesz_Csampai&stable=0&shownotice=1&fromsection=Weblinks Mercedesz Csampai].

In 2014 film ''[[Exodus: Gods and Kings]]'', she was portrayed by British Actress [[Anna Savva]]. She was only shown onscreen at the time that Moses was exiled and got to meet his biological mother.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
{{Characters and names in the Quran}}
{{Honoured women in Islam}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Egyptian Jews]]
[[Category:Judaism and women]]
[[Category:Book of Exodus people]]
[[Category:Levites]]
[[Category:Family of Aaron and Moses]]
[[Category:Women in the Hebrew Bible]]

[[Category:Tribe of Levi]]