Ark of infant moses

A box (n;if. tSbhah), made of bulruslies or pap_\Tus reeds, the stems of a succulent water plant, rendered watertiglit by layers of slimeand pitch, in which Moses when three months old was placed and committed to the river (Ex 2^). The word seemingly is of Egj-ptian origin, primarily meiining 'hollow,' 'a concave vessel,' and the possible source of the obscure Heb. root wliich appears in 'ob, ventriloquist, necromancer, ghost.

PapjTus reeds were commonly used in Egypt for the construction of light boats. A very smiilar story of a remarkable presen-ation is told on a Babylonian tablet from Kouyunjik, aboutSargon I., a monarcli who reigned in Agade, one of the cities of the Euphrates valley, c. 3500 B.C. It is said (see Smith, ChaUkan Genesis, 880, p.

319) that his mother placed liini in a basket of rushes, sealing up his exit with bitumen, and launching him on a river which did not drown him, from which he was taken and brought up by his preserver. J. MaCI'HERSON.