EXODUS tells the story of Moses’ birth, his miraculous survival in a papyrus basket on the Nile River and his adoption into Pharaoh’s royal household. The Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be thrown into the Nile River to control the growing Israelite population. Moses' parents, belonging to the tribe of Levi, hid their newborn son for three months because they saw he was a special, beautiful child. When she could no longer hide him, his mother Jochebed placed him in a papyrus basket coated with tar and pitch. She set the basket among the reeds along the bank of the Nile, while Moses' sister, Miriam, watched from a distance to see what would happen. The princess came down to the river to bathe and discovered the crying baby in the basket, feeling immediate pity for him as a Hebrew child.. Miriam stepped forward and offered to fetch a Hebrew nurse, bringing Jochebed to nurse and care for the baby legally paid by the princess. When the boy grew older, he was brought back to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her son and named him Moses, meaning "I drew him out of the water".